Quai d'Orsay 2013

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: It's pleasant, and at times very funny, but the meandering episodes mean that despite the long running time, the satire never builds to a payoff. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: It would be easy for Lhermitte to play the fool, but what makes the character so memorable is that, as [the film] progresses, Arthur comes to see that there are hints of canniness lurking beyond the stuffed shirt. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: There are enough moments of inspired lunacy to make this worthwhile. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: A snappy, sharp-witted, graphic novel-inspired satire on the doings at the French Foreign Ministry. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The films of Bertrand Tavernier have often been fringed with humor, of a rueful kind; now, in his seventies, and in a rousing rebuke to tranquillity, he has turned to farce. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: In the first comedy of a 40-year career that includes A Sunday in the Country and The Princess of Montpensier, director and co-writer Bertrand Tavernier tries to do too much. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Mr. Tavernier's filmmaking here is loose, almost casual, and you may not always notice what he's doing with the camera as he frames the ministry's choreographed chaos with its whirling people and parts. Read more

Chris Packham, Village Voice: Mannered and often very funny, it's kind of like what an Iannucci production would be if all his characters suffered from the behavioral effects of toxoplasmosis - really, really French, in other words. Read more