Lucie presumes that her husband Paul - an older neurosurgeon - has an affair. Indeed, Paul behaves strange lately, but the truth behind it is dark and complicated.
Director:
Philippe Claudel
Stars:
Daniel Auteuil,
Kristin Scott Thomas,
Leïla Bekhti
Suzanne is a well married mother, but her bourgeois lifestyle gets her down and she decides to go back to work as a physiotherapist by building an office in their backyard. Then Suzanne falls in love with the man hired to build the office.
Director:
Catherine Corsini
Stars:
Kristin Scott Thomas,
Sergi López,
Yvan Attal
In modern-day Paris, a journalist finds her life becoming entwined with a young girl whose family was torn apart during the notorious Vel' d'Hiv Roundup in 1942.
Director:
Gilles Paquet-Brenner
Stars:
Kristin Scott Thomas,
Mélusine Mayance,
Niels Arestrup
Hundreds of excerpts from 60 French films produced by the NFB over the course of 50 years are assembled to offer a look at the evolution of how women have been portrayed on film.
Ruthless executive Christine brings on young Isabelle as her assistant taking delight in toying with her innocence. But when Christine starts passing on her protege's ideas as her own, things take a dark turn.
Director:
Alain Corneau
Stars:
Ludivine Sagnier,
Kristin Scott Thomas,
Patrick Mille
As summer drags by, 13-year-old Jimmy, forced by circumstance to become an adult too soon, runs up against the limits of his small hometown and his turbulent life, caught between a mother on the slide and a stepfather who keeps her down.
Director:
Philippe Claudel
Stars:
Alexi Mathieu,
Angelica Sarre,
Pierre Deladonchamps
Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.
Director:
Laurent Cantet
Stars:
François Bégaudeau,
Agame Malembo-Emene,
Angélica Sancio
An act of revenge takes an unexpected turn in this psychological drama from French writer and director Lola Doillon. Anna (Kristin Scott Thomas) flees a house on the outskirts of Paris and ... See full summary »
Director:
Lola Doillon
Stars:
Kristin Scott Thomas,
Pio Marmaï,
Jean-Philippe Écoffey
Abandoned by his father, a young boy is left in a state-run youth farm. In a random act of kindness, the town hair-dresser agrees to foster him on week-ends.
Directors:
Jean-Pierre Dardenne,
Luc Dardenne
Stars:
Thomas Doret,
Cécile de France,
Jérémie Renier
Juliette was 15 years in prison. Confronted with the unexpected goodness of her younger sister Léa, who makes Juliette a part of her family, very slowly breaks up Juliette's ice and bitterness and she carefully opens up.Written by
Anonymous
The note written by Juliette's dead son, which Lea finds by accident, reads: "Un jardin sous la plui c'est doux triste come moi sans toi. Maman je veux pas que tu meure jamais. On sera ensemble toujours. Tu es mon amour. Ton petit Pierre". (A garden under the rain is sweet sad like me without you. Mama I don't want you to die ever. We'll be together always. You are my love. Your little Pierre.) See more »
Quotes
Léa:
We were there! Didn't we matter?
Juliette Fontaine:
Do you think others matter then - that one cares what they think or do? You were all well and alive! You belonged to the kind one comes to hate for the mere fact that they are there.
See more »
This is one of those films that, the less you know about it in advance, the more you are likely to appreciate it - which makes reviewing it a little problematic. All you really need to know is that it's French and excellent. But you might like to know that it's a wonderful vehicle for Kristin Scott Thomas, the British actress married to a Frenchman, who plays Juliette, an Anglo-French woman with some dark and painful secrets which only slowly unfold as the narrative takes its traumatic course. The movie opens and closes with close-ups of her haunted face and, in between, she is rarely off the screen in a marvellously nuanced performance, well supported by Elsa Zylberstein who plays her younger sister Léa. Written and directed by Philippe Claudel, this is French movie-making at its best.
60 of 73 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
This is one of those films that, the less you know about it in advance, the more you are likely to appreciate it - which makes reviewing it a little problematic. All you really need to know is that it's French and excellent. But you might like to know that it's a wonderful vehicle for Kristin Scott Thomas, the British actress married to a Frenchman, who plays Juliette, an Anglo-French woman with some dark and painful secrets which only slowly unfold as the narrative takes its traumatic course. The movie opens and closes with close-ups of her haunted face and, in between, she is rarely off the screen in a marvellously nuanced performance, well supported by Elsa Zylberstein who plays her younger sister Léa. Written and directed by Philippe Claudel, this is French movie-making at its best.