French 201

Film Review (la critique de film) Guidelines.

 

 

  1. Choose a film. It must be in French in its original version, and you should view it in the original language (subtitles are okay, of course). It doesn’t have to be from France—it can be from a French-speaking African country, Canada, Switzerland, etc.

 

  1. Watch the film in French. Use subtitles to help; listen to any tough passages more than once.

 

  1. Write a review, about ¾ of a page long (double-sided). Write in French! Don’t summarize the film, but imagine you’re writing a critique for a newspaper or magazine. You can use elements of the plot to make your point, but don’t make the plot the main focus of what you say. For example: “Catherine Deneuve joue le rôle principal, celui d’une riche héritière coloniale en Indochine.” (plot summary). “A travers ce personnage, le film explore la violence de l’histoire coloniale française et montre que cette violence peut détruire une culture, et aussi une famille.” (analysis)

 

  1. If you use other reviews (e.g. online reviews that you’ve found), be sure to cite them.

 

  1. Some broad questions you might want to address in your review:

 

-          Beyond the details of the plot, what is the film “about”? (the triumph of love over adversity? The complexity of human desire? The difficulty of achieving equality in gender relations? The underside of French history? Etc.) This kind of question is good to start out with, because once you’ve decided what (for you) is the main message of the film, you can start to consider whether other elements (script, camera work etc.) help the film achieve that goal.

-          Is the cinematography particularly effective, intelligent, subtle? Are there long shots, interesting camera angles, composition of scenes? Are there some objects which become symbolic?

-          How is music used?

-          Is the script effective, in your opinion? Is it clever, funny? Or is it clichéd or disappointing? Given what you think the film is trying to do, does the script succeed?

-          Do we get a sense of fully-developed human characters? Or perhaps fully-developed human characters are not the goal of the film (e.g. a science-fiction film might be trying to show how people have become dehumanized through technology?) Are there other things that might be considered “characters” (e.g. a landscape, a house?)

-          How is the casting? How are the performances?

-          What is the role of the viewer of the film? Are we expected to be active and attentive? Is our role called into question? Does the script or the camerawork mess with our expectations?

-          Does the film help us understand something better? Is this even a goal of the film? Or does the film refuse neat, tidy interpretations?

 

 

You don’t have to address all of these, of course!