French screen icon, famously cast in her first major part in New Wave Alain Resnais’s first film, “Hiroshima mon amour,” legendary actor Emmanuelle Riva died in Paris yesterday. At age eighty-nine she has had a career that’s spanned five decades, starting with auteur filmmakers in the sixties all the way to her heartbreaking and understated portrayal of an Alzheimers victim in Michael Haneke’s 2013 “Amour,”

I never get my prediction for Best Movie right. This year, I did. Sure, you will claim that “Argo” was a shoo-in, what with the trail of fire it’s been leaving behind it these past few months (unstoppable, that movie was, picking up multiple nods along the way), and you’re right. “Argo” is where the money’s at. Although shot in Turkey, the Ben Affleck-directed political thriller takes place in Tehran, Iran, right in the

French cinema's B.O. returns in 2012 have set a record with over $1BN in ticket sales, an increase of 88% compared to the previous year, according to a statement released Friday by Unifrance, the Paris-based lobby and trade representation group. This new record beats the previous one established in 2008, by a lot. According to Unifrance, which is also responsible for the promotion of French cinema abroad, record performance in 2012

Throughout 2012 I found myself drawn more toward world cinema--particularly European films--and less to American ones. Reasons are numerous, among which the number of rote big-budget efforts, repeated from one movie to the next, totally predictable, with nothing to surprise viewers, let alone engage them. Full disclosure: I don’t live on the planet where audiences flock to the "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" franchises, nor Pixar-created

Any review of Mchael Haneke’s “Amour” should start by noting what a moving story it tells. Did I cry during “Amour”? Two-ply tissues. “Amour” gives a gentle but chilling view into the final months of a woman’s life, and the frustration of a husband who must care for his loved one as she slowly passes away. However I approach “Amour” with two minds. As a touching depiction of life struggling toward an end, “Amour” is a beautifully