Zero Fucks Given (2021)

“Your uniform is your armour.” Something to this effect is told to the flight attendants taking a training course. Cassandre (Adèle Exarchopoulos) knows this, but has some difficulty participating in a smiling exercise. “Leave your emotions behind.” Zero Fucks Given (2021) is an observational workplace drama, which follows Cassandre on her rounds as an attendant […]

Coma (2022)

Bedroom pop? Or bedroom shoegaze? More like bedroom darkwave. Dedicated in an opening narration to his 18 year old daughter, French director Bertrand Bonello made Coma (2022) during Covid lockdown and frames the teenage bedroom as its setting. Even with the alarms outside reiterating lockdown curfew, the sight of a teenager stuck in their bedroom, […]

House Of Tolerance (2011)

Languid exhaustion. Service workers at the Eyes Wide Shut orgy. Punching the clock in a 19th century bordello to pay off never-ending debts. Even the madam taking the money has to deal with rental negotiations. Sadness flows as the rot continues to set in. Well-dressed men acting the part of dilettantes, patrons and artists, using […]

Mars Express (2023)

Mars Express (2023) is a French animated movie that recently screened at the Fantastic Film Festival. What caught my eye was that Mars Express is firmly in the cyberpunk genre, inspired by Blade Runner and Japanese anime like Ghost In The Shell. Set in the 23rd century, the Earth is a sprawl where lower class […]

Place Vendôme (1998)

Place Vendôme (1998) fits the bill for French neo-noir in that the key female characters are glamorous blondes while the men are all weathered looking mutts. The cinematography feels very 1990s “movie for adults” in the dark hues of the interiors, and its overall polished feeling, reminiscent of a Grisham or Le Carre adaption from […]