Ira Sachs makes the kind of movies we love — intimate, small scale, character driven dramas. They aren’t the kind of movies that light up the multiplex, but they are the kind of you’ll think about for far longer than the latest high calorie blockbuster. Now, two years after his last effort, “Little Men,” the director is lining up faces old and new for an intriguing new project.

An array of film festival and arthouse faves including Isabelle Huppert, Jérémie Renier, Marisa Tomei, Greg Kinnear, and Aki Kaurismaki regular André Wilms have signed up for “A Family Vacation.” Co-written by Sachs and his regular collaborator Mauricio Zacharias, the story follows three generations of a family grappling with a life-changing experience during one day of a vacation in Sintra, Portugal, a historic town known for its dense gardens and fairy-tale villas and palaces.

Continue reading Ira Sachs Lines Up Isabelle Huppert, Marisa Tomei & Greg Kinnear For ‘A Family Vacation’ at The Playlist.

Prolific and acclaimed French filmmaker Francois Ozon likes to shift gears between pictures. Following his black-and-white World War I drama “Frantz,” the director turned up the heat with the sensational “Double Lover.” An erotic thriller in the tradition of Brian De Palma, Paul Verhoeven, and Adrian Lyne, the story will set your pulse racing as its characters cross professional, ethical, personal, and sexual boundaries.

Continue reading ‘Double Lover’ Clip & Poster: A Secret Is Revealed [Exclusive] at The Playlist.

During the ’90s, erotic thrillers were part of the stable of pictures Hollywood would churn out each year. The mid-budget efforts were provocative, but in honesty, rarely of top shelf quality. As the demands for bigger blockbusters, with four quadrant appeal have grown, the studio system has largely abandoned the genre. However, the arthouse is still willing to take some risks, and Francois Ozon dives into the psychosexual thriller pool with “Double Lover,” which should well satisfy fans of Alfred Hitchcock and Paul Verhoeven.

Continue reading ‘Double Lover’ Trailer: Francois Ozon’s Psychosexual Thriller Gets Ready For Valentine’s Day at The Playlist.

Loading up Brian De Palma, David Cronenberg and Roman Polanski on three jukebox machines, and pressing play on all at the same time while running around the room with his pants down, Francois Ozon serves up “L’Amant Double” on a soiled platter. The provocative Frenchman is having a lot of fun with his new sexy thriller, and while you may hear some deriding it for its uncouth treatment of the central female character, or calling it sensationalist trash, you can still join Ozon’s party by putting your convictions and politics on the side and let the film surprise you with its eye-widening shocks and pitch-black humor.

Continue reading Francois Ozon’s ‘L’Amant Double’ Is A Sexy, Twisted & Kinky Paranoia Spectacle [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.

There are few filmmakers that can match Francois Ozon for versatility or for sheer volume of output. The acclaimed French helmer has made 16 films in his 20-year career, and his latest “L’Amant Double,” will be his eighth movie in ten years, arriving barely six months after his last film, “Frantz,” screened in theaters. Ozon has many modes — he’s recently made comedy-of-manners with “Potiche,” “Belle Du Jour”-style character study with “Young & Beautiful,” transgender comedy-drama with “The New Girlfriend,” and period romance with “Frantz,” but his latest sees him return to the sexy-thriller territory of some of his best movies, like 2003’s “Swimming Pool.”

Set to premiere in competition at Cannes in a few weeks, “L’Amant Double,” reteams Ozon with two previous stars: Dardennes favorite Jeremie Renier (“Potiche”), and “Young & Beautiful” lead Marine Vacth, with Jacqueline Bisset also in the cast.

Continue reading Watch The NSFW Full Trailer For Francois Ozon’s Thriller ‘L’Amant Double’ With Jeremie Renier & Marine Vacth at The Playlist.

With a first look image that’s NSFW and makes Google unhappy, the always unpredictable Francois Ozon is making yet another genre pivot with his next film, “L’amant double.” Following his WWI effort “Frantz,” the filmmaker has turned around and knocked out a steamy thriller.

Starring Jérémie Renier, Marine Vacth and Jacqueline Bisset, the Hitchcockian sounding picture follows a young woman who falls in love with her shrink and eventually moves in with him.

Continue reading Cannes: Intense Teaser For Francois Ozon’s ‘L’amant double’ at The Playlist.

Even the most celebrated directors in the world can sometimes be humbled by criticism, and when the reception for “The Unknown Girl” was less than ecstatic at the Cannes Film Festival this year, the Dardennes didn’t fight back, they went to work. The siblings made a new cut of the movie, that featured 32 revisions, and now runs seven-minutes shorter than the version that screened at Cannes. And this spruced up edit is the one that will hit an arthouse near you.

Continue reading New Trailer For Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne’s ‘The Unknown Girl’ Presents Murder & Mystery at The Playlist.

While someone like Woody Allen tends to get name-checked immediately when it comes to directors who work at a prolific clip, it can be easy to forget that François Ozon is no slouch either. The French filmmaker has been working steadily, releasing nearly a film each year, since his debut “Sitcom” eighteen years ago. And with his latest “Frantz” barely off the festival circuit, Ozon is gearing up to go behind the camera again.

Continue reading François Ozon To Direct ‘Double Lover’ Next at The Playlist.

It’s been too long since we’ve seen a project from Vietnamese-French director Tran Anh Hung. Though he can be hit and miss (his 2009 Josh Hartnett-starring “I Come With The Rain” does not come with the Playlist seal of approval), his films including the Camera D’Or and Oscar nominated “The Scent Of Green Papaya” and the Golden Lion-winning “Cyclo” are often fascinating, as is his last film, the Murakami adaptation “Norwegian Wood.”

READ MORE: The 50 Best Foreign Language Films Of The 21st Century So Far

Six years have passed since that film was released, yet it seems that he’s spent the time since rounding up every hot French actor, as the trailer for his sixth feature “Eternity” is stacked full of them.

Continue reading Watch Audrey Tautou, Melanie Laurent & Berenice Bejo In The First Trailer For Tran Anh Hung’s ‘Eternity’ at The Playlist.

Review: Biopic 'Saint Laurent' Is A Failed Attempt At Visualizing Artistic Soul

Continue reading Review: Biopic ‘Saint Laurent’ Is A Failed Attempt At Visualizing Artistic Soul at The Playlist.

Watch: Meet 'Saint Laurent' In U.S. Trailer For Fashion World Biopic With Gaspard Ulliel, Léa Seydoux And More

Continue reading Watch: Meet ‘Saint Laurent’ In U.S. Trailer For Fashion World Biopic With Gaspard Ulliel, Léa Seydoux And More at The Playlist.

Continue reading Josh Gad Heads To ‘Gilligan’s Island,’ James Franco Is ‘The Fixer’ & More at The Playlist.

“Lorna’s Silence,” the latest award-winning film from Belgian brothers Jean-Luc and Pierre Dardenne, begs discussion. Its unresolved ending tends to have a polarizing effect on both critics and audiences alike, leaving us guessing at both the fate of its protagonist and the filmmakers’ intent, not unlike the conclusions of John Sayles’s “Limbo” and the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men.” There are myriad elements we could analyze and debate in this film (including the Dardenne brothers’ increasingly nuanced examinations of those marginalized in the European economic integration following the collapse of the Soviet system), but the inconsonant narrative form and incongruous ending of “Lorna’s Silence” deserve special attention.

Continue reading Review: ‘Lorna’s Silence’ at The Playlist.

The picture is beautiful, painful, sad, and carefully and compassionately observed; there’s a sense of generousness to each and every emotion.

Continue reading Trailer: The Bittersweetness Of Oliver Assayas’ Family Drama ‘Summer Hours’ at The Playlist.