Tag: France-pantaflix

Éric Rohmer’s The Green Ray is the kind of film that you come away from being more honest with yourself. That effect is thanks to the contagious directness of its protagonist: Delphine (Marie Rivière), a newly single young French woman whose summer vacation plans have just been unceremoniously upturned after the friend she was going away with takes off with a man instead. Now at a loose end, the indecisive Delphine meanders between her home in Paris and several gorgeous holiday spots, but that old saying — “wherever you go, there you are” — proves true. Neither the beaches of Cherbourg and Biarritz nor the lofty beauty of an Alps resort can soothe her restlessness or give her what she’s looking for, probably because she doesn’t quite know what that is herself.

Delphine’s is an achingly familiar search for anyone who’s ever felt like they’ve drifted off of life’s path, but blessedly, the conversation-driven Green Ray doesn’t leave us wallowing in that despair. That’s partly thanks to its final moments — which rank among cinema’s most stunning — but mostly because Rivière, who improvised much of her incisive dialogue, puts into words things that so many have felt but few would admit. In that sense, The Green Ray feels as much like a miracle as its last shot does.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Béatrice Romand, Carita Holmström, María Luisa García, Marie Rivière, Rosette, Vincent Gauthier

Director: Éric Rohmer

Sometimes it's hard to relate to foreign movies because of the different cultures, languages and actors. But Miracle in Cell No. 7 transcended the language barriers for me and delivered one of the most touching stories I have ever seen. It's a Korean film about the intricate yet simple love story between a mentally challenged father and his daughter. When the father is wrongly accused of a crime he did not commit and is sent to prison, his personable character eventually causes the prisoners around him to help reunite him with his daughter in prison. Warning: many tissues will be needed.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family

Actor: Choi Ro-woon, Dal-su Oh, Gal So-won, Han Yi-jin, Im Jae-min, Jeong Man-sik, Jin-young Jung, Jo Deok-hyeon, Jo Jae-yoon, Jo Jae-yun, Jung Han-bi, Jung Hee-tae, Jung Jin-young, Jung Man-sik, Jung-tae Kim, Kal So-won, Kang Seung-wan, Kang Ye-seo, Kim Jung-tae, Kim Ki-cheon, Kim Ki-chun, Kim Se-dong, Kyul Hwi, Lee Seung-yeon, Lee Yoon-hee, Man-shik Jeong, Man-sik Jeong, No Kang-min, Oh Chang-kyung, Oh Dal-su, Park Gil-su, Park Kil-soo, Park Sang-myeon, Park Shin-hye, Park Won-sang, Ryu Seung-ryong, Seung-ryong Ryu, Shin-Hye Park, So Won Kal, Song Lee-woo, Won-sang Park, Yeo Moo-yeong, Yoon Sun-Woo

Director: Hwan-kyung Lee, Lee Hwan-kyung

Rating: N/A, Not Rated

With actual, real life married couples killing each other after lottery wins, the premise of Kill Me If You Dare had plenty of potential. The situation alone makes people wonder why that unexpected windfall kills the love between a married couple. The film instead is less interested in examining that journey, and more interested in using the premise as a way to contrive ungrounded, pointless suspicion towards each other, when they could have easily talked about things, like adults. But even with the silly suspicion, there’s no charm, comedy, or chemistry to find endearing in the couple– all we’re given is that they’re married, Piotr aggressively skimps for the mortgage, and Natalie has a dream for a café that doesn’t make sense considering we never see her make coffee. Kill Me If You Dare just feels lazily assembled, with no interest in being romantic or comedic.

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Actor: Agnieszka Więdłocha, Bartłomiej Firlet, Dorota Pomykała, Małgorzata Mikołajczak, Mateusz Banasiuk, Mikołaj Roznerski, Mirosław Baka, Paulina Gałązka, Paweł Ławrynowicz, Piotr Gąsowski, Piotr Nerlewski, Piotr Nowak, Piotr Rogucki, Sebastian Perdek, Weronika Książkiewicz

Director: Filip Zylber