“France has the largest, most lucrative cinema in Europe, making it the second most successful cinema in the Western world (a distant second, monetarily), and in terms of roles for women, it’s unquestionably in the lead. When a French actress… — Mick LaSalle Copy Share Image
“There is no one way of seeing. Nor is there a right way of seeing. Yet simply to accept the notion that both the male and the female gaze are equally valid and equally to be valued in cinema (and in life) is to welcome with relief the rise of women directors. Needless to say, there are whole aspects of… — Mick LaSalle Copy Share
“For all of [Fanny] Ardant’s ability to depict a range of emotion, I most associate her with joy. Not necessarily the depiction of joy, but rather a joy of acting, a joy of being, a joie de vivre . Ardant, in her mature performances, conveys the sense of someone bringing to scenes her full being, her whole self and experience.… — Mick LaSalle Copy Share
“THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT FRENCH CINEMA, specifically the women of today’s French cinema—a subject as vital as life and as irresistible as movies. Yet many Americans, unfamiliar with French film, will hear “women of today’s French cinema” and immediately imagine something forbidding or austere. Other more refined cineastes may know and appreciate the French movies that play at art… — Mick LaSalle Copy Share
“FRENCH CINEMA’S PORTRAITS of the young woman on her own constitute a strong and enriching strain in recent decades. Some of these films are romances, but just as many aren’t. Even when they are, romance and men are just conveyances for the movies’ real points of focus. These are movies all about exploring a young woman’s essence, character and soul,… — Mick LaSalle Copy Share
“Drama and comedy are the polite genres, founded on collectively agreed-upon ideas, perceptions and truths. But life, as subjectively experienced, is not like comedy or drama; it is much more disorganized and grand, intimidating and embarrassing. It is much more like opera and farce. Opera shows how we really feel at our most pained or selfish or exultant, and farce… — Mick LaSalle Copy Share
“THE NATURE OF FRENCH STARDOM (beginning early, staying late) makes it possible for a woman to grow up on screen. Marceau has been in films now for over thirty years. Catherine Deneuve’s career is past the midcentury mark. Danielle Darrieux has the ultimate record to reach for—she started at age fourteen and made films into her nineties. Theirs become lives… — Mick LaSalle Copy Share
“The slow blossoming of a notable career is sometimes a matter of a talent finding its way. Sometimes it’s a matter of audiences coming into a gradual understanding of who that talent is, and sometimes it’s a combination of both. The important thing is that the opportunities are there for this interchange to take place. Not only does it make… — Mick LaSalle Copy Share
“No longer stereotypes, these screen women had become complicated. This combination of sensuality, independence and playfulness, made them fascinating to watch and completely modern.” — Mick LaSalle Copy Share Image
“...the best thing an individual movie lover can do is have fun. No great movement can happen in popular art without pure pleasure being the motive. (...) There should be nothing dutiful about exploring these actresses, and no one needs to consider himself or herself virtuous for knowing their films. All they offer is the exhilaration of experiencing a grand… — Mick LaSalle Copy Share
Before the code, women on screen took lovers, had babies out of wedlock, got rid of cheating husbands, enjoyed their sexuality, held down professional… — Mick LaSalle Copy Share Image
To watch THE WAITING ROOM is to wish it would never end. This is human drama at its most intense and universal. The rare… — Mick LaSalle Copy Share Image
Bill Maher does something amazing in Religulous. He makes Michael Moore look incredibly likable in comparison. — Mick LaSalle Copy Share Image
