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Six year old Louise Mauroy-Panzani is wonderful as Cléo, strongly bonded to her carer Gloria, who has to leave her

By rights Louise Mauroy-Panzani should be at the front of the queue for every acting award going for her role in this gorgeous French drama. Just six years old at the time of filming (the casting director spotted her in Paris arguing with her brother in the street), she gives a performance so open and natural, it has an almost transparent quality. You feel what her character Cléo feels as her world is turned upside down over one summer. Equally brilliant is another first-time actor, Ilça Moreno Zego, a real-life nanny playing Gloria, who has taken care of Cléo since she was tiny and is now moving back to Cape Verde.

The opening scenes showing us Cléo’s life with Gloria are beautifully detailed. Cléo’s mum died when she was a baby,...

The wisdom and emotional reach of a six-year-old girl trying to make sense of the world and her place within it is explored with rigour and sensitivity by writer and director Marie Amachoukeli.

It’s one of the most moving portraits of childhood seen recently on the screen, bringing to mind Celine Sciamma’s equally affecting Petite Maman which covered some similar territory with a more fantastical style.

In a narrative that contains autobiographical elements Amachoukeli examines the intimate bond between Cape Verdean nanny Gloria (played by newcomer Ilça Moreno Zego) and her charge Cleo (Louise Mauroy-Panzani) whose mother has died of cancer. The youngster is being raised in the family flat in Paris by her struggling father (Arnaud Rebotini).

When her mother passes away Gloria decides to return to Cape Verde, leaving with the promise that Cleo, feeling painfully abandoned, can join her for the holidays. The reunion presents Cleo with a whole new.

The complex plights of migrant women who leave homes and children seeking means to provide for them have rarely been addressed with the sensitivity and delicateness of Àma Gloria, which looks at it through a new lens: a six-year-old French girl, Cléo (Louise Mauroy-Panzani), who has to come to terms with the abrupt departure of her beloved nanny Gloria (Ilça Moreno Zego).

Cléo has no recollection of the mother she lost to cancer years before. The only maternal figure she knows is Gloria, the Cape Verdean woman who looks after her while her father (Arnaud Rebotini) is at work. Cléo’s world revolves around Gloria, who feeds her, showers her with affection, and helps shape the way she looks at life. The love between them is undeniable, but Cléo has no idea Gloria had a life far away from her. How could she? Children don’t understand the dynamics of work or things like migration.

For all its many, many faults, 2023 was a banner year for international films. The awards season buzz for global gems like Justine Triet’s French courtroom thriller Anatomy of a Fall (released by Neon stateside), Jonathan Glazer’s German-language Holocaust drama Zone of Interest (A24), Hayao Miyazaki’s Japanese anime The Boy and the Heron (GKids), and J.A. Bayona’s Spanish-language real-life survival tale Society of the Snow (Netflix) only scratches the surface.

Among the many many other foreign highlights from last year are Mubi’s Fallen Leaves and How to Have Sex — the first a laconic triumph by Finnish film master Aki Kaurismäki, the latter a stunning debut by Brit first-timer Molly Manning Walker — Sony Pictures Classics’ The Teachers’ Lounge, a German school drama from director Ilker Çatak and Iranian drama Shayda from director Noora Niasari; Agnieszka Holland’s harrowing The Green Border, about Poland’s treatment of would-be...

In “Àma Gloria,” directed by Marie Amachoukeli, childhood is the domain of formative gains and losses. After opening this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week, the film screened as part of the Meet the Neighbors+ competition at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. Amachoukeli previously co-directed “Party Girl,” which won Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2014.

“Àma Gloria” introduces us to six-year-old Cléo (Louise Mauroy-Panzani), who lives in Paris with her widower dad Arnaud (Arnaud Rebotini) and her nanny Gloria (Ilça Moreno Zego). A blissfully constructed day-to-day routine keeps the world in order until one day Gloria has to return to her Cape Verdean family. In preparation to leave France for good, she invites Cléo to spend the summer with her in Cape Verde.

“Àma Gloria” unfolds as an exploration of childhood through the eyes of its young protagonist. Reviewing the film for Variety, critic Jessica Kiang called it “a debut made dazzling by...

It is unlikely that this Cannes will yield many characters as strikingly well-drawn as Cléo (Louise Mauroy-Panzani), the star of Marie Amachoukeli’s small but acutely affecting Critics’ Week opener “Ama Gloria.” Over the course of an efficient 84 minutes, Cléo changes and resists change, she learns and rejects life lessons, she befriends and betrays. She is funny, somber, silly, conniving, shockingly selfish and shiningly pure, sometimes all in the space of an afternoon. She is six years old.

Cléo, a bundle of personality under a tangle of hair and pair of thick glasses, lives in Paris with her affable widower Dad, Arnaud (Arnaud Rebotini), but is raised mostly by her beloved Cape Verdean nanny Gloria (Ilça Moreno Zego). Their relationship is close as a goodnight kiss, and obviously mutually adoring — witness the exchange of incandescent smiles when Cléo sees Gloria waiting at the school gates. So it’s a heavy...

Ama Gloria

One-third of the trio who won the Camera d’Or for Party Girl back in 2014, Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq is the last one out of the gate to move into a sophomore feature. The French filmmaker of Georgian background moved into production back in March. Produced by Lilies Films (Celine Sciamma’s films) and recipient of Cnc’s advance on receipts, described as a hybrid film, Ama Gloria (formerly titled “Rose Hill”) stars Ilça Moreno, Louise Mauroy-Panzani, Fredy Gomes Tavares, Abnara Gomes Tavera and Arnaud Rebotini. On paper this tale about six-year-old Cléo who loves Gloria (her nanny) to the moon and back sounds like a tear-jerker and taps into a motherly figure that is rarely addressed in cinema.…...

As Martin Scorsese once said, “Music and cinema fit together naturally. Because there’s a kind of intrinsic musicality to the way moving images work when they’re put together. It’s been said that cinema and music are very close as art forms, and I think that’s true.” Indeed, the right piece of music–whether it’s an original score or a carefully selected song–can do wonders for a sequence, and today we’re looking at the 25 films that best expressed this notion this year.

From seasoned composers to accomplished musicians, as well as a smattering of soundtracks, each musical example perfectly transported us to the world of the film. Check out our rundown of the top 25, which includes streams to each soundtrack in full.

25. Dark Glasses (Arnaud Rebotini)

24. Catch the Fair One (Nathan Halpern)

23. Barbarian (Anna Drubich)

22. Return to Seoul (Various)

21. Babylon (Justin Hurwitz)

20. Mad God...

With a harrowing performance in Gaspar Noe’s “Vortex” as an aging writer caring for his wife in even more precarious cognitive health, Italian horror legend Dario Argento recently flaunted his virtuous acting capabilities. But back behind the camera for his first directorial outing in a decade, “Dark Glasses,” the veteran operates within the comfort of the giallo tropes he pioneered decades ago, although to less memorable effect.

Argento first introduces Diana (Ilenia Pastorelli), a sex worker in Rome, as she drives around the city minutes before an eclipse occurs. Noticing that everyone points at the sky with anticipation, she stops to join them in admiring the astral dance between the sun and the moon that for a few moments provides a unique filter on how we perceive the world. The momentary tinting of our reality serves as cleverly ominous forewarning of what’s to come.

The opening, however, remains...

Stars: Ilenia Pastorelli, Asia Argento, Andrea Gherpelli, Mario Pirrello, Maria Rosaria Russo, Gennaro Iaccarino, Xinyu Zhang | Written by Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini | Directed by Dario Argento

The Italian maestro is back! Yes, Dario Argento, one of Italian cinema’s great horror filmmakers has stepped back behind the camera for Occhiali Neri (Black Glasses), the director’s first movie since 2012’s much-ridiculed Dracula 3D, which is actually based on a script he wrote with Franco Ferrini that was shelved in 2002 when the films original production company, Cecchi Gori, filed for bankruptcy.

Black Glasses sees Rome under siege from a serial killer who has strangled three prostitutes with cello rope. His latest victim is destined to be Diana, a luxury escort who frequents the hotels of Via Veneto. One night, the maniac chases her in his white van and rams her, sending her crashing into another car containing a Chinese family and the young son Chin.

Dario Argento’s Berlin Film Festival Special Gala entry Dark Glasses plays out almost like a parody of his earlier work. Co-written with Franco Ferrini, it’s a lurid giallo about a killer slaughtering women in contemporary Rome. It lacks the suspense and style of Argento’s work in the 70s and 80s, while repeating various themes.

Echoing the pianist in Suspiria (1977), the lead in Dark Glasses (or Occhiali Neri in its native Italian) is a woman who has lost her sight. Diana (Ilenia Pastorelli) is a high class escort who has been chased by a killer and blinded in an accident during her escape. Arriving on her doorstep is Rita (Argento’s daughter Asia Argento), whose job is to help the newly-blind adjust to their condition.

Rita also functions as a way of creating unresolved lesbian tension (her name may or may not be an homage to David Lynch...

At 81, Italian horror maestro Dario Argento is busier than ever.

The director of a string of cult chiller classics starting in the 1970s, including “The Bird With the Crystal Plumage,” “Suspiria” and “Deep Red,” was at Cannes last July with his acting debut in Gaspar Noe’s “Vortex,” about a pair of old lovers. Argento was also celebrated last year with a new book by Italian critic Steve Della Casa and a retro at New York’s Lincoln Center. This spring he’s set to be honored with a big show at Italy’s National Museum of Cinema in Turin.

More significantly, having returned to the director’s chair after a decade, Argento is back with “Dark Glasses,” which he describes as a classic thriller, or giallo, as the violent crime genre is known in Italy.

“Dark Glasses,” which is set in present-day Rome, screens on Feb. 11 as a Berlinale Special Gala,...

Curiosa Trailer — Lou Jeunet‘s Curiosa (2019) movie trailer has been released by Film Movement. The Curiosa trailer stars Noémie Merlant, Niels Schneider, Benjamin Lavernhe, Camelia Jordana, Amira Casar, Mathilde Warnier, Damien Bonnard, Alexia Giordano, and Mélodie Richard. Crew Lou Jeunet and Raphaëlle Desplechin wrote the screenplay for Curiosa. Arnaud Rebotini created the music for the [...]

Continue reading: Curiosa (2019) Movie Trailer: Noémie Merlant Becomes Enmeshed in a Affair Between Husband, Lover, & Muse...

Politically-charged annual celebration of French cinema highlights female rights, fight against Aids and plight of refugees.

Robin Campillo’s AIDS activism drama Bpm topped the awards at the 43rd edition of the French Césars on Friday evening (March 2), with the director clinching best film, editing and screenplay.

The film won in six of its 13 nominated categories, with additional awards for best original music for Arnaud Rebotini, best supporting actor for Antoine Reinartz and best male newcomer for Nahuel Pérez Biscayart.

The César triumph follows an award-winning run in France for the film charting the activities of the Paris branch of...

French Aids activism drama earns six top French awards after missing out on Oscar consideration.

Robin Campillo’s Aids activism drama Bpm (Beats Per Minute) triumphed at the 23rd Lumière Awards, France’s equivalent of the Golden Globes, on Monday evening (February 5), winning in all six categories in which it was nominated.

The feature, revolving around the work of the French branch of militant Aids advocacy group Act Up in the early 1990s, won best director, screenplay and film.

Co-star Nahuel Pérez Biscayart clinched best actor for his performance as young activist Sean Delmazo, who battles the illness to the death, while Arnaud Valois picked up best male revelation for his performance as Sean’s loyal partner. Arnaud Rebotini won for best music.

After thanking Campillo, the film’s producers Hugues Charbonneau and Marie-Ange Luciani, as well as the rest of cast and crew, Biscayart also paid tribute to Act Up for its pioneering work to raise awareness...

Gilles Lelouch in Best Film nominee C’est La Vie Photo: UniFrance

Sexually graphic AIDS activism drama 120 Bpm (Beats Per Minute), by Robin Campillo, which features in the upcoming Glasgow Film Festival, has scooped an amazing 13 nominations (tying a record) in France’s 2018 César award nominations which were announced in Paris earlier today (31 January).

Among the nominations are for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Male Newcomer for its co-stars Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Arnaud Valois, as well as Best Supporting Actor (Antoine Reinartz), Best Supporting Actress (Adele Haenel), Costumes (Isabelle Pannetier), Design (Emmanuelle Duplay), Score (Arnaud Rebotini), Cinematography (Jeanne Lapoirie) and Editing (Campillo).

Jeanne Moreau on the poster for this year’s César ceremony Photo: Academie des Césars

France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences unveiled the nominations at a news conference at Le Fouquet’s restaurant on the Champs-Elysées.

Although Camillo’s ground-breaking feature was...

It’s been a great year for film music. I say that as someone who had to endure the laughably dated qualities of Alberto Iglesias’ Exodus: Gods and Kings and had to swallow the pill that is Howard Shore‘s latter days Middle-earth music.

But it has been a great year. Clint Mansell gave us haunting, complex soundscapes in Noah, the Alexandre Desplat Hive Mind unleashed another five feature-length scores on the planet, and we even got a peak at John Williams‘ forthcoming music in that Star Wars trailer.

So what was the best of the bunch? For simplicity’s sake, I’ve limited this list to movies with U.S. theatrical runs in 2014. When possible, I’ve also linked to our reviews and select cues on Spotify, although you’ll note the occasional YouTube or SoundCloud embed as well. Let’s do this:

20. Horns — Robin Coudert

Every few years,...