Pacifiction
Dir. Albert Serra
It doesn’t feel quite right to call Pacifiction a political thriller — at 2 hours 45 minutes and with an…
Jean de Florette
Dir. Claude Berri
As the Provence countryside is painted in golden sunshine, Jean de Florette seems like a straightforward period drama, celebrating the…
Frantz
Dir. François Ozon
It’s always fun to watch something that makes you second guess each move, that shifts seamlessly from one thing to…
The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Dir. Jacques Audiard
The Beat That My Heart Skipped is a remake of 1978 American film Fingers, but reversed– The film brings a…
Mustang
Dir. Deniz Gamze Ergüven & Female director
Five orphaned sisters are put under house arrest by their uncle and grandmother after they are seen horsing around with…
La Femme Nikita
Dir. Luc Besson
Before assassin protege Mathilda in Léon the Professional, humanoid Leeloo in The Fifth Element, and superpowered drug mule Lucy in…
Micmacs
Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Micmacs is short for the original French title MicMacs à tire-larigot, or “non-stop shenanigans”. It is exactly that. Rather than…
Rust and Bone
Dir. Jacques Audiard
This is the type of movie I completely fell in love with but cannot articulate exactly why. Maybe it’s the…
La Haine
Dir. Mathieu Kassovitz
At the risk of being cliché, I’m going to state that only the French could have made a movie about…
The Ghost Writer
Dir. Laurent Bouzereau & Roman Polanski
Craving mystery? This is the film for you. A writer (Ewan McGregor) is given the lucrative task of bringing to life the…
Love Songs
Dir. Christophe Honoré
Ismael and Julie, in the hope of sparking their stalled relationship, enter a playful yet emotionally laced threesome with Alice.…
Venus in Fur
Dir. Roman Polanski
An enigmatic actress may have a hidden agenda when she auditions for a part in a misogynistic writer’s play.
Three Colors: Red
Dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
Part-time model Valentine unexpectedly befriends a retired judge after she runs over his dog. At first, the grumpy man shows…
Tell No One
Dir. Guillaume Canet
A man receives a mysterious e-mail appearing to be from his wife, who was murdered years earlier. As he frantically…
A Christmas Tale
Dir. Arnaud Desplechin
When their regal matriarch falls ill, the troubled Vuillard family come together for a hesitant Christmastime reunion. Among them is…
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Dir. Christophe Gans
Much like its monster, Brotherhood of the Wolf is quite a hard movie to pin down. It’s an unscary French…
La Belle Époque
Dir. Nicolas Bedos
Victor, a disillusioned 60-something whose marriage is on the rocks, opts to relive the week of his life when, 40…
Of Gods and Men
Dir. Xavier Beauvois
A group of Trappist monks reside in the monastery of Tibhirine in Algeria, where they live in harmony with the…
Days of Glory
Dir. Rachid Bouchareb
1943. They have never stepped foot on French soil but because France was at war, Said, Abdelkader, Messaoud and Yassir…
Stranger by the Lake
Dir. Alain Guiraudie
Rarely do we get to see the human body in its natural state in public, mostly limited to nude beaches,…
The Bear
Dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud
If you enjoy wondering aloud to yourself how filmmakers were able to make a movie at all, 1988’s almost wordless…