The Film Stage

There’s a spot on the windswept island around which Dominga Sotomayor’s La Perra unfolds where gas bubbles up from the sea. A pipeline has burst by the shore, and fumes have gurgled out of it since time immemorial. It’s a...

“Are healthy people truly alive?” It is early into All of a Sudden when Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira) hears the question that rings as a tagline for Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s new feature. The head of a private Parisian clinic for the elderly,...

It might not have the fervent awards chatter that’s followed Sandra Hüller’s current run of form, but for the London-born actress Sophie Okonedo, 2026 is already looking like a quietly spectacular comeback year. After seeing Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s...

With the halfway point of this year’s Cannes Film Festival fast approaching, one of the best movies I’ve seen is a Chilean chiller called The Meltdown. The story is set in a snowy ski lodge high up in the Andes,...

Little word that comes out of Cannes is likely to match the news of Kenneth Lonergan’s return. A full decade since Manchester by the Sea (and two from Margaret‘s production), the writer-director has prepped a major cast for Tomorrow Is...

After two decades of features, Iranian Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi has made one thing abundantly clear: he lives in the grey zone, and so should we. Parallel Tales, Farhadi’s tenth film (and second in French), is a blend of Rear...

“Look into my eyes / can you see they’re open wide / would I lie to you?” Those lyrics linger in the air as a soft whisper for only a moment before the accompanying piano notes carry them away and...

It’s never wise to assume anything. Promotional materials doing the rounds before Club Kid‘s raucous Cannes premiere this week suggested a New York downtown scene answer to Mia Hansen-Løve’s Eden, but Jordan Firstman’s funny, bittersweet, and tremendously moving directorial debut...

One of this year’s most-anticipated premieres is a rare occurrence for the Cannes Film Festival: a sequel. Coming full circle, Lisandro Alonso’s new feature is a follow-up to his acclaimed debut La libertad. Double Freedom (aka La libertad doble) catches up with woodcutter Misael...

Thomas Mann, Nobel Prize-winning writer and voice of the German resistance from abroad, fled Germany in 1933 to take refuge in California, where he lived for sixteen years before returning to Germany in 1949 to receive the Goethe Prize in...