Most recent articles
7 February 2020
Q&A with Thomas Vernay, dir. Miss Chazelles - Clermont 2020
by Elise LoiseauClara and Marie are rival competitors for the title of Miss Chazelles-sur-Lyon. As Marie is declared winner of a local beauty pageant, tension escalates between both girls’s families and supporters.
Miss Chazelles, Aesthetica 2019’s Best Drama award-winner, is a warm, irreverent and somewhat terrifying look at the word of regional pageants and the resulting drama. Despite the absurdity of (…) Continue Reading »
7 February 2020
Q&A with Gabrielle Stemmer, dir. Clean With Me (After Dark)
by Abla Kandalaft
Through a very clever and revealing video montage, Gabrielle Stemmer not only sheds light on somewhat depressing phenomenon of cleaning videos on YouTube but silently and subtly unearths the loneliness and neuroses that often underpin it, in a (…) Continue Reading »
7 February 2020
Q&A with Yves Gellie, dir. L’Année du robot - Clermont 2020
by Elise LoiseauAt the crossroads of art and science, this film centers on human beings and robots as their artificial counterparts. Like a series of archival documents detailing the first contacts and exchanges between human beings and a robot, the film studies cognitive dissonance, a minuscule, mysterious relational space lying between them both.
A thoroughly exhaustive but at moments frankly alarming - (…) Continue Reading »
7 February 2020
Q&A with Mehdi Benallal, dir. Madame Baurès - Clermont 2020
by Abla Kandalaft
A stroll through the present-day municipalities of Vincennes and Saint Mandé, once home to Madame Baurès, a woman and Communist. The filmmaker’s voice-over recounts the memory of the story that Raymonde had entrusted to him. (Cinéma du Réel) (…) Continue Reading »
6 February 2020
Q&A with Ioseb “Soso” Bliadze, dir. Tradition - Clermont 2020
by Elise Loiseau
Two German tourists travel around Georgia and encounter the country’s culture, traditions and some more conservative attitudes.
A brave film in which the director’s passion for the subject and anger at the prejudices faced by many gay people in (…) Continue Reading »
5 February 2020
Q&A with Noël Fuzellier, dir. Mars Colony - ClermontFF 2020
by Abla KandalaftLogan is a sci-fi obsessed awkward teenager who often finds himself the butt of his friends’ jokes. One day, he’s visited by an older man who claims to be him, 39 years from now and asks him to join him on a mission to save humankind.
A sci-fi enthusiast himself, Noël Fuzellier’s passion for space travel and Mars in particular shines through this optimistic, unpretentious yet ambitious (…) Continue Reading »
5 February 2020
Q&A with Ariane Labed, dir. Olla - ClermontFF 2020
by Elise LoiseauOlla responded to an advertisement on an Eastern women dating site. She moves in with Pierre, who lives with his old mother. But nothing happens as planned.
First time director but seasoned actress Labed brings us a visually distinctive look at sexuality and modern relationships.
Trailer
More on the film...
Olla’s character is particularly interesting. Far from being a victim, she (…) Continue Reading »
4 February 2020
Q&A with Antoine Bargain, dir. Disciplinaires - ClermontFF 2020
by Clotilde CouturierOn the edge of the forest of Saint-Jean, near the village of Corte, nature has taken over the abandoned military base. Today, it is a place where families and sportsmen spend their time in relaxation, though in the 1970s it was the worst fear of the soldiers of the French Foreign Legion.
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Where did you get the idea of making a film about this particular military prison (…) Continue Reading »
4 February 2020
Q&A with Valerie Barnhart, dir. The Girl in the Hallway - ClermontFF 2020
by Elise LoiseauWhy does "Little Red Riding Hood" give Jamie nightmares? It’s been fifteen years, and the girl in the hallway still haunts him. This is a testament to locked doors. A lullaby sung by wolves with duct tape and polaroids. Not all girls make it out of the forest. There are stories children shouldn’t hear.
A remarkably effective, inventive and haunting animation about a real-life case of child (…) Continue Reading »
1 February 2020
Short of the Week: Nefta Football Club, dir. Yves Piat
by Abla Kandalaft
In a Tunisian village, children are playing football on a wasteland. Meanwhile, Abdallah and Mohammed come across a donkey with headphones on his ears and bags full of a white powder on his back. The two young brothers decide to bring those bags (…) Continue Reading »