Jane Birkin: a tremendous screen presence with a gift for creative collaboration
Birkin made a sensational impact in Blow-Up, and went on to become a classy performer for a number of major French directors – notably Godard and Agnès Varda
Shabu review – charming documentary follows a Dutch teenager learning about life
A young aspiring Rotterdam rapper having a bad summer is the charismatic subject of Shamira Raphaëla’s affecting film
The Damned Don’t Cry review – impressive tale of a Moroccan single mother and son living on the margins
Fyzal Boulifa’s intense drama about this unusually tight family unit fleeing scandal and debt is a painterly triumph
Smoking Causes Coughing review – one of the funniest films of the year
Quentin Dupieux’s madcap French comedy about a group of tobacco-powered superheroes is as unpredictable as it is formally daring
Streaming: Return to Seoul and the best films about homecoming
Davy Chou’s lovely drama about a young woman searching for her past follows in the footsteps of The Deer Hunter, Get Carter, Tiny Furniture and more
Smoking Causes Coughing review – cigarette-superhero comedy is refreshingly immature
Quentin Dupieux’s chaotic, bizarre film about a monster-fighting squad controlled by a rat named Didier will greatly annoy some, which is one of its strengths
Small, Slow But Steady review – unsentimental Japanese drama about a young deaf boxer
The true story of a self-doubting female fighter battling through pandemic lockdown benefits from a muted, naturalistic approach
La Syndicaliste review – French sexual abuse thriller takes cheap shots
Isabelle Huppert plays a whistleblower who is assaulted in this crass adaptation of a shocking true story
Mother and Son review – Annabelle Lengronne is magnetic in French immigrant drama
Playing a young woman who moves from Ivory Coast to Paris with her two young sons, Lengronne then frustratingly fades from view in Léonor Serraille’s follow-up to Jeune Femme
Streaming: One Fine Morning and the best films about children parenting their parents
Mia Hansen-Løve’s bittersweet 2022 release joins a select group of films exploring this most tender of life role reversals, from The Savages to Eat Drink Man Woman
No more Antonioni: how Berlusconi turned entertainment into politics
The lurid giant of Italian populism’s career grew out of his media empire, which heralded post-ideological society with a consumerist dreamworld
The Old Man Movie: Lactopalypse! review – gloriously unsavoury Estonian animation
This madcap stop-motion tale of saving the world from cataclysmic bovine explosion is funny, silly – and not for children
Call My Agent!’s Laure Calamy: ‘I have too much energy’
The ebullient French star on her hyperactive new film, taking on more serious roles and her love of British cinema
La Chimera review – Alice Rohrwacher’s uproarious adventure teems with life
Set in 1980s Tuscany, Rohrwacher’s captivating film follows a lovelorn Englishman plundering Italy’s historical artefacts with a bizarre gang
Last Summer review – Catherine Breillat’s all too safe version of a dangerous romance
Breillat’s remake of Queen of Hearts rather pointlessly draws the sting from a mother’s affair with her teenage stepson