Following its premature closure due to the COVID-19 health crisis, the Alliance Française French Film Festival will be resuming its 31st season on Bastille Day, from 14 July to 4 August, at Palace Cinemas and associated venues.
The SWITCH team got swept up in this year's program, and have collected our reviews from the festival below - and don't forget to check back throughout the event as we add even more!
/filters:quality(75)/toppic/lesmiserables2020.jpg)
A remarkable, electrifying and ultimately shattering film, a stellar debut for Ladj Ly, and most importantly, a work that feels necessary. It's a thrilling act of cinematic protest.
/filters:quality(75)/toppic/labelleepoque.jpg)
The romance is so pure, and there are genuine laugh-out-loud moments. It doesn't quite reach the heights of some of its cinematic predecessors, but you will leave with warm fuzzy feelings inside.
/filters:quality(75)/toppic/theswallowsofkabul.jpg)
In Afghanistan, simply drawing a human being is forbidden. This makes this film an even more aesthetically and narratively beautiful example of the affecting power that animation offers.
/filters:quality(75)/toppic/zombichild.jpg)
An absorbing, often perplexing story in which a religion with a healthy respect for death crosses paths with a lovesick French schoolgirl.
/filters:quality(75)/toppic/notredame.jpg)
The style overshadows the substance, but this is a lighthearted and often very funny insight into overcoming failure, something that everyone can appreciate to some degree.
/filters:quality(75)/toppic/proxima.jpg)
It isn't a visually flashy film, but this only enhances the intimacy of this earthbound drama about a high-achieving woman's reeling at the thought of leaving her young daughter behind her.
/filters:quality(75)/toppic/themysteryofhenripick.jpg)
For a film about a man destroying his life over (possibly) a huge literary fraud, this is a surprisingly light-hearted crowd-pleaser.