15 May 2026
HISTOIRES PARALLÈLES (Parallel Tales) **** (vo French, with English subtitles)
What a relief – it seems three’s a charm. Meaning that Asghar Farhadi’s third film made outside Iran has finally recaptured his past brilliance, both in his intense yet fluid, multi-layered script and his flawless directorial touch. And he has somehow grasped the French psyche, along with assembling an amazing cast including Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney, and a brief cameo featuring Catherine Deneuve. They are all major stars, but Farhadi has moulded them into characters who feel like any one of us. That is his inherent talent, now re-emerging like a new shoot in foreign soil.
His superb, award-winning films such as “About Elly”, “The Salesman” and his masterpiece, “A Separation” – which in 2011 won the Berlin Festival’s Golden Bear, the French César, the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Foreign Film, amongst many more awards – were all made in Iran. But because of his opposition to the ruthless regime in his country, and for his artistic freedom, he is now living in France.
He’s once again in Cannes, where he may well walk away with the Palme this year. The film is a fascinating study of human relationships, sparked by an eccentric writer (Huppert) who creates an imaginary story while spying with binoculars on her neighbours across the street. There’s imagination and then there’s reality – and one homeless fellow (a fine Adam Bessa), who ends up working for the writer, manages to stir up too many levels of these parallel existences. The result is a thrilling psychological look into artistic creation that may have your heart beating and your head spinning till the end.
LA VÉNUS ÉLECTRIQUE (The Electric Kiss) *** (vo French, with English subtitles)
This opening film at the Cannes Film Festival is an old-fashioned charmer. A triangular love story set in Paris in the early 1920s amid carnival performers and artists, it stars Anaïs Demoustier as the enticing Vénus of the title. And there are two gentlemen friends who meet her from different perspectives, played with panache by Pio Marmaï, a painter in turmoil at the death of his wife, and Gilles Lellouche as his agent and gallery owner.
Lightly and lovingly filmed by Pierre Salvadori, the film spins a tale of carnival trickery, blind faith, the slow emergence of love, then doubt, amongst these people of different social classes.
It’s an unforgettable moment of nostalgia and romance.
IN THE GREY **
Tons of action, the world of big money and crooked deals, glamorous stars – Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rosamund Pike, Eiza Gonzalez, and our favourite thriller director, Guy Ritchie. What more do you want from a fun date-night movie?
What was the story? Doesn’t matter – there’s enough slick, momentary excitement to make it worthwhile – why not?
Superb **** Very Good *** Good ** Mediocre * Miserable – no stars
By Neptune
Neptune Ravar Ingwersen reviews film extensively for publications in Switzerland. She views 4 to 8 films a week and her aim is to sort the wheat from the chaff for readers.
Neptune
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