★★★★★ Last year, it was a tale of time-tested amour which ultimately went on to pick up the Palme d’Or. This year, Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013) – a tale of young love and the intensity/agony it […]
★★☆☆☆ Showing in the Un Certain Regard section of the 66th Cannes Film Festival, Katrin Gebbe’s debut film Nothing Bad Can Happen (Tore tanzt, 2013) is a harrowing tale of abuse with a highly dubious morality at its core. Tore […]
★★★☆☆ James Gray has always enjoyed a good reputation in France and so it comes as little surprise to see his fifth film, The Immigrant (2013), showing in competition here at Cannes. The year is 1920 and in the wake […]
★★★★☆ The Cannes Film Festival just got medieval on our asses with Arnaud des Pallières’ Palme d’Or outsider Michael Kohlhaas (2013), a tale of injustice and revolt set in 16th century France. Adapted from the Heinrich von Kleist novella, Pallières’ […]
★★★★★ The Coen brothers return to the London Film Festival this year with the barnstorming Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), a picaresque odyssey following the close-calls and mishaps of an also-ran folk songster within the New York Greenwich Village scene. It’s […]
Olivier Assayas fidgets endlessly. On the finer nuances of 1970s radicalism, the French director swivels around with unflappable urgency and a staccato delivery to his response. Such as the characters in his semi-autobiographical movie, Something in the Air (2012), Assayas […]
★★★★☆ “We bring light to people’s homes” says Gilles (Olivier Gourmet), a middle-aged foreman in Rebecca Zlotowski’s Grand Central (2013). The protagonists of her latest film are young, unskilled French workers who, at the end of their tether, gladly jump […]
★★☆☆☆ French director Claire Denis has maintained a wonderful run, from her 1998 debut Chocolat to recent efforts such as 36 Shots of Rum and White Material. Her latest, Bastards (Les Salauds, 2013), shows not in the main competition at […]
★★☆☆☆ There are some films which simply don’t need sequels, but these days it’s increasingly likely that studios will green-light follow-ups after an a successful first outing. Such was the case with The Hangover (2009); the film struck a tone […]
★★★☆☆ It’s entirely appropriate that Tony Britten, an established and well-versed composer himself, delivers this spirited biopic about the life of Benjamin Britten (no relation). His idle feature film record is in plain view however, as the structure and format […]
★★★☆☆ “If you marry a city man you will be short of money,” claims a young Cambodian boy in Kalyanee Mam’s glacial documentary A River Changes Course (2013). He goes on to reveal that if you were to choose him, […]
★★★★☆ Heli (Armando Espitia), the protagonist of Amat Escalante’s 2013 Palme d’Or nominee of the same name, is a young Mexican who lives with his father, his son, his young wife (Linda Gonzalez) and 12-year-old sister, Estella (Andrea Vergara). He’s […]
★★★☆☆ Director Jia Zhangke returns to Cannes this year with A Touch of Sin (2013), a powerful portrait of contemporary China told through the stories of four different provincial characters. Dahai (Jiang Wu) is a disappointed villager, exasperated by the […]
★★★★☆ One of numerous films to make its way to London from the Cannes, Alex van Warmerdam’s Borgman (2013) is the darkest of dark horses: an obsidian black comedy with a surreal and genuinely vicious ‘eat the rich’ ethic that […]
★★☆☆☆ Following on from Baz Luhrmann’s tipsy take on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age classic The Great Gatsby, actor/director James Franco offers Cannes the second major literary adaptation from a canonical American author. Adapted faithfully by Franco himself from William […]
★★★★★ American director J.C. Chandor first made a name for himself with 2011 talkathon Margin Call, which strove to present the 07-08 financial crisis to us as if we were, “a small child, or a golden retriever”. His follow-up film, […]
★★★☆☆ Following the success of Un Certain Regard favourite Drive back in 2011, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn returns to the Croisette with Only God Forgives (2013), a stylish if ultimately shallow essay in extremism. Julian (Ryan Gosling) is a […]
★★☆☆☆ “Vive la révolution!” No single culture betters leftist subculture than the aged liberals of France. Many would refer to it all as misguided historic romanticism. But there are those like Olivier Assayas where their movies echo an intrinsic disconnection […]
