Style
“Two Pianos” Is a Textured Contemporary Melodrama with Classic-Hollywood Restraint
Mathias is staying with his mother, Anna (Anne Kessler), in the apartment where he grew up, and chance intervenes again: walking through a…
Tag
french films
Style
Raymond Depardon’s Documentary Confrontations with Power
The Giscard movie, “A Day in the Country” (“1974, une partie de campagne,” a pun: also “A Day in the Campaign”), set a definitive tone for…
Culture
One of Chantal Akerman’s Best Films Is in Legal Limbo
Much of direction is production: the material conditions under which a movie is made plays a major role in the creative process. Movie…
Style
Roman Polanski’s Self-Centered “An Officer and a Spy”
The prime parallel between the movie “An Officer and a Spy” and the life of its director, Roman Polanski, is obvious but inexact. The…
Style
The Return of “My Favorite Season,” a Great Modern Melodrama
Melodrama isn’t central to modern French cinema, because melodrama is rooted in irony, whereas one could hardly slip a playing card…
Culture
The Hitchcockian Wonders of “Misericordia”
The vitality of classic formats such as thrillers and mysteries comes not from their nostalgic reminders of old movies but from their…