French Cinema

La Haine, Mathieu Kassovitz’s call to action on harsh reality of Paris’ suburbs, still resonates 25 years later

Before La Haine, few had imagined a Paris beyond its obvious romanticised associations. In 1995, then 28-year-old Mathieu Kassovitz gave us a portrait of Paris unlike any other, drained of all its colour and gloss.

Coronavirus Outbreak: Minions stuffed toys greet French movie-goers to ensure social distancing in theatres

The reopening of cinemas across France on Monday was part of a phased relaxation of the lockdown measures owing to the coronavirus

The late Michel Piccoli in the role of his lifetime, as an artist in Jacques Rivette's 1991 masterpiece La Belle Noiseuse

French actor Michel Piccoli died on 12 May. When I looked at his filmography, one film stood out, Jacques Rivette’s 1991 masterpiece La Belle Noiseuse.

Michel Piccoli, French actor who worked with Jean-Luc Godard, Luis Bunuel, Alfred Hitchcock, dies at 94

Michel Piccoli's most memorable appearance came arguably during the French New Wave – starring opposite Brigitte Bardot in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 masterpiece Contempt.

Jean Cocteau’s 1950 French film Orpheus transcends biological death to ponder on artistic death

Orpheus is a reworking of the Greek myth about a musician but has been remodeled around the life of a poet.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire movie review: Céline Sciamma's period romance is a modern masterpiece of French cinema

Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire is an incandescent and utterly beguiling love story.

In Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Céline Sciamma levels the playing field between artist and muse

The relationship between male artist and female muse has been as deeply unequal as it is romanticised. Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire upends that narrative.

Remembering Anna Karina in one of her most notable non-Godard films, Jacques Rivette’s The Nun

Anna Karina was most famous for her work with Jean-Luc Godard, but there were other films too, like Jacques Rivette’s The Nun.

Deerskin review: Jean Dujardin is dressed to kill in Quentin Dupieux’s latest surreal comedy

Deerskin, the latest entry in the Dupieuxverse, is an oddly engrossing, off-kilter comedy about a man who develops an all-too-unhealthy fetish for his fringed suede jacket.

I Lost My Body trailer: A severed hand and a pizza delivery boy's love story form the themes of this Netflix animated film

I Lost My Body was screened at Cannes Film Festival last year, where it became the first animated film ever to win the Nepresso Grand Prize.