France

Amour Review

Signing up for un film de Michael Haneke guarantees that you’ll be shocked and emotionally shattered at some point during a chilly slow burn European think piece. So, it’s not exactly a relaxing night of escapism. Haneke’s latest project Amour might be one of his trickiest films to watch yet in that regard. For large portions of the running time, you’ll actually find yourself becoming deeply emotionally invested and even experiencing moments of genuine warmth. Don’t worry though, that’s all part of his plan.

Holy Motors Review

Writer/director Leos Carax’s deeply, satisfyingly bizarre Holy Motors is a film that almost seems to go out of its way to defy classification. Put a gun to my head and I guess I’d describe it as an art house romp, but even that doesn’t quite seem right.

TIFF 2011: Outside Satan Review

Everyone, from the most devout Catholic to effusive evangelist, has a concept of Jesus and Satan, and what he or she would look like if they ever manifested in human form. But there is no concept, and the devil, or Jesus, could be a rich man or a strange drifter. Award-winning French director Bruno Dumont ‘s new film Outside Satan is a strange, disquieting and disturbing film about a drifter who could be Jesus or Satan, or perhaps both.

Moebius: Transe-Forme Exhibit in Paris

If you find yourself in or around Paris, France between now and March 13th, I am extremely jealous of you. There is a very special art exhibition taking place at the Fondation Cartier. The spectacular exhibit, titled Moebius: Transe-Forme, is an expansive collection of the work of vaunted comics illustrator, cartoonist and artist Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius.

TIFF 2010
The Illusionist Review

The Illusionist is director Sylvain Chomet's follow-up to the hugely successful The Triplets of Belleville, and while he is able to top his previous efforts' aesthetic beauty and craftsmanship, the story is perhaps too subtle and minimal to really draw viewers in.

TIFF Review: White Material

The films of the incomparable Claire Denis are subtle lessons in semiotics.  They are like moving photographs, or graphic novels with almost no words: the viewer must (and can) put together the story from the images, like they are a fly hovering with no knowledge of past context. The third of Denis’ African-centred films, White […]

TIFF Review: Enter the Void

I don’t think a title has ever been more accurate for defining a film.  Nor has a film been as divisive in recent festival memory as to whether it is a work of genius or an exercise in audience torture.  This is not necessarily a film to love or hate though.  Rather, like his earlier […]

TIFF Review: Les Herbes Folles

If Les Herbes Folles were directed by a newcomer, you would call it an extraordinary, quirky, thoroughly French look at the strange happenstance of love, the objects that lead us there, and what would happen if we said out loud the often strange things we were thinking.  But the film is directed by the great […]