Winter Song (Otar Iosseliani, France, 2015)

The way Otar Iosseliani turns Paris on its head makes us think of a young Jean-Luc Godard—yet Iosseliani is eighty-two! And he’s still having a great time—thumbing his nose at authority by showing Paris cops evicting the homeless to the tune of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” (anthem of the European Union)—while directing a delightful ensemble cast in a bittersweet tale of a beloved concierge and his menagerie of tenants who seem to be everywhere at once in this inimitable depiction of the city-as-village.

Part of the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival at the BAMPFA!