Film Dictionary

A young woman (Catherine Mendez) is pretending to be pregnant, lying to her boyfriend (Emmanuel Clarke), her father (Lou Castel) and her fri...

The film tries to imitate Rohmer's "Le Rayon vert" by relying only on improvisation, but it doesn't succeed.

If you've liked "Un Ete a la Goulette", you should love this one as well. It's a nicely crafted slice-of-life drama set in...

Quirky comedy about a not-very-bright ugly duckling of a girl who nevertheless attracts swarms of horny boys. Clearly influenced by Eric Roh...

Two nickel-and-dime crooks find themselves in the middle of a huge and messy affair. This film is far too sophisticated and refined for its ...

An adaptation of Knut Hamsun's novel set in a French sanatorium during World War I. Patients suffer from various mental, physical or ne...

A study of relationships among several young couples in Strasbourg, France. It's an ambitious film that tries desperately to say somethi...

Eventful French film about the quest for frienship and love.

Amazonian jungle seem to attract French filmmakers. After "Un Indien dans la ville" (1995), here's "Le Jaguar" - a ...

If you love ultra-violent, nihilistic, deranged, sick and morally bankrupt movies, don't miss this one. The criminals are psychopats, t...

At first, it looks like a well-crafted, but nihilistic drama about losers, toughs, sadists, rapists and sluts. Every conversation seems to ...

Solid police drama about cops and their informers. Bloodhounds from Internal Affairs (led by Trintignant) investigate a team of Parisian cop...

A farce about two Polish con-men who pretend to be famous movie directors attending a prestigious film festival in France. Rarely has the pr...

A very subversive Belgian comedy about a cross-dressing 7-year-old boy who stubbornly insists that he's really a little girl. The first ...

From France comes this thoughtful and well-acted film about a bright young man who gets ahead in business (textiles) by pretending to be Jew...

Don't expect another "Beaumarchais l'insolent". Once again, it's a ribald period comedy about French theater, but unfo...

Low-key, very de-dramatized film about three working-class couples in Marseilles. It's touching and charming, but unexceptional. A minor...

Complicated French thriller about Nazis, Jews, Communists, etc.

A self-documentary in which the Belgian filmmaker talks about herself and her movies.

French movie about a young woman trying to cure her kleptomania with hypnosis.

Standard French fare: menage-a-trois, adultery, tight underwear, loose morals, tragic ending. Something about a transvestite seducing a happ...

An unremittingly bleak and depressing drama set in Fance during World War I. A young soldier, licking his wounds and trying to forget the tr...

The premise might seem idiotic - a dog changes into a man, but retains all the canine instincts - but this movie offers big laughs. I mean r...

The lives of Arab immigrants in France can't possibly be as boring, depressing and pathetic as this film would lead us to believe. And i...

A rather naive, but good-natured film about tree-hugging, veggie-gulping, meat-hating aliens visiting the Earth.

Marcello Mastroianni plays a man afflicted with a multiple personality disorder - he has three lives, but can only die once. A baffling fi...

What a lame turkey! Thirty years earlier, Gerard Oury made one of the best French comedies of all times, "La Grande Vadrouille", b...

French farce about a homeless vaganbond, his rich wife, a prostitute and a hotel owner fearing an unexpected police inspection.

La vie sur une peniche.

No, there are no Chinese people in this film, only young French couples cheating on each other (what else could we expect from a Gallic impo...

An existential drama about a French physician travelling to a war-torn East African country. Clearly influenced by Michalangelo Antonioni, i...

A rather dumb little comedy about two criminals kidnapping two dogs to help them find a box of forged currency.

Very boring film about two European scientists exploring the South American jungle circa 1800. An ordinary PBS documentary usually has more ...

Boring French film about a creepy psychopath playing a cat-and-mouse game with his shrink. Director Francis Girod thinks he's another Cl...

Un films sur les jeunes delinquants dans une petite ville provinciale francaise et plus particulairement un jeune garcon mal adapte qui s...

A young man tries to help his pregnant sister.

Meandering, seriously overrated French pic about boring Parisian neurotics. Frequently interrupted by non-sequitur musical numbers, in which...

Long, analytical discourses on philosophy replace a conventional narrative in this interesting, mildly watchable, but highly listenable film...

Not surprisingly, this film about Marie and Pierre Curie's discovery of radioactivity is informative and erudite. But surprisingly, it...

A nihilistic thriller from Japan. 

Violent, well-directed gangster drama from Japan.

A reporter exposes police corruption, is framed and goes to prison.

If the English can dust off their old Shakespearan plays and turn them into hits, why wouldn't the Spaniards try to do the same ? If yo...

Spanish film about a Venezuelan girl searching for fame and love in Paris. Directed by Fina Torres, it's a wacky comedy in the spirit o...

Tomas Gutierrez Alea's last film is quite similar to his early masterpiece "Death Of A Bureaucrat".

Iranian film about women and their situation today and 50 years ago.

This film is set on the eve of the Israeli-Arab war of 1967 in a peaceful Tunisian resort town of La Goulette. But three 17-year-old girls, ...

A slow and ponderous film from Wim Wenders.

An Icelandic "Cinema Paradiso".

Iranian film about the making of a film.

Three animated sci-fi films from Japan.

Directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri. All gore all the time. Gore for gore sake. Gore-O-Rama. Inner-gang power struggles, brutal fights, tortures ...

Muslim fundamentalism is denounced in this Egyptian film set in 12th century Andalousia.

Eliseo Subiela's film, far less pretentious than his previous works.

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. With Yakusho Koji. A Japanese film about a hypnotist who induces people to commit murders.

Weird Japanese comedy about a greedy girl trying to find recover a suitcase full of money.

A Japanese "Golem".

Very avant-garde film about young people.

Memorable black comedy from Norway, about a dishonest mailman saving the life of a suicidal woman he happens to be stalking. Clearly inspire...

A man takes care of his ailing mother. He carries her outside, and they sit together on a bench until she dies. With a plot like that, this ...

Another "Time Of The Gypsies", but far, far less successful.

"Last Tango In Tokyo", only much more boring.

A Hong Kong "Backdraft".

A Dutch film about a young man and his hatred for his biological father. It's a very well made, but quite unpleasant to watch, because t...

Boring film about a young boy growing up in Venezuela.

This Turkish film about the civil war in Kurdistan tries to whitewash both sides. If both the Turkish military and the Kurdish rebels were ...

Weird Austrian film about a magical whale.

Flawed, but interesting Romanian film about a serial killer haunting an old coal mine. It's an allegory about the horrible legacy of Com...

A Hong Kong gangster (Lau Ching-Wan) has a choice of two assignments: one in Mainland China, another on Taiwan. Fairly confusing, but intere...

Jan Svankmajer's film about elaborate sex fantasies.

Najwiekszy sukces kasowy polskiego kina w 1997 roku.

Gloomy, but very intriguing German film about a murder and its effects on people involved.

The film is set in Siberia.

The legendary actor, the star of La Dolce Vita, talks about his life. A witty and charming film, presenting a slice of film history in a ver...

Beautiful, melancholic film about a fragile love triangle involving an aging and blind writer (hence the title), his younger mistress and a ...

Cztery opowiadania: milosc ojcowska, milosc masochistyczna, milosc studentki do nauczyciela oraz milosc Rosjanki i Polaka. Zdobywca nagrody ...

Somber Japanese gangster film. Very well directed, but hardly entertaining. Winner of the Golden Lion at Venice.

Spanish film about a young boy who looses his parents.

This Iranian film is essentially a remake of "The White Balloon". Once again we've got a stubborn little girl, an object to be...

Pretentious Turkish drama about an old bandit.

The end of the world is near and a Hong Kong billionaire (Andy Lau) fears for his life.

A young girl, an illness, a hospital, a bore...

Clearly inspired by Emir Kusturica, this Czech film in set in a mountain village. The opening scene with wolves devouring the villagers is a...

Chinese comedy about an unsuccessful writer and his one-of-a-kind relationship with his ex-sister-in-law (i.e. the sister of his former wife...

An insomnia cure from Japan.