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New York's Rendez-Vous With French Cinema — A–Z of films

2023

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  • Brother And Sister
    Review preview for Brother And Sister

    Desplechin fires off too many salvoes which hit wide of the mark

    Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
    The death of a pair of siblings' parents forces them to cross paths after 20 years of avoiding one another.

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  • The Five Devils
    Review preview for The Five Devils

    While it's a road well-travelled, here it's a road travelled well.

    Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
    Eight-year-old Vicky possesses a special power: a hyperacute sense of smell. She spends her days exploring this gift, and lives happily with her mother Joanne, a swimming teacher whom she adores exclusively - to the despair of her firefighter father. When her mysterious aunt Julia suddenly reappears in their lives, secrets from their past resurface both violently and magically.
  • The Green Perfume
    Review preview for The Green Perfume

    What, you might ask, is at the heart of the mystery? It's a good question and one that Pariser barely articulates.

    Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
    Crime caper sees an actor caught up in international intrigue after the death of a member of his troupe.
  • Les Harkis
    Review preview for Les Harkis

    Moroccan-born Faucon directs with understated skill, never flinching from unpalatable truths.

    Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
    At the end of the 1950s, beginning of the 1960s, the war in Algeria continued. Salah, Kaddour and other destitute young Algerians join the French army as harkis.

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  • Mother And Son
    Review preview for Mother And Son

    Filled with strong sentiment but without sentimentality.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    In the late 1980s, Rose moves from the Ivory Coast to the Paris suburbs with her two young sons, Ernest and Jean. Spanning 20 years from their arrival in France to the present day, the film is the chronicle of the construction and deconstruction of a family.
  • The Night Of The 12th
    Review preview for The Night Of The 12th

    While a specific killer may not be unmasked, toxic masculinity and its co-conspirator the patriarchal society stand in the dock - and the case against them is damning.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    It is said that every investigator has a crime that haunts them, a case that hurts him more than the others, without him necessarily knowing why. For Yohan that case is the murder of Clara.
  • Other People's Children
    Review preview for Other People's Children

    As richly drawn as it is delicately handled.

    Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
    A childless woman forms a deep bond with her boyfriend's young daughter.
  • Paris Memories
    Review preview for Paris Memories

    The combination of Efira and Magimel proves magnetic.

    Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
    A woman is caught up in a Paris terror attack and three months on she tries to piece together her memory.

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  • Saturn Bowling
    Review preview for Saturn Bowling

    Keys in to the ordinariness of certain kinds of horror and the ease with which they can take root in a society in which many men teeter on the edge of a moral abyss.

    Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
    Police detective Guillaume decides to gift the family bowling alley to his estranged half-brother following the death of their father only for their elationship to become further strained by a series of murders.
  • Smoking Causes Coughing
    Review preview for Smoking Causes Coughing

    There is a complete disregard for any kind of consequence or continuity in this film, and you know that the rug could be pulled from under you at any second.

    Nikola Jovic · 3.5 out of 5
    Tobacco Force are superhero avengers, preparing for their clash with the mighty Lezardin. But what if the real horrors are the stories they tell to each other along the way?

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  • Winter Boy
    Review preview for Winter Boy

    Young star Paul Kircher puts in an impressively sensitive and emotionally raw peformance.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    Set over the course of one winter, a 17-year-old high school student struggles with grief.
  • The Worst Ones
    Review preview for The Worst Ones

    Better in its subtler moments, when it explores not just the difference between what is being filmed and reality by the fictions the characters are also inventing for themselves, the film is made compelling by its own immaculate casting.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    Film within a film about a group of youngsters who are street cast and how it changes their lives.