Varda leaves us with a final masterclass to savour, lovingly made in the documentary form that she so adored.
Tag / France
Creatures, The (1966)
Varda’s work here is under-appreciated—a layered and surreal collision of imaginary and abstract ideas about a writer’s creative process, and one might even say a tonal antecedent to the modern pictures of Yorgos Lanthimos.
River, The (1951)
Renoir’s extraordinarily beautiful work, shot entirely in India in Technicolour, is a triumph of cross-cultural storytelling as it meditates on the ephemerality of life.
French Cancan (1955)
Renoir’s musical-romance is full of colour, schmaltz and spectacle, marked by some astonishing sequences of dance choreography and editing.
Grand Illusion (1937)
A treasured work from Jean Renoir that deals with class issues in the context of war in this unorthodox prisoners-of-war story.
Frantz (2016)
An elegiac if delicately-directed film by Ozon about lies, truths and the aftermath of war affecting the lives of those that continue to live.
By the Grace of God (2019)
A psychologically complex drama with an impressive narrative structure that pits several men against a centuries-old institution, in what is a riveting based-on-a-true-story take on paedophilia and the Church.
