“This [killing in Moscow] is a mode of warfare which would be referred to as, quote-unquote, irregular.”
The killing of a top Russian general is a “direct message” to senior Russian military leaders from Ukraine, says Marina Miron, of King’s College London.
Published On 23 Dec 202523 Dec 2025
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Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
The shocking deaths this week of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner reached far beyond Hollywood. Their legacy will go far beyond show business thanks to their committed political activism for causes they believed in.
Mary McNamara pulled together the different strands of Rob Reiner’s life and career, noting, “As an artist and a public figure, he put his money where his mouth was and remained invariably sincere, a powerful and compelling trait that has become increasingly rare in a time of the sound-bite inanities, muddy thinking, obvious contradictions and outright falsehoods that threaten our public and political discourse.
“Reiner mastered many mediums and wielded a broad palette but his signature artistic trait was empathy. No story was too small, or too brutal, to be examined with kindness and an understanding that the most grave injustice we can commit is to choose apathy or revenge when connection and transcendence are always possible.”
Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in the movie “When Harry Met Sally…”
(MGM / Library of Congress via AP)
Amy Nicholson took a deeper look at his film career, while Robert Llloyd surveyed his work on television.
Josh Rothkopf and I rolled out a list of his 10 best movies as a director, which includes his astonishing early run, titles like “This Is Spinal Tap,” “The Princess Bride,” “Misery,” “A Few Good Men” and “The American President.” All of those come in little over a decade.
Tribute screenings have already been announced around Los Angeles, including “When Harry Met Sally…” at the New Beverly on Dec. 30–Jan. 1 and then again on Jan. 3 at Vidiots, which will also be showing “A Few Good Men” on Jan. 6 and “The Princess Bride” on Jan. 18. More screenings are sure to follow.
Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps in the movie “Love & Basketball.”
(New Line Cinema)
On Saturday, the Academy Museum will host a 25th anniversary screening of “Love & Basketball” with writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood in attendance. Starring Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps, it is one of the great romantic films of recent decades, the story of two young athletes struggling to reconcile their feelings for each other with their individual careers and ambitions.
In his original review of the movie, Eric Harrison wrote, “The movie is smarter than it has to be, but it’s the sort of low-key smart that can be easily overlooked. Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood doesn’t care if you recognize how hard it is to juggle two distinctly different types of movies (make that three, since the romance and sports elements here don’t obscure the feminist fable that is the film’s heart). … This is Prince-Bythewood’s first feature film as both a writer and director, and she shows admirable command of her craft.”
In an interview from 1990, Prince-Bythewood talked about the difficulty of casting the two leads, worrying whether she should find basketball players who could learn to act or actors who could persuasively play basketball.
“There were a lot of sleepless nights,” Prince-Bythewood said. “Is this a love story or a basketball story? I finally realized it’s a love story first. It doesn’t matter how great the basketball is if you don’t care about the character or the love story.
In 2020, Sonaiya Kelley spoke to Prince-Bythewood, Lathan, Epps, producer Spike Lee, actors Gabrielle Union, Alfre Woodard, Tyra Banks and Regina Hall for a definitive oral history of the film.
“When I first started out writing it, my goal was to do a Black ‘When Harry Met Sally…,’” said Prince-Bythewood. “I love that movie, but I wasn’t seeing myself in movies like that.”
The cast of Whit Stillman’s 1990 movie “Metropolitan.”
(Rialto Pictures)
On Sunday afternoon, the American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre will have a 35th anniversary screening of “Metropolitan” with writer-director Whit Stillman and actor Taylor Nichols there for a Q&A. Set during the week between Christmas and New Year’s among a very specific social set of young New Yorkers — labeled in the film as the Urban Haute Bourgeoisie — the film is a delicately detailed comedy of manners. It would earn Stillman an Oscar nomination for original screenplay.
In her original review, Sheila Benson wrote, “Filmmaker Stillman is a pointillist, working in the tiniest, most meticulous degrees. If he seems at times as controlled and distanced as his own UHBs, his impulsive, romantic ending betrays him. Stillman understands caste, class and deportment as perfectly as Audrey’s idol, Jane Austen, and by the time he’s through, so do we.”
In a 1990 interview, Stillman spoke about making a movie about such a specific social set, one that many viewers of the film will not have been a part of. “I think people will enjoy the fact that the film has texture,” he said. “They will sense that there is a joke there, even if they don’t get it.”
Nancy Meyers with ‘Father of the Bride’
Kimberly Williams, left, Martin Short, Steve Martin and Diane Keaton in the 1991 version of “Father of the Bride.”
(Disney / Touchstone Pictures)
Director Nancy Meyers had to pull out of a recent Q&A scheduled for a screening of “Something’s Gotta Give,” which starred her frequent collaborator Diane Keaton. Meyers is now set to appear at the American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre on Saturday for a Q&A after 1991’s remake of “Father of the Bride,” directed by Charles Shyer and co-written by Shyer and Meyers. As far as we can tell, this will be Meyers’ first public appearance since Keaton’s death in October.
The film stars Keaton alongside Steve Martin, as a couple who are arranging the wedding of their daughter, with Martin Short showing up as an overbearing wedding planner.
In his original review, Michael Wilmington wrote, “Midway through ‘Father of the Bride’ … Martin Short shows up, as the effete, snobbish wedding coordinator that Leo G. Carroll played in the original, and steals the movie from Martin, steals it from everybody. Short’s handling of this silly little role — an outrageous poseur named ‘Franck Eggelhoffer’ who insists on calling himself Frawwnk and acts like a post-disco Mischa Auer — has perfect pitch and real wigged-out comic genius.”
David Lowery and ‘The Green Knight’
Dev Patel in the 2021 movie “The Green Knight.”
(A24)
On Saturday, Vidiots will host a screening of 2021’s “The Green Knight” with writer-director David Lowery in person. Based on the 14th century poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” the film stars Dev Patel as Gawain, nephew of King Arthur, who, after winning a mystical challenge on Christmas, is told he has one year to complete another adventure.
In his review, Justin Chang wrote, “What does it mean to be a knight, or even just to be human? It isn’t an easy question, and ‘The Green Knight,’ in taking it seriously, isn’t always an easy film. But by the time Gawain reaches his journey’s end, in as moving and majestically sustained a passage of pure cinema as I’ve seen this year, the moral arc of his journey has snapped into undeniable focus. He plays the game; he accepts the challenge. His example is worth following.”
Oliver Stone’s ‘Nixon’
Joan Allen and Anthony Hopkins in the movie “Nixon.”
(Sidney Baldwin / Cinergi Pictures Entertainment)
On Sunday, the Laemmle Royal will have a 30th anniversary screening of Oliver Stone’s “Nixon” with the filmmaker in person for a Q&A to be moderated by Times contributing writer Tim Greiving.
Starring Anthony Hopkins as Richard Nixon and Joan Allen as his wife, Pat (both were nominated for Oscars for their performances), the film covers the political life of the politician who rose to being president only to leave the office in disgrace.
In his original review, Kenneth Turan wrote, “Mostly (though not completely) gone is the disturbing, lunatic Oliver Stone, the bad-boy writer-director who infuriated the political establishment with ‘JFK’ and outraged sensibilities nationwide with ‘Natural Born Killers.’ He’s been replaced by a filmmaker very much on his best behavior, a thorough researcher who consulted 80 books and published a heavily footnoted screenplay. If Quentin Tarantino made a film in the style of Sir Richard Attenborough, the surprise could not be greater. And ‘Nixon’ is in many ways an impressive, well-crafted piece of work.”
ROB Reiner’s daughter has broken her silence over her dad’s death – revealing she saw him just one day before the film director and his wife Michele were murdered.
Tracy Reiner, 61, said the brutal double killing left her devastated – before paying her respects to the “the greatest family ever”.
Tracy, who was adopted by Rob during his marriage to Penny Marshall, said she was left speechless.
The actress said: “I came from the greatest family ever.
“I don’t know what to say. I’m in shock.”
She added that she had seen her late dad at a family gathering just one day before horror knife attack.
The iconic director was married to Marshall from 1971 to 1981, during which time he adopted Tracy.
Rob, 78, and Michele, 68, were found dead by their other daughter Romy, 28, with their throats slit at their sprawling $13.5million Brentwood mansion on Sunday afternoon.
The Hollywood icon’s youngest son Nick has been charged with murder in connection with the grisly killing.
A source revealed to The U.S. Sun that Rob and Michele got into a heated public argument with Nick at a Hanukkah party on Saturday evening.
The clash is believed to have continued overnight at the family’s home where Rob and Michele were found dead at around 3:30pm local time.
The party was hosted by Conan O’Brien, according to TMZ.
Nick, 32, was booked into a Los Angeles jail on Monday morning, according to online records viewed by The U.S. Sun.
He has since been charged with murder and is being held at Parker Center Jail on $4 million bail, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell announced during a press conference on Monday.
Nick, who reportedly lives in the Los Angeles area, is rarely seen in public since he opened up about his struggles with drug addiction in 2016.
He admitted to first going to rehab at the age of 25 and said his addiction issues even led him to being homeless at one point in his life, according to People.
“When I was out there, I could’ve died. It’s all luck. You roll the dice and you hope you make it,” Nick said.
In 2015, Nick and his father worked on the semi-autobiographical film, Hey Charlie, which centered around the entitled, drug-addicted son of a renowned actor turned political candidate in California.
Rob told the Los Angeles Times at the time that he had to push past trauma and tough memories during filming.
“It was very, very hard going through it the first time, with these painful and difficult highs and lows,” the beloved director told the outlet then.
“And then making the movie dredged it all up again.”
Fellow Hollywood stars paid tribute to both Rob and Michele.
Ex-Monty Python member Eric Idle said he had spoken to Rob the night before his death.
Paying his respects, he said: “Rob Reiner was a lovely man. I spoke to him last night for over an hour. I always enjoyed his company.
“I met him at his Dad’s in 1975. He was telling me about filming at Stonehenge and his thoughts for the future … I shall miss him.
“A clever, talented and very thoughtful man. So awful.”
Ben Stiller said Rob was one of his favourite directors, and called him “a kind caring person who was really really funny”.
Josh Gad, who voiced Olaf in Frozen, described Rob and his wife’s deaths as a “devastating” loss.
Actor John Cusack, who starred in Rob’s 1985 film The Sure Thing, said he “saw the soul in others”.
ROB Reiner and his wife of Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their Los Angeles home on December 14, 2025.
Timeline:
The gruesome homicides of Rob and his wife, Michele, 68, shocked the world of Hollywood after reports emerged that the couple were discovered with multiple lacerations.
The Misery director and his wife, who had been married for 36 years, had their throats slit by a family member following a heated argument, according to TMZ.
Romy, 28, told authorities that a family member “should be a suspect” because they’re “dangerous,” the outlet reported.
The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the deaths as an apparent homicide.
Alan Hamilton, the deputy police chief of the LAPD, told reporters on Sunday evening that authorities would interview several family members of the Reiners as the investigation continued.
Hamilton said the property showed no signs of forced entry.
Rob, who was raised in the Bronx by famed actors Carl and Estelle, was a huge presence in the film industry after more than five decades as one of Hollywood’s top directors and actors.
His career as an actor began in the early 1960s, but it was not until the 1970s that Rob gained recognition after portraying Michael “Meathead” Stivic on the TV comedy All in the Family.
Throughout the 70s, Rob continued to make guest appearances on several TV series, including The Partridge Family.
However, it was in the director’s chair where Rob flourished into a star in the world of film.
He helmed a string of hit movies, including, When Harry Met Sally, The Princess Bride, and the Academy Award nominated film A Few Good Men, among others.
It was on the set of When Harry Met Sally that he met the photographer and his eventual wife, Michele Singer.
“I look over and I see this girl, and ‘Whoo!’ I was attracted immediately,” Rob told The New York Times in 1989.
The couple wed in 1989, the year the film was released.
After their marriage, Michele began helping her husband with producing films, including Shock and Awe and Albert Brooks: Defending My Life.
FAMED actor, director and producer Rob Reiner, 78, died on December 14 alongside his wife Michele Singer, 68, in an apparent homicide.
Here is a look at the prodigious list of achievements the Hollywood powerhouse earned before his tragic and sudden death.
Director’s Beginnings
Hollywood Career
Personal Life
Rob and Michele are survived by their children, Romy, Jake, Nick, and Tracy, the director’s daughter, whom he adopted from his previous wife, Penny Marshall.
Tributes have been paid to the actor and director and his wife following their deaths.
“Rob was the big-hearted genius behind so many of the classic stories we love, with projects as wide-ranging as The Princess Bride to A Few Good Men,” California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on X.
“His boundless empathy made his stories timeless, teaching generations how to see goodness and righteousness in others — and encouraging us to dream bigger.
“Rob will be remembered for his remarkable filmography and for his extraordinary contribution to humanity.”
Former US president Barack Obama spoke warmly about the couple.
“Rob’s achievements in film and television gave us some of our most cherished stories on screen,” he said.
“But beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people—and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action.
“Together, he and his wife lived lives defined by purpose. They will be remembered for the values they championed and the countless people they inspired.”
Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described Rob as someone who was creative and funny.
She also hailed him as an actor who could make fans laugh and cry when they watched his films.
Pelosi described Rob’s wife as an “indispensible partner and intellectual resource.”
Washington has blamed ISIL (ISIS) for the attack and promised retaliation.
Three US soldiers have been killed in an attack in Syria’s central city of Palmyra.
It is the first known deadly attack on US forces since former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was deposed last year. Washington has accused the ISIL (ISIS) group of carrying out the assault.
The government in Damascus has expanded its ties with Washington and joined a coalition to fight the ISIL group.
But how much of a security challenge is ISIL in Syria?
Will the US now reinforce its military presence? What risks could that pose?
Presenter: Dareen Abughaida
Guests:
Colin Clarke – executive director of The Soufan Center
Dareen Khalifa – senior adviser at the International Crisis Group
Orwa Ajjoub – PhD candidate in global politics, focusing on armed groups in Syria
Published On 15 Dec 202515 Dec 2025
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Witnesses at the hospital and the UN say the attack killed medics, patients and may ‘amount to a war crime’.
Published On 13 Dec 202513 Dec 2025
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Myanmar’s military has acknowledged it conducted an air strike on a hospital in the western state of Rakhine that killed 33 people, whom it accused of being armed members of opposition groups and their supporters, but not civilians.
Witnesses, aid workers, rebel groups and the United Nations have said the victims were civilians at the hospital.
list of 3 itemsend of list
In a statement published by the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Saturday, the military’s information office said armed groups, including the ethnic Arakan Army and the People’s Defence Force, used the hospital as their base.
It said the military carried out necessary security measures and launched a counterterrorism operation against the general hospital in Mrauk-U township on Wednesday.
However, the United Nations on Thursday condemned the attack on the facility providing emergency care, obstetrics and surgical services in the area, saying that it was part of a broader pattern of strikes causing harm to civilians and civilian objects that are devastating communities across the country.
UN rights chief Volker Turk condemned the attacks “in [the] strongest possible terms” and demanded an investigation. “Such attacks may amount to a war crime. I call for investigations and those responsible to be held to account. The fighting must stop now,” he wrote on X.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “appalled”. “At least 33 people have been killed … including health workers, patients and family members. Hospital infrastructure was severely damaged, with operating rooms and the main inpatient ward completely destroyed,” he wrote on X.
Myanmar has been gripped by attritional fighting in a raging civil war.
Mrauk-U, located 530km (326 miles) northwest of Yangon, the country’s largest city, was captured by the Arakan Army in February 2024.
The Arakan Army is the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, which seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central government. It began its offensive in Rakhine in November 2023 and has seized a strategically important regional army headquarters and 14 of Rakhine’s 17 townships.
Rakhine, formerly known as Arakan, was the site of a brutal army counterinsurgency operation in 2017 that drove about 740,000 Muslim-majority Rohingya to seek safety across the border in Bangladesh. There is still ethnic tension between the Buddhist Rakhine and the Rohingya.
The Arakan Army pledged in a statement on Thursday to pursue accountability for the air strike in cooperation with global organisations to ensure justice and take “strong and decisive action” against the military.
The military government has stepped up air strikes ahead of planned December 28 elections. Opponents of military rule charge that the polls will be neither free nor fair and are mainly an effort to legitimise the army retaining power.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army took power in 2021, triggering widespread popular opposition. Many opponents of military rule have since taken up arms, and large parts of the country are now embroiled in conflict.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
Even in a year like this one, during which there are numerous truly remarkable movies in the awards-season conversation worthy of ongoing consideration, it is easy to grow tired of talking about a tightening circle of titles.
Which is part of the reason why the announcement of the program for the 2026 Sundance Film Festival came right on time this week. New movies! This will be Sundance’s last edition in its longtime home in Park City, Utah, before moving on to Boulder, Colo., starting in 2027. Adding to the import and emotion of the event is that it will be the first festival since the recent death of Sundance figurehead Robert Redford.
A number of films from the 2025 festival are still part of the ongoing awards conversation. Just this week, both “Train Dreams” and “Sorry, Baby” received Golden Globe nominations — which I am relatively certain was not on the minds of those filmmakers when they had their world premieres at Sundance this past January.
Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega in “The Gallerist” by Cathy Yan, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
(Sundance Institute / MRC II Distribution Company L.P.)
Among the titles to look forward to for Sundance 2026 are Gregg Araki’s provocative “I Want Your Sex,” Cathy Yan’s satirical “The Gallerist,” Jay Duplass’ family story “See You When I See You,” Tamra Davis’ ’90s music doc “The Best Summer” and a profile on Courtney Love called “Antiheroine.”
Of course, there will also be many titles from relatively unknown filmmakers, and it is that promise of discovery that keeps us coming back to Sundance year after year.
As festival director Eugene Hernandez put it, “As much as we can talk about the legacy and history and the old timers — which I think will add an incredible aspect to the festival this year — we’re creating a festival that is also focused on the celebration of new voices. … For so many people, it will be brand new, no matter what.”
Macaulay Culkin and Joe Pesci in the movie “Home Alone.”
(20th Century Fox)
On Saturday, the Academy Museum will have a 35th anniversary screening of “Home Alone” with star Macaulay Culkin and director Chris Columbus in-person. Written by John Hughes, the film is about a young boy (Culkin) accidentally left behind by his family at the holidays and how he comes to defend himself against two bumbling thieves (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern).
The movie has become a beloved all-ages holiday classic and seeing it with an enthusiastic audience should be a treat. The event is already sold out, but standby tickets are available.
In his original review of the movie, Peter Rainer noted, “Macaulay Culkin has the kind of crack comic timing that’s missing in many an adult star and even when the script gets soppy, he doesn’t turn himself into a cutesy ball of gloppy goo. He is refreshingly abrasive throughout.”
An image from Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated 2015 film “Mustang.”
(Cohen Media Group)
On Sunday, the American Cinematheque at the Los Feliz 3 will host a 10th anniversary screening of French-Turkish filmmaker Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s feature debut “Mustang,” which was nominated for the Academy Award for international feature. Ergüven is scheduled to be there in person.
The film is the story of five teenage sisters living in an isolated village and yearning for a life of freedom. In her review, Katie Walsh wrote, “‘Mustang’ beautifully expresses the girls’ unbridled energy, a force that refuses to be locked up, controlled or repressed. It’s a moving portrait of sisterhood, a celebration of a fierce femininity and a damning indictment of patriarchal systems that seek to destroy and control this spirit.”
In an interview with me at the time of the film’s release, Ergüven described the performances by the five actresses — Elit Iscan, Günes Sensoy, Ilayda Akdogan, Doga Zeynep Doguslu and Tugba Sunguroglu — as “one character with five heads.”
Ergüven added, “From very early on I always said it’s a monster of femininity, with 10 arms and 10 legs. They are intertwined, they are extremely familiar with one another. Sometimes, I said, they react to one another’s bodies as if they are extensions of their own body.”
‘Danger: Diabolik’ and ‘Barbarella’ in 35mm
Jane Fonda and John Phillip Law in the 1968 movie “Barbarella,” directed by Roger Vadim.
(Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images)
The Secret Movie Club is going to have a groovy Euro holiday party on Saturday with 35mm screenings of both Roger Vadim’s 1968 “Barbarella” and Mario Bava’s 1968 “Danger: Diabolik” at the Million Dollar Theater. Attendees are encouraged to dress in their best psychedelic finery.
“Barbarella” is one of those movies that’s difficult to describe and best to just experience for yourself: a sci-fi sex satire starring Jane Fonda directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim and co-written by counterculture maverick Terry Southern. Based on a French comic, the film was shot in Italy and produced by Dino De Laurentiis.
In a 1967 profile of Fonda and Vadim in Rome, which includes Fonda driving a Ferrari through the streets of the city to get from the historic villa where they are staying to Cinecittà studio, Fonda said, “The main thing about this role is to keep her innocent. You see, Barbarella is not a vamp and her sexuality is not measured by the rules of our society. She is not being promiscuous but she follows the natural reaction of another type of upbringing. She isn’t a so-called ‘sexually liberated woman’ either. That would mean rebellion against something. She is different. She was born free.”
“Danger: Diabolik” stars John Philip Law (also in “Barbarella”) as a master thief. With a score by Ennio Morricone and directed with high style by Bava, best known for more lurid genre excursions, the film is the ’60s Euro-heist jaunt of your wildest imagination.
Elaine May’s ‘A New Leaf’
Elaine May and Walter Matthau in the movie “A New Leaf.”
(United Archives via Getty Images)
On Wednesday, the Academy Museum will show Elaine May’s 1971 debut feature as writer-director, “A New Leaf,” in the big David Geffen Theater. Selected by the writer’s branch of the Academy, the screening will feature screenwriter Karen McCullah, writer-producer Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith and writer-producer Katie Silberman in person to talk about the film and May’s ongoing influence.
Even though the film as we know it was taken away from May and isn’t her complete vision, “A New Leaf” is nevertheless a film of bold, confident energy. Walter Matthau plays a trust fund playboy who is fast running out of money. He hatches a scheme to find, marry and then murder a woman of means to continue to fund his lifestyle. Enter May as a botanist who is equal parts awkward and rich. Dark, funny and insightful, the film is a true gem.
Here’s hoping the recently renewed interest in May’s slim body of directorial work — she has so far made only four films — spurs a long-gestating new project rumored to be shooting soon into a reality.
Eric Rohmer’s ‘My Night at Maud’s’ and ‘A Tale of Winter’
Françoise Fabian and Jean-Louis Trintignant in Eric Rohmer’s “My Night at Maud’s.”
(Janus Films)
On Wednesday at the Aero, the American Cinematheque will have a double-bill from French filmmaker Eric Rohmer: 1969’s “My Night at Maud’s” and 1992’s “A Tale of Winter.”
“My Night at Maud’s,” a breakout international hit for Rohmer, was nominated for two Oscars, for foreign language film and original screenplay. A series of conversations among an interlocking cast of characters, the film helped set the template for dialogue-driven adult dramas that still hold sway.
In his April 1970 review, Charles Champlin wrote, “‘My Night at Maud’s’ argues that thee attractive and intelligent people sitting around arguing about the philosophy of Pascal constitutes a movie. I agree. Standing on my chair and waving noisemakers in the air I agree. … But whether or not one cares about the substance of the arguments, ‘My Night at Maud’s’ is a hugely pleasurable evening out because of the excellence of its performances and the convincing and captivatingly credibility of its three principals. It is an adult film which makes clear once and for all what randy juvenilia all other ‘adult’ films are. This one is, of course, in impeccable taste.”
“A Tale of Winter” is the second of what became Rohmer’s “Tales of the Four Seasons.” In reviewing the film, Kevin Thomas wrote, “The French respect the quirky workings of the human heart more than any other people and among the French filmmakers, the keenest observer may be Eric Rohmer, whose ‘A Tale of Winter’ finds him at his scintillating best, never wiser or funnier.”
