French cinema gave the world the Nouvelle Vague, but its adventurousness runs far deeper, from the philosophical strangeness of Fantastic Planet to the quiet alienation of The Man Who Sleeps. France has long rewarded directors who treat film as a genuinely literary form, and that spirit runs through everything here. See what Macca made of it below.
Rating: 3.5★
The title alone tells you something about the world this film inhabits. "No Dogs or Italians Allowed" refers to the kind of signs that reportedly appeared outside lodgings and workplaces in early twentieth-century France, a blunt shorthand for the discrimination faced by the waves of Italian labourers
1970s
René Laloux’s Fantastic Planet (1973) is one of those films that doesn’t really fit anywhere: too cerebral for kids, too odd for animation festivals, too steeped in European political theory for the Saturday-morning slot, and too visually fearless to ignore. A 72-minute French–Czech co-production
Genre Documentary
Letter from Siberia (1957)
Genre Documentary
Here and Elsewhere (1976)
Genre War
Lessons of Darkness (1992)
Genre Drama
★★★ — The Man Who Sleeps (1974)
Genre Comedy
★½ — Cemetery Man (1994)
Genre Adventure
★★★ — Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005)
Genre Drama
★ — Only God Forgives (2013)
Genre Action
★★ — Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016)
Genre Horror
★★★ — The Substance (2024)
Genre Animation
★★★ — Chicken for Linda! (2023)
Film images and data courtesy of TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
The best new reviews, a buried gem with where to watch it, and where the every-country challenge is up to. Free, no spam.
Subscribe free