Country: France

Raw. Dir. Julia Ducournau. Focus World. 2017.

Raw. Dir. Julia Ducournau. Focus World. 2017. 150 150 George Knighton

When Julia Ducournau’s debut feature film Raw (2017) was shown at Toronto’s Film Festival, paramedics were called to the scene after cinema-goers fainted during the screening.  Raw tells the story of highly gifted 16-year-old…

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Ernest and Celestine. Dir. Benjamin Renner. StudioCanal. 2012

Ernest and Celestine. Dir. Benjamin Renner. StudioCanal. 2012 150 150 Maya Thomas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ1rmOYLr2U [1] Ernest and Celestine[2] (2012) is a French animated film that presents the unorthodox relationship between a bear and a mouse. Introduced as a struggling musician, Ernest is starving and on…

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Ernest and Celestine. Dir. Benjamin Renner. StudioCanal. 2012.

Ernest and Celestine. Dir. Benjamin Renner. StudioCanal. 2012. 150 150 Maya Thomas

The animated film Ernest and Celestine[1] (2012) uses animals to offer a socio-political examination of French society. A predator-prey construct is conveyed through the division of social classes in the species contrast between…

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Mon Oncle . Dir. Jacques Tati. Gaumont (France), Continental Distributing (USA). 1958.

Mon Oncle . Dir. Jacques Tati. Gaumont (France), Continental Distributing (USA). 1958. 150 150 Esme Brett

The release of Mon Oncle (Gaumont, France) in 1958 saw the return of Monsieur Hulot to cinema screens, following the successful Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot five years previously. The…

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Mon Oncle. Dir. Jacques Tati. Gaumont (France), Continental Distributing (USA). 1958.

Mon Oncle. Dir. Jacques Tati. Gaumont (France), Continental Distributing (USA). 1958. 150 150 Esme Brett

Mon Oncle (1958), as many of Jacques Tati’s films, focuses on the character of Monsieur Hulot, a bumbling but lovable man who fights a constant battle against the modern architecture…

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La Haine. Dir. Mathieu Kassovitz. Canal+. 1995.

La Haine. Dir. Mathieu Kassovitz. Canal+. 1995. 150 150 Samuel Ross

One of the most enigmatic scenes in Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine, an exploration of social tensions and police brutality in the banlieues (council estates) of Paris in the 1990s, occurs…

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Au Hasard Balthazar. Dir. Robert Bresson. Cinema Ventures. 1966.

Au Hasard Balthazar. Dir. Robert Bresson. Cinema Ventures. 1966. 150 150 Max Smith

Au Hasard Balthazar (dir. Robert Bresson, 1966) juxtaposes the human treatment of animals with animal camaraderie between different species, emphasising a human/animal divide and how we think of animals as one…

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Weekend. Dir. Jean-Luc Godard. Athos Films. 1967.

Weekend. Dir. Jean-Luc Godard. Athos Films. 1967. 150 150 Amy Fuller

Weekend (1967), dir. Jean-Luc Godard (watch the full film with English subtitles here) Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 film Weekend follows the distinctly middle-class experience of Roland and Corinne as they take a trip to Corinne’s…

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The Artist. Dir. Michel Hazanavicius. Warner Brothers. 2011.

The Artist. Dir. Michel Hazanavicius. Warner Brothers. 2011. 150 150 Caragh Hargreaves

Jean Dujardin as George Valentin, Bérénice Bejo as Peppy Miller and Uggie the dog in The Artist The Artist (2011) is a remarkable modern day silent film that explores the transformation of…

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Belle and Sébastien. Dir. Nicolas Vanier. Gaumont. 2013.

Belle and Sébastien. Dir. Nicolas Vanier. Gaumont. 2013. 150 150 Madison Yeats

Belle and Sébastien is an action and adventure children’s film that touches on animal bond and servitude. During the era of German soldiers raiding French towns for Jewish refugees, the…

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