This film is really something different. A combination of fantasy, love and slapstick comedy.

Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon, a couple in real life, play Dom and Fiona, having directed the film with Bruno Romey, who plays the visually challenged patron of the L'Amour Flou (Fuzzy Love) café.

Dom works in a hotel and one evening Fiona comes in and announces she's a fairy, and grants him three wishes. The first is for a scooter (he has a very unreliable bike) and the second is for petrol to keep it running. After Fiona carries out an interesting variation of the Heimlich manoeuvre on Dom, who gets the top of a tomato ketchup bottle stuck in his throat (you need to watch the film to see why), Dom falls asleep, and wakes up in the morning to find a scooter in the hotel foyer. Later Fiona gives him the key to a petrol storage tank in the nearby refinery. And so a romance is kindled.

Is Fiona a fairy? Well, she certainly conjures up some fairy dust, although she also resorts to very real world solutions, such as stealing a dress (you really need to watch this) and a pair of fancy high heel shoes, after asking for a pair of trainers that she uses to run away. An instant pregnancy more or less confirms her fairy powers.

A bourgeois Catholic couple have four daughters who one by one marry men of different faiths, much to the consternation of their parents. After three such marriages it's the turn of the last unmarried daughter, and the parents rejoice to learn that she's marrying a Catholic. But their elation is short lived.

I first saw this film when I was staying near Paris in 2014. The cinema was packed and the audience were almost delirious with laughter. At that time my French wasn't up to understanding much of the dialogue, although the story is so self-evident that it almost didn't matter. I awaited the day that an English subtitled version would appear, but as far as I can tell it was never released.

It seems that a subtitled version wasn't released because English speaking audiences "would never allow themselves these days to laugh at Blacks, Jews or Asians." Our loss, as this is an extremely funny film.

Michel finds a rare jazz album at the flea market and can't wait to get back to the flat to listen to it. For the next 80 minutes everything that could happen to stop him listening to his album does.

His wife, Nathalie, has something important to tell him (she had been unfaithful) but he doesn't want to hear it. The Polish builders, who turn out to be Portuguese, flood a room, as well as the apartment underneath. Michel's son is housing illegal immigrants in the maids' quarters upstairs. The flooded neighbour redirects party guests to Michel's apartment. Oh, and Nathalie's best friend arrives to confess to having an affair with Michel. What does a man have to do to listen to his record?

As you will have guessed, this is a fast-moving comedy that jumps from one mad situation to another. Michel is played by Christian Clavier who starred in the brilliant French film 'Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au Bon Dieu ?', which unfortunately hasn't been released with English subtitles - too politically incorrect for English tastes. His role in Une Heure de Tranquillité is in many respects similar.

Philippe, a public servant working in the postal service in Provence attempts a scam to obtain a transfer to the Riviera, but he is caught out, largely due to his own ineptitude. As a result he is instead transferred to the far north, a fate almost worse than death. Dreading what he will find he reluctantly sets off, even being let off a speeding ticket when the police learn where he has been sent. But things don't always turn out as you would expect.

It was supposed to be a dreadfully cold place inhabited by hard-drinking, unemployed peasants, speaking an incomprehensible dialect called Ch'ti. The rumour about the dialect was certainly correct, as Philippe soon finds out, but in all other respects the tales of doom couldn't have been further from the truth. Far from dreading his return after a break back home, he can't wait to get back. His only problem, he hasn't been too truthful with his wife, who now wants to accompany him.

It is 1960s Paris and Jean-Louis, a stockbroker, with his wife Suzanne live in a grand apartment.

Above, on the sixth floor, there are a group of Spanish house maids (les bonnes) who might as well not exist as far as Jean-Louis and Suzanne are concerned.

When their French maid is dismissed, because Suzanne and her didn't get on after the death of Jean-Louis's mother, a friend suggests to Suzanne that she should look for a Spanish maid. She duly takes on the recently arrived and very attractive Maria. With a bit of clandestine help from her friends on the sixth floor, the young Maria makes a good impression, and is appointed.

Jean-Louis soon becomes infatuated with Maria. His wife suspects something is going on, but misses the obvious and mistakenly accuses her husband of having an affair with an attractive new female client. He choses to admit to this imaginary affair rather than to his real feelings for Maria. Suzanne duly kicks him out and he moves upstairs to the 6th floor, much to the astonishment of the maids.

This is a spoof of the spy film genre and draws heavily from the early Bond films. Jean Dujardin plays the Bond-type character, interestingly named Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath. His female co-star is played by Bérénice Bejo, and those of you who take an interest in such things will recognise this duo from the Oscar winning silent film of 2011, The Artist.

Hubert is, of course, God's gift to women and has no respect whatsoever for the religion of the local people, as shown by his silencing of the Muezzin, whose call to prayer wakes him up on his first morning in Cairo. He bumbles along and through sheer happenstance "saves the Middle East".

Apparently the OSS 117 character predates Fleming's 007, whereas the natural assumption would be that it was the other way around.

There is a sequel, OSS117: Rio Ne Répond Plus, should you be interested.

This fantasy film is pure comedy. The eponymous heroin is an author with a twin sister who suffered a serious injury during a tennis match, leaving her in bed on a drip with a hat pin though her head. I'm sure such an injury would be fatal but this is a fantasy, so stay with it.

The cinematography seems almost to simulate a graphic strip, to the extent that when the film started I wasn't sure if it was real or animated, although this confusion didn't last long.

Adèle, who should be in Peru researching her new book, is in fact in Egypt to recover the mummy of the doctor to the Pharos, whom she believes could help her sister. The small problem of the mummy being long since deceased is to be overcome with the help of a 'mad' scientist who has already resurrected a pterodactyl from its egg in a Paris museum; so a mummy should be easy.

Unfortunately the pterodactyl is causing mayhem, including the death of a politician and his mistress, so the scientist has been arrested and sentenced to death. Such problems are not insurmountable for Adèle, who embarks on a succession of hare-brain schemes to release the scientist, after her appeal to the French president fails, spectacularly!

Paul-André is a businessman who in making lots of money from software development burnt himself out. He now lives in a palatial if somewhat boring mansion with his butler, appearing to be constantly morose although denying that is the case. Violette is a single mum with two children and has just been released from remand after assaulting a supermarket security guard, who caught her stealing a chicken to feed her family.

Violette is broke and under threat of losing her children to care. Interviewed on TV she makes a heartfelt appeal about the importance of the family and not wanting to lose her children. Paul-André catches this interview and has the brilliant idea of helping Violette, by paying her debts and renting her family. His reason is that he wants to experience having a family before committing to have his own.

Having dispensed with the assurance that he is not looking for a relationship with Violette, a contract is drawn up for a three-month trial. Violette insists, however, that he lives with them. So we see Paul-André leaving his mansion to move into a house that has the appearance of a shanty. The children are not let in on the commercial arrangements and are told that he is the new boyfriend. Auguste, her young mixed-race son is happy to accept what he's told but the daughter, Lucie, older and as blonde as Auguste is dark, is not so easily persuaded. What follows is a typical semi-farce as the clash of cultures come together.

Based on the life of Philippe Pozzo di Borgo this film was a tremendous success in France. Philippe, from an incredibly wealthy aristocratic family, is quadriplegic after a paragliding accident and is looking for new carer.

Driss, a black man from the banlieue, presents himself for the job but only because he wants to to get his form signed to receive his unemployment benefit. He has no intention of taking the position. But he is the only applicant that impresses Philippe, who offers him a trial period of a month.

At first Driss isn't too keen on the carer role, particularly with regard to the more personal aspects of it, but a bond begins to form between Philippe and him, and from this unlikely beginning a strong relationship gradually builds between the two men, both gaining greatly from the experience. The story is told with a great deal of humour, making it a truly uplifting film. Unmissable.

And the Maserati sounds absolutely gorgeous!

A delightful French comedy-drama set in the forests of Solonge. This film is a treat for anybody who enjoys nature in addition to telling a heart-warming story.

The film begins in 1927 Paris, where after the war there are many orphans. A woman named Célestine arrives at an orphanage where she is asked if she would take a young boy named Paul, who was originally from the area in Solonge where she lives. She is reluctant, and we detect that this boy features in her past, although we do not learn any more at this stage.

When they arrive back at Sologne we see that Célestine is in service to the local Count. Her husband, Borel, is the gamekeeper on the Count's estate. She introduces Paul as her cousin's son, which tells us that his real identity is best kept secret. He isn't there long before he learns of Totoche, the local poacher, characterised superbly by François Cluzet. Borel's main objective in life is to entrap Totoche in the act, this being all the more amusing since Totoche has a thing going with Célestine, who acts as an advanced warning of Borel's plans. Initially Totache wants nothing to do with Paul, but after Paul rescue's his dog from the river, the two gradually become friends, with Paul lapping up Totoche's immense knowledge of the life of the forest. As a comedy-drama this film could easily double as a nature documentary.

Another whimsical French comedy with a somewhat improbable plot, but that doesn't really matter. François and Charlotte run a gourmet hotel and restaurant, but while François is fixated on attaining his first Michelin star, Charlotte is feeling neglected. Charlotte's sister Pascale appears to be an almost permanent fixture, as well as being somewhat of an embarrassment with her devil-may-care approach to life.

Early in the film we have the low point of François forgetting Charlotte's birthday and then trying to make amends with a rapidly conjured cake and a rendition of happy birthday from the staff. Charlotte is not impressed.

Into this already strained relationship comes Alex, Charlotte's former husband who was thought to have died in a tsunami. This clearly brings with it a few problems. First, there is the fact that as Alex isn't dead, he remains Charlotte's husband, nullifying her marriage to François. Second, and arguably more of a problem, is that Alex still legally owns the hotel, even though it was rebuilt and its image completely transformed after Alex disappeared. Third, and perhaps the biggest problem of all, is that Charlotte appears to be gravitating towards Alex and away from François. However, François reluctantly agrees to give Alex a room, allowing him continuing access to Charlotte. Full board, you might say, which is the literal translation of the French title.

Mon Oncle, starring and directed by Jacques Tati, is a classic of French cinema that also won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1958. I knew of it, but not very much about it, so everything came as a surprise when I started watching. At first I thought it was a silent movie, since although there was a very lively soundtrack nobody was speaking, or at least when they did speak it was for the most part inaudible. As things developed there were snatches of clearer dialogue, but I was left with the impression that Tati wanted to convey everything from the action. There is a Chaplin feel to this film.

Monsieur and Madame Arpel live in an ultra modern house, which is very un-French, with a geometric garden, minimal furniture and an automated kitchen that would have been extremely futuristic in 1958. Meanwhile everything around them is very French. A small town with run-down houses, a market and a tabac with les mecs passing the time of day drinking coffee or beer.

The Arpels have a son, Gérard, and his uncle is Monsieur Hulot, the eponymous Mon Oncle. Monsieur Hulot is the antithesis of the Arpels. He lives in an apartment at the top of a strange building that at first appears to be two properties, until we see Mr Hulot make his tortuous way to his apartment by way of different staircases and balconies. Once there he adjusts his window such that the sun's reflection is on a canary's cage attached to the wall of the building. The sunlight causes the bird to sing, and he experiments moving the window back and forth, listening as the bird bursts into song and then goes quiet again.

Monsieur Hulot is a gentle man, always with his pipe in his mouth, and politely helping people as he makes his way around the town. His relaxed demeanour endears him to Gérard, who much prefers his uncle's company to that of his father. The boy's life in the Arpel's clinically clean house is unappealing, and he would rather be out with his uncle, riding on the back of Hulot's motorised bicycle.

Michel dreams of being an airmail pilot and spends quite a lot of time walking around with a model plane in his hand simulating flying. Thus you can see where Comme un Avion (as a plane) comes from. Despite being bought flying lessons for his birthday, one suspects that he realises that he will never be an aviator, so when he spots an advert on line for a kayak, his attention is immediately drawn to the similarities of cruising along in a plane and cruising along in a kayak. So he buys the kayak and plans a self-sufficient adventure, having had no training other than practising by walking around on his roof terrace with the frame of the kayak suspended about him as he pretends to paddle.

His wife Rachelle is supportive and drives him to the river, where he diligently unpacks all the carefully assembled survival materials that he has amassed. After a bit of adjustment to his apparel and the amount of stuff he can actually transport, he sets off. There is one false start, requiring Rachelle to return and give assistance, but after that he's on his way. At his first overnight stop he fortuitously finds himself in the grounds of a riverside restaurant and spies a beautiful young woman, Mila, who he follows back to the restaurant. There he also meets Laëtitia, the proprietor and a widow. What follows is Michel's various attempts to leave the restaurant and continue his journey, but it seems that he is destined not to do so, both because of events, and because one senses that he doesn't really want to leave. His initial attraction to Mila is in fact a sideshow to his eventual romance.

Une potiche is a decorated porcelain vase, but in familiar language it can mean a trophy wife.

Catherine Deneuve plays Madame Suzanne Pujol, the trophy wife in this French comedy. Set in the 70s, Mme Pujol sits at home while her husband, Robert, runs the family umbrella business, a business started by Suzanne's late father. Robert is a mean-minded boss, a philanderer, and treats his wife as a know-nothing. They have two adult children, Joëlle, who is unhappy in her marriage and as uncompromising as her father, and Laurent, who is a left wing idealist.

Robert's management style has led to a strike and his bombastic attempts to resolve it have laid him low, requiring him to convalesce. It unexpectedly falls to Suzanne to meet the strikers and try to resolve matters. She seeks the help of the mayor, and member of parliament, Maurice Babin (played by Gérard Depardieu), there being a 'connection' between them. He paves the way and her conciliatory approach, treating the workers almost as family, soon wins their trust. Laurent is co-opted to use his design skills to enhance the product range while Joëlle also gets a job, but doesn't quite accept the new philosophies - her father's daughter, as they say.

It all moves along with much humour and careful attention to the period in which it is set. Delightful, in fact.

Castella is a rich but lonely business man. He is negotiating a deal that obviously exposes him to possible danger, so everywhere he goes he is accompanied by a bodyguard and his chauffeur. Castella has also hired a 'sharp' college boy type as an assistant to help him with his 'big deal'. He suggests that Castella should learn English to help in his business dealings.

Clara, an English teacher, is interviewed and promptly discounted, but a little later Castella comes across her again as an actress and is completely mesmerised by her performance in Racine's "Bérénice". From this point on he endeavours to meet her, breaking into her social circle, where he is politely ridiculed. Meanwhile his relationship with his wife, which had already become distant, is failing completely, her main emotional interest seeming to be her dog.

For his English homework he writes Clara a poem, expressing his fondness for her (she corrects the English!), but she says that she feels nothing for him. However, these experiences have mellowed him and meanwhile Clara is reassessing her life and comes to realise that Castella may have a place in it.

The French are very good at producing these human comedies that reflect real life.

Alicia Ricosi, played by Fanny Ardent, is a top fashion designer who's in the doldrums after a break up with her beau. Her assistant, Heléne, is given the job by the fashion house manager, Alan, of restoring Alicia's interest in her work by finding her a new man. This fails miserably, but by chance Alicia meets up with Heléne's Breton landscape gardener, who Heléne had in fact recently fired, and he proves to be the muse that Alicia has been looking for - two artistic types, if you get the drift.

Relations between Heléne and the gardener, Julien, are understandably a bit cool. After all, she had sacked him without pay, so the task of wooing him back is all the more complicated. Heléne sets off to Brittany to find him but he cannot be enticed, until that is Heléne commits a dastardly deed that makes it very difficult for Julien not to take the considerable amount of money on offer.

This is, of course, a comedy, and as such it succeeds. Ice cool Heléne starts to warm to Julien, a clear case of opposites etc. etc.! Meanwhile Alicia gets her mojo back and everything in the garden is hunky dory - well almost. And there are quite a few laughs along the way.

This film is categorised as a comedy, and for the first half one can believe it is. But as things progress it becomes very cynical and while comic elements remain, the unfolding events are far from funny. It is based quite closely on the novel Les Bottes Rouge by Franz Bartelt.

The title is a play on words from the title of the poem ‘Le Dormeur du val’, penned by Arthur Rimbaud in 1870.

Rimbaud was born in Charleville-Mézières, a town on the River Meuse close to the Belgian border and the setting for this film. The film’s director, Manual Sanchez, was inspired by this poem, and another by Rimbaud entitled Ophélie, and you will see the clear influence of the latter from the image above.

Duval is the surname of a young woman, Maryse, who has returned from Paris after being unsuccessful in making a career as an actor. On her return she takes a job in a factory helping Basile Matron, known as a harmless individual who looks after the stockroom. Basile’s wife, Rose, who he adores, is a highly strung woman who enjoys classical music and sensual dancing. They have a neighbour, a journalist with the local paper and budding author, who seems to fantasise over Rose. He and Basile are good friends and drinking partners.

While Basile’s life is far from ideal, it is completely upended when Rose suspects him of having a relationship with Maryse. We are left unsure whether this in fact happened, since while at one point Basile implies it did, Maryse isn’t as forthcoming. Whatever the truth of the matter, the events that subsequently unfold send Rose into hysteria and depression, temporarily alleviated by a suave new piano teacher who turns out to be a conman. Meanwhile Basile ends up needing psychiatric treatment, with worse to follow. And Maryse doesn't fare too well either!

This is a very unusual film but in many respects it’s very French.

Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon are back, again playing Dom and Fiona in this latest burlesque comedy.

Unlike in La Fée, this time there isn't any fairy magic, other than the magic of the performance that this couple provide. This is vintage French comedy and might not be to everybody's taste. It's really quite mad at times.

We start off in Canada, with Fiona as a young girl saying goodbye to her aunt Martha, played by the late Emmanuelle Riva, who's off to Paris. Jump forward to the present day, and Fiona receives a letter from her aunt who has been threatened with being sent to an old-peoples' home. So Fiona sets off for Paris with her enormous red backpack adorned with the Canadian flag.

Having got the backpack stuck in the automatic barrier at a Metro station (been there, done that!) she eventually emerges in Paris looking completely out of place. The slapstick is soon on display with an amazing stunt whereby Fiona topples backwards off pont Rouelle while having her photo taken.

Dom is a homeless person who camps at the end of the Île aux Cygnes, by the Paris replica of the Statue of Liberty, his tent often being commandeered by a dog. Fiona is rescued from the river but loses her backpack, which Dom finds, dressing himself in one of Fiona's jumpers and treating himself with her cash. Happenstance of course brings them together, he following her everywhere while she desperately tries to find her aunt.

And so with a bit of time shifting that explains how each player arrives at the the situation they're in, we follow the bizarre goings on, including Dom giving the eulogy at the funeral of the wrong Martha and almost ending up being cremated with the coffin. The finale on top of the Eiffel Tower isn't for those, like me, who find heights a bit tummy churning.

I think it's fair to say that there aren't many films like this but I challenge you not to laugh.

We are introduced to Nathalie at her daughter's 18th birthday party. It is immediately clear that she's ill at ease. Recently divorced, her husband has turned up with his new partner, Isabelle. Younger, of course, slimmer, naturally, prettier, well not really. When Isabelle proudly announces that they are going Club-Med to the Maldives, Nathalie is furious, telling her ex that they rarely left France.

Nathalie is in fact jealous of everybody. Her daughter, who has a doting boyfriend, her best friend, who seems to have a perfect marriage, and a new young female teacher who has arrived at the college where she teaches. The jealously becomes all-consuming and leads to alienation of all around her, including a new love interest, who she throws out after accusing him of ogling her daughter.

Her daughter is a ballet dancer on track for an audition at the Opéra de Paris. Or at least she was until Nathalie almost kills her by feeding her an allergen that brings on anaphylactic shock. Her daughter moves to her father's and Nathalie's life is descending into abject depression.

She has unsuccessful counselling, having been told by her general practitioner that he couldn't help her. She takes up Yoga, where she invariably falls asleep on the mat, and swimming, where she meets an elderly woman who seems to put her back on track to some form of recovery. When this woman dies after a fall, Nathalie asks the date she threw out to accompany her to the funeral, which he does very reluctantly. This is the real turning point.

Things sort of work out in the end but not quite happily for everybody. In the final scene, Nathalie visits a couple, neighbours who had invited her for an aperitif on many occasions. But the young man was alone, his girlfriend having left because of his jealousy. He asks Nathalie if she's jealous, to which she replies "Moi, non !"

It is 1809 and Captain Neuville is the epitome of a suave dashing cavalry officer as he rides up the drive to the Beaugrand family home. There awaits Pauline, the younger daughter, who anticipates his proposal, and she isn't disappointed. Well not, that is, until a messenger arrives minutes later to tell the Captain that he has orders to leave for Austria.

He promises to write, but fails to do so, leaving Pauline distraught and her family fearing for her health. Her elder sister, Elisabeth, who never had any time for the Captain, decides to pen letters from him, which works a treat and Pauline regains her joie de vivre.

Elisabeth, however, gets a bit carried away, painting the Captain as a hero, so when news comes through that an armistice has been reached, and that the Captain should be returning, Elisabeth is panic stricken. She therefore effectively writes his obituary.

Life really gets complicated when Elisabeth spots the Captain in town, no longer the dashing soldier but a smelly unkempt deserter. She does everything to convince him to leave, telling him that Pauline is now married with two children.

But the Captain, still hugely respected in town, with his own memorial, decides he will stay. Elisabeth ends up having to coach him in all his supposed adventures, that she created, but he further embellishes them to the great delight of audiences, especially the womenfolk.

The animosity between Neuville and Elisabeth provides the humour with the on-screen chemistry between Jean Dujardin and Mélanie Laurent reminding us a bit of Mr Darcy and Miss Bennett. Meanwhile Pauline hasn't lost her desire for him. In fact he's really enjoying himself, but Elisabeth is nothing if not resourceful. However her final ploy turns out to be a step too far and we then learn the truth about the Captain.

A very enjoyable film with a superb performance from Dujardin and Laurent, which was well received by the critics.

It always intrigues me how French cinema can take an implausible story and produce a film that is in many respects credible, if not perhaps entirely believable. Here we have on the one hand Diane, an attractive lawyer who's three years divorced from her husband Bruno, and on the other a suitor, Alexandre, who's charming and handsome but only 4' 6" tall!

Alexandre witnesses a tiff between Diane and Bruno in a restaurant that causes Diane to leave her phone behind. He phones her, addressing her as 'Home', the name in the phone's address book, and charms her sufficiently to arrange a date. But Diane is in for a mild shock when he arrives. But he is just as charming and amusing as when he was on the phone, and seemingly liked by everybody. In fact she finds herself fascinated by him.

Diane and Bruno are partners at their law firm and he is constantly trying to woo her back, despite his serial infidelity. He ridicules Diane once he finds out who she is seeing. Their office assistant, Coralie, adds additional humour to the situation as she takes messages, and voicing opinions between the two of them.

The story unfolds with Diane becoming more and more attracted to Alexandre while battling the prejudices of society and a less than helpful response from her mother. It all becomes too much, but she's now truly in love with Alexandre and completely torn between her feelings and the harshness of society. But don't worry, the outcome is fairly classic rom-com - French style.

Of course this is all so very unlikely but a digitally miniaturised Jean Dujardin and the very attractive Virginie Efira provide us with just over an hour and a half and light entertainment.

The critics haven't been too kind and nor has audience reaction been that great. Plus, of course, there's been the inevitable reaction to using an actor of normal stature to play a dwarf-like figure along with some more general PC qualms about the story line itself. But the French don't seem overly concerned with such things.

The summary of this film on Amazon Prime suggested a biographical story without revealing how amusing this film actually is. It is a serious story but the impact of a previously unknown women being drafted into the Élysée Palace to cook for President Mitterrand ruffled more than a few feathers among the all-male staff in the main kitchen.

We start, however, in Antartica, where Hortense Laborie, the said cook, has left the Palace and is now working as the cook in a French research base. She has been spotted by an Australian reporter, who has been told about her past, much to her chagrin.

This triggers the real story, as Hortense is almost dragooned from her farm to Paris. When she asks where she's going she's told Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, no. 55. It's then explained that this is the address of the Élysée Palace. But she still doesn't know for whom she is to cook.

All is soon revealed as she is given a quick tour of the kitchens under the scornful eye of the chef de cuisine. She is to be the President's personal chef (she prefers cook), preparing homely food rather than exotic cuisine. That said, don't watch this film if you are hungry as the food she prepares is absolutely mouthwatering.

A chance encounter with the President, when her usual entrance door was locked, leads them to express their shared love of traditional food. Meanwhile the main kitchen is becoming more and more incensed while other members of the Palace staff are clearly a bit put out by this woman's closeness to the President.

She has been given one assistant, her sous-chef, Nicolas, a most delightful young man who is quick to adapt to her ways. But when the dieticians decide that the President's diet must be regulated, Hortense finds her options limited. An evening snack with the President in her kitchen reveals that he understands how she is being got at, as is he!

This film skips along holding your interest and should produce quite a few laughs as you watch Hortense facing up to the extremely unlikable chef de cuisine. It is based on the true story of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch, the first woman to cook for a French President.

A film by the New Wave director Éric Rohmer. As you might expect it is far from traditional and, while appearing very simplistic, does in fact explore some interesting aspects of relationships.

It's not quite Super-8 but it has a very home-movie feel with much of the camerawork seemingly hand held. The technical details at IMDb suggest a 16mm negative, so hardly cinemascope!

It is in fact four short stories, each picking up the tale from the previous one. In the first, the Blue Hour, Mirabelle, on holiday from Paris, is helped by a local country girl, Reinette, when her bike gets a puncture. Reinette introduces Mirabelle to the charms of the country and in particular the blue hour, that magical period between night and dawn when the night animals go quiet and the day animals are yet to awaken.

The second story, the Waiter, takes place when Reinette is in Paris to attend art college, and is sharing a flat with Mirabelle after they became good friends at their first meeting. The waiter in this story is stereotypically Parisien, being quite unhelpful to the point of being hostile.

In the third part of this film, Reinette, a somewhat naive country girl, gives money to a beggar, encouraging the more street-wise Mirabelle to be more generous. Mirabelle gets involved with a shoplifter and upsets Reinette. And Reinette is then is duped by a scammer at the station, although she later has the opportunity to confront the woman about her actions.

The final sequence shows Reinette, who's quite an accomplished surrealist painter, selling one of her paintings with a lot of help from Mirabelle, who pretends not to know her while they're in the gallery. Watch out for a very young Fabrice Luchini as the art dealer.

I've categorised this film as comedy and while it has its comedic moments, probably not everybody would classify it as such. It is in fact a gentle story of the developing friendship between two young women from very different backgrounds. I found it quite charming.

This is an exceptional film. Georges and Anne are retired music teachers in their 80s living in a rather splendid Paris apartment. Anne suffers a stroke and the story, which takes place entirely within the apartment, is that of how Georges cares for her as she deteriorates and ultimately progresses into dementia. In accordance with her wishes, he won't allow her to go to a hospital or care home, a fact that confuses and frustrates their daughter, whose help Georges rejects.

This is a story so human, so real, that it feels at times almost like a fly-on-the-wall documentary. But that would understate its artistic brilliance. A richly deserved Palme d'Or winner at Cannes, this is directing and acting at its best. Despite the subject matter, it isn't without humour, largely thanks to Georges.

There is, of course, little to smile about as Anne deteriorates, and you may be shocked as the denouement unfolds, although at the same time you will perhaps not be surprised. The final scene with Georges and Anne is, however, a bit bewildering and will certainly leave you asking questions as to what you have just witnessed. It's the sort of film ending that stimulates questions for a long time afterwards, and has that "it can mean what you want it to mean" quality. I won't say any more.

Michel Racine is the judge, or more correctly in the French criminal court (cour d'assises), le président of the court. A fact that he takes pains to point out to a number of the witnesses, who mistakingly address him as Monsieur Judge. He has a ruthless reputation, not improved by having a touch of the flu, and is about to try a case where a young man is accused of killing his baby daughter by kicking her.

We are shown the preliminaries of the case, including the selection of jurors. During this process, whereby the judge picks names from a pot, the name Ditte Lorensen-Coteret comes out, causing an immediate change in the judge's demeanour. There is obviously history between them.

During a lunch break Racine contacts Ditte by SMS and eventually they arrange to meet. Apparently such a meeting between the judge and a juror is not illegal but highly unusual. It transpires that Ditte, a nurse, looked after Racine after a serious accident, following which he had effectively fallen in love with her.

Alice is a thirty-eight year-old editor at the fashion magazine Rebelle who's a workaholic at the expense of her private life. On a return flight from Brazil she drops her flash-memory card, which is picked up by architecture student, Balthazar. He calls after her but she doesn't hear. He is obviously smitten with Alice, and arranges to meet her at a bar to return the memory-stick. But he's left it at home, and offers Alice a lift there on his scooter. Two of her co-workers spot them, and mistakenly think she kisses the young man.

They have taken a photo and post it on Twitter, so the next morning everybody at work is sniggering, while her boss actually loves the idea that she's dating a young man. This positive reaction prompts Alice to pretend that she is indeed in love with Balthazar, but this turns out to be an unpredictable game, because sometimes playing with people's emotions can have an entirely unexpected outcome.

Alex, with the help of his sister and her husband, operate a rather unusual business. Basically they break up relationships, which may sound somewhat harsh, but we're led to believe that it's only where the woman is at risk of marrying somebody unsuitable. Needless to say somebody, usually the woman's father, pays them to perform this service.

His ultimate challenge arrives in the form of Juliette (Vanessa Paradis) who is hopelessly in love with her soon to be husband, a rather boring Englishman.

Juliette's father is the paymaster, and Alex poses as her bodyguard. But she's a tough nut to crack despite the team's well researched knowledge of her likes, including the film Dirty Dancing, from which he emulates the famous dance scene ending with Juliette held above his head.

For a French film it actually has all the hallmarks of a formulaic Hollywood Rom-Com, and it's just as predictable. But it's fun, and with much of the action taking place in Monaco there are some fine backdrops.

Not strictly a French film as much of the dialogue is in English, but in all other respects it's very French, with Gemma Arteton making a fair job of some French dialogue.

Martin has eschewed the life as a publisher in Paris and returned to his little home town to run his late father's bakery. Onto the scene arrives Gemma Bovery and Charles her husband, an English couple who have bought a rundown house opposite the baker's home. Martin is immediately taken with Gemma, constantly looking at her to the point of leering - "goodbye to sexual tranquility". But that's not his only interest in her. He is fascinated by the fact that a 'Bovery' has moved into the area, the very region where Gustave Flaubert, the author of Madame Bovary, was born, and where his famous novel was set.

His fascination deepens when Gemma appears to be having a liaison with a young man, Hervé, whose family is local aristocracy. The parallels with Flaubert's novel intrigue Martin. He imagines himself as a director of a film and casts these characters into their present roles. To Martin the parallels with the Madame Bovary novel are glaringly obvious, even if they're not so to his wife and son. Emma and Charles from the novel become Gemma and Charles. In the novel Emma's romantic involvements don't end well, and Martin fears that the same fate awaits Gemma. He therefore takes steps to try to end her affair with Hervè.

In France, a Central is a power station, and a Grand Central is a nuclear plant. An unlikely setting for a story of romance, but in the hands of the French female director/screenwriter Rebecca Zlotowski it works.

Gary is a casual worker looking for a job. The interview for the power station is no more than a formality, as there aren't that many people who want to work in highly radioactive areas.

He joins a team led by Toni and is soon introduced to Toni's fiancé, Karole, who has a novel way of showing Gary what over exposure to radioactivity feels like. At their first meeting, before he knows who she is, she kisses him passionately while explaining that he is probably feeling fear, blurred vision, head spinning, legs shaking - and that's just a small dose! An interesting analogy. Of course, the inevitable happens, as Gary and Karole begin an affair.

Karole becomes pregnant and because Toni is unable to father children the implications are clear. In a surprising turn of events, Karole tells Toni about the pregnancy, explaining that she did it for him. She even goes on to marry Toni, while still obviously having strong feelings for Gary, who decides to leave after a confrontation with Toni. But it doesn't end there!

Directed by French actress Maïwenn Le Besco, this film certainly offers a female perspective of what it must be like to be a woman in love with an absolute jerk. I felt sorry for her and embarrassed by his shameless mistreatment. Vincent Cassel plays the said jerk, Georgio, while Emmanuelle Bercot is his long suffering girlfriend/wife Tony.

Their relationship starts in a club, where Tony eyes Georgio, prior to flicking water in his face. In doing this she is emulating what she had seen him do years before, when she was serving in a bar. It was part of his chat-up technique. They are instantly attracted to each other and thus begins a fun-filled period, which is portrayed as being everything one could wish from a relationship.

The only problem is that Georgio had a girlfriend, Agnès, a model, who calmly informs Tony that she has stolen her man. It transpires that Georgio has known quite a few models; quite a few women in fact. And Georgio hasn't quite fully broken off his relationship with Agnès, so when she attempts suicide and ends up seriously ill in hospital, Georgio starts to spend more and more time with her, and less with Tony.

From this point the relationship see-saws as Tony desperately wants to believe in Georgio while he subjects her to psychological torment. Despite this, she becomes pregnant and they have a little boy, who Georgio insists will be called Sinbad, this being just one bit of control freakery among many. They also marry.

Eventually she asks for a divorce, which he resists, but it ultimately happens. Then, newly divorced, they're back in bed together. And so it goes on. She obviously loves him but can't live with him, while he keeps saying he loves her, but does precious little to show it. Basically it's a story of how a narcissistic man emotionally destroys a decent fun-loving young woman. The female director clearly had a message to get across.

Liliane works in a paté factory, her job being to place items of garnish on terrines of paté as the final part of the process. It is repetitive and mind-numbingly boring. In the evenings she sits alone at home, having a drink or two and watching the TV. Then one day, Jean, a temporary worker arrives and immediately feels that he recognises Liliane as a once famous singer who, with her song Souvenir, was just pipped for victory by ABBA at the Eurovision song contest.

Liliane assures Jean that he is mistaken, but he won't be dissuaded. Eventually his insistence causes Liliane to miss her bus, allowing Jean to take her home on his scooter. When Jean doesn't turn up for work one day, Liliane goes to find him. It transpires that Jean's father is also a great fan of Liliane, or Laura as she was then known. Jean's mother is, however, less than impressed. After a lot of coaxing Jean persuades Liliane to perform at a local club, where she is a great success, especially in the eyes of Jean's father.

Jean is a boxer who aspires to great victories, but in a pivotal fight he is convincingly beaten. Reviewing his future, he suggests that he could be Liliane's manager. By this point they are romantically involved, which turns the usual male-female casting on its head, she being a great deal older than him. She reluctantly agrees, but unbeknown to Jean contacts her former producer, Tony Jones, asking him to write her a song. Jones broke her heart back in the day.

We thus have the ingredients for troubled romance as Liliane makes her way through the selection stages for her place to represent France once more at Eurovision. It's fair to say that Isabelle Huppert, who plays Liliane, outclasses this film and in many ways is its saviour. The director, Bavo Defurne, is quoted as saying "I wanted to make a movie for Sunday afternoons", in other words an unashamedly feel-good film.

Sami is a laid-back musician who sleeps in his car and teams up with Fernand, an elderly guitarist who is a bit too fond of a drink. But the two of them make good music. Julia is an attractive lawyer and when her car runs out of fuel on the way to a party, Sami happens to be there. He gives her a lift and joins her at the party, after which they become an 'item'.

All is going swimmingly until Julia starts to become a bit tired of Sami's laid-back habits, coinciding with her boss taking an interest in her. When the boss and some friends are invited to dinner, Sami doesn't endear himself to her by previously sharing the quality wine she has bought with Fernand. Meanwhile, at the dinner Sami is looked on with some disdain by Julia's guests. After this Julia insists that they take a 'pause'.

Sami senses he is losing Julia but Fernand has plenty of advice on the ways of women. Unfortunately much of it just makes matters worse. When it becomes clear that Julia is now in a relationship with her boss Sami is heartbroken and refuses to accept it, continually trying to woo her back. He almost succeeds, but an indiscretion on a drug-fuelled evening (led astray by a 'friend'), captured in a photograph, torpedoes his efforts.

All seems lost but he has a song in his mind that could save the day, if only he could serenade her with it. Although up to this point Fernand has been more of a hindrance than help, he has one more trick up his sleeve. Quite a surprising one as it turns out.

This is a French language Swiss film that was short-listed as Switzerland's entry as Best Foreign Language film for the 88th Academy Awards. Baptiste Gilliéron plays Sami with Julia Faure as Julia. The soundtrack enhances this enjoyable romance.

Victor, a cartoonist, is thrown out by his wife, Marianne, more because of her late life crisis than anything he has or hasn't done. But Victor's son, Maxime, has bought his father an 'experience'. Antoine, a childhood friend of Maxime, stages detailed re-enactment of any chosen period, using actors to recreate the scene. Victor's experience will be the time when he met the love of his life in a café in Lyons, La Belle Époque, on May 16 1974.

Antoine, who also directs these re-enactments, is a perfectionist, insisting that every last detail is correct. And as the scene unwinds he and his assistants are there to provide prompts to the actors, should they stray from the script or have forgotten a fact or two. Meanwhile Victor's sketches of the original encounter provide the details of the setting.

The actress who will play Victor's love interest, Margot, is in somewhat of a tempestuous relationship with Antoine, and is prone to straying from the agreed lines. But as Victor's special day is re-enacted each day over a week, he starts to fall for Margot, who for her part offers perhaps too much encouragement. At least that's what Antoine thinks, much to his annoyance.

As Victor becomes more and more enthralled he needs money to extend his experience. His son has employed him, and reluctantly agrees an advance on his salary. And there's always the holiday home in Biarritz!

Of course the magic is, and will remain an illusion. But sometimes a little magic can sprinkle itself on to others and who knows what that might lead to? Meanwhile Marianne's 'new life' with François, her therapist, isn't working out quite as she planned.

A charming romantic comedy with Daniel Auteuil as Victor and Fanny Ardent as his beautiful if unreasonable wife. Doria Tiller plays Margot and it isn't difficult to understand why Victor falls in love with her.

I patiently waited for this film to appear on Amazon Prime and the wait was well worth it. The critics loved it (98% Rotten Tomatoes), as did audiences (92%).

Set in late 18th Century Brittany and directed by Céline Sciamma, this is very much a female oriented film exploring the deep relationship between a young noblewoman and the female artist who has been commissioned to paint her portrait.

Héloïse, the noblewoman, and previously a convent girl, is destined to marry a Milanese nobleman. As was often the case in those days he requires a portrait of her before agreeing to the match. Héloïse, not wanting to marry, has no desire to play along. A previous artist left without even seeing her face!

Marianne arrives from Paris to attempt the task but is told by Héloïse's mother that she must do this by casual observation while purporting to be a walking companion. Héloïse's sister fell to her death on the rocky coast and as a consequence Héloïse has been forbidden to take walks alone.

The two complex women soon develop a rapport, with the maid of the house, Sophie, completing an intriguing female trio. With emotions deepening Marianne feels that she must end the subterfuge and show Héloïse the portrait. But Héloïse exclaims "Is that how you see me?" A criticism of Marianne's emotional understanding rather than her artistic talent.

From this point the relationship actually deepens, with Héloïse agreeing to sit for Marianne. The touching relationship develops further but, of course, it is doomed to end.

An intimate study beautifully filmed.

This is not quite the usual ménage à trois that the title might suggest. Here we have true love complicated by fate.

Marc, a tax inspector from Paris, misses his last train in a small provincial town. Having retired to a local bar, a woman walks in to whom he is instantly attracted. He catches up with her after she leaves and they walk together through the town. There is clearly some very special chemistry between them.

They arrange to meet in Paris but on the day Marc is delayed at the office and then suffers a mild cardiac attack. Sylvie, who he was to meet, waits and waits but in time leaves. She had previously told her boyfriend that she wasn't going to accompany him to America, but after this disappointment decides to go after all.

And now fate plays its hand. Marc, returning to the town, encounters Sylvie's sister, Sophie, at the local tax office. She has tax problems with her business and he offers to help out. Of course, he doesn't know that she's Sylvie's sister.

Marc and Sophie hit it off and are soon arranging a wedding. But Marc has now become aware just who Sophie is, and is dreading her sister's arrival at the wedding.

At this point one might have expected an embarrassing and tumultuous coming together, but the bond between Marc and Sylvie transcends any feelings of betrayal. After the wedding Sylvie returns to America.

But things do not end there. A birthday party again reunites the two of them and this time their emotions cannot be contained. And at this point the sisters' mother, played by Catherine Deneuve, realises what's going on.

Marc, who now also has a son, is torn between his wife, who adores him, and a deep passion for Sylvie. Yes, a man can love two women.

Once again French cinema gives us a somewhat unlikely scenario fleshed out by characters that make everything seem believable. Along with Catherine Deneuve we have Charlotte Gainsborough as Sylvie and Chiara Mastroianni, Deneuve's real life daughter, as Sophie. Benoît Poelvoorde plays Marc.

With my recent BFI subscription I decided to explore some of the older classics of French cinema. Le Mépris is one such film which, in its remastered form, visually belies its age. But, that said, the acting is very much of the period.

Of course, directed by Jean-Luc Godard and with Brigitte Bardot as the lead female actor it was always going to attract attention. I found it a bit difficult at times but critical reviews mark it as one of Godard's best films and similarly for Bardot.

Bardot plays Camille, the wife of a script writer Paul. The opening scene is devoted to displaying Bardot's unquestionable sexuality, a scene that seems unnecessary and one that Godard was forced to include to satisfy the American market. From that point on Bardot reveals very little although offers plenty of teases!

We cut to a film set where we are introduced to the film producer Jeremy Prokosch, a brash American who speaks no French. He is assisted by the delightful Francesca, an Italian who translates for him. We also meet the Austrian film maker Fritz Lang (played by himself) who speaks German, French and English although seems arbitrarily to jump between them.

Prokosch has asked Paul to rewrite the script for the film, the tale of Ulysses and Penelope. Although very reluctant he eventually agrees, thinking it will pay for his and Camille's flat. But while at the start of the film Camille and Paul seem very much in love, everything changes after Paul allows Prokosch to take Camille to his villa in his two-seater Alfa, while Paul takes a taxi. Prokosch clearly has desires on Camille.

From this point on Camille seems to have contempt (le mépris) for Paul and their relationship rapidly deteriorates. This mirrors the relationship between Ulysses and Penelope, so we have a film within a film, the Greek saga on the film set being reenacted between Paul and Camille.

There is a superb user review on the IMdB site that is probably well worth reading before you watch the film. It doesn't give away too much in the way of spoilers but it does reveal the depth of this film, something that can be easily missed on a first viewing.

In a small town Jean is a builder, happily married to Anne-Marie. In an early scene we see them struggle to help their son Jérémy with his grammar homework, proving that many French adults no more understand the technicalities of French grammar than do English people English grammar!

This uneventful life is disrupted when Jean goes to collect Jérémy from school, after his wife hurts her back at work. There he meets Jérémy's teacher, Véronique Chambon, who appears to be instantly attracted to him. Later, he replaces a window at her apartment where he asks her to play the violin for him, having seen a photograph of her playing. She is at first reluctant but agrees. At this point we see that her interest in him is being reciprocated as the two of them listen to a CD of the tune she played.

Here we have a clear coup de foudre, two people who are instantly attracted to each other. For him this is of course complicated and the two of them resist deeper involvement. But there is a depth of passion that neither can ignore and both Jean's wife and his workmates notice that he has 'changed'.

This film explores the relationship largely through the visual chemistry between the two principal players, much being left unsaid while at the same time being clear for all to see.

Although the film is light on dialogue between the main players, what there is is quite accessible if you have reasonably good French comprehension.

Lila is a young woman who has been dropped by her boyfriend and is struggling to come to terms with what has happened. She is thrust back into the dating scene while all the while not really being over her ex. He has gone off to Bolivia 'to find himself', although given his character one imagines it's unlikely to change him.

Director Hafsia Herzi wrote the screenplay and plays the lead role as Lila, a young woman who has been dropped by her boyfriend and is struggling to come to terms with what has happened. She is thrust back into the dating scene while all the while not really being over her ex. He has gone off to Bolivia 'to find himself', although given his character one imagines it's unlikely to change him.

The fact that this film is directed by a woman, who also wrote the screenplay, is obvious in the way that Lila's emotions are portrayed as she negotiates a number of new relationships. She wants love while the men tend to have different agenda.

She moves between normal sorts of guys to one who is totally self-absorbed by his love of filming, and can't understand why Lila eventually breaks down into a fit of giggles. At the other extreme a well-healed playboy type proposes marriage (only kidding) before having sex with her in a stairwell and then disappearing for good. And then she has an encounter with a couple of 'swingers' and despite being initially resistant ends up in bed with them. None of this is explicitly filmed.

There is, however, one young man who is clearly attracted to her for the right reasons. He is a photography student and asks if she would model for him, telling her that she looks like Frida Kahlo. The photo above is from the photo shoot. There is no romantic involvement between them but in the end it is he who is there for her when it matters.

The French in this film is very difficult!

Claude Brasseur plays Henri, a curmudgeonly old man living alone in a Paris apartment. Constance, played by Noémie Schmidt, arrives to rent a room. Henri is far from welcoming, the room having been put up for rent by his son, with whom he doesn't really get on. Constance isn't hopeful that she will get the room, but she does, only because Henri apparently picked her name out of a hat, or so he says.

Constance is in Paris to study, her parents being market traders in Orléans. There is a piano in the flat that's strictly off limits to Constance, which is a pity since she plays. We learn that her music teacher in Orléans discouraged her, thus her attempt to study academically, a forlorn attempt as it turns out when she fails her examinations. We also learn that Henri's wife, long deceased, played, thus Henri's sensitivity on the matter. During a visit by Henri's son, Paul, his wife, Valerie, asks Constance to play the piano. Henri relents in the circumstances but as Constance plays Henri is moved to tears, but he realises that Constance has talent.

Henri doesn't like Valerie and plots a devilish scheme to get Paul to realise that she isn't the woman for him. Henri asks Constance to seduce Paul. Not to the point of anything serious happening, but to make him realise that there are better choices for him. Constance doesn't want to do this, but a bit of less than gentle persuasion by Henri, along the lines of "if you don't do it you must leave', causes Constance to play along with the scheme. It turns out to be a bit too successful as Paul falls for Constance, while his wife leaves him and starts divorce proceedings.

We start to see Henri taking an interest in Constance's wellbeing, in fact being quite paternal, and he also take steps to encourage her to pursue her music. Meanwhile, Paul's short infatuation with Constance seems to have elevated his hormones, because we next learn that his wife is pregnant, prompting a reconciliation, as they had been trying for a child for a long time.

Henri has also worked a bit of magic that ensures that Constance is selected to audition for the London School of Music. Everything in fact is working out fine. Is Constance successful? I'll leave it to you to find out.

Translating as 'What Binds Us', Ce Qui Nous Lie is a story of family bonding as three siblings come together to resolve financial difficulties following the death of their father. It is beautifully filmed in wide screen with sublime scenery. The story takes place almost entirely within the environs of a vineyard, where we are first treated to a view from the house as the seasons change, our narrator being the young Jean, one of the brothers.

Jean left the family to travel the world, largely because of his uneasy relationship with his father, something that we visit as flashbacks during the story. Jean has now returned from his vineyard in Australia, the reason being to see his dying father. His sister, Juliette, is overjoyed, but his younger brother Jérémie is not so happy, having feelings of animosity towards Jean, particularly as he wasn't there when their mother died. Things are not helped when the three find that the 500,000€ inheritance tax on the estate is far beyond their ability to pay, forcing them to consider ways to raise money.

One option is to sell up completely, which would suit Jean who has debts in Australia, but it isn't acceptable to the other two. The terms of their father's will requires that all three of them agree on any action. Juliette has become the de facto vineyard manager, and there is some tension between her and Jean when he tries to advise her on managing the wine production. Jérémie, on the other hand, is married, and his father-in-law has designs on acquiring the premier vines, as does another local grower.

Meanwhile, Jean's life is far from straightforward. He has a wife and child back in Australia, and relations are strained. As the story unfolds we see him torn between wanting to return to Australia, or remaining in France. He has rediscovered his love for his siblings, and the vineyard, and wants to help them save the business that was built up by his father.

While this family drama unfolds we are given quite an insight into the working of a vineyard; the harvest, the treading of the grapes, the critical timing of the winemaking process. We see the seasonal workers in the fields and enjoy with them the wild party after the harvest is gathered. It is a hard but fulfilling rural life.

Marc Guermont is a stunt horseman who is seriously injured during a scene. The take involves the horse and rider falling but after successfully doing this the horse, Othello, stamps on Marc's spine having been spooked by a dog. As a consequence he is left a T10 paraplegic. Florence Kernel is the insurance assessor sent to settle his claim. Marc had already 'thrown out' the previous assessor when he had arrived at the hospital, and Florence has been sent to try a more gentle approach.

Marc, feeling that he has been short-changed, refuses an early settlement. Florence, meanwhile, seems to be beguiled by Marc's philosophy of life. She is a classical music lover, and Marc questions why she hadn't pursued her ambition to be a concert pianist. This leaves her questioning her current life. She has clearly developed strong feelings for Marc and one is left with the impression that her marriage and family were no longer satisfying her.

Florence is taken off Marc's case, as her company wants a fast settlement, and it stops his interim payments to pressurise him. Florence takes the unusual step of recommending a lawyer, an old college friend, and Marc begins to realise that her interest in him perhaps extends beyond the professional-client relationship.

A brief relationship follows, instigated when Florence visits Marc to give him recordings she made when interviewing him, which her lawyer said could help his case. Her action of recommending a lawyer in the first place was in fact illegal, and passing him company recordings was obviously a serious breach of trust with her employer, which eventually leads to her dismissal.

While the love affair was brief, the effect it has on both of their lives is profound.

We're in rural France were the local doctor, Jean-Pierre Werner, keeps the inhabitants healthy through a combination of years of experience and a very pragmatic approach. At the start of the film we see him diagnosed with a brain tumour and being told that he must slow down. But, he's not that sort of man, and he continues with his work, which is clearly very important to him.

His consultant at the hospital, obviously conscious of Jean-Pierre's stubbornness, arranges for another doctor to help him, Nathalie Delezia, who Jean-Pierre mistakes as a patient when she arrives late in the day at his surgery. One can see that he initially resents her presence, being somewhat picky when overseeing her dealings with patients. But she isn't easily upset, and gradually eases her way into the practice.

Initial concerns from some of the patients, who have become dependant on 'Dr Werner', gives way to acceptance and in time she becomes the doctor of choice for some of them. She is, however, unaware of Jean-Pierre's illness but following an incident when on an emergency call, Jean-Paul has his collar bone X-rayed, and Nathalie notices spots on his lungs. She says nothing, but later checks with the consultant at the hospital, who confirms Jean-Pierre's illness.

At times it seems that a romantic connection is developing between Jean-Pierre and Nathalie, something hinted at by Jean-Paul's son. There are certainly a few 'knowing' looks, but will it develop into anything? And what is Jean-Pauls's prognosis?

Although this film is billed under comedy and drama, the story is for the most part a bit sombre, and the ending is far from funny. That said, there is some humour along the way.

Antoine is a seriously depressed singer with a rock band and the film begins with him walking out of that life, literally. Unskilled, and of a somewhat sullen disposition, he finds it difficult to find and hold down a job.

A woman at the job centre (agence d'intérim) suggests a job as a caretaker (guardien) at an apartment block, which comes with accommodation. He gets the job, not as a result of his interview, which is far from sparkling, but because the landlord's wife, Mathilde, played by Catherine Deneuve, takes a rather instant liking to him. Mathilde, as it turns out, is also depressed, worrying herself awake at nights because of a growing crack in one of the walls.

Antione and Mathilde are thus somewhat alike, and as he struggles with life, not helped by drinking and taking drugs, she becomes more and more obsessed with the state of the building. A particularly annoying tenant, Laurent, is continually bothering Antoine, while another young man, Stéphane, who also lives in one of the flats, presents problems by storing a number of probably stolen bicycles in the courtyard. Then Lev arrives, creating a whole new set of problems for Antoine.

Lisa, a single mum with a little boy, has an adopted sister, Marine, and the two of them enjoy a close relationship more symptomatic of twins than of a sister and an adopted sister.

When Marine falls in love with Alex this relationship is destabilised, and Lisa takes a dislike to Alex. Their mother, Millie is the voice of reason as the two sisters struggle to come to terms with a new set of emotions.

Marine and Alex go through a bit of a bad patch but make up, only for tragedy to strike. With Marine hospitalised, and in a serious condition, Lisa and Alex gradually warm to each other, Alex becoming a sort of a father figure for Lisa's son, Léo, brilliantly played by Théodore Maquet-Foucher.

The film is presented as three stories, firstly Marine's, then Lisa's and then Alex's. It doesn't re-tell the same events three times over, but concentrates on each character individually during her or his critical period. This was Mélanie Laurent's (who plays Lisa) first director's role, and the critical reviews were mixed. But given that women need to be ten times better than men to garner equivalent praise, it's perhaps not surprising that a young actress turned director would find it hard to please the critics. Personally I found the film to be delicate, quite beautiful in fact, with some nice cinematic touches and convincing performances from the cast.

This is a biographical story of the friendship between Paul Cézanne and Emil Zola. These schoolboy friends maintained a relationship throughout their lives, but this friendship was tempered by bad feeling when Zola becomes successful and more bourgeois, while Cézanne, from a wealthy banking family, wastes his genius in a devil-may-care life of women and contempt for authority.

In matters of love, or more correctly sex, Cézanne has no problems while Zola's timidity prevents him from approaching women. He becomes entranced by one of Cézanne's model's, and mistress, who calls herself Gabrielle. As the film jumps from youth to their more mature lives, we see Zola married to Gabrielle, although she now uses her real name, Alexandrine.

Zola's novel, L'Œuvre, was in effect a fictionalised depiction of Cézanne and the Bohemian life of Paris artists. Cézanne was angry that his friend had used their relationship in this way, which led to a virtual breakdown of their friendship. And there remained bad feeling over Alexandrine, now Zola's wife. These tensions are central to the film as we travel from the past to the present.

I found the depiction of nineteenth century Paris fascinating, as artists and authors who are now household names meet as young men who were still to make their mark. And as a counterpoint, we have the beautiful scenery of Aix-en-Provence, where Zola and Cézanne met as young boys and grew up.

A fairly recent offering from Amazon, this 2017 film charts the life of French artist Paul Gauguin during the period of his first trip to Tahiti. Disillusioned with Europe, and the lack of appreciation for his work, he decides to travel to Tahiti for peace and quiet and to rid himself of the influence of civilisation. He leaves behind his wife and five children, who quite wisely decide that it is an inadvisable adventure.

Their fears are shown to be entirely justified during the first scenes in Tahiti, showing Gauguin trying to paint in a shanty offering little shelter from torrential rain. He has little money and his health deteriorates, culminating in a heart attack, following which his doctor recommends that he should return to France. But he is obsessed with his art, and after recovering sufficiently treks off on horseback. On the point of exhaustion he comes across a native village, collapsing and later regaining consciousness in the care of these people. In the village is Tehura, a young native girl whose parents are pleased to offer to him as a bride, an offer he willingly accepts, taking her as both a bride and a muse. Thus begins a period of stability, and relative happiness, but his obsession with his painting gradually starts to sour the relationship, and there is a young native suitor with his eyes on Tehura.

The point is reached where his obsession with painting Tehura extends to effectively depriving her of the opportunity to eat, while his financial situation remains continually perilous, denying Tehura a white dress in which she can attend the church. He ultimately resorts to working at the docks to earn money, which for a person in his state of health is extremely unwise. In the end he has no choice but to return to France, leaving Tehura whom he will never see again, despite subsequent visits to the island. The paintings of her, however, along with his wider Polynesian collection, still grace the walls of prestigious art galleries around the world. He was a controversial artist and to a degree remains so, his fame being entirely posthumous, but he is credited with inspiring a generation of artists.

This is a slow-moving film that doesn't completely take advantage of the wonderful Tahitian setting, preferring to concentrate on the characterisations. It also skips over the fact that Tehura was only 13 when she married Gauguin, another deeply controversial aspect of his life. The film's dialogue is a combination of French and Polynesian, so sub-titles are essential.

In Montigny, a former mining town in Belgium, Sandrine works in a supermarket promoting cheese but dreams of opening a beauty salon. She's already found a run-down premises, which her and her friend Gianna are trying to redecorate. Sandrine's mother Anna is very supportive, too much so as it ultimately turns out. Meanwhile, Anna's relationship with Sandrine's father isn't all that it should be and her life goal seems to be to help Sandrine succeed where she herself feels she has failed.

Raising money for the salon is proving to be difficult and, encouraged by her mother, Sandrine signs up for the Miss Montigny contest in the hope of winning and using the prize money to realise her dream. At the sign up Sandrine and her friend Gianna fill in the forms, guessing their vital statistics. This short-cut ends up being a big mistake.

The prospective Miss Montigny candidates are required to undergo training: comportment, singing etc., their tutor being a bit of a demanding woman. At a certain point their measurements are checked, and Sandrine is told that she is not eligible to continue as her bust measurement is too small.

Sandrine and her mother have some savings towards the beauty salon, and Sandrine decides to use some of the money to resolve the inadequacy of her breasts. This gets her back in the competition and as we watch her perform her song in the final, we all feel that surely she has won. And then they announce the first three places in reverse order, in time honoured fashion. She seems happy and confident, but the reason for her demeanour isn't quite what you would expect.

Bénédicte Meursault has been transferred to this rural brigade to join an all-male team. She is a deputy chief so will outrank all bar the captain, Philippe, who is a wise and experienced operator. Having endured the 'initiation' of being on the receiving end of a bucket of water as she leaves the captain's office, Bénédicte seems to settle in quickly, soon impressing her male colleagues during the exercise runs around the station.

However, this honeymoon period is rudely ended when, after her first major call out to a road accident, it transpires that the team overlooked a casualty who had been thrown clear of a vehicle. As team leader it was her responsibility to check, and even though the conditions on the night were horrendous, with driving rain and a confused scene, this oversight plays heavily on Bénédicte, who offers her resignation. But Philippe refuses to accept it.

This incident hangs over the team after the family of the overlooked casualty, who is in a coma, makes an official complaint. With the future of the station under review, some of the team think Bénédicte's mistake could cost them their fire station, and one of them, Xavier, is openly hostile to the new deputy chief.

We see the team in action in a variety incidents, There's a grass fire, where Bénédicte narrowly misses being water-bombed by a support aircraft; the delivery of twins in the back of the emergency response vehicle; and the hostility of an angry crowd as the team attempts to extinguish a burning coach while under attack from improvised missiles. But it is when Bénédicte effectively saves the life of a seriously injured victim of domestic violence that Xavier finally comes to appreciate her qualities.

Mathieu Vasseur dreams of being an author while he works shifting boxes in a dead end job. Soon after we're introduced to him, his latest manuscript is rejected by the publishers. Then, while carrying out a house clearance of a deceased elderly man, he comes across a journal written during the Algerian conflict. Complete with sketches and photographs it's not only a wonderful record, but it's also a credible piece of writing. Mathieu decides to copy it and submit it as his own work.

The book is a phenomenal success, and at a reception organised in his honour we form the impression that some people have doubts about his ability to write such a book at a young age, with limited life experience. But he carries it off, and what's more he meets a young woman, Alice Fursac, a literary expert whom he first saw at a college where he was collecting stuff as part of his now former job. Inevitably he and Alice become an item, and we jump forward to see them on the way to visit her parents, a wealthy couple who live in a mansion in the south of France.

But although Mathieu now has everything he desired things are starting to unravel. He has received a large advance towards his next book, but of course he is struggling to write anything comparable to this initial successful novel. A former boyfriend of Alice, Stanislas (Stan) then turns up, and he soon shows signs of doubting Mathieu. Then disaster strikes as, while at a book signing, a man asks him to dedicate the book citing the name of the owner of the journal. And then the blackmail begins.

I don't know what things are like behind the scenes in a French hospital, but you get the feeling when watching this film that it is perhaps a fairly accurate portrayal. The fact that the director, Thomas Lilti, is a medical doctor, goes a long way to explaining why this may be the case. There's quite a lot of dark humour as the staff joke about a range of medical issues, along with some serious partying.

Benjamin arrives for his first stint at the hospital full of confidence. The fact that his father is a senior doctor at the same hospital turns out to be more of a liability than a blessing, but Benjamin is keen to impress. He soon meets up with Abdel, an Algerian doctor who is interning at the hospital as his qualifications are not accepted in France. It soon becomes clear that Abdul has the benefit of experience, something Benjamin is lacking.

One evening Monsieur Lemoine, a patient known by the staff as Tsunami, and for his drinking, is admitted. Later in the evening he complains of chest pains. Benjamin requests an ECG but is told that the machine is broken. Instead of pressing the matter he accepts this, although one feels that he perhaps believes the pains are a result of the drinking. Lemoine dies, and Benjamin is criticised for his response to the situation. He himself feels remorse but his father moves to cover for him. When Madame Lemoine comes in to learn the facts of her husband's death, she is given a false story. This weighs heavy on Benjamin's mind.

Subsequently a further incident leads to both Benjamin and Abdul being taken before a disciplinary hearing. The outcome is the straw that breaks the camel's back for Benjamin, who is still harbouring the guilt from the death of Monsieur Lemoine. What follows has implications for Benjamin, the hospital and the staff, not all of which are bad.

It's a film worth watching if you have an interest in medical drama, and especially if you want to compare the French model with Casualty.

Dismissed from the Bolshoi orchestra thirty years earlier, for hiring Jewish musicians, Andrei Filipov has a cleaning job at the Bolshoi but his mind is still on the stage, conducting his beloved music. By chance he intercepts a fax from Paris inviting the Bolshoi to perform at the Châtelet Theatre and at that moment decides to reconstitute his old orchestra and go to Paris impersonating the Bolshoi.

Getting the musicians back together is no easy task and neither is finding a manager and backer. At times one feels the whole venture is going to fall apart, particularly when we find out that none of the musicians has a valid passport. However, Gypsy friends are at hand!

We arrive in Paris about halfway through the film, where a prominent violin soloist, Anne-Marie Jacquet, has been requested to play Tchaikovsky's violin concerto with the orchestra. The reason for this choice becomes apparent when we learn that there is history between soloist's manager, Guylène, and Filipov, and that Anne-Marie has a history of which she has never been made aware. A dinner with Filipov unnerves her as he struggles with his past and the desire to tell her a secret that would change her life.

The concert is a sell-out, but starts badly, with the largely unrehearsed players not harmonising, but once Anne-Marie comes in with the solo violin, the orchestra is transformed.

Mélanie Laurent, who plays Anne-Marie, is very impressive as the solo violinist. You will believe that she is playing the piece, which is regarded as one of the most difficult in a solo violinist's repertoire. She was in fact coached for two months by the actual soloist, Sarah Nemtanu. It's a tremendous piece of music, enhanced by the emotion that Anne-Marie shows while playing it.

The film starts with the young boy, Sébastien, and his adoptive grandfather, César, walking in the mountains. César is searching for 'The Beast', a feral dog suspected of killing sheep. The opening scenery is absolutely idyllic and for me truly vertiginous when César lowers Sebastien over the edge to recover an orphaned fawn from a ledge.

Sébastien roams the mountains at will, seemingly in preference to school, and it isn't long before 'The Beast', a Pyrenean Mountain Dog, and he meet up. The dog, which is wary of adults, forms a bond with the child, and Sébastien does everything he can to protect his new friend.

All this is taking place during the Second World War and German soldiers are posted in the village, their orders being to catch Jews who they suspect are being led across the mountains to Switzerland by the local doctor, Guillaume. Angélina, César's daughter, is the village baker, and cares for her father and Sébastien.

Belle is injured by hunters and Sébastien convinces Guillaume to treat her. In time Guillaume will realise that Belle isn't the Beast, but not before he comes to rely on her after he injures himself defending sheep from a pack of wolves; the real 'Beast'.

There is also, of course, interaction with the German soldiers, one of whom being particularly attracted to Angélina. His feelings prove to be a salvation for Angélina when she and a group of Jews are pursued by soldiers as they try to cross the mountain.

This is a charming story set in the most picturesque of locations.

The French excel at producing films depicting life as it's lived, unembellished and full of everyday challenges. In this film we’re introduced to Edith, a textile worker who cherishes her job, quite simply because it gives her life purpose. Her only son now lives in Paris and she resides alone in a rather charming farm house, but what’s charm without company?

When the factory decides to relocate its production to Morocco she has the choice of redundancy, which in her case would result in quite a good severance payment, or relocating to Morocco. Eager to continue working she choses the latter, against the strong advice of the company’s personnel officer.

She visits her son, unannounced, to tell him her plans, but the meeting doesn’t go well, they having not spoken since he left for Paris. And, unbeknown to her, he now has a male partner. In the event Edith leaves without telling him her plans, and when he subsequently calls her, she says not to call again as she’s cancelling her phone contract.

When she arrives in Tangiers it becomes immediately apparent that life there is very different. She is to lodge at a guest house that’s experiencing reduced business because of the impact of the major construction work at the nearby port. Initially her relationship with Mina, the proprietress, isn’t too cordial. But when she arrives for her first day at work the true extent of her circumstances becomes apparent, as she’s put to work on a sewing machine in what’s no more than a sweat shop.

Further misfortune follows when she’s robbed, but this actually provides a catalyst for her relationship with Mina to improve, helped greatly by Mina’s charming son Ali. In fact life becomes much more tolerable until, that is, she upsets Najat, the shop floor supervisor, and pays a heavy price for so doing.

This leads to a serious decline in her circumstances, resulting in hospitalisation and a surprise visit from her son, who insists she returns to France. But this puts her back to where she was when she decided to take off (prendre le large) in the first place. This desperate situation requires a complete re-evaluation of her life and results in her taking a truly life-changing decision.

Filmed in the Périgord region of southwest France, this documentary follows the lives of a group of family farmers who might well be the last generation to farm traditionally in a region that has been cultivated for over 5,000 years. The opening sequence shows one of the farmers picking up an ancient flint tool from his field, witness to the farming history of the region.

The film was produced and directed by Judith Lit. As a child she herself witnessed the demise of the her parents' small farm in Pennsylvania, although at the time she was unaware that this was an international phenomenon. She was, therefore, ideally placed to observe and understand this close-knit community.

In one village we learn that none of the children propose to follow their parents into farming and it would seem that only incomers are likely to continue any form of subsistance farming in the future. We see one such couple in the film, inspired by the dream of a better life. And indeed, nostalgic as it might be, there is something very humbling in watching this community. Their life is the soil and what it can yield, often growing a variety of small scale crops, and undertaking other artisanal crafts, the small income that each provides adding up to a very basic existence.

It's a hard but idyllic life that one imagines could disappear in time, this film giving us the opportunity to appreciate a bucolic lifestyle that might one day be only visible in history books. But there is hope. We are told that there has been a resurgence of small farms in America. No doubt the growing recognition of the often destructive nature of modern industrial farming is starting to drive a re-evaluation of the way we treat our planet. And the health benefits of organic produce is becoming a significant consideration for many people.

The spoken French in the film is for the most part not too difficult to understand. I was expecting perhaps a strong regional dialect but that isn't the case. That's not to say that there are not parts that are a bit challenging.

A trailer for the film is available on Vimio. There is also more information on the web site dedicated to this film.

This film is billed as crime/comedy and although there is some violence there is a strong comedy element.

Farès is a somewhat hapless small time drug dealer in Paris who wants to break free and start an ice cream business in Spain. He plans one more deal to finance things but things go wrong almost from the start.

His biggest problem is his overpowering mother, Danny, a rather good safe cracker! She constantly belittles him and controls his money. (The Le Monde review describes her as a castratrice chevronnée, that is an experienced castrator!) His friend, Henri, is absorbed with the idea of the Illuminati, spending most of his time looking out for its triangle symbol or listening to yet another conspiracy theory about them.

The beautiful Lamya is Farès's desire, but she's wayward and he can never be sure of her. She basically seems to be looking for whatever path will take her away from the life she has.

Then we have two drug gangs, one led by the permanently high Putine, with his helpers Mohamed and Mohamed, the other the Zaïrois, a much more business-like gang who identify themselves by a circular blond topping to their short afro hair.

Bruce is a Scot who is the other party to Farès' deal in Spain, but this is where things start to go wrong. Bruce is a scammer. When things are almost at rock bottom for Farès he calls for Danny, needing her safe-cracking skills. But Danny makes things worse, kidnapping Bruce's daughter Brittany.

As you can perhaps see, things become very complicated, in fact so much so that you need to pay very careful attention. If you're hoping to practice your French comprehension then be warned that the dialogue is extremely difficult to catch, although there are subtitles of course.

The final sequences are a masterclass in double dealing where our put-upon ice cream man turns out to be not as hapless as everybody assumed. And young Brittany also has a surprise or two up her sleeve.

The cast includes Isabelle Adjani as Danny and Vincent Cassel as Henri. Farès is played by Karim Leklou and the attractive Lamya by Oulaya Amamra. Bruce the scot is played by Sam Spruell.

Three siblings are reunited in their father's villa after he suffers a stroke. The atmosphere is tense and relationships aren't good, but as time passes some old animosities start to soften as each reflects on their younger days in the Villa. Each of them begins to re-evaluate their current life and this in turn leads to a reshaping of their futures.

One brother, Armand, had remained with their father, while the other, Joseph, arrives with his much younger fiancée, having been fired from his job. Happy he isn't. The third sibling, their sister Angèle, is a successful actor who left the villa some 20 years earlier after a traumatic incident and has not previously returned.

It is winter in the small coastal town and port in the Marseilles area and the family's small restaurant isn't busy. Bérangère, Joseph's fiancée, has grown tired of him since he lost his job and is eyeing up a young doctor, the son of elderly neighbours. Angèle really doesn't want to be there at all, but receives unexpected adulation from a young fisherman, Benjamin, who has adored her ever since seeing her perform when he was a lad.

As time passes Joseph accepts that he must let Bérangère go, while Angèle eventually lowers her defences in the face of unrelenting attention from Benjamin despite, as she says, being three times old enough to be his mother.

And then something happens that brings them even closer together.

On IMDB, a reviewer complains that this film has no story and no structure, but that's entirely missing the point. This is real life, not movie fantasy, and as such it is very authentic.

The Hollywood Reporter offers a far more informed review, which answered my question as to how the sequence was obtained featuring these people as their younger selves. You will see what are clearly the same people and this isn't the sort of film that would use CGI trickery.

In summary, it's very French !

A fascinating look at the workings of an elementary school in France, where Florence, played by Sara Forestier, is a dedicated institutrice. But Florence's life is far from straightforward. She's separated from her husband and lives in a flat above the school. Her son lives with her and attends her class.

Life becomes more complicated when a troublesome pupil, Sasha, arrives at the school. She becomes emotionally sympathetic to the boy, but her own son is antagonistic towards him. The boy's mother appears to go missing for days on end and the emergency contact turns out to be Mathieu, a former acquaintance of the boy's mother who now wants little to do with her. Sasha, however, seems to be close to Mathieu.

As the other teachers appear to give up on Sasha, Florence becomes more deeply involved with him, even seeking out his mother to plead with her to see her son. And to further complicate matters, Florence starts to have romantic feelings towards Mathieu.

Pressure builds and it all becomes too much, with Florence starting to question her vocation as a teacher. As the children prepare to present their end of term play to parents, which Florence played a large part in developing, will she stay or leave?

Every year a group of friends set off from Paris to a beach house on the west coast of France near to Bordeaux. The house is owned by one of them, Max, a successful restauranteur, and the break coincides with Antoine's birthday, another of the group. But this year disaster strikes when Ludo, one of the regulars, is gravely injured in a road accident just before they're due to set off. After weighing up how useful it would be for them to remain in Paris, they decide to go.

Max has been spooked by Vincent before they left (he says he loves him!) and this affects the whole holiday, the others wondering why two previously inseparable friends are so distant. Meanwhile, Marie, notionally Ludo's girlfriend, reveals herself to be far from faithful and more than a bit strange at times. Eric, a womaniser, has been ditched by his girlfriend, Léa, after one too many dalliances. And Antoine, who's there to celebrate his birthday, is desperately trying to woo back his girlfriend, Juliette.

So we have a range of personal stories that produce humour and drama in equal measure. We have Max who is not only at odds with Vincent but is also paranoid about a number of things, chiefly the 'weasels' that are invading the walls of the beach house. Marie welcomes yet another new boyfriend, a musician who everybody just adores, which seems paradoxically to upset her.

There's much messing around on Max's boat, and we meet Jean-Louis, a local and a friend of the group. But the fun comes to an abrupt halt when they receive bad news from Paris. And Jean-Louis ends up telling them all some home truths about how they lie to each other, making their lives all a bit of a sham. This is where the film title comes from, Les petits mouchoirs being an idiomatic phrase that is translated as Little White Lies for the English title of the film.

This is a long film at 2hr 34min offering a blend of comedy and drama. The scenery is beautiful and the characters are certainly interesting, although with the exception of Marie this is very much about the men of the group.

Marion Cotillard is well cast as the complex Marie, while François Cluzet is convincing as paranoid Max. While Jean Dujardin has little more than a cameo part as the luckless Ludo in a Paris hospital.

An elderly woman is pushed down the stairs to her death and soon after her son, Jonathan, learns that he has inherited a fortune from his father in America, who he never really knew. Meanwhile his wife of only a few months, Lucie, is not only disrespectful during the itinerary of his mother's belongings but also appears no longer to want anything to do with him.

Jonathan's inheritance is the result of assiduous research by a lawyer, Maître Farelli, who also seems willing to help Jonathan avoid the need to give any of the fortune to his now virtually estranged wife. But then Jonathan learns that she has been seriously injured in a car accident.

In her belongings he finds the address and keys of a house that he doesn't know. He goes there, where the housekeeper and the locals are pleased at last to meet him. But the next shock is when his wife's dressings are removed, to reveal a perfect stranger - which gives us the English title of this film.

Through flashbacks we learn that the unknown woman knew Jonathan's wife, and that her name is Clara. And when his wife's sister calls, Jonathan dissuades her from seeing her sister, who of course isn't actually there. He instead shows her a photograph of Clara, who she identifies as her sister's former teacher, someone who she would have been better not knowing.

Clara is unable to speak and has some partial paralysis. Although Jonathan is naturally suspicious given the strange circumstances, he helps her to recuperate and starts to become physically attracted to her. But there is a shock in store, and it transpires that what was already a strange situation holds more surprises than Jonathan could have imagined. And just when you think everything has become clear, Clara speaks!

An intriguing short TV film with the delightful Audrey Fleurot as Clara, which made it a must-watch for me.

Based on the book by Louis Pergaud published in 1912 and set in rural France this film features a 'war' between rivals gangs of kids from neighbouring villages. Play escalates into violence and removing the buttons from the other side's captives represents the spoils of war. There is humour but I've chosen not to categorise it as a comedy.

Surprisingly I've found very little commentary comparing this film with an earlier one of 1962, which is unusual. This later version is set during the WW2, providing a separate scenario wherein a local woman, Simone, has returned from Paris to the village with a young girl, Violette. This is Vichy France and the girl is in fact Jewish.

The village school master is more than he seems, as are a number of the locals. So while the kids battle it out for the buttons, there is another battle being planned by the free French. One particularly nasty Millice is looking for trouble and when the Mayor's son is kicked out of his gang for 'informing', he 'spills the beans' and Violette is placed in jeopardy.

The novel is somewhat of a classic for French children and most French people will be familiar with the original story. The children are great, particularly Petit Gibus, who tags along with the seemingly much older group and always wants to be part of the action. Laetitia Casta adds more than a touch of glamour as Simone, while Kad Merad once again displays his versatility as the father of Lebrac, Lebrac being the leader of the village gang.

The language is a bit near the mark at times, although unless you have a grip on informal French insults it's unlikely you will catch what is being said. But the subtitles will, of course, provide equally fruity English equivalents.

This TV film is based on the 1831 novel by Honoré de Balzac. Reading the Wikipedia entry for the book shows how faithful the film is to the original story. With beautiful period costumes and depictions of bourgeois Paris life it's a delightful film to watch.

The story is one of fantasy, although Balzac preferred conte philosophique, and it is indeed a tale that explores the philosophy of life as much as the somewhat mystique talisman upon which the story is based.

Raphaël de Valentin is an aspiring author who has laboured long to produce a hefty tome only to find that he can't get it published. He owes his landlady rent and teaching her daughter Pauline piano is no longer sufficient to meet his debt. He decides to leave and is given a Napoléon (a 20 Franc piece) by Pauline to help him on his way. But he gambles it and loses.

Distraught he turns to suicide. Failing to jump into the Seine he comes across a strange antique shop with a pistol in the window. He goes in to buy it, to use on himself, but encounters a mystical old man who suggests a better plan. He shows him an animal hide that he says is invested with the power to grant any wish. But in making such a pact, the bearer must understand that for every wish the hide will shrink and, ultimately, disappear. At which point the bearer will die.

Dismissing the whole thing as bunkum, Raphaël immediately makes a number of outlandish wishes and leaves. No sooner is he in the street the first of these wishes starts to materialise. And the others are soon delivered. He becomes rich, he publishes his book having bought the publishing house, and he enjoys the company of beautiful women. But the hide continues to shrink!

He encounters a beautiful but aloof woman named Foedora, whom he fails to woo, leading him eventually to humiliate her, relying on a wish to get her to love him. Each wish shrinks the hide, and despite his efforts to stop making wishes, for various reasons he fails to do so.

Having acquired everything that he desired he starts to realise that these things are actually not really important or satisfying, and after a chance encounter with Pauline at the theatre he realises that she is the person who is the most important to him. But he has only one wish left and he must use it to save Pauline.

The French title of this film baffles me somewhat, whereas the English one of Someone, Somewhere is far more descriptive.

Rémy and Mélanie are both living somewhat isolated lives in Paris. Both have psychological problems and end up seeing psychologists in the same practice. Throughout the film they don't meet even though they live in adjacent buildings and occasionally pass each other in the street. Their balconies are also adjacent but tantalisingly not visible from each other.

Rémy has been redeployed while most of his workmates were made redundant because robots were taking over in the warehouse. We later learn why this is causing him psychological grief. Mélanie works in a laboratory and is due to make an important presentation in order to guarantee her place there.

Both are shown having less than successful dates and both show a reluctance to return to their family homes, again for reasons that become clear later.

It's a longish film (110 minutes) that moves at a very slow pace but it holds one's attention as one waits and waits for the two of them to get together. We just know that they are right for each other.

The trips to the local épicerie provides some humour in the form of the proprietor Mansour, who will always convince customers that the most expensive product is the best. Again our pair cross paths here.

A super cute white kitten comes into Rémy's life, which he comes to adore despite not wanting it when it was first offered. This kitten is soon to become another link between the pair, again without either of them knowing about it.

Psychologically things eventually work out for each of them and it's the épicier, Mansour, who is to provide long-awaited spark that will ignite what we've all been waiting for.

The two leads, Fançois Civil and Ana Girardot appeared together in another gentle French film, Ce qui nous lie, which was also by the same director, Cédric Klapisch.

In 1915 rural France, with the men at war it's left to the women to manage the land. Hortense Sandrail is the matriarch who, with her daughter, Solange, do all the heavy work. This is pre-industrialised farming and it is constant hard graft.

To ease the burden Hortense employs a young woman, Francine, who comes highly recommended and is indeed a hard worker who quickly adopts her new family, she being an orphan.

Hortense has two sons in the war, Constant and Georges. We see Constant early in the film before he goes back to the front. We also see Clovis, the husband of Solange. But it is when Georges returns from the front that the story takes a turn that will ultimately lead to great sadness.

The cinematography is absolutely stunning while the film is almost devoid of a soundtrack. In fact the dialogue is also very sparse and at times the silence is quite strange.

If you are intrigued by the rural life of the times then you will be absorbed by this film. It is also, one feels, an accurate depiction of the lives of rural people. I found a very interesting review that delves into the actual history of the time.

Running short of French titles on Amazon Prime I have subscribed to the BFI channel on Prime. This film is the first from the BFI collection.

It's necessary to say straight away that this is an Art House film that is unlikely to receive a wide distribution outside of Europe. It has also divided opinion on its use of Bosnia's dark period as the background to the story.

The first scene focusses on Joachim, standing by an open window in a Paris apartment and being filmed by a friend, Alice. I never really determined their exact relationship. It's a grainy film in which he recounts a stranger shouting at him the street, claiming him to be the reincarnation of a soldier, Zoran Tadic, who died in Bosnia on 21 August 1983, which happens to be his birthday.

Following this he has dreams and draws sketches depicting a soldier and other war scenes. And one morning he awakes with writing on his arm. Alice, who reported from Bosnia for three years, points out that it is Cyrillic, spelling out the name Zoran.

This weirdness leads to the pair travelling to Bosnia, accompanied by a cameraman who we hardly ever see and a sound engineer, and friend, Virginie.

The story is then that of trying first to track down the grave of Zoran Tadic, followed by seeking out possible relatives. After a while Alice, who speaks Serbo-Croatian, starts to become annoyed with Joachim's irritating behaviour and carries out a bit of deceit to try to satisfy him. But he continues to seek answers leading to a rather surreal meeting towards the end of the film.

You will probably be left wondering whether he is indeed the reincarnation of a fallen soldier, and whether the film is a simple drama or something much more supernatural.

Alice is played by Adèle Haenel, a fine actress who recently starred in the very successful romantic drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Continuing my exploration of the BFI catalogue, here we have a Spanish production in the French language. Don't be put off by the original title 'El artista y la modelo', nor by the fact that the opening credits are in Spanish.

Set in the Pyrenees in 1943, during WW2, it tells the story of an ageing artist, Marc Cros, who has not created anything since the beginning of the war. A chance encounter by his wife during a visit to town introduces her to a very attractive homeless young woman, Mercè. She offers her accommodation and keep on the understanding that she poses dénudé as a model for her husband.

She hesitantly agrees and is taken to his studio in the mountains, where she sees female sculptures and sketches. Marc tells her to undress, as if it was something quite natural for her to do, which it wasn't. And so begins Marc's quest to find that special spark that will allow him to create his 'ideal' form.

This is fundamentally a study of the relationship between Marc and Mercè, as the title of the film suggests. It starts as a typical artist/model situation, with him seeing her body as inspiration for his work and nothing more. But as time passes his feelings clearly become more emotional, to his embarrassment. But Mercè also develops feelings towards him.

There are diversions in the form of peeping Tom children, an injured resistance fighter, and a visiting German officer who is a good friend of Marc, being devoted to his art. But at its heart this is the story of Marc and Mercè.

At an early point Marc's wife, Lèa, asks if Mercè's body is a beautiful as hers was when she was younger, when she was Marc's model. Marc replies that nobody could be as beautiful as she was, which considering that Léa is played by Claudia Cardninale was, I thought, an interesting 'joke' for those of us old enough to remember Claudia Cardinale as a young woman.

Reviews have been mixed but I enjoyed this film, especially the vivid monochrome cinematography. There is a great deal of nudity but it doesn't come across as overtly sexual.

Muriel is the number one fan of the popular singer Vincent Lacroix. She is also a bit of a dreamer, recounting stories of questionable veracity to her friends. She works as a beautician and has two children, although they live with her former husband.

Vincent meanwhile has a girlfriend, Julie, who is a bit highly strung, and one evening 'loses it' because Vincent is playing poker with some friends. The friends leave, Vincent and Julie fight, and Julie is killed as a result of a terrible accident.

Vincent, obviously fearing for his career, hatches a plot to absolve himself from blame. He drives to Muriel's, where without telling her what has happened, he asks her to drive to his sister's in Switzerland, having moved Julie's body from his car boot to hers. Muriel would do anything for Vincent, so she agrees.

As far as Vincent is concerned everything goes to plan, Muriel having confirmed as much. But things didn't go to plan, and Muriel used her initiative, resulting in Julie's body being discovered in the Dordogne.

Set in Paris in 1899, Jean Albertini is a normal policeman who is taken aside by a superior and asked to infiltrate an anarchists' group. He gets himself a job at the nail factory, a hellish sort of place where the workers have plenty to grumble about, and where members of the group are employed. He strikes up a particular friendship with Elisée Mayer, after 'saving' him during a police raid, which itself was a set-up to enable Jean to prove his loyalty to the group.

While Elisée clearly trusts Jean, other members of the group are less sure. Elisée seems not to be in the best of health, and his girlfriend, Judith, soon starts to develop an interest in Jean, feelings that Jean willingly reciprocates. We therefore have the classic dilemma of the infiltrator having split loyalties between his police role and his feelings for Judith.

The anarchists exploits become more and more daring, while Jean continues to feed intelligence to his superior. We see Jean becoming concerned as he is obliged to participate in criminality and at one point asks to be taken off the case, a request that is firmly rejected. The dichotomy has to come to an end and as you can probably imagine, there isn't a clean solution.

This film is set against the backdrop of the Algerian independence movement. It follows the life of three brothers from the end of the Second World War up to Algerian independence in 1962, although we are in fact first introduced to them when, as children, their father's land was taken away from the family in Algeria.

The film has attracted controversy in respect of historical accuracy, with accusations that it portrays the French as the villains, while likening the Algerians to the Resistance during the War.

We are next introduced to the three brothers, Messaoud, Abdelkader and Saïd, at a parade in the Algerian town of Sétif. This was on the morning of 8 May 1945, the same day that Nazi Germany surrendered. The film depicts the French forces opening fire on the marchers, the impression given that it was French aggression, while historical reports are more equivocal, indicating that there was aggression on both sides. Whatever the truth, it is acknowledged that this event was a turning point in Franco-Algerian relations, leading to the Algerian War of 1954-1962. In February 2005 the French ambassador to Algeria formally apologised for the massacre, referring to it as an "inexcusable tragedy".

We follow the lives of the three brothers as Abdelkader and Messaoud become deeply invloved with the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale), while Saïd follows a different path, training up a young Algerian, who is a natural fighter, with the hope that he will become the French champion. Ultimately, however, as the FLN attacks lead to fierce reprisals from the French security forces, all three brothers are identified as enemies of the state.

This is a crime thriller based around a French prison where a Corsican gang leader, César, and his henchmen effectively run the place. A young Arab prisoner, Malik, arrives and is quickly picked out by César as a useful asset.

To gain César's protection, which is worth having in what is a very dangerous environment, he must do a 'little job' for him - kill another inmate. From this point on he becomes César's property, while being haunted by his victim.

As the plot develops Malik starts to undertake more jobs for César during his 'good behaviour' release days. But César's influence is threatened when a number of the Corsicans are returned to Corsica, reducing his muscle, while a growing Muslim contingent in the prison is seen as a threat.

Meanwhile, Malik is far from stupid, and he has been developing his own interests.

This film has a very realistic feel about it. It won the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix in 2009 and Best Film at the London Film Festival in the same year. It certainly paints a bleak picture of life inside this French prison.

We follow the journey of two Africans from Burkina Faso through Algeria and Libya before eventually reaching Italy. It contains all the ingredients that we have become accustomed to seeing regularly on the news. A trek across a desert, robbed by bandits who were probably primed by the very people who were arranging their passage, and finally the perilous boat journey to Italy.

This film shows graphically what it must be like to be dependant on a range of people who for the most part wish you weren't there.

In Italy they meet up with other Africans and are introduced to a squat, which wasn't quite what they expected. In terms of work opportunities, there aren't any, and they are exploited as cheap labour picking oranges. However, the lead character, Ayiva, is not only a good worker but is also adept at developing relationships, leading to him being welcomed to the home of an Italian family.

Local villagers are far from happy about the presence of the Africans and in time tensions boil over leading to attacks on the immigrants. This provokes retaliation, with the authorities rounding them up and sealing off their squats.

Will Ayiva stay, or will he return to Burkina Faso, where he has a partner and a daughter. Earlier in the film he is seen speaking to them on Skype, turning off the webcam at one point so that they don't see the tears in his eyes.

The film was released from Italy, appearing at the 2015 Cannes Festival, and while the Africans speak French much of the dialogue is in fact in Italian, as are the credits.

I'm not sure how to categorise this film. In parts it's quite brutal, but I think it passes as a comédie noire.

The film opens with a bourgeois couple, Paul and Hélène, he a totally self-absorbed business man, and she the working wife who takes care of everything else. They are dashing off somewhere when a woman runs down the middle of the road towards their car screaming for them to open the door. Paul promptly locks it, and the three men chasing the woman proceed to beat her mercilessly, leaving a bloodstain on the car's windscreen and her in the gutter. Hélène wants to get out and help, but Paul's having none of it, his priority being to drive to the nearest carwash.

Hélène is haunted by what has happened and finds out to which hospital the woman was taken, where she pretends to be a friend. The woman, Noémie (aka Malika) is in a coma, suffers a cardiac arrest and the medical staff can't say whether she will be partially paralysed. Hélène talks the hospital staff into allowing her to stay at the hospital, where she devotes herself to helping Noémie recover.

Meanwhile, things aren't going well for Paul. Unable to contact Hélène, and hopeless at doing anything for himself in the apartment, his life is falling apart. Add to this his son, Fabrice, who's seriously upsetting two girlfriends, and Paul's life is becoming hell.

Set in Paris, and filmed in extremely contrasty black and white, this film begins with Louis leaving his partner, Clothilde, with whom he has a daughter, Charlotte, to start a new relationship with Claudia. He and Claudia are both actors, although Claudia isn't working and is somewhat depressed because of this. They live in a garret, which may sound very romantic, but is actually depressing for Claudia who wants something better.

Louis says he loves Claudia and can't live without her, although this doesn't stop him flirting with a woman at the theatre where he is working, nor with a woman in the cinema. Meanwhile Claudia seems even less interested in a monogamous relationship, casually picking someone up in a bar.

With regard to the film's title, Clothilde is jealous, for obvious reasons, while both Louis and Claudia also exhibit feelings of jealousy, each it seems suspecting the other of infidelity. The little girl, Charlotte, adds some innocence to what is otherwise quite a sombre film. She is, indeed, quite charming.

Nicolas, an HGV driver, is doing his best to bring up his two girls, Maria and Suzanne, their mother having died when they were young. At first Maria appears to be the 'wild child' of the pair, but it is Suzanne who becomes pregnant and has a child, much to her father's shame.

Suzanne then meets Julien who becomes the centre of her life, to the extent that she leaves her child, Charlie, with her father. But Charlie is taken into the care of foster parents as Nicolas's job means he is away from home for long periods. We then jump to a court hearing, where Suzanne is charged with theft and assault in relation to acts carried out with Julien, who fled justice and left her to carry the can. She is sentenced to five years in prison. She becomes almost estranged from her father, but her sister continues to support her.

Suzanne, with her sister's help, pulls her life together after prison, but then Julien turns up again. Despite his criminality, the two of them seem to create an almost normal family life, but an unexpected shock sends Suzanne into decline. At this point she is estranged from both her father and her sister.

This is an uncompromising look at life and one can only feel for the father who, despite his best efforts, watches his daughter's life disintegrate.

A film to watch according to the Guardian newspaper.

André and Danièle Bamberki have two children, a son and a daughter, Kalinka. Dieter Krombach is a German doctor who helps the family when their car goes off the road, injuring Kalinka. He becomes very attentive towards Danièle and they end up having an affair, which leads to André divorcing her.

The children go to visit their mother in her new home with Krombach in Germany. While there Kalinka mysteriously dies, aged only 14, allegedly as a result of an injection of Kobalt-Ferrlecit (cobalt-iron), given by Krombach supposedly to help her tan. André is, however, suspicious and obtains the autopsy report. This indicates that his daughter may have been sexually assaulted. From this point on he is convinced that Krombach isn't telling the truth and sets out to uncover exactly what happened. His daughters body is exhumed and a further autopsy shows that the sexual organs had been removed, a fact that further deepens his suspicion.

What follows is perhaps one of the most protracted attempts to bring someone to justice, with André being continuingly thwarted by the failings of the judicial system. Krombach is eventually convicted in absentia in France but is released by the German authorities after his arrest in Austria on an international arrest warrant. At this point André gives up on the legal system and takes matters into his own hands.

Based closely on a true story, we see how André Bamberki dedicated his life to obtaining justice for his daughter at great personal cost, both financial and relational.

Set in 1950s Provence, Marion Cotillard plays a troubled young woman, Gabrielle, who is seeking more from life than her humble existence on a lavender farm is offering. After an embarrassing public scene where her teacher, a married man, rejects her advances, her mother is desperate to get her settled in marriage.

José, a farm worker, has shown an interest in Gabrielle, which is sufficient for her mother to set up a match. Gabrielle is very hostile to this idea, but in the end agrees, informing José that she will not love him or have sex with him. She is, in fact, a very mean young woman, contrasting with José's gentle and extremely tolerant disposition. She continues to humiliate him despite his generous feelings towards her.

Gabrielle has long suffered abdominal pains (kidney stones, thus mal de pierres) and José agrees to pay for her to go to a spa in the Swiss mountains for treatment. While there, she catches sight of an army lieutenant, André, who has returned from the Indochina war suffering kidney problems. She befriends him and rapidly develops a similar longing for him that she had for the teacher back home.

Gabrielle returns home to José saying she is pregnant with André's child. She writes to him but receives no replies, all the letters eventually being returned unopened. Ultimately, she accepts that she may never see André again and settles down as a wife and mother.

Finally we return the the opening scene of the film, where José and Gabrielle are taking her son. Marc, to a music competition. On the way Gabrielle spots a street that she recognises as Andrés address. She gets out of the taxi and goes to find André.

What follows may leave you a little confused.

Franck Adrien, a convicted bank robber, shares a cell with John-Louis Maurel, who's been accused of rape but professes his innocence. Adrien is the only one who knows where a bank heist loot is hidden. When it transpires that Maurel is to be released, because his accuser has supposedly retracted her evidence, Adrien asks him to convey a message to his wife, this being a coded message that will allow her to find the loot.

Maurel, however, is far from innocent, and he and his wife collude to abscond with Adrien's young daughter, illegally adopting her as their own child, while also making off with the bank money. Adrien is visited by a former gendarme who tells him of his fears about Maurel being a serial sex offender. Worried for his family's safety, Adrien escapes prison and sets out to find Maurel.

Maurel, however, sets things up to frame Adrien as the sex offender, and a major police operation is put in place to arrest him. Clare Linné is the officer in charge, who at a certain point begins to suspect that Adrien isn't perhaps guilty of the crimes, but her boss is not convinced.

A cat and mouse situation unfolds as Adrien pursues Maurel while Linné pursues Adrien. It's pretty gripping stuff, ending in the village of Chassaigne (in real life Sospel) where Maurel has bought a house and is acting as a good neighbour, despite killing another 16-year-old girl and an innocent man who happens to get in the way.

The ending is a cliff-hanger (literally) and one is left with a half-answered question as to what happened to Adrien, although the very last scene provides us with a good clue.

This film is based on the true story of an audacious robbery carried out by Toni Musulin, an employee at a security company. He is a complex individual who likes expensive cars and practises Krav Maga. He buys a Ferrari f430 Spider for 92,000€, which we are led to believe was funded from hard-earned savings, amassed no doubt because his wife runs a bar and his money remains his own. Their relationship isn't brilliant.

As a security guard he is a conscientious employee, but he feels that he isn't valued by his boss and you can see his frustration building as the story unfolds. As a consequence he plots an audacious robbery. Once he has decided on the heist he distances himself from his wife and his normal work partners so as to not implicate them. Then, with meticulous planning, and reliance on the very poor procedures at his security company, he literally just drives off with 11.6€ million, thus the title of the film.

These events took place in 2009, after the financial crash of 2008, and far from being regarded as a criminal he was actually admired by a lot of people - a Robin Hood sort of character - although his motives were nothing to do with being a robber of the rich to give to the poor.

He ultimately hands himself in to the police in Monaco. You get the feeling that the police officer who interviews him is also showing more admiration than disrespect for him, as he points out that as he has no arrest warrant, Musulin could just walk out.

I won't spoil the ending!

Based on the true story of Franck Neuhart, a gendarme who doubles as a serial killer. It's a disturbing film, featuring a killer who selects young women at random and executes them. His approach is to pick them up, it seemingly being quite common for young college girls to hitch lifts home, and then shoot them in the car and dump their bodies by the roadside.

Neuhart doesn't assault the women, his motive seemingly being simply to murder them. He uses stolen cars, which he abandons after the crime. And he writes little missives to the Gendarmerie, where he works, anonymously explaining his actions. He is clearly mentally disturbed, and when he starts a relationship with the young woman who does his laundry, Sophie, one fears the worst. But he seems to have feelings for her and his conflicted emotions are clearly on display.

Eventually he takes a risk too far, the police already being convinced that the suspect may be one of their own. The story is based on the novel Un assassin au-dessus de tout soupçon (An assassin above all suspicion) by Yvan Stefanovitch.

The title of this film is perhaps a bit misleading. Certainly there are cowboys, of the French variety, these being people in a rural area who have an affinity with the cowboy life, dressing up accordingly for the occasional gatherings where the usual cowboy fare is on offer. It is all harmless fun. At one such gathering the Ballard family are seen enjoying themselves. We have the father, Alain, Nicole, his wife, their son Georges (aka Kid) and daughter Kelly.

Alain is clearly is very fond of his daughter, as we see him dancing tenderly with her. But later in the day they realise that she is nowhere to be seen. After questioning some of her friends, it transpires that she had a boyfriend, Ahmed, a fact not known to the family. When she doesn't turn up Alain visits Ahmed's father, and also goes to the police, who aren't particularly helpful. In time it becomes known that she has left with Ahmed, and this sets Alain off on a mission to find her.

The years pass and with Georges now a young man he and his father continue the search, although Georges is less committed than his father. Kelly has previously let the family know that she doesn't want to be found and that she has a new life. They also learn that she has a child. None of this dissuades Alain who becomes more and more obsessed. Georges finally refuses to help any more and tragedy strikes when his father falls asleep at the wheel of his car.

We next see Georges helping an aid organisation in Pakistan, this being a means of pursuing the search for his sister. He has in effect taken up his father's mission, perhaps belatedly realising that his father was right. A series of events lead to Georges returning home with with a muslim woman, Shazana, who was Ahmed's wife, Kelly having left Ahmed. The cowboy community will not accept Shazana, as feelings were running high in America after the 9/11 atrocity.

This film was presented at the 2015 Cannes Festival and received largely favourable reviews. It is considered to be a contemporary interpretation of John Ford's great western, The Searchers.

I'm not sure what the title Après le sud alludes to, but the English title, Heatwave, perhaps better describes the film. Set in the south of France on a sweltering hot day, we follow the lives of four people. A series of largely unrelated events lead to tragedy, but first the director sets the scene by introducing us to each of these people. Before the credits roll, we see Georges, an elderly man, who is lovingly cleaning his shotgun in his flat. This perhaps foretells of trouble to come, but at this stage everything is quite innocent.

After the credits we move to the apartment of Amélie, and her mother Anne. Anne is grossly overweight and we're treated to a very explicit view of the two women as Anne gets in the shower after Amélie steps out. Typical French realism. Amélie leaves for her summer job in a supermarket, while Anne, after a few household chores, sets off in a taxi. She leaves a message saying she's going to Aix, but in fact is headed for a clinic in Marseilles for gastric band surgery to control her weight.

We next meet Luigi, Amélie's boyfriend, who becomes very agitated when visiting the supermarket to speak to her. This leads to a chance encounter between Amélie and Georges, who is doing his shopping. Amélie later sees Georges again, who is sitting by the roadside as she is driving home. She offers him a lift and when dropping him off apologises for an incident that occurred in the supermarket.

These introductory sequences over, the film replays them from the perspectives of each of these people. We see why Luigi is agitated, what actually happened to Georges in the supermarket, which was unpleasant to the point of being degrading, and the outcome of Anne's trip to Marseilles. Meanwhile Amélie is seen reconnects with Luigi, and contemplates leaving with him for his native Italy. But fate has a habit of spoiling plans, and Georges, feeling degraded and no doubt affected by the heat, does something that will irreversibly change all their lives.

An interesting film that may confuse at first, until you realise that the story is being gradually revealed in multiple time-shifted layers.

Not to be confused with the 2000 film of the same name starring Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche, this is in fact the story of Rafael Padilla, a Cuban born negro who became a celebrated clown in Paris at the turn of the 19th Century. Omar Sy plays the clown Chocolat, a name he comes to despise because he finds it denigrating. But ,unfortunately for him, the attitudes of the time towards coloured people were unlikely to change simply because he rejected his circus name.

The makers of this film have significantly changed some of the historical details but the thrust of the story remains true. In his association with the clown George Foottit, a Parisian star, the duo become great favourites with audiences. Chocolat is Foottit's knockabout sidekick, who endures his somewhat demeaning role with a smile. Until, that is, he starts to resent his treatment while at the same time aspiring to greater things, such as playing Othello! But are the Paris audiences ready for this?

This is a film that starts off as a quite amusing take on Chocolat's introduction to clowning and his rise in popularity, leading to a somewhat lavish lifestyle and some unwise involvement with gambling and strong liquor. And he also likes the ladies. As the plot develops the film becomes much more of a character study as we witness Chocolat's attempt to shed his clown persona and become a serious actor. He is helped by his wife, a white woman who is not immune from the racism of the day.

Omar Sy plays Chocolat as if the role was written for him and is ably supported by James Thiérrée as the more serious and circumspect Foottit. As the final credits roll we are treated to a glimpse of the real Chocolat and Foottit by way of archive footage, and we see that the producers of this film have worked hard to portray the duo exactly as they were.

A final bit of trivia. In French, être chocolat is an informal expression meaning to be deprived of something that you were counting on, and comes from Chocolat's experiences at the hands of Foottit during their act. Thus his name lives on.

Although I’m including this as a French film, it is actually an Italian production set on Sicily. The two lead female actors are, however, French, and the dialogue shifts seamlessly between French and Italian depending on who is present in the scene.

Juliette Binoche’s Anna is mourning the loss of her son, Giuseppe, as we witness the sombre religious rites and a house blacked out from daylight with mirrors covered. She receives a call from Giuseppe’s girlfriend, Jeanne, who is due to visit, but she doesn’t tell her about Giuseppe.

Jeanne arrives while family members are still present, and is clearly confused by what she sees. At first Anna doesn’t want to see her, but when she does she says that she has just lost her brother. One gets the feeling that Anna sees Jeanne as a continuing link with her son, there being more than a touch of supernatural about this film.

As time passes the two women become close, with Anna wanting to know more about Jeanne’s relationship with Giuseppe. Jeanne remains confused, finding Anna quite strange, but she looks forward to Giuseppe’s imminent arrival. We sense Anna’s pleasure in Jeanne’s company, while away from her she suffers greatly from her loss. Their relationship is the heart of this film, and I drew comparisons with Clouds of Sils Maria, another two-hander film in which Binoche played opposite Kristen Stewart. A different but perhaps equally strange relationship to the one in this film.

Of course the time had to come where Anna must face up to telling Jeanne the truth, or something! She choses ‘something’, trying to let Jeanne down gently, but it turns out to be far from gentle. Jeanne packs to leave while Anna goes to town for the Easter festival, where the religious symbolism clearly has a profound affect on her. It is at this point we see a scene reminiscent of the end of the film Amour, leaving us to decide whether we’ve witnessed reality or fantasy.

Jenny Davin is a hard-working and seemingly very proficient young Belgian doctor who is soon to leave the clinic in Liège for a new job at a larger practice. After an exhausting day, we see her with a young intern, Julien, who is proving to be less than useful. During a fraught moment they hear a knock at the clinic's door, and Jenny tells Julien to ignore it.

The following day Jenny is visited by the police, who inform her that the young woman at the door had been killed. Distraught, Jenny sets about finding out who the woman was, not an easy task as it turns out. She also decides not to take up her new job, but continue at the clinic, perhaps by way of penance.

Her pursuance of the young woman's name leads her into difficult situations, at times downright dangerous, and reveals that one of her patients may have known the woman. Meanwhile, the police caution her stay clear of a couple of unsavoury characters who had threatened her after she had asked questions about the woman's identity.

This film is realistic to the point of seeming like a documentary at times. Adèle Haenel, who plays Jenny, is very convincing as the young doctor. I had seen her previously in Suzanne and Après le sud, both portraying equally realistic life dramas.

Regarded as a classic of French cinema I took the opportunity to watch this film when it became available on Amazon Prime. With an X-rating and a reputation to match I did expect something a bit more raunchy. It does indeed have a sexual fetish theme and scenes, to quote the British Board of Film Certification, but by modern standards it is actually not very explicit.

The story, however, is what identifies this film as groundbreaking. Catherine Deneuve plays the wife of a successful surgeon with all the bourgeois trappings that comes with her position. But married life does not satisfy her and she has a poor conjugal relationship with her husband. She fantasises extreme sexual encounters both in dreams and by day, with flashbacks suggesting that this is because of being abused as a child and feeling worthless.

She becomes fascinated with les maisons, a euphemism for the Paris brothels. Having obtained the address of one from a friend of her husband, she plucks up the courage to introduce herself to the Madame. It is a high class establishment where she joins two other women. After some initial doubts she soon becomes the one that the men want. Obviously high class and virginal in appearance, with underwear the cost of which could probably feed a family for a month.

The scenes drift between the maison, her incomplete life with her husband and occasional dreamed fetishes, although in one bizarre encounter she actually lives out something approaching one of her dreams.

It all comes down to earth when she becomes too deeply involved with a petty gangster, who for his part wants to own her, the only thing in the way being her husband. He deals with this problem in the way that gangsters do, leaving Belle distraught.

The final scene is one that will cause you to rethink the whole film, and to reanalyse what was real and what was imaginary. I expect it is unlikely that you will succeed completely.

For its time this film was undoubtedly a revelation, both for its theme and the ambiguity it planted in the minds of audiences.

This téléfilm is set in 1943 Vichy France where not only were the Germans the enemy but there was la Milice (militia), considered by the Resistance more dangerous than the Gestapo and SS because of their local knowledge.

At Chez Louise she serves the French militia men as well as normal customers and would willingly forget all about the war. But when going to see a supplier she comes across an injured British paratrooper and feels that she must help him.

With the help of her friend Emile she hides the injured soldier in her cellar. But the next day a German officer arrives purporting to be a sommelier and installs himself in her room, causing her to move into another room with Madeline who helps at the bar.

An early attempt to get the soldier to the Resistance is thwarted and there follows a cat and mouse situation as Louise humours the German officer while treating the British soldier for his injuries. This marks Louise as a German sympathiser in the eyes of some people.

Louise ultimately makes contact with a local notary who was to be the soldier's contact in France. The notary's daughter becomes the contact and plans are made to move the soldier. But the Germans are one step ahead, the German officer clearly being somewhat more than a sommelier.

The opening scene of this film tells us that the story doesn't end well, the remainder of the film showing us why. It's a sensitive story of a woman who isn't looking for trouble but because of her humanity finds herself involved in a situation that escalates out of control.

Louise is played by Line Renaud who would have been 80 when the film was made.

For many people I guess the story of the French Revolution is the storming of the Bastille and the guillotining of Louis XVI. But a great deal happened between these two events, as indeed it did afterwards. This film fills in the gap. It's almost documentary in nature but we do of course have some central characters to take us through the story.

With a fine cast and magnificent settings it certainly gives us a feel for the political climate and the situation of the poor people of Paris. And there is extensive coverage of the debates in the the National Assembly as the people seek to codify their newly won rights, and later as the plight of the king is decided.

Life was certainly tough and when arms were taken up many died. This of course only heightened the feelings against the king and despite many deputies voting against the death penalty his fate was eventually sealed.

The human stories are captivating but after a while the ongoing scenes within the Assembly become a bit boring. I could catch quite a bit of the French and I feel that the English subtitles don't really convey the passion of the speeches being made. And I believe that a French audience would find the procedures far more stimulating than an English-speaking one.

Often with historical dramas it's worth reading a bit beforehand unless you are familiar with the subject. I think this film is a clear candidate for doing this.

The guillotine sequence, which effectively marks the end of the film, is uncomfortably realistic and quite gruesome. But, of course, much worse was to follow!

The review in the UK Guardian newspaper described the film as a "bum-numbing history lesson for Marie Antoinette haters", alluding to the prominence given to le peuple with precious little sympathy for the king and queen. Such sentiments are of course more in line with the feelings of many French people.

This film has the feel of what we used to call a B Movie, or in this case a téléfilm. It's basically a gangster movie, although here the players are very much at the amateur end of the underworld spectrum.

Belleville is an area in the 20th arrondissement in the north-east of Paris. It includes a Chinese quarter and this is the setting for the film. Freddy works with Jedzec and they get on the wrong side of the local Chinese gang. To redeem themselves Freddy is charged with finding a new Chinese man in town, who they want eliminated.

Freddy looks tough but has a heart, a large part of which is devoted to Larna, who's under the control of Jedzec. Familiar with the Chinese quarter he soon identifies the new man in town - Mr Zhu, an inscrutable gentleman who is in Paris to find a young Chinese girl and return her to her parents in China.

The action has a hint of the Jackie Chan about it, without the Kung Fu, although one half expects Mr Zhu to oblige at any minute. It's a mix of violence and humour, which caused me to categorise it as drama.

Everybody seems to know of Mr Zhu, and fear him, although he certainly doesn't present as an obvious threat. Freddy becomes Zhu's unofficial student as they bumble through one incident after another. Although when Larna is threatened by the Chinese, Freddy's loyalties become hopelessly divided.

At the beginning I was thinking that this film had little to offer, but as it unfolded I found myself quite absorbed by its naivety, and charmed by the much put-upon Freddy as he tries to steer his way through a succession of challenging situations.

This is the story of Isabelle Fortier, a sex worker whose first novel, Putain (whore), received critical acclaim. Working and writing as Nelly Arcan, we see her as a conflicted person, confident as a prostitute but, despite her success, far less so as an author.

This is quite a challenging film to watch since the director, Anne Émond, uses time shifting extensively to show us Nelly first as a young girl and then at various stages of her life. At times it can be puzzling as to exactly where we are in the chronology. One can also ask the question, "Who was Nelly Arcan?". We see her as many different personae.

Furthermore, there is the problem of deciding what is reality and what exists in her imagination. Her first novel relied on her life as a sex worker, but she is coy over what is based on her actual experiences. She suggests that she returned to prostitution to help develop story lines for her later books. When a client thinks he recognises her, she says she's not a writer, but a damn good whore.

One feels that the director has been extremely conscientious in her compassionate portrayal of Nelly. This was a woman who appeared to be very comfortable with her life in sex but unable to come to terms with what her readers actually thought about her as a person.

In the end it was all too much for her.

In 1905 a French Law was passed establishing secularism, which among other things meant that religion could no longer be taught in state schools. When Marie Dutilleul returns to her home village as a teacher, her adherence to the new law sets her against the local priest and her grandfather.

At this time France was also divided over the Dreyfus affair and Marie's brother Pierre is against the recent pardoning of Dreyfus, while also being heavily influenced by and ultimately joining an ultra religious priesthood.

Marie in no time falls foul of the priest and soon after is all but disowned by her grandfather. Into this mix comes Julien, an assistant to the Prefect, and as such responsible for enforcing the new law. Pierre doesn't like him because of his role but Marie, who was his childhood sweetheart, falls in love.

When Julien receives a promotion he proposes to Marie, and they relocate to Limoges. Despite some friction with the head of her new school, all is going well until Pierre turns up. Marie helps him, unbeknown to Julien, and this has a very unfortunate outcome.

This is an interesting study of a devout woman who is quite happy to teach in accordance with the edicts of the new law while still keeping her faith. Unfortunately many around her are not as willing to accept this duality.

Filmed in the Limousin region the film's setting is full of bucolic charm.

The date 1905 probably means very little to non French audiences, the film being retitled as The Winds of Passion for the British market.

French cinema has many strengths and in my opinion police/crime drama is one of them. This film typifies the genre, with the perspective this time very much that of the criminals rather than the police.

Diss is a narcotics cop who grew up in the banlieue with some of the criminals that he now pursues. But for him not all criminals are equal. He's after the big fish. He recruits a childhood friend, Imrane, as his insider, but things go disastrously wrong when a drugs delivery is hijacked and his friend is one of the victims.

Manuel, another childhood associate, narrowly escapes from the hijack. But he is now a marked man who is looking for the perpetrators. Diss offers to help, if Manuel will take over from Imrane.

With the police everywhere the drug gangs each try to protect their interests, whatever the costs, and Manuel finds that he is really out in the cold. It's a matter of kill or be killed. Meanwhile things get tricky for Diss as the serious crime branch, investigating the murders, start to ask awkward questions.

A compelling drama with Matthias Schoenaerts showing his versatility as the ruthless Manuel, a far cry from the gentle shepherd, Gabriel Oak, in Far from the Madding Crowd.

A 1983 erotic drama for which Isabelle Adjani won a César award. She plays the beautiful Eliane, who goes by the name of Elle, and whose family have settled in a small southern French town. Stunning and provocative she soon has the men's attention, in particular a volunteer firefighter who everybody calls Pin-Pon.

But Elle is a complex character with a handicapped father and a very withdrawn mother, with whom she has quite a strange relationship. Meanwhile Pin-Pon's mother is far from happy with their relationship.

As the story unfolds we learn that Elle's mother, who is German, had in the past suffered a violent rape by three Italian men, something Elle wants desperately to avenge. It was the fact that Pin-Pon's deceased father was Italian that caused her to start a relationship with him. An old piano in his garage linked to the story of the rape, the three men involved having had a piano in the van they were using. While at the same time she blames her father for not exacting revenge.

We see flashbacks that gradually reveal Elle's childhood and the rape incident. But as she digs deeper into her mother's story it leads her to discover something that she was not expecting, to the extent that it destabilises her mentally. Having married Pin-Pon, she walked away from the wedding celebrations, leaving him perplexed. He eventually finds her in hospital receiving psychological care. Blaming her condition on the men who abused her mother he decides to take matters into his own hands, with tragic results.

We see an awful lot of Isabelle Adjani in this film, playing as she does a totally uninhibited woman who thinks nothing of parading around as nature intended.

I found this film confusing and having subsequently read some reviews find that I'm not alone. It must be said that the reviews weren't great.

Ismaël is a film director whose life seems in crisis. His wife left over 20 years before and is presumed dead, her somewhat unbalanced father, Henri, blaming Ismaël for the loss of his daughter.

A film is in production featuring Ivan, which is also the name of Ismaël's long parted brother. I confused the film Ivan and real Ivan - not a good start, but not that surprising.

Ismaël's descent into despair is halted when he enters into a relationship with the self-declared 'prudish' Sylvia (Charlotte Gainsborough), an astrophysicist none the less. And normality seems to return to his life. But then his wife, Carlotta (Marion Cotillard), returns, first encountering Sylvia on the beach near Ismaël's cottage. Carlotta wants her husband back, notwithstanding that nobody has heard from her for 21 years and that she had married somebody else in India.

From this point things got too complicated for me. Sylvia is driven away by Carlotta. Ismaël again descends into despair occupying an aunt's house where he seems to be literally losing it. And where he ultimately shoots and injures his producer who is desperately trying to convince him to return to the film set.

There's some good acting, as one would expect from Gainsborough and Cotillard, but it was too much hard work trying to comprehend this film. The following quote is perhaps a bit harsh but certainly sums up the feelings of many who have reviewed the film, although I wouldn't go that far.

From the review in the Irish Times:

"Decked out in the classy colours of the high-end French art film, Ismael’s Ghosts is probably easier to enjoy if you make no attempt to fit its disjointed units together. Indeed, those who don’t speak French may prefer to ignore the subtitles and wallow in the pretty pictures and elegant production values. The more you try to make sense of it the more intense your headache will become."

This film begins as William makes ready for the invasion of England in 1066, a date in history that even the least knowledgable of us know! But the subject of this film is in fact William's youth.

Born of Robert I, or Robert the Magnificent, William was also known as William the Bastard because Robert was not married to William's mother, Herleva. This fact, along with the continuous power struggles of the time, threatened William's accession after his father, Robert, died on his return from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

The filming is predominantly in cooler hues, which gives it a certain atmosphere. I also found the dialogue to be almost theatrical, which from the point of view of anybody learning French is welcome, with clear, well enunciated sentences.

The history comes across as well informed and while I don't doubt that some dramatic licence has been applied, the end credits certainly suggest academic input and there is little in the way obvious sensationalism. For me the Norse influence came as a surprise and it was only after I researched the actual history (recommended) that this fell into place.

William is portrayed as a very sensible young man who approached things in a very calm way, refusing to be provoked into rash actions. In an early scene he is shown dismissing a soldier accused of desertion, when one might have expected a far more severe punishment in those days. This was obviously a dramatic device but I guess it was included to show his character.

This is a low budget film and at times this shows, with the reviews (mainly French) being decidedly mixed. Criticisms include the aforementioned theatrical representation, unconvincing acting and uninspiring actions sequences. I wouldn't totally disagree but it is sometimes refreshing to not have modern CGI where battle scenes largely exist in a virtual space and characters lack real world credibility. Here they aren't superheroes but just men.

On the positive side it came across to me as an interesting history of the man who was ultimately to shape Britain's future.

We're introduced Abbas and his two children, who await the determination of an application for asylum. He is in Paris having fled the Central African Republic after his wife was killed by rebels. He was a French teacher in Africa and his brother, Etienne, who was a philosophy teacher in Africa, is also in Paris.

His claim seems on the face of it well founded. Persecution and risk of death if he were to return. But the French asylum system is harsh and his application and subsequent appeal are rejected. He then has 30 days to leave France or will be deported.

Abbas had a job at a fruit and flower market where he had met Carole, a florist of Polish origin. They formed a relationship although he was still suffering nightmares and continuing thoughts about his dead wife.

As the 30 days gradually melt away we witness a tender relationship between Abbas and Carole, he and the children moving into her flat when his landlord evicts them. Abbas is a good man with two lovely children, Asma and Yacine. His son Asma is very upset by their predicament, and blames his father, while his daughter Yacine is delightful and comforts her father.

Meanwhile his brother Etienne one day returns to his shanty home to find it burnt out, with anti immigrant graffiti on the nearby wall. This deeply affects him and he rejects Abbas' offer of help. The events that then follow are quite shocking.

All through this film I half expected a happy outcome. But while there is much warmth while watching Carole and Abbas, and the children as a new family, especially on the occasion of Carole's birthday, in the end the system wins and I was left feeling nothing short of disgust.

A film that should be compulsory viewing for the moral education of both young and old alike.

When La Haine was released in 1995 it caused quite a stir. Not least because the following week there was rioting in the Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand, following the death of a 21 year-old French-Arab during police chase.

La Haine his based on a very similar event and was perhaps a bit close to the truth for the government, the French people and, most of all, the police. It was a ground-breaking film that could rightly be considered to have changed thinking for many French people.

It's a story of three young men living in the notorious banlieue who, following a recent riot, harbour mostly bad and vengeful feelings towards the police. There is Vinz, a Jew, who just wants to kill a policeman in revenge for putting one young man in hospital with life-threatening injuries. Hubert, a black boxer whose gym was torched during the riot. And Saïd, an Arab, who talks and jokes a lot and, at times, mediates between the other two.

These three wander somewhat aimlessly, meeting people and getting into scrapes, mainly with the police, but despite their perhaps threatening appearance, and loud demeanour, are more often victims rather than perpetrators. Vinz is, however, on a short fuse. He found a police revolver that was lost during the riot and keeps threatening to use it on the police. The other two, especially Hubert, are continually trying to calm him down.

One suspects that things are not going to end well for them, the catch phrase 'jusqu'ici tout va bien', so far so good, referencing the thoughts of someone falling from a high building, implies that it must end in disaster.

The Guardian review is worth reading, as is the analysis by Phil Hoad, also in the Guardian, that really sets the context and the impact of this classic piece of cinema.

A classic psychological drama that will leave you asking many questions, many of which may never be answered.

Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche) are a successful couple with a young son, Pierrot. They both work in the literary sphere, he a literary reviewer with his own TV show and she in publishing. One day a video cassette is left on their doorstep containing a surveillance video of their apartment, accompanied by a child-like drawing depicting a child's face with blood coming from the mouth.

More videos follow along with more drawings. In the absence of a tangible threat the police aren't interested.

At first both Georges and Anne appear equally bemused by these videos but we soon learn that Georges realises that they have a connection with his childhood. After a nightmare he visits his elderly mother, the nightmare and the latest video having both featured his childhood home where his mother still lives. At this point he has formed an idea who might be responsible and obliquely questions his mother without revealing why, although his mother senses something is wrong.

A video then arrives directing him to an apartment, which he visits only to find the very person whom he suspects. But his suspect denies sending either the videos or the drawings. However, when the next video arrives it convinces Georges that his suspect is indeed the culprit.

When Pierrot then fails to return home from school their fears are heightened and the police at this point decide to act.

Everything unwinds like a conventional 'whodunnit' drama but this film is far from conventional and will almost certainly leave you searching for answers. There is no tidy denouement I'm afraid. This is a film about conscience and guilt and, as the director says:

"… if you come out wanting to know who sent the tapes, you didn't understand the film. To ask this question is to avoid asking the real question the film raises, which is more: how do we treat our conscience and our guilt and reconcile ourselves to living with our actions?"

Enjoy!