1. Racial politics and acrobatics: Monsieur Chocolat


A kooky Canadian (co-director Fiona Gordon) arrives in Paris to help her elderly aunt (Emmanuelle Riva) who promptly disappears. This comedy pays slapstick homage to Charlie Chaplin and Jacques Tati.
Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Depp play American sisters travelling through 1930s Europe, the younger of whom performs an on-stage clairvoyant show, in this provocative drama.
Enfant terrible Xavier Dolan (Mommy) won the Grand Prix of the Cannes Festival with this story of a playwright (Gaspard Ulliel) returning home after a 12 year absence to inform family members (including Léa Seydoux, Vincent Cassel and Marion Cotillard) of his terminal illness.
A Jewish Frenchman (Patrick Bruel) gives his two young sons a map and some cash and sends them off to escape Nazi-occupied Paris. This remarkable true story is based on an acclaimed memoir by Joseph Joffo.
Oscar-nominated this year for Elle, Huppert also shines in the story of a philosophy teacher in her fifties whose life is turned upside down after her husband leaves her. The filmmaker is Mia Hansen-Løve (The Father of My Children).
Ordered to relax at a resort in Cyprus after months of fighting in Afghanistan, two soldiers, Aurore and Marine, try to efface their traumatic experiences through parties, alcohol and drugs. This tense drama won a screenplay award in Cannes.
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