Jacques Audiard

Emilia Pérez

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Zoe Saldaña as lawyer Rita

First feted then hated, Emilia Pérez got a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize. By the time the Oscars came around the tide had started running the other way, with its 13 nominations resulting in only two wins – Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña, plus Best Song (El Mal). What had happened in the interim is a textbook case of a social media pile-on, some of it justifiable some of it not, which resulted in all sorts of apologies being given to the faceless blob for crimes against trans people, misrepresentation, the lack of actual Mexicans in the key roles in a film largely set … Read more

A Prophet

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Niels Arestrup and Tahar Rahim in A Prophet

A movie for every day of the year – a good one 8 June Death of the prophet Muhammad, 632 On this day in AD632 (10 AH), Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn Adb Allah ibn Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim, aka Muhammad (spellings vary), died aged 62 or 63. Muslims consider Muhammad to be the last prophet sent by God to restore the original faith of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Until the age of 40 he had lived a comparatively normal life – a married man with a job – but after receiving a visit from the angel Gabriel (Jibril) he started preaching the word of God, in particular that it was important … Read more

The Beat That My Heart Skipped

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de battre mon coeur sest arrete 780082l imagine

Now here is a thing – a film that starts out as a sort of French Mean Streets but ends up in quite different territory. Romain Duris is the young Robert De Niro in question, a thug, we learn early on, with a heart of pure coal and with a surprising gift. He plays the piano like a maestro. Or used to. The film’s narrative tension springs from this internal split – is he going to carry on throwing squatters out onto the streets and smashing up their apartments so the developers can move in? Or is he going to return to the relaxed, elegant world of the piano? The masculine world of … Read more