Parky at the Pictures (Downloads 2/12/2017)

Making her feature debut after graduating from Le Fémis and contributing to the screenplay of Arnaud Desplechin's Ismael's Ghosts, Léa Mysius demonstrates an impressive visual confidence that is partly explained by the fact that cinematographer Paul Guilhaume also doubles as her co-scenarist. But, while Ava continues to make evocative use of its settings on the Medoc coast in its discussion of alienated youth and the rising tide of right-wing sentiment in post-millennial France, the narrative becomes increasingly contrived, as the young protagonists go off on a crime spree as implausible as the one involving Anaïs Demoustier and Pio Marmaï in Isabelle Czajkas Living on Love Alone (2010).

As 13 year-old Noée Abita is suffering from a condition known as retinitis pigmentosa that will eventually render her blind, single mother Laure Calamy takes her to the seaside with the intention of having the best summer ever. However, Calamy keeps asking Abita to keep an eye on her baby sister while she enjoys a holiday romance with Daouda Diakhate, a fast food seller she met on the beach. Bored with the sand-yachting lessons designed to keep her amused, Abita becomes intrigued by Lupo, a black dog that has befriended her on the sands and hides in a cupboard in the chalet, even though she knows it belongs to Roma boy, Juan Cano.

He is a bit of a tearaway and Abita is much more interested in him than the clean-cut Baptiste Archimbaud, who is the son of the sand-yachting tutor and who asks Abita out on a date. Consequently, when she finds Cano nursing a stab wound behind the rocks in a deserted part of the shore, Abita sets about making herself indispensable to him, as she is tired of being mollycoddled by her well-meaning, but preoccupied mother. But Abita also sees herself as a mean girl and is happy to become Cano's accomplice when he gets hold of a gun and they start stealing from tourists in a reckless motorcycle rampage that culminates in a police chase through the marquees set up for a floodlit gypsy wedding.

Photographed on 35mm film - seemingly to contrast this exquisite, but increasingly obsolete format with Abita's fading eyesight - this is a consistently striking picture that is never afraid to experiment with colour, light sources and shades of black. Indeed, Paul Guilhaume is every bit a co-auteur. But, while Mysius starts superbly with an extended long shot of various small dramas unfolding in a patch of crowded beach (in the area where Mysius grew up), she slowly loses control of the action as the focus switches from considered social realism to the more convoluted crime spree. She also starts making more conspicuous stylistic choices (including a resort to split screens) to reflect the exuberance of Abita and Cano's romance and thievery, while many will question the wisdom of depicting underage love-making so graphically.

These issues apart, however, Mysius channels Catherine Breillat and Andrea Arnold in directing with a combative assurance that is matched by newcomer Noée Abita, who shifts from filial resentment during her set tos with Calamy to adolescent adoration in the company of the broodingly handsome Cano. Editor Pierre Deschamps and composer Florencia Di Concilio also merit mention.

Leading off the Men on the Edge pairing is Fast Convoy, the latest outing from genre specialist Frédéric Schoendoerffer, who has shown proficiency rather than polish in previous efforts like Crime Scenes (2000), Secret Agents (2004), Paris Lockdown (2007), Switch (2011) and 96 Hours (2014). Notable primarily for the quality of the stunt driving, this is an old-fashioned vehicular thriller that depends heavily on pedal-to-the-metal set-pieces and the kind of cloddish decision-making by the palooka-like hero that fuelled many a 1970s carsploitation movie.

The plot is basic in the extreme. Fixer Benoît Magimel and his oppos pick up a consignment of Moroccan hashish from Malaga and drive through Spain on their thirteenth drug run across the Pyrenees. Magimel brings up the rear with Tewfik Jallab and communicates with his cohorts via mobile phones. Leading the way are Amir El Kacem and Leon Garel, who is considering converting to Islam, while back-up comes from Sofian Khammes and Alain Figlarz. Behind them is the cargo car, which is being driven by the cocky Mahdi Belemlih and the jittery Foëd Amara, whose girlfriend is expecting a baby.

However, when Amara discovers that the consignment has been supplemented with cocaine, he becomes agitated because he knows what kind of sentence he is likely to draw if he's caught. Thus, when they reach a Guardia Civil roadblock, he freaks and the resulting mêlée culminates in Amara being seriously wounded in a shootout and the gang being lumbered with a hostage in the form of French tourist, Reem Kherici.

Anyone familiar with Olivier Van Hoofstadt's Go Fast (2008) will know what to expect from this undemanding actioner. Schoendoerffer and co-scribe Yann Brion take things so seriously that there's no room for fun, however, as slam the pieces into place with decisive aplomb. They toy with the notions of Muslims running drugs and captives succumbing to Stockholm Syndrome. But, for the most part, this is as thematically threadbare as the characterisation, which hits its lowest point in the chauvinist depiction of Kherici's impressionable prisoner.

Magimel does what he can as the cool Keitelesque cleaner in the shades, but Schoendoerffer puts more thought into Vincent Gallot's flashy sepia- and blue-tinted camerawork and Jean-Claude Lagniez's serviceable car stunts than the increasingly far-fetched plotline, which is kept moving at a breakneck rate through its chases and double crosses by editor Sophie Fourdrinoy to a predictably thudding score from Thibault Quillet. Doing exactly what it says on the tin, this is one for petrolheads and fanboys.

The action is directed with a little more finesse in Thank You For Calling (2015), which sees actor Pascal Elbé take his second turn behind the camera after debuting with Tête de Turc (2010). He draws his inspiration from the case of Gilbert Chikli, the inventor of the `fake president' scam that has since been emulated by con artists worldwide. But, while Elbé and co-writers Noé Debré and Isaac Sharry make it clear that this is a film à clef, the decision to place the emphasis on caper comedy rather than criminous suspense leaves it feeling somewhat betwixt and between.

When Anne Charrier takes a phone call from a man claiming to be the president of her company she has little reason to doubt him when he speaks with such authority and knows too much inside information to be an impostor. But that is precisely what Vincent Elbaz is and he uses a combination of flattery and intimidation to convince Charrier that she has been entrusted to undertake a top secret mission designed to ensure that money is removed from the accounts of clients with connections to terrorist organisations. Slowly gaining Charrier's trust, the cunning Elbaz convinces her to take a small fortune and deposit it at a public rendezvous.

But, while the scam goes like clockwork, Elbaz needs to find a way to launder the proceeds and, against the better judgement of his younger brother and co-conspirator Ludovik Day and their Israeli sidekick Dan Herzberg, he decides to sound out some notorious mobster siblings. Convinced by doting mother Nicole Calfan that he is infallible, Elbaz begins to take risks that potentially jeopardise his wife, Julie Gayet, and young son, Léo Elbé, who know nothing of his illegal activities and are content with their new life in villa with a pool in Tel Aviv. But Police Commissioner Zabou Breitman is getting closer all the time to picking her way through the trail of false numbers, names, accounts and documents.

An air of slickness proves the making and the marring of this cat-and-mouse saga, as while Elbé keeps things light in depicting Elbaz as an inventive and affable rogue, the glib tone (and all that slow motion) prevents him from generating much suspense once the initial ruse has been executed. Anne Charrier plays her part in the scam with poignant dignity, while Zabou Breitman proves a resourceful and dogged adversary. But Julie Gayet and Nicole Calfan have to make do with stock characters, as they compete for the affections of a man who needs little bolstering in the self-regard department.

Elbaz struts effectively and has a touching Benigni-like moment with his son after his luck runs out. But Elbé never quite solves the problem thrown up by the fact that Elbaz and Charrier are necessarily pinned to their phones, while he also struggles to pick up the pace after turning the focus on to domestic matters. Thus, while this holds the attention, it never quite fires the imagination.

Finally, we come to Europe At Sea, Annalisa Piras's concise profile of Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission. In many ways, this is a companion piece to The European, Dirk Jan Roeleven's 2016 snapshot of Frans Timmermans, the Dutch EC veep and the European Commissioner for Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, Rule of Law and Charter of Fundamental Rights. But, even though Mogherini and Timmermans both report to Jean-Claude Juncker, this is not just a morsel for politicos to feast while waiting for the next round of Brexit negotiations to begin. It also provides an informative insight into the EU's global status and the misogynist prejudice that the 43 year-old Mogherini has to endure in the testosterone-fuelled world of diplomacy. The product of two years of filming and narrated by Ferdy Roberts, this sometimes seems shoddily superficial and, at others, frustratingly short, as Piras seeks to cover a range of topics in a punchily sound-bitey manner. Even taking into account the obvious slant, Mogherini emerges as an engaging and eminently sensible character, who clearly takes no nonsense, as she takes up her post and immediately sets about trying to implement an EU Global Strategy that would be acceptable to all 28 member nations. But, such is the speed of current affairs in the age of Snapchat and populism that passages pertaining to the British withdrawal and the sabre-rattling of Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un already feel like yesterday's news.

Nevertheless, Piras draws attention to Mogherini's ambition to develop strategies on terrorism, cyber warfare and climate change, while she also offers a compelling overview of Operation Sophia and the work of the EUCAP holding centre at Sahel Niger in tackling the migrant and trafficking crises in the Mediterranean. What does seem clear is that transnational solutions are required, but will they be possible with Britain preoccupied with its post-Brexit fate and many Americas eager to see a return to Isolationism.

In between the up-close access and archive clips, Mogherini gets plenty of positive support from the likes of past and present NATO Secretaries General Lord Robertson and Jens Stoltenberg, former Head of the British Army Lord Richards, LSE academic Mary Kaldor, German Europe Minister Michael Roth, Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti, and former French Defence and Foreign Affairs ministers Sylvie Goulard and Hubert Vedrine. But Piras might have included a few naysayers to provide a more balanced assessment of Mogherini's approach and the viability of her EU Global Strategy.