Raw (2016)

After hearing my friend Janice Loreck recommend it to me, I finally sat down and watched Raw (2016), the French-Belgian cannibal horror drama following vegetarian Justine (Garance Marillier, excellent) and her first year at veterinarian school. Yes, not for the faint of heart – there were some sequences that made me feel very squeamish. Writer-director […]

Le Marginal (1982)

I discovered Ennio Morricone’s main theme for Le Marginal (1982) recently on a Best Of – that piece of music is awesome, with its disco-bass and dramatic strings. So I thought I’d track down and watch the movie it belonged to, a French super-cop crime thriller in the tradition of Bullitt, Dirty Harry, every cop […]

Beau Travail (1999)

Finally followed through on Kenta McGrath’s recommendation and watched Beau Travail (1999). I’d already seen the ending multiple times with its use of Corona’s ‘Rhythm Of The Night’ but I was still surprised by the elliptical way the film unfolded. Even though it is told through Galoup’s narration (Denis Lavant, amazing) of his time in […]

Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

Being a huge fan of the stylish classic Le Samourai, I’ve been very remiss in not seeking more of director Jean-Pierre Melville’s other films. When I saw a DVD copy of Le Cercle Rouge (1970) available for cheap, I snapped it up and settled in. Now if you thought Alain Delon was impeccably handsome in […]

One Sings, The Other Doesn’t (1977)

When Agnès Varda passed away, shamefully I’d not seen any of her films. Seeking to correct such an oversight, I sought out One Sings, The Other Doesn’t (1977; L’une chante, l’autre pas), a narrative that follows the friendship between two women, which comes to symbolise feminist movements of the 60s and 70s. As teenagers, Pauline […]