Our thoughts are with France, and by a lucky coincidence, this week its thoughts are with us. Launched in 2011, the Music Box Theatre’s Chicago French Film Festival provides a valuable snapshot of what’s happening in French cinema, still the liveliest national cinema in Europe. Following are reviews of eight features screening this week, six of them making their local premieres; all are in French with subtitles. —J.R. Jones
Down by Love In this drama by writer-director Pierre Godeau, a prison director (Guillaume Gallienne) falls in love with an inmate (Adèle Exarchopoulos of Blue Is the Warmest Color), though his passion feels more like taboo-specific lust (and mannered lust at that). Their romance is based on a true story that occurred in a Versailles detention center in 2011, yet it rings false because the actors lack chemistry and their individual narratives are nebulous. Gallienne suggests a man suffering a latent midlife crisis, though Godeau depicts him as a content husband and father whose only vice (before the affair) is watching reality TV. Exarchopoulos’s character is even more puzzling: her backstory is limited, her personality amorphous, and her craving for the prison director as unclear as his motivation for pursuing her so recklessly. —Leah Pickett Sun 7/24, 6:45 PM, and Tue 7/26, 7:15 PM.
Fri 7/22-Thu 7/28 Music Box 3733 N. Southport 773-871-6604musicboxtheatre.com $12, passes $80
