Selected from among the countless theatrical releases of 2023, the 25 films we've picked for you reflect our favorites in all cinematic genres, from romantic comedy to thriller, horror to biopics.
Veronique Cauhapé's selection
- The Fabelmans, by Steven Spielberg
- Anatomie d'une Chute (Anatomy of a Fall), by Justine Triet
- L'Amour et les Forêts (Just the Two of Us), by Valérie Donzelli
- Voyages en Italie ("Travels in Italy"), by Sophie Letourneur
- Simple Comme Sylvain (The Nature of Love), by Monia Chokri
At a time when artificial intelligence is fuelling both debates and fears, let's return to what technology and its army of algorithms have not yet fully succeeded in undermining: The singularity of human beings, the complexity of the feelings animating and shaping them, the fortunes of life, the beauty of encounters and the disaster they sometimes bring. These are the random paths that filmmakers seize upon, feeling a yearning, like Steven Spielberg, to return to the origins of their own story. Growing up in New Jersey, the foundational shock he experienced as a child in the darkness of a movie theater and the devastation of a mother leaving home have all been part of Spielberg's work, before splendidly coming together in The Fabelmans. In 2023, the grand affair of a lifetime – love and its murky areas reflecting our unconscious – served as the dizzying trial of a woman and the cold analysis of a couple Anatomie d'une Chute (Anatomy of a Fall), by Justine Triet). Valérie Donzelli's L'Amour et les Forêts (Just the Two of Us) tightens the noose around her heroine, a radiant young wife whose husband's grip gradually extinguishes her to the point of asphyxiation. No such thing in Sophie Letourneur's Voyages en Italie ("Travels in Italy"), the (almost) beautiful escape of a couple fleeing the erosion of their relationship, only to return to it. Nor in Simple Comme Sylvain (The Nature of Love), where love gives wings, ignoring social differences, even if it means coming into conflict and eventually giving up.
Maroussia Dubreuil's selection
- L'Eté Dernier (Last Summer), by Catherine Breillat
- Tár, by Todd Field
- The Fabelmans, by Steven Spielberg
- Anatomie d'une Chute (Anatomy of a Fall), by Justine Triet
- Blackbird, Blackberry, by Elene Naveriani
For many years, actresses over the age of 30 belonged to cinema's invisible minority, moving swiftly from roles as mothers to grandmothers, less lively and less heroic than their male counterparts, before disappearing from the screens. 2023 changed this paradigm. Never before had we been so moved by actresses' performances in the service of powerful protagonists. It's to them that directors, both male and female, have given their full attention, leaving viewers free to wander through their stories without remaining stuck on the prevailing moralism. Among them are Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett), a genius conductor and egotistical monster; Sandra (Sandra Hüller), a successful writer suspected of having murdered her partner; Anne (Léa Drucker), a renowned lawyer specializing in child protection, who falls under the spell of a 17-year-old boy; Ethéro (Eka Chavleishvili), a gruff grocer who discovers love late in life without wanting to give up her independence. And then there's Mitzi (Michelle Williams), a mother and disappointed pianist whose manicured nails click on the keyboard. All around them, nothing exists but their inner world, whose unconscious mechanisms, violence and hidden beauties the filmmakers set out to portray. Often, they used fiction's sovereignty to express what has long been kept quiet.
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