Four French films that will touch your heart
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Ah oui, Bastille Day. What better way to celebrate the start of the French revolution and the modern uprising of the nation than through French cinema itself?
All four of these films are beautifully timeless, bursting with surreal cinematic moments that can move from tempestuous to gentle warmth. It’s a kind of je ne sais quoi that reels us in, one unique and poetic detail at a time. Such is the magic of French cinema.
Amour (2013)
An intimate and heart-wrenching film that will stay with you long after it finishes, it follows the story of retired music teachers Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva). When Anne has a stroke, Georges is confronted with the reality of having to care for his wife as her health quickly deteriorates. It’s filled with tender moments, breathtaking details and intimate despair that etches from the peripheral to centre stage. No one does love and cinematic heartache like director Michael Haneke.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a cinematic Renaissance painting. On the backdrop of this visual masterpiece, an erotic and sensuous eighteenth-century love unfolds between an aristocrat and the lady assigned to paint her portrait. The magical thing about this queer film is its mutability, its softness, and its ability to capture love and art in a way that is nuanced and vulnerable. It’s also a love story of female friendship and the extraordinary resilience that can come from its kinship, drawing women together. With the ease of how we can translate sound waves into music, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is effortless beauty. Céline Sciamma is simply a genius.
Amelie (2001)
It’s almost impossible to not fall in love with this film—a charming and intrinsically French masterpiece from top to bottom. The rich colour palette and masterful editing take us inside the world of Amelie, whose suppressed childhood lures her inside the safety of her fanciful childlike imagination. As we experience her inner workings, we quickly fall in love with her tender acts of kindness, desire for love and uncanny knack for revealing the complex layers that exist within a person. It’s a journey, packed with adventure and French delights and just the right amount of ridiculousness. Like a strong gravitational pull, it’s hard to resist this sharp and colourful film.
One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977)
It simply wouldn’t be Bastille Day without Agnes Varda, a tour de force within the film world whose uncompromising vision brings to life a tender beauty that exists within the everyday. Any one of her films could be plucked out from a crowd and added to this list, however, ‘One Sings and The Other Doesn’t’ finds a way to speak to women everywhere. Set in 1972 and reflecting on 15 years of second-wave feminism, the film explores the friendship of 17-year-old Pauline, who helps 22-year-old Suzanne get an illegal abortion. Invigorated by both grief and joy, they fight for liberation and their female strength magnified in every scene. Under Agnes’ cinematic gaze, a celebration of multi-vocal feminism takes place. This visually memorising and erudite film shows the wrinkles of time but is arguably more relevant than ever.
