French

Denmark’s fearless Mads Brügger in person with his gonzo documentary. He buys himself a diplomatic post in the Central African Republic and proceeds, envelopes stuffed with cash, to jockey for power and influence.

Palme d’Or, Best Film, Cannes Film Festival 2012. Veteran French stars Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva are unforgettable in Austrian director Michael Haneke’s tender, wrenching story of love and death.

Australia's Tony Krawitz (Jewboy, The Tall Man) directs the adaptation of The Slap author Christos Tsiolkas' award-winning novel in this searing film about history, guilt and secrets.

The last days of Marie-Antoinette (Diane Kruger) and the royal court of Versailles are seen from within, through the eyes of a servant (Léa Seydoux) in this spectacular French historical drama inflected with modern intelligence.

Six gifted young ballet students from disparate backgrounds prepare for the career-making Youth America Grand Prix in this intimate picture of the highly competitive world of dance. “Touching, enormously satisfying.” — Variety

The once thriving popular cinema of Cambodia is vividly evoked through the reminiscences of the few filmmakers and performers who survived the Khmer Rouge. “An elegantly assembled and deeply moving remembrance.” — Variety

An extraordinary surreal night journey through Paris starring Denis Lavant. With Kylie Minogue, Eva Mendes. Don’t miss the sensation of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, rapturously received and wildly debated. “Weird and wonderful, rich and strange – barking mad, in fact… A great big pole-vault over the barrier of normality by someone who feels that the possibilities of cinema have not been exhausted.” — The Guardian

An absorbing account of life and traditions, unrecorded by previous history, on the tiny volcanic island of Corvo (pop. 400) in the Portuguese Azores. “Tirelessly engrossing.” — Village Voice. Best Doco, San Francisco Film Festival 2012.

The recent project of legendary French cameraman Raymond Depardon is intercut with a selection of his astounding footage and images shot over 50 years around the world. “A tribute to a masterful eye, a humanistic heart and a wondrous life.” — Variety

Le Tableau is a captivating animated French-language fable taking place inside a painting. “This consistently enjoyable, inventive and beautifully crafted tale is a color riot suitable for all ages.” — Boyd van Hoeij, Variety

This sleek, charged picture of ambition, powerlessness and posturing within government transcends the satire or critique of any similar US or UK political thriller: it’s both realistic and utterly surreal. With Olivier Gourmet.

Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lazhar is a flawlessly acted, sensitively understated teacher/student drama that accumulates surprising, affirmative, emotional power. “A really great movie.” — Village Voice

Somewhere between fairytale and documentary, this startling debut feature sees French rural life, both austere and magical, through the perceptions of its remarkable star: four-year-old Nana.

Joachim Lafosse’s psychological drama provides insight into and analysis of a real-life case of maternal infanticide. “A deeply moving performance by Emilie Dequenne, and a devastating look at a young woman come undone.” — Screendaily

Cinema’s finest ongoing autobiographer, Ross McElwee (Sherman’s March, Bright Leaves) returns with another wry rumination on family and memory, comparing his rebellious son at 21 with what he can recall of himself at the same age.

In his most visceral and impassioned outing since 1995’s La Haine, actor/director Mathieu Kassovitz has made a propulsive action movie dramatising the extraordinary French military response to a New Caledonia hostage-taking in 1988.

Terrific, intimate social-realist drama, Sister makes us anxious accessories of 12-year-old Simon, a quick-witted young thief working a Swiss ski resort. Superbly performed by newcomer Kacey Mottet Klein and French star Léa Seydoux.

Quick-witted undercover cop thriller set in a vast Paris nightclub. “With this tightly paced nail-biter, director Frédéric Jardin has made a film that’s surpassed its US counterparts by a country kilometer.” — Time Out NY

Elegant doco records a year of transition as master chef Michel Bras hands his legendary three-Michelin-star hotel-restaurant Aubrac over to his son. “A rare window into the mysterious creative process of a chef.” — Time

An intensely poetic biopic charting Chilean folksinger Violeta Parra’s epic journey from poverty to fame, underscored by Parra’s vulnerable, penetrating folk songs and a reverberating performance by Francisca Gavilán

Dinner date becomes dinner disaster in French cinema’s box office comedy hit of the year. “An amusing and well-acted French farce in the pure tradition of boulevard classics such as The Dinner Game.” — Hollywood Reporter

Disarmingly charming doco about a traditional shepherd and his young woman apprentice as they herd 800 sheep, several dogs and donkeys and a criminally cute puppy across hundreds of miles of wintry Swiss countryside.