二月最值得一看的国外佳片(4)

《法式出口》带给我们的一个珍贵礼物是米歇尔·菲佛很难得地担纲了主演。该片改编自帕特里克·德威特的讽刺小说，由德威特亲自担任编剧。在这部离奇又心酸的喜剧电影中，菲佛饰演了丧偶的纽约社交名媛弗朗西斯。在花光了丈夫留给她的所有钱后，她从奢华的公寓中搬了出来，同卢卡斯·赫奇斯饰演的儿子一起迁居到了巴黎。麻烦就是从这里开始的。弗兰西斯是一个什么样的人呢？她可以为了吸引服务员注意而放火烧餐厅的鲜花装饰，也可以为了通过自己的猫和已故丈夫交流而举办降神会。
swanky [swki]: adj. 时尚的；奢华的
seance [seɑns]: n. 降神会（人们设法与亡灵对话的集会）
Released on 12 February in the US, Canada and Italy, 26 February in the UK and Ireland
该片于2月12日在美国、加拿大和意大利上映，2月26日在英国和爱尔兰上映。

(Credit: Sony Pictures Classics)
The Father《父亲》
What"s unique about The Father, is that it shows dementia from the perspective of the person who has it. Anthony Hopkins stars as an 80-something man who is content to live alone in his London flat, but who thinks that the people and possessions around him keep changing: in some scenes his daughter is played by Olivia Colman, and in others by Olivia Williams. Florian Zeller"s film currently has a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, partly due to the writer-director"s ingenious cinematic trickery, and partly due to the extraordinary acting. "To play a man who"s begun to lose his mental faculties, Hopkins methodically strips away every quality we"ve come to expect from him – the refinement, the silver tongue, the imposing intensity – until there"s nothing left but frailty and distress," writes AA Dowd in AV Club. "The final scenes of the movie are among the most heartbreakingly vulnerable of Hopkins" whole career."