Film Noir

RATING: 5/5 "Spring, 1958: 21-year-old Rose Pamphyle lives with her grouchy widower father who runs the village store. Engaged to the son of the local mechanic, she seems destined for the quiet, drudgery-filled life of a housewife. But that's not the life Rose longs for. When she travels to Lisieux in Normandy, where charismatic insurance agency boss Louis Echard is advertising for a secretary, the ensuing interview is a disaster. But Rose reveals a special gift - she can type at extraordinary speed. Unwittingly, the young woman awakens the dormant sports fan in Louis. If she wants the job, she'll have to compete in a speed typing competition. Whatever sacrifices Rose must make to reach the top, Louis declares himself her trainer. He'll turn her into the fastest girl not only in the country but in the world! But a love of sport doesn't always mix well with love itself." "Populaire," tells a story of a girl who is disappointed by many people in...

RATING: 2/5 "God exists, and He's a jerk. He lives in a high-rise apartment in Brussels and never gets out of His pyjamas. He takes sadistic delight in dreaming up new "laws" to torment humanity, and He's a petty tyrant to His wife and ten-year-old daughter, Ea. Like her brother before her, Ea has had enough of her Father's abuse, and when she spies the right opportunity, she hacks into His computer and leaks to the entire world-by text message-the only thing He has over them: their certain death date. Ea, after escaping and with her Father in pursuit, gathers apostles and writes her own New Testament to try to fix the mess her Father has made of humanity. Her six apostles -a one-armed woman, a sex maniac, a killer, a woman who has been left by her husband, an office worker, and a gender dysphoric child-learn to celebrate life and love, and provide us with Jaco Van Dormael's dark, witty and eccentric answer to the loaded question: what would you do if...

RATING: 4/5 "Jenny, a talented doctor, refuses to open the door of her practice to a mysterious late-night caller. The next morning, she learns that the caller was a girl who has been found dead, and the police have no way of identifying her. Shocked and guilt-stricken by the news, Jenny resolves to discover the name of the girl, so she will not be buried anonymously and to ensure she doesn't disappear as if she had never lived." A dead girl. A troubled doctor. An illegal investigation. A shady prostitution business orchestrated from an Internet Café. Mix it all, and you arrive at the premise of La Fille Inconnue. For me, this film errs on the better side of French movies I have seen, an intriguing crime/thriller plot, with the lack of music highlighting drama and tension and an unusual ending. The character of Jenny is complicated yet entirely relatable, her unyielding desire to bring honour to the death of the young girl killed is heroic - yet there is an under...

Hi, my name is Blessing, and I am a sixth-form student currently studying English Literature, French and Government and Politics. I have always loved film, from the lovable rom-com to the gritty, hard- stopping action and everything in between. I have recently begun to explore foreign cinema and in particular French film. My friends and family always tell me what a commentator I am when watching movies, and so I thought, why not create a blog to share my incredible thoughts with all of you! I hope you enjoy my reviews and they prove to be helpful to you in deciding what films to see, Blessing x