Nous sommes solidaires de la France suivant ces actes barbares.

I love French movies, I love France,  and I love and support the French people, particularly those in Nice.

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Here are some of my favorite French things:

I have a little bit of a girl crush on Marion Cotillard.

She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar last year for Deux Jours, Une Nuit (Two Days One Night), an exceptional film about Sandra (Cotillard), a young Belgian mother who finds out that her coworkers have agreed to sacrificing her and her job in order to keep theirs and get bonuses. She has only one weekend to convince them to change their minds.

WATCH TWO DAYS ONE NIGHT

I was a little bit nervous about La Vie d’Adèle (Blue is the Warmest Color) in 2013, and felt that it was La Grande Bellezza’s biggest competition for the Oscar, but the film got the big Academy snub somehow. It’s excellent; the story of Adèle’, who falls for Emma, a young woman with blue hair.

WATCH BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR

And of course we have ALWAYS loved Juliette Binoche, the star ofPiero Messina’s beautiful L’Attesa (The Wait). Piero was desperate to have her in his film: READ ABOUT IT IN MY INTERVIEW WITH PIERO MESSINA.

One of my absolute favorite Binoche films was Caché, a disturbing film about a couple who are terrorized by surveillance tapes left on their front porch. Who is watching them?

WATCH CACHÉ

And please tell me you haven’t missed out on the quirky fun of Holy Motors, from director Leos Carax; 24 hours in the life of the mysterious Monsieur Oscar, keeping his Paris appointments in various incarnations.

WATCH HOLY MOTORS

Kristen Scott Thomas isn’t French but she sure acts like it sometimes; her recent film directed by François Ozon is one of my favorites; InDans la Maison (In The House) a high school teacher’s writing assignment gets creepy when one of his students takes it a little too seriously.

WATCH IN THE HOUSE

If I recall correctly, I criticized at least one Italian film (that will remain nameless) for not being more like the police drama, Polisse, from the director Maïwenn. In Polisse, a journalist covers  the police’s juvenile division. This one stars one of our favorite Italian actors, Riccardo Scamarcio.

WATCH POLISSE

And merci, France, for Charlotte Gainsbourg, daughter of French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, and star of lots of great French, American, and Italian films. Italy has recently been fortunate enough to have her for Asia Argenta’s Incompresa (Misunderstood),and we love, love, loved her in Nuovomondo (The Golden Door).

WATCH THE GOLDEN DOOR