It's April in Toronto - time yet again for Freedom, er French cinephiles to get inside the Canada Square Cinemas and work on maintaining the pallor.

Les spoilers ahead.

17 TIMES CÉCILE CASSARD /
17 FOIS CÉCILE CASSARD
(Christophe Honoré, 2002)

Starts off promisingly with an appropriately skeletal Beatrice Dalle in mourning and unable to care for her 3-year old son. When she leaves town, alone, and settles in Toulouse the film turns more miss than hit. The misses involve mostly those attempts with different expressionistic visuals reminiscent of Philippe Grandieux's A NEW LIFE; here, Christophe Honoré's milder efforts function like a superficial oily layer distinct from the emotional current below. With all that sullenness a sudden fluorish invoking Jacques Demy's LOLA that broke down the fourth wall broke my back - that sudden richness was like being force-funnelled heavy cream after a long thirst. [C]

ACCORDING TO MATTHIEU /
SELON MATTHIEU
(Xavier Beauvois, 2001)

An older factory worker is fired from his job; after one of his sons (Benoît Magimel, looking Sean Pennish with dark hair) fails to agitate he sets his eyes on the factory owner's wife (Nathalie Baye). Starts off in Laurent Cantet (HUMAN RESOURCES, TIME OUT) worker terrain then chews the cud for a few minutes in that old French chestnut of class issues before veering into possibly vengeful romantic liaisons. Diffuse; if films could be bachelors this one would have trouble with committment. [C]

CARNAGE / CARNAGES
(Delphine Gleize, 2002)

Slaughtered bull parts become starting points that connect lives in different countries but the ensuing threads don't add up to much of a whole. There's a quirky sensibility to it all but after hopscotching over 130 minutes one wishes the attention to details was more nourishing. [C]

GANGSTERS
(Olivier Marchal, 2002)

Undercover detective must find out the identity of crooked cops while in police custody. It doesn't dazzle but its always-watchable austerity smells of the real world. Director Olivier Marchal juggles timelines easily and coaxes tight, grim performances from all, including a weathered Anne Parillaud as the drugged-out prostitute girlfriend with her own secret. I can smell the bombastic Hollywood remake already. [B]

A PRIVATE AFFAIR /
UNE AFFAIRE PRIVÉE
(Guillaume Nicloux, 2002)

Active participation in unravelling this gaudily photographed noir is discouraged - while waiting for whodunit (the lineup of new faces each with a story to tell doesn't exhaust itself til the end) just sit back and enjoy Thierry Lhermitte's ease with himself as a perpetually slightly inebriated, broke yet libidinous private eye, a faded gigolo with no use for pretense, like a finely-aged wine that has long thrown away its bouquet cocky with the knowledge it can still get the job done with nothing but its ethanol essence. [C+]