Running time: 100 mins
Part of the French Film Festival: Woody Allen features in the French Film Festival UK for the first time with a thriller set in the upper-class echelons of Paris society and written, acted and filmed entirely in French. For his 50th film he deals with a bored wife in Paris (Lou de Laāge) who cheats on her wealthy and aloof husband (Melvile Poupaud) with an old high school friend (Niels Schneider) … which triggers fatal consequences. Allen at 88 has more than a half-century career as a writer and director of influential classics such as Annie Hall (1977) and Crimes and Misdemeanours (1989). He has an affection for France and his 2011 comedy Midnight in Paris brought him his fourth Oscar, for original screenplay. Here he has coaxed superb performances from a sterling cast especially newcomer Lou de Laāge, who has distinct traces of Diane Keaton. Stunning cinematography by Vittorio Storaro.