Lisa is in-house film critic for the English-language channel of 24-hour TV news network France24. After 17 years at Variety, the Paris-based critic began reviewing for Screen International in 2008.
Click here for more Screen critics’ top films of 2015
Top Five
- Carol
Dir Todd Haynes
Cinematic artifice in the service of emotional truth so unmistakably right that, despite a suggestion of hot girl-on-girl action, it hasn’t given rise to inane chatter about “the male gaze”. Todd Haynes and Patricia Highsmith are a match made in heaven. Cate Blanchett was born to wear those clothes. The camera (and real Super-16 film) was invented to record those longing glances. And when the action circles back and forbidden love seems possible, it’s not a dopey happily-ever-after but (hallelujah!) a movie-for-adults ending. Carol left me cheering for fictional characters I want to see walk into sunset after sunset.
CONTACT Hanway Films jls@hanwayfilms.com - Phoenix
Dir Christian Petzold
CONTACT The Match Factory info@matchfactory.de - Mr Holmes
Dir Bill Condon
CONTACT FilmNation info@filmnation.com - Bridge Of Spies
Dir Steven Spielberg
CONTACT 20th Century Fox www.foxmovies.com - Marguerite
Dir Xavier Giannoli
CONTACT Memento Films International tanja@memento-films.com
Best Documentary
Where To Invade Next
Dir Michael Moore
You leave the theatre entertained and somewhat smarter after Moore’s sharp, funny exploration of the heresy that the US really could learn a thing or two from other nations. The iconoclast director spins his moral compass, then points his camera at well-chosen examples of real-world problem-solving.
CONTACT WME www.wmeentertainment.com
Best UK Film
My Nazi Legacy
Dir David Evans
Even if your offspring are well into their twilight years, it’s rotten parenting to leave them with the knowledge your actions helped exterminate at least 3 million people. German Niklas Frank reviles his Nazi father. Austrian Horst von Wächter still believes his dad was a wonderful man. A riveting and felicitous combination of subject and film-maker.
CONTACT The Film Sales Company contact@filmsalescorp.com
Undiscovered Gem
Women He’s Undressed
Dir Gillian Armstrong
From hand-painting neckties with intimate roommate Archibald Leach (Cary Grant) to collecting three well-deserved Oscars, prolific Australia-born costume designer Orry-Kelly lived a life that sounds like it was straight out of the movies. Oh, wait… it was! (Except for the “straight” part.) A bittersweet and dazzlingly informative documentary.
CONTACT Hollywood Classics www.hollywoodclassics.com
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