Writer-director-actor Sophie Letourneur has made a mark in French cinema as an auteur of female-led audacities. This film, a dual act starring Lolita Chammah (Isabelle Huppert’s daughter!), is both slapstick comedy and gentle romance: a hard-learned lesson in either solitude, or companionship.
For the second feature to be shot outside of his native Taiwan, Hou Hsiao-hsien ventured to Paris for this lyrical masterpiece. Starring Juliette Binoche, and captured in swooning tracking shots by cinematographer Lee Ping Bing, The Flight of the Red Balloon is a work of warm and delicate wonder.
With her usual playful, self-deprecating wit, Sophie Letourneur crafted this delightful gem starring Louis Garrel. Shot during the Locarno Film Festival, Les coquillettes is a refreshingly candid comedy that follows three unashamed women more interested in potential flings than high-brow flicks.