French Film Festival — A–Z of films

Jean-Paul Rappeneau has taken the spirit of Edmond Rostand's play and filled it to overflowing with energy, rumbustiousness, eloquence and panache.

The script sears like a whip-crack, with one-liners peppering the action, yet never getting in the way of the film’s emotional depth.

The film shimmers and provokes where it is least expected.

Elusively impenetrable stuff that only loosely can be described as cinema.

This is an intelligent, sumptuous period piece, shining an intriguing light into the corners of the 18th-century Imperial Court of China.

Although we alight at many points of interest throughout the journey, we never stop long enough anywhere to explore.

Showing a keen understanding of the nature of sex work and of life on the streets, Vidal-Naquet carries us through several days in Léo's life in a observational, non-judgemental way.

The training sessions begin to pall - for the audience as much for the participants - but once the action moves to Norway, the pace and the scenery pick up considerably.

Honoré handles the strands with considerable agility and admirable lack of cliché or sentimentality employing camerawork that is clean and uncluttered.

There's a certain degree of decompression in its storytelling, and a willingness to jump in time and space, and though the two are strong there's a weird sense that these are the highlights and story beats of a much longer television drama.