Search: Starring Chiara Mastroianni

Augustine belongs to a family of movies that scrutinise the social construct of illness, not with a lecture but with a wayward glance.

The precision of Claire Denis' perplexities, the ardent blows that fire at the heart and the head, are unequaled in her film Bastards (Les Salauds).

The higher the emotions are supposed to be stacked, the less enjoyable and more obtuse the story becomes.

Love, life, poetry, passion, sensitivity, all magnificently exalted in song – quite a lot of songs actually – for your cross-Channel delectation and savouring.

Characters come and go between these different worlds, emerging and re-emerging in different forms, as we explore different aspects of colonialism, responses to it, and survival strategies at personal and cultural levels.

This is the sort of story that will be familiar to viewers of the likes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as the lifestyle of the accused is put on trial as much as her actions.

Deliciously and deliberately theatrical

As richly drawn as it is delicately handled.

This is a charming first feature-length offering from writer/director Fillières.

Seen purely in aesthetic terms, Persepolis is an object of rare beauty, with no obvious precedents or parallels in the history of anime.

The juxtaposition between comedy and meditation on contemporary life does throw the viewer off-guard a little bit, but it is no the less effective for doing so.

As a comedy of manners, it is exquisite.