With enchanting performances from Michel Piccoli and Léa Massari (who make a surprisingly
effective screen couple) and an evocative, seemingly unceasing score (which includes some
of Schubert’s most haunting... [More...]
Coming towards the end of Claude Chabrol’s second gold run of
films, which ran from the late 1960s to the mid 1970s, Nada stands out as something of an
oddity... [More...]
Following their hugely successful pairing in La Moutarde me monte au nez
(1974), Pierre Richard and Jane Birkin and reunited for a second
helping of madcap comedy... [More...]
Having scripted such popular film comedies as
Le Grand blond avec une chaussure noire (1972)
and L’Emmerdeur
(1973), Francis Veber made an impressive directorial debut with Le
Jouet... [More...]
Another exquisitely composed portrait of mid-life crisis from Claude Sautet, Mado is
an absorbing work which engages the spectator by solidly locking onto the personal traumas
of its well-drawn characters... [More...]
Monsieur Klein is an unusual variation on the theme of the police-gangster thriller
which was very much in vogue in France in the early 1970s. What marks this
film out as a cut above the rest is partly the film’s... [More...]
With its exceptional production values (not least of which is its high-calibre cast),
Mort d’un pourri is the definitive 1970s policier. Well-paced... [More...]
Possibly Michel Deville’s best film – certainly his most distinctive – is this disturbing
political thriller. The unconventional style of the narrative and the editing underscores
the film’s main... [More...]
Coup de tête is a splendid example of the French social comedy, a witty,
no-holds-barred assault on the ethics of the middle classes as well as a satire on that
great working class obsession... [More...]
Although political thrillers were beginning to get a little passé in France by the 1980s
(the genre was at its height in the previous decade)... [More...]
Whilst this may not be Bertrand Tavernier’s greatest work, it is film which leaves a lasting
impression, particular for those of a nostalgic disposition... [More...]
Dynamic duo Philippe Noiret and Thierry Lhermitte are reunited in this respectable sequel
to the 1984 hit Les Ripoux.
Both films satirise perceived corruption in the French police service... [More...]
Based on a play by the eminent French film director Sacha Guitry (which was never
performed), this film offers some fascinating insights into one of the most enigmatic
and influential of French historical figures.
... [More...]
