Kristina Larsen Movies

Two strangers fall into a relationship defined by need and instability in this high-pitched emotional drama from Chinese auteur Lou Ye. Hua (Corinne Yam) is a woman in her late twenties who leaves her life in China behind to become a teacher in Paris. However, after falling in love with an older man, he abruptly abandons her, and while walking through the city in an emotional daze, she's accidentally struck to the ground by Mathieu (Tahar Rahim), a construction worker. Mathieu is quick to apologize and see that Hua gets home safely, but his concern seems more like obsession as the two soon become lovers. The couple's lovemaking is as intense as their frequent arguments, and as his behavior towards her becomes more bizarre and tinged with physical and emotional violence, she finds herself struggling to make sense of a love affair that's worse than the circumstances she left behind. Director Lou Ye has been a subject of frequent controversy in China -- his 2006 film Summer Palace led to authorities forbidding him to make films for five years -- and Love and Bruises represents another edgy project for him, as it was adapted from a novel by Jie Liu-falin that was banned by Chinese censors. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The prostitutes at an early-20th century Paris brothel revel in their hopes and contend with customers who range from the hopelessly smitten to the frighteningly hostile in this visually sumptuous period drama from writer/director Bertrand Bonello (The Pornographer, On War). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A death in the family reveals secret shame and a deep rift between father and son in this drama from the writing and directing team of Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau. Frédérick Muller (Guy Marchand) is nearing 80 years of age and has spent most of his adult life building the family business, a successful tree nursery. For years, Frédérick has been running his tree farm with the help of his sons, Charles (Pierre-Loup Rajot) and Guillaume (François Négret), and when Charles unexpectedly dies, it comes as a severe blow to the family. Most around Frédérick are shocked when he chooses not to attend Charles' funeral; Guillaume is outraged, as is Charles' widow, Françoise (Catherine Mouchet), and her daughter, Rémi (Yannick Renier), makes no secret of her disappointment. Only Frédérick's wife, Marianne (Françoise Fabian), seems willing to keep her feelings about the matter to herself. When the family gathers at Frédérick's estate to honor Charles, the patriarch decides to reveal a long-held secret that only Charles and Marianne have known, a story from Frédérick's youth that put him at odds with his son for decades. L'Arbre et la Forêt (aka Family Tree) was an official selection at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge (Flight of the Red Balloon), which constitutes celebrated Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's first French-language picture, represents both an homage to Albert Lamorisse's beloved 1956 short The Red Balloon and an expansion of that earlier picture. Hou begins with Lamorisse's central conceit -- that of a mysterious red balloon tracking a lonely young French boy around the city -- and broadens the story to weave an extended meditation on urban isolation and dysfunctional, slightly broken Parisian lives. The red balloon here acts as a kind of observer to a little boy named Simon (Simon Iteanu), who lives with his harried mother, Suzanne (Juliette Binoche) -- a voice actress in a puppet theater -- in a cramped flat in the City of Lights. Simon spends the majority of his time away from Suzanne, accompanied by a Chinese film student, Song (Song Fang), who baby-sits. From time to time, Suzanne recognizes her neglect of young Simon and then overcompensates with sporadic bursts of affection and devotion. She remains far more concerned with the pressures of her daily life -- specifically, the problems wrought by her downstairs tenant (Hippolyte Giardot) and by Simon's ere-estranged father -- than with the emotional state of her young son. Meanwhile, Song finds the parallels between the suddenly emergent red balloon and the plotline of the Lamorisse short rather mesmerizing, and films young Song with the balloon to underscore this point. For the most part, Hou foregoes major story developments and simply uses screen time to witness the interaction of Song, Suzanne, and Simon as they live out existences of quiet despair. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi