Title: Sarah’s Key Directed by: Gilles Paquet-Brenner Starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Mélusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Frederic Pierrot and Aidan Quinn Running time: 111 minutes, Rated PG-13, Available on Blu-ray Based on the international bestselling novel by Tatiana de Rosnay is the story of Julia, an American journalist living in Paris who is writing an article on the anniversary of France’s notorious 1942 Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup of Jews in World War II. Julia (Kristin Scott Thomas) discovers that her French husband’s family’s apartment belonged to the Starzynski family, who were involved with the roundup and sent to concentration camps. In order to get a more personal feel to her pending article,…

Title: Tomboy Director: Celine Sciamma Starring: Zoe Heran, Malonn Levana, Jeanne Disson, Sophie Cattani, Mathieu Demy, Yohan Vero, Noah Vero Humans are inherently social creatures, and the manner in which we each form a perception of our place in the world around us — and how our ego takes shape and form from our id — certainly relates as much to our interactions as any ingrained or telegraphed sense of social acceptance and duty. Capturing the fickle progress of that individual transformation, however, is a difficult task. A tender and perspicacious look at the toddling steps of adolescent character and personality, writer-director Celine’s Sciamma’s French import “Tomboy” assays the gender confusion…

Title: I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive Directors: Claude Miller and Nathan Miller Starring: Vincent Rottiers, Annie Jouvet, Sophie Cattani, Christine Citti, Yves Verhoeven “I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive,” which played at the 2010 City of Lights City of Angels (COLCOA) Festival, is a stirring familial drama of simmering resentment, anchored by a searing performance from young Vincent Rottiers, whose piercing blue eyes and quiet intensity are enough to make one ruminate about a possible fraternal collaboration with Daniel Craig. The American version of these sorts of damaged-kid stories typically cedes all ambiguity in favor of pat cathartic redemption, but this gripping French import keeps an edge of violence and uncertainty about…

Title: The Hedgehog Director: Mona Achache Starring: Garance Le Guillermic, Josiane Balasko, Togo Igawa Somewhere, no doubt, adult film actor and shameless publicity whore Ron Jeremy is kicking himself over finding out that there exists a movie entitled “The Hedgehog” in which he is not the star, or the beneficiary of a large life-rights check. No, director Mona Achache’s movie is no hairy skin-flick biopic, but instead a darkly comedic broadside aimed at stuffy French elitism, a movie very loosely of a sort with “Gosford Park” and the forthcoming “The Women on the 6th Floor,” written and directed by Philippe Le Guay. Based on Muriel Barbery’s 2006 French-language novel “The Elegance…

Title: Special Treatment Director: Jeanne Labrune Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Bouli Lanners, Richard Debuisne, Sabila Moussadek, Valerie Dreville, Mathieu Carriere French actress Isabelle Huppert, nominated for a record 13 Cesar Awards, has made a career out of playing nervy characters with all manner of sexual foibles or secrets. In “Special Treatment,” she’s a high-class prostitute with dormant issues fueling a desire for a career change. The eighth feature offering from cult filmmaker Jeanne Labrune, this generally well sketched and set-up drama cashes in its early intrigue, though, abandoning darker overtones for rather wan interpersonal revelations. Those seeking kinky erotic drama of the sort found in early David Cronenberg will be sorely disappointed. The story…

Title: Rapt Writer-director: Lucas Belvaux Starring: Yvan Attal, Anne Consigny, Andre Marcon The differences between French cinema and Hollywood studio offerings are various and sundry, but perhaps best illustrated by something like Rapt, a sprawling and inventive kidnap drama which doesn’t so much deliver an adrenaline shot of nervy thrills as steadily ooze disquieting tension over the course of its two-hour running time. Watching this superb high-wire balancing act unfold, one is struck by the myriad ways American thrillers typically angle for car chases and other jolts of immediacy, even if it doesn’t always make sense within the confines of the narrative. So when word of a planned English-language remake of Rapt broke not…

Title: Point Blank Writer-director: Fred Cavaye Starring: Gilles Lellouche, Roschdy Zem, Gerard Lanvin, Elena Anaya The title Point Blank is one of those perfectly generic and innocuous film monikers that indicate “thrills” without any cumbersome specificity whatsoever. One hears it and immediately envisions a dozen or more well-worn video and DVD coverboxes – with Steven Seagal, Jeff Speakman or, now, the latest WWE superstar attempting to transition into acting, clutching a handgun and mean-mugging the viewer, all underneath a font that conveys skirmish and exploit. This is one of the reasons that it’s a somewhat strange fit with this French import — an action thriller yes, but hardly a nuance-free, vengeful…

Title: Jackboots on Whitehall Director: Edward & Rory McHenry Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rosamund Pike, Richard Griffiths, Alan Cumming, Tom Wilkinson, Richard O’Brien, Timothy Spall, Dominic West and Richard E. Grant Running time: 91 minutes, Unrated A British satirical take on what if the Nazi’s invaded England during World War II and the English have to band together with the help of Scottish highlanders, a Frenchman and an American pilot who thinks he’s battling Russia….and the actors are all puppets. Like most people, I loved Team America; however this was not even in the same league. It looked like a long…long episode of Robot Chicken, but with a bigger budget. All…

Read our interview with French director, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor and music producer Quentin Dupieux, who attended the New York City premiere of his new comedy thriller ‘Rubber’ on February 3, 2011 at the IFC Center. ‘Rubber,’ which is scheduled to have a VOD release on February 25, 2011, followed by a limited theatrical release on April 1, tells the story of a tire named Robert who comes to life in the California desert. He soon discovers he has telepathic powers, and at first is content with blowing up discarded objects and small animals with his mind. However, Robert soon finds enjoyment in killing people, all while an audience watches. After…

Here’s a funny new “Saw V” spoof poster featuring the face of Senator John McCain on the head of president George W. Bush. “Saw V” by director David Hackl stars Julie Benz ( Punisher: War Zone, Dexter), Meagan Good (One Missed Call), Shawnee Smith and Tobin Bell a Jigsaw. ” Saw V ” will be in theaters everywhere on October 24, 2008. Synopsis: Almost every one brought in to try and solve the jigsaw mystery has died or been injured. With John’s dead body in the hospital, Officer Rigg badly injured still in the warehouse, Agent Perez recovering in the hospital and Agent Strahm nowhere to be found there leaves…