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StudioCanal

6: briefs
13:00: average
78 min: in total

On film.briefs6

Forbidden Games

René Clément · 1952

Set in June 1940 during the fall of France, Forbidden Games follows orphaned five-year-old Paulette as she is taken in by a peasant family and forms a quiet bond with their son Michel. Together they build a secret cemetery for dead animals using stolen crosses, enacting grief through ritual rather than speech. Directed by René Clément with restrained precision, the film observes childhood trauma without sentimentality, relying on Brigitte Fossey’s extraordinary performance and Robert Juillard’s understated cinematography. It won the Golden Lion at Venice, a BAFTA, and an Academy Honorary Award.

Le Doulos

Jean-Pierre Melville · 1962

Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1962 crime film Le Doulos follows Maurice Faugel and Silien through a web of murder, deception, and mistaken identity. Adapted from Pierre Lesou’s novel, it uses stark cinematography, elliptical editing, and functional dialogue to construct a closed system of cause and effect — where truth is assigned, not revealed, and loyalty is procedural, not emotional.

The Others

Alejandro Amenábar · 2001

Set in 1945 Jersey, The Others follows Grace Stewart, a devout mother shielding her photosensitive children in a remote manor. When new servants arrive, strange occurrences mount — whispers, moving objects, unseen figures — until Grace uncovers a truth far more unsettling than ghosts. Directed and written by Alejandro Amenábar, it relies on atmosphere, performance and precise craft rather than shock or spectacle.

Delicatessen

Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet · 1991

Delicatessen (1991) is a French fantasy film set in a dilapidated Parisian apartment block where food is scarce and the ground-floor butcher doubles as landlord and killer. Unemployed clown Louison takes a job at the shop, falls for the butcher’s daughter Julie, and unwittingly becomes the object of both affection and appetite among the tenants. With production design that won a European Film Award and a visual style rooted in Brassaï’s monochrome grit, the film sustains a precise, tactile dystopia — one where resistance grows in sewers and romance blooms over shared chores. Directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, it is a debut of uncommon control and dark invention.

My Blueberry Nights

Wong Kar-wai · 2007

My Blueberry Nights is Wong Kar-wai’s 2007 English-language debut, following Norah Jones as Elizabeth, a woman drifting across New York, Memphis, and Nevada after a breakup. Shot by Darius Khondji and edited by William Chang, it prioritises atmosphere over plot, using diners, motels, and bars as emotional landscapes. Though praised for its visual texture and restraint, its episodic structure and underdeveloped arcs drew mixed reviews. It remains a distinctive, if slender, entry in Wong’s filmography.

Mulholland Drive

David Lynch · 2001

Rejected by ABC as a television pilot, Mulholland Drive was rebuilt by David Lynch into a feature with new financing, new footage, and an ending that recontextualises everything before it. Naomi Watts's performance carries the film from bright optimism to something far darker, across a Los Angeles built out of borrowed names and unresolved threads.