The French Teacher

source: The French Teacher

I love the way Cleo take care of her sick father. The story told with veracity the difficult relationship between Cleo and a young lover and how she tried to hide it from her daughter with no success. I love this movie.

This indie film is not made for the masses, for easy consumption, or even for entertainment, but it's beautifully shot and I can see some references of Nouvelle Vague, Jim Jarmusch and Xavier Dolan. The acting is good and the chemistry between mother and daughter is fascinating. The actress who plays the mother remembers me a bit of Isabelle Huppert. The main character has experienced some traumatic events in the past from the hands of the two men she loved, the father, and the ex-husband. It's not totally clear what happened between her and her father, if he did or did not abuse her. This film explores the ideas that humans are complicated, love is complicated, and family relationships can be painful sometimes. The film is really experimental in its visual style, what I particularly like, but I feel the script could be more developed. So, if you like arthouse, indie, and experimental movies, I think you're going to like it.

This indie film is not made for the masses, for easy consumption, or even for entertainment, but it's beautifully shot and I can see some references of Nouvelle Vague, Jim Jarmusch and Xavier Dolan. The acting is good and the chemistry between mother and daughter is fascinating. The actress who plays the mother remembers me a bit of Isabelle Huppert. The main character has experienced some traumatic events in the past from the hands of the two men she loved, the father, and the ex-husband. It's not totally clear what happened between her and her father, if he did or did not abuse her. This film explores the ideas that humans are complicated, love is complicated, and family relationships can be painful sometimes. The film is really experimental in its visual style, what I particularly like, but I feel the script could be more developed. So, if you like arthouse, experimental movies, I think you're going to like it.

Plot is boring. Very little to hold interest. The film shows as basically two separate halves. Some really noticeable bad editing. Script and acting is bad in many spots. Movie tries to be an art film, but it comes across as cheesy instead. Trying to hard

Young Matthew has no idea what lies ahead of him when he becomes involved romantically with his middle-aged French language teacher Cleo. What seems like an inconsequential affair becomes melodramatic when Cleo's daughter Sophie arrives on the scene. At that point, Matthew is relegated to the background as the two women engage in a protracted cat fight culminating in the shootout at Big Bear. One of the conversations at the dinner table was a discussion of the French filmmakers Jean-Luc Goddard and Francois Truffaut. Stylistically, "The French Teacher" is a cross between the two styles. Many of the scenes are punctuated with lengthy lyrical interludes scored with the music of Mozart. While film buffs who are partial to French New Wave (Nouvelle vague) cinema might enjoy this retrospective offering, the sluggish pace and overkill on atmosphere may be annoying to other filmgoers like this one. The love-hate relationship of Cleo and Sophie took over the film with the heavy subtext of the mother's past infidelities. It was as if Cleo and Sophie were the reincarnation of Clytemnestra and Electra in modern Los Angeles where they were rehashing their lives in the form of an opera worthy of Verdi! By the end, one may be thinking of the French drama "No Exit" (Huis Clos) about three characters trapped in a room for eternity with nothing to do but torment one another. The tagline for Sartre's play is "hell is other people." At least for poor Matthew, he had to feel the Sartrian claustrophobia in the Big Bear cabin as he asks himself the question, "What have I got myself into?"

It's experimental, artistic, visually beautiful, and there is this French new wave vibes that I love. Totally recommend!

Amateurish acting, weak plot, full of cliches. Anticlimactic ending. I was ready to learn but the French Teacher had little to offer

I just watched Tiny Pretty Things and got obsessed with Cassie, then I found this film with Anna Maiche and she is amazing! I can't wait for the second season. Totally recommend this movie! :)

source: The French Teacher