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French Film Festival · 2025

French Film Festival 2025

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Programme

8 films · 7 reviews

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Alpha

Review preview for Alpha

Alpha exists in the intersection of the probable and the parable.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
Alpha, a troubled 13-year-old, lives with her single mother. Their world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattoo on her arm.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2025; Director: Julia Ducournau; Writer: Julia Ducournau; Stars: Emma Mackey, Golshifteh Farahani, Tahar Rahim, Finnegan Oldfield, Jean-Charles Clichet, Christophe Perez, Ambrine Trigo Ouaked, Louai El Amrousy, Mélissa Boros, Fabien Giameluca)

Full review

Colours of Time (La venue de l'avenir, The Coming Of The Future)

Review preview for Colours of Time

There’s a fairy-tale element to this – and once the famous names start to be introduced, including Sarah Bernhardt, it becomes obvious it’s no history lesson – but that suits the crowdpleasing material well.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
After a group of distant relatives inherit a house, they begin to investigate the life of their predecessor.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Cédric Klapisch; Writer: Santiago Amigorena, Cédric Klapisch; Stars: Suzanne Lindon, Abraham Wapler, Julia Piaton, Julia Piaton, Vincent Macaigne, Zinedine Soualem, Vassili Schneider, François Berléand, Sara Giraudeau, Paul Kircher, Cécile de France)

Full review See: Colours Of Time Cédric Klapisch on being proud to be populist but stayingon the edge

Enzo

Review preview for Enzo

Yet Pohu’s performance sums up all the conflicted feelings, desires and anxieties of someone at the crossroads of entering adulthood.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A 16-year-old boy breaks out from his bourgeois family and starts an apprenticeship as a stonemason. He also meets a Ukrainian colleague who turns his world upside down.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Robin Campillo, Laurent Cantet; Writer: Laurent Cantet, Robin Campillo, Gilles Marchand; Stars: Eloy Pohu, Pierfrancesco Favino, Élodie Bouchez, Malou Khebizi, Nathan Japy, Maksym Slivinskyi)

Full review See: Robin Campillo on Enzo, the ultimate act of friendship with Laurent Cantet

Nouvelle Vague (New Wave)

Review preview for Nouvelle Vague

Guillaume Marbeck as Godard is pitch perfect, trademark dark glasses and tobacco smoke his indispensable props with even the voice uncannily resonant of the man himself.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
This is the story of Godard making Breathless, told in the style and spirit in which Godard made Breathless.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Richard Linklater; Writer: Holly Gent, Laetitia Masson, Vincent Palmo Jr, Michèle Pétin; Stars: Zoey Deutch, Alix Bénézech, Paolo Luka Noé, Nicolas Dozol, Guillaume Marbeck, Tom Novembre, Jade Phan-Gia, Aubry Dullin, Côme Thieulin, Blaise Pettebone, Adrien Rouyard, Matthieu Penchinat, Jodie Ruth-Forest, Roxane Rivière, Jean-Jacques Le Vessier)

Full review See: Richard Linklater on chronicling the creation of Godard's Breathless

A Private Life (Vie Privée)

A psychiatrist investigates a patient's death after becoming convinced they were murdered.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Rebecca Zlotowski; Writer: Anne Berest, Gaëlle Macé, Rebecca Zlotowski; Stars: Jodie Foster, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Daniel Auteuil, Vincent Lacoste, Luàna Bajrami, Sophie Letourneur)

Sirât (Sirat)

Review preview for Sirât

The film looks amazing, but it sounds even more incredible.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A father arrives at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco with his son, looking for his daughter who has been missing for months.

(Country: Spain, France; Year: 2025; Director: Óliver Laxe; Writer: Santiago Fillol, Óliver Laxe; Stars: Sergi López, Bruno Núñez)

Full review See: Interview with Kangding Ray about Sirât

The Stranger (L'Etranger)

Review preview for The Stranger

Ozon remains faithful to the source and keeps its sense of mystery but has strengthened the female characters

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
Adaptation of Camus' classic.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: François Ozon; Writer: François Ozon, , based on the book by Albert Camus; Stars: Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin, Swann Arlaud, Denis Lavant)

Full review See: Ozon on the challenges of tackling Camus' masterwork The Stranger , Benjamin Voisin on Camus, Ozon and learning not to act in The Stranger , Denis Lavant on the art of constructing personas in Redoubt and The Stranger

Wild Foxes (La Danse des Renards)

Review preview for Wild Foxes

The Belgian filmmaker quickly proves to be a director who is quite nimble with a feint in his own terms, so that when his punches come they often hit in unexpected places.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
At a sports boarding school, talented young boxer Camille is knocked back by an accident that starts to make him question his place inside the ring.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2025; Director: Valéry Carnoy; Writer: Valéry Carnoy; Stars: Samuel Kircher, Yoann Blanc, Jean-Baptiste Durand, Frédéric Clou, Faycal Anaflous) , Trailer

Full review See: Valéry Carnoy talks toxic masculinity, memory, confidence and Belgian 'soft-power' in Wild Foxes