After her bravura turn in I’ve Loved You So Long, Kristin Scott Thomas cements her standing as one of French cinema’s reigning screen divas with this full-on saga of infidelity and violent recrimination. Here she’s married to successful medic Yvan Attal, mother to his children, but finding her own career aspirations very much in his shadow. Office renovations and the arrival of Spanish builder Sergi Lopez are to change everything, since a workplace accident means she ends up driving him back over the border, where inhibitions fall away and her marriage is soon under threat. Can she really walk away from her home and children? Will her husband let her?

Scott Thomas pulls out all the stops as a woman at last feeling desired and valued for herself, as director Catherine Corsini’s ripely enjoyable movie offers a scathing portrait of self-centred (Gallic?) male entitlement yet also serves as a delicious female star vehicle. Think Joan Crawford and you’re almost there. (Notes by Trevor Johnston.) IFI IRISH SHORTS
This screening includes David O’Sullivan’s IFB-funded short love story Moore Street Masala. 4 minutes, 2009, Colour.