Florian Zeller

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Mulholland Dr.

Mulholland Drive is to me one of the greatest films ever made. It is also one of the most beautiful pieces about Los Angeles and the dreams the city can create or crush. Among all its cinematic qualities, which are numerous, the most astonishing are the accidental ways in which meaning unfolds, through contradictions, oppositions and mirror effects. David Lynch has created a cinematic maze in which the audience must accept becoming lost in order to then be found. In this film, life is presented as an enigma, one without a solution, and in this breach lie all of our fantasies, our fears and our nightmares. 

Interstellar

Interstellar is a unique cinematic experience. Beyond its impressive cinematographic qualities, what seems to be unprecedented, and extremely powerful, is the way in which the audience experiences the relativity of time. Although this scientific concept is completely counterintuitive, the film still explores it in a striking way. 

Le Mépris

Le Mépris is a perfect film. Beyond the mere beauty of the script, of Brigitte Bardot and of the Thème de Camille composed by Georges Delerue, it is the stunning cohabitation between ancient tragedy and the dyssey of our small existences that this film truly succeeds.

La DOUBLE VIE DE VÉRONIQUE

The Double Life of Véronique reminds us that life is an indecipherable mystery. It is also a poetic act that leaves room for human intuition, invisible things and the feelings we cannot explain. Kieslowski uses cinema as a tool to tear the veil behind which hides a different reality, one that is elusive, magical and mysterious.

The Godfather

What to say about this film that hasn’t already been said? It reaches perfection in terms of storytelling, composition and performances. 

Roma

Roma reminds me of a Nietzsche quote: “Simplicity preserves the enigma.” What struck me about Roma, which is Cuaron's most personal and successful film, is its perfect simplicity. I find it inspiring that a director who has reached such technical mastery made a film of such formal purity. But I don’t find it surprising, as nothing is harder than reaching extreme simplicity, and Roma proves this. To me, this film is an absolute masterpiece in terms of composition.

Hidden

A poisonous tale centered around guilt, a theme I never cease to be fascinated by. From a premise reminiscent of Lynch’s Lost Highway, Haneke unfolds an ultra-realistic narrative in a cold and slow manner, with a pronounced way of manipulating his audience. We gradually bear witness to a thriller through voyeurism. What I admire the most about this film is the place the viewer occupies, taking part in the story as it unfolds without the possibility of being a passive viewer, questioning their own relationship with intimacy, secrecy, lies...

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Birdman is obviously a technical achievement, but is above all it is a film that succeeds in capturing human life through the precariousness of live performance. In my opinion, it is one of the greatest films by one of the best contemporary directors.

Magnolia

Paul Thomas Anderson succeeds in the feat of telling the story of multiple human destinies in this majestic film, which is like the search for meaning in a universe that is chaotic, unstable and fundamentally random. In this respect, the introduction is a pure masterpiece. The film is full of cinematic surprises: I still remember jumping out of my seat twenty years ago when a toad falls from the sky onto a windshield… Not to mention that we witness in this film Tom Cruise’s greatest performance…

Eyes Wide Shut

This film succeeds in seizing the intimacy of a couple and exploring the phantasmagorical universe that surrounds them. This results in a powerful literary piece, and develops through the beauty and the strength proper to cinema the themes of dissimulation, guilt, jealousy and transgression.