France

This subtle, intimate portrait of the easygoing bond between a young woman and her widower father (Alex Descas) is the latest from Claire Denis (Beau Travail). With Grégoire Colin. Music by Tindersticks.

Selected by kids for kids, our annual panorama of the world’s best animated shorts for the Festival’s youngest audience (we suggest 3–7 this year) has plenty to offer their grown-up escort parties.

Narrowed down from an amazing 2000+ entries, this year’s survey of the best in animated short films covers the gamut from sumptuous painterly Russian styles to the most inventive and expressive CGI, including NZ-made Poppy.

Appalling many, thrilling others, outraging all, hailed as a brilliantly hellish vision, dismissed as a stunt, Lars Von Trier’s psychosexual horror film was the one that dominated the headlines from Cannes.

A writer, an actor and a would-be chanteuse pursue elusive glory in this wise and worldly comedy of artistic aspiration. With Sandrine Kiberlain, Emilie Dequenne, Denis Podalydès

The major German film of the year. This vivid, provocative thriller traces the activities of the violent group of self-styled anti-fascists who called themselves the Red Army Faction and terrorised West Germany.

Humorous and illuminating autobiography from Agnès Varda, the lone female among French New Wave directors. “Inspiring… this film should be given to all young hopeful filmmakers.” — Sight & Sound

Catherine Breillat (An Old Mistress, Anatomy of Hell) slyly subverts the allure of the popular 17th-century fairytale about a gloomy nobleman with a penchant for murdering his disobedient wives.

Benicio Del Toro is riveting in Steven Soderbergh’s epic portrait of the revolutionary icon. “The finest film by an American director this year, a monumental achievement of astonishing audacity and ambition.” — Sight & Sound

A stunning Michelle Pfeiffer reunites with Dangerous Liaisons director Stephen Frears to play a cynical courtesan in love with a younger man in this sumptuous Belle Epoque drama. With Rupert Friend, Kathy Bates.

This gloriously sprawling drama of a fractious three-generational family Christmas abounds with character and wit. With Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Chiara Mastroianni. “Enchanting.” — Entertainment Weekly

Beautiful new print of the film that put the French New Wave’s Agnès Varda on the map. “Joyful, simple, daring and profound… Cléo is, for me, above all other films of the French New Wave.” — Salon.com

Audrey Tautou puts Amélie far behind her with a stunning interpretation of the headstrong, self-sufficient designer who revolutionised the way women dressed and saw themselves.

Cinema’s centenarian Manoel de Oliveira (born 1908) transposes a 19th-century tale of romantic pursuit to 21st-century Lisbon, retaining, to rich and strange effect, every anachronistic detail of courtship and social convention.

This French hit is a buoyant, rewardingly perceptive comedy-drama about family dynamics and the urge to escape them. “A cross-generational tale whose twists and turns are both touching and entertaining.” — Screendaily

A consummately surreal enactment of obsessive, unrequited desire with a dryly indulgent take on romantic love from Polish master Jerzy Skolimowski (Deep End, The Shout).

Superb new print of Chantal Akerman’s legendary avant-garde masterpiece which locates the dread behind the monotonous routine of a housewife and part-time prostitute. “A slow-motion thriller.” — Time Out NY

Philippe Grandrieux’s majestically strange and beautiful Alpine drama contains only the barest of narratives, making its eerily elemental effect through image and soundscape. “Transcendent.” — Time Out

Direct from this year’s Cannes Film Festival, director Ken Loach in laughter mode, featuring Steve Evets as a messed-up postman who receives spiritual guidance from none other than soccer idol Eric Cantona.

“Constantly outrageous… this tale of factory workers avenging themselves against their bosses is… a wickedly hilarious, marvellously calibrated exercise in deadpan style owing as much to Buñuel as to the Coen brothers.” — Variety

In the Arab-world festival hit of 2008, a drunken boast has embarrassing repercussions. This Algerian wedding comedy delivers hilarious characters and trenchant social satire. “Classically executed farce.” — Variety

Acclaimed documentary masterpiece by filmmaker/Magnum photographer Raymond Depardon. “A deeply humane and warm-spirited portrait of French farmers whose way of life is on the verge of disappearing.” — Eye Weekly

Fabled superagent OSS 117 (handsome, straight-faced comic Jean Dujardin) defends La France from slippery foreigners in this spy movie spoof lovingly set in Bossa Nova-era Brazil. “Very, very funny.” — Twitch

This intelligent, layered doco puts the Gaza Strip death of American peace activist Rachel Corrie in the context of a new generation of globalised activists crossing the world to put themselves in harm’s way.

Serious fun for the kids in a medieval monastery! “Visually ravishing and doused in Celtic magic, Irish animated feature The Secret of Kells takes as its plot source and stylistic inspiration the eighth-century Book of Kells.” — Screendaily

A moving dramatised portrait of the French ‘naïve’ painter Séraphine de Senlis (1864–1942). César Awards 2009: Best Film, Actress, Original Screenplay, Photography, Score, Costumes, Production Design.

A hectic day in the life of ‘The Family Theatre’, a Filipino porn palace. Social realism: raw, real and in your face. “Serbis may be a raunch-fest, but it’s also a mind-trip – a raunch-fest with ideas.” — Village Voice

Graphic design and animation morph into a single artform in the best of recent International CGI shorts – narratives, ads, music videos – as selected from a 1000 entries at the prestigious SIGGRAPH Asia Festival.

Counteracting the damage wrought to the national image by Borat, here’s a smart, completely engaging film from Kazakhstan that brings humour and the civilising values of a rich traditional culture to its fable-like tale of neighbouring couples.

Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling and Jérémie Renier as siblings settling their mother’s lavish, art-filled estate. “A warm, wise drama about the tensions and mysteries of family life.” — Time Out

Direct from Cannes, the Palme d'Or winner from Austrian cine-provocateur Michael Haneke. Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?