Rohmer’s provocative final entry from his ‘Six Moral Tales’ calls attention to the temptation of extramarital affairs, as a man in a happy marriage contemplates putting his immoral theoretical thoughts into practice.
Linklater brings his ‘hangout’ cinema vibe to the French New Wave era, centering on Godard’s attempt to direct his first feature, in this breezy, blissful ‘comedy’ (for cinephiles at least) that is nostalgia-laden and wonderfully cast.
A father, with son in tow, follows a group of ravers to find his missing daughter in the dusty desert of North Africa, in Laxe’s stunning, foreboding road movie about faith and despair, marked by thumping beats, shuffling bodies, and bellowing trucks.
Varda’s first feature in colour, one that screams vibrant, cheery optimism from the get-go, becomes an ironic, if unsettling, take on happiness, set against gender inequality, as a husband in a truly happy marriage begins an extramarital affair.
Rohmer’s Oscar-nominated international breakthrough sees a reticent Catholic man navigate Pascal’s wager, sexual temptation and self-doubt during a wintry night of talk with a seductive divorcee, shot in striking black-and-white by Nestor Almendros.
A tale of beauty and decay, Visconti’s cinematic requiem for Thomas Mann sees Dirk Bogarde, in a quiet, despairing performance, playing an ageing composer obsessed with the perfect looks of a teenage boy, accompanied generously by Mahler’s heart-aching ‘Adagietto’.
A French organic farming couple doesn’t want to sell their land to a wind turbine eco-company, incurring the wrath of the Spanish locals, as Sorogoyen’s slow-burning thriller reveals the psychological pressures of intimidation and violence.
Denis’ somewhat maligned slow-burn thriller still gives morbid pleasures if you find vampirism in everyday settings fascinating, as her exploitation-esque work explores the insatiable lust for sex and blood.
Love is a complicated, nebulous thing in Bresson’s minimalist, if surprisingly sensual, adaptation of Dostoevsky’s ‘White Nights’, about two wounded, disillusioned souls that can’t seem to operate beyond their present malaise.
Three men learn the bloodiest lesson ever from a rightfully vengeful woman in Fargeat’s stylish and gleefully exploitative first feature, a lean and mean modern throwback to the New French Extremity movement.
Eternality Tan