The French, 7/15.

La Possibilité d'une île (The Possibility of an Island) is Michel Houellebecq's adaptation of his own novel and Nicholas Lezard, blogging for the Guardian, thinks "it could work out.... The film has been described by his friend and fan, Frédéric Beigbeder, as completely different from any other film he's seen, and a long way from the book. It might be that Houellebecq's decision not to be too reverent to his own source material could produce something extraordinary. Let us hope it is for the right reasons."

"French thrillers are making a comeback in North America," announces Eric Kohn in Cinematical. At Pixel Vision, Erik Morse recommends Guillaume Canet's Tell No One.

At SF360, Michael Fox talks with Catherine Breillat about The Last Mistress.

"Ostensibly framed as a restoration of a degraded found film recovered some 70 years after the sudden and unexplained death of its creator, a Parisian attorney and amateur filmmaker named Gérard Fleury at a lake in the village of Le Thuit in Normandy, Tren de sombras (Train of Shadows) is a dense, sensual, and richly textured exposition of José Luis Guerín's recurring preoccupations: the nature and subjectivity of the image-gaze, the permeable borders between truth and fiction, the role of architecture (and landscape) as palimpsest of hidden histories." Acquarello.

For the Financial Times, Peter Aspden talks with Olivier Assayas about Summer Hours. Via Movie City News.

For Cineuropa, Gabriele Barcaro has a quick talk with Marc Caro about Dante 01.

Online viewing tips. Dennis Cooper "casts a wary eye on the upper rungs of the French pop music charts."

Posted by dwhudson at July 15, 2008 8:31 AM