RendezVous with French Cinema 2010 at Loncoln Center

[Chris Knipp]

The press screenings begin in around a week and I expect to attend and cover this series again, as well as, when possible, New Directors/New Films series and Film Comments Selections presentations overlapping with the event. Public screenings are from March 11-21. They will include "special in-person conversations with Michel Gondry and Thierry Fremiaux." Filmmakers and guests who're expected include Mona Achache, Lucas Belvaux, Stéphane Brizé, Christian Carion, Michel Gondry, Michel Hazanavicius, Christophe Honoré, Cédric Kahn, Nathan Miller, François Ozon, Laurent Perreau, Riad Sattouf, as well as Thierry Frémaux and celebrated actors/actresses Yvan Attal, Guillaume Canet, Jean Dujardin, Julie Gayet, Virginie Ledoyen and Chiara Mastroianni.

FSLC page for New Directors/New Films 2010 (http://www.filmlinc.com/ndnf/ndnf.html). March 24 through April 4 .
FSLC page for Film Comment Selects. (http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/fcs/fcs.htm) February 19 through March 4.

Filmleaf's Festival Coverage thread for the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema series begins here. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=23960#post23960)



Links to the reviews:

8 Times Up (Xabia Molia 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24054#post24054)
Army of Crime, The (Robert Guédiguian 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24007#post24007)
Farewell (Christian Carion 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24078#post24078)
French Kissers, The (Riad Sattouf 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24101#post24101)
Hedghog, The (Mona Achache 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24058#post24058)
I'm Glad That My Mother Is Alive (Claude and Nathan Miller 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24110#post24110)
In the Beginning (Xavier Giannoli 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24069#post24069)
King of Escape, The (Alain Guiraudie 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24030#post24030)
Mademoiselle Chambon (Stéphane Brizé 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24023#post24023)
Making Plans for Léna (Christophe Honoré 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24056#post24056)
OSS 117: Lost in Rio (Michel Hazanavicius 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24034#post24034)
Rapt (Lucas Belvaux 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24061#post24061)
Regrets (Cédric Kahn 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24011#post24011)
Refuge, Le (François Ozon 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24116#post24116)
Restless (Laurent Perreau 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24013#post24013)
Thorn in the Heart, The (Michel Gondry 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24032#post24032)
Welcome (Philippe Lioret 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24089#post24089)
Wolberg Family, The (Axelle Ropert 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24077#post24077)
RENDEZ-VOUS 2010 SUMMARY: CK thumbnail reviews and picks (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24120#post24120)


.................................................. ............ http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/C2M.jpg
.................................................. ............CHIARA MASTROIANNI IN 'MAKING PLANS FOR LENA'

. . . ............ Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2010, March 11-21


. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... . . . .... . ........ . . . . . . Films & descriptions

*OPENING NIGHT SELECTION

Farewell (L'affaire Farewell), Christian Carion, 2009, 113 min.
Actor-directors Emir Kusturica and Guillaume Canet co-star in an absorbing true story about a KGB colonel who gives top-secret documents to an ordinary French businessman working in Russia, helping to hasten the end of the Cold War.

8 Times Up (Huit Fois Debout), Xabi Molia, 2009, 103 min.
When a woman (Julie Gayet) struggling to make ends meet gets evicted, she and her unemployed neighbor set up a makeshift camp in the forest in this seriocomic investigation of the pressures of modern society.

French Kissers (Les Beaux Gosses), Riad Sattouf, 2009, 90 min.
The French answer to American Pie and Superbad, this hilarious and touching coming-of-age comedy follows two geeky Brittany teens on an odyssey of heavy petting, premature ejaculation and first love.

Hideaway (Le refuge), François Ozon, 2009, 88 min.
An incisive character drama about a hardened ex-junkie who is visited by the brother of her late boyfriend while recovering at a beachside retreat.

I'm Happy that My Mother is Alive (Je suis heureux que ma mère soit vivante), Claude Miller, Nathan Miller, 2009, 90 min.
Given up for adoption as a toddler, Thomas becomes obsessed with tracking down his birth mother-but if he finds her, then what? Beautifully acted by a cast of unknowns, and based on a true story.

In the Beginning (A l'origine), Xavier Giannoli, 2009, 120 min.
François Cluzet gives a tour-de-force performance as a small-time conman who convinces an economically depressed town that he has come to resurrect a long-dormant highway construction project.

Mademoiselle Chambon, Stéphane Brizé, 2009, 101 min.
A delicate, moving tale that follows Jean (Vincent Lindon), a home contractor, as he finds himself increasingly attracted by the elegant charm of his son's homeroom school teacher (Sandrine Kiberlain).

Making Plans for Lena (Non ma fille tu n'iras pas danser), Christophe Honoré, 2009, 105 min.
Recently liberated from her job and husband, Lena (Chiara Mastroianni) heads home to Brittany for the holidays-only to find her self deluged with nonstop advice as to How To Be Happy.

OSS 117 - Lost in Rio (OSS 117 - Rio ne répond plus), Michel Hazanavicius, 2009, 100 min.
A delightful, madcap comedy that follows suave Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath (Jean Dujardin)-better known as OSS 117- as he travels across Brazil with a charming Mossad agent on the trail a hidden, high-ranking Nazi.

Rapt, Lucas Belvaux, 2009, 125 min.
A millionaire businessman and playboy (Yvan Attal) is kidnapped and held for ransom in this fact-based, edge-of-your-seat nail-biter. But is his abduction a crime, or a case of just deserts?

Regrets (Les Regrets), Cédric Kahn, 2009, 105 min.
A married Paris architect (Yvan Attal) returns to his rural hometown to visit his dying mother, whereupon he rekindles his relationship with his former high-school girlfriend. A fascinating drama of romantic obsession.

Restless (Le bel âge), Laurent Perreau, 2009, 97 min.
Claire, a tomboyish teenager feeling the stirrings of first love, and her grandfather, Maurice, a former Resistance fighter, share a house but soon discover much else as well. A touching, fresh approach to the coming of age tale, with a superb performance by Michel Piccoli.

The Army of Crime (L'armée du crime), Robert Guédiguian, 2009, 139 min.
A taut, revealing thriller about the beginnings of the French Resistance, when the leaders as well as the foot soldiers of the movement were often foreigners-Poles, Jews, Armenians, Spaniards, Italians-and who often had as much to fear from French collaborators as they did the Germans. Starring Virginie Ledoyen.

The Hedgehog (Le hérisson), Mona Achache, 2009, 100 min.
A timely fable about Paloma, a young girl bent on ending it all before she becomes an adult, who learns a thing or two about life from her building's coarse, unkempt concierge (the wonderful Josiane Balasko). Based on Muriel Barbery's well-loved novel.

The King of Escape (Le roi de l'évasion), Alain Guiraudie, 2009, 97 min.
After coming to the rescue of a 16-year-old damsel in distress, a gay, middle-aged tractor salesman decides to give heterosexuality a try in this delightfully offbeat, mid-life crisis comedy.

The Law (La loi/La legge), Jules Dassin, 1959, 126 min.
Pitched between a romantic melodrama and a Fifties art film, this hugely entertaining look at a seaside Italian village wracked by barely contained tensions and jealousies features an extraordinary international all-star cast: Yves Montand, Gina Lollobrigida, Marcello Mastroianni, Melina Mercouri, Pierre Brasseur.

The Thorn in the Heart (L'épine dans le coeur), Michel Gondry, 2009, 86 min.
A filmmaker better know for his brilliant rendering of fantasy, Michel Gondry ventures into family history in this quietly affecting portrait of his aunt, school teacher Suzette Gondry, and her eccentric, problematic son, Jean-Yves.

The Wolberg Family (La famille Wolberg), Axelle Ropert, 2009, 80 min.
Meet Simon Wolberg-energetic, enthusiastic, articulate, the mayor of a provincial French town. But does his dedication to his work blind him to everything going on at home?

White as Snow (Blanc comme neige), Christophe Blanc, 2010, 104 min.
A film noir set against snowy northern landscapes, this impressive debut features stars François Cluzet and Olivier Gourmet as brothers caught up on the wrong side of a financial scam gone bad.

"New French Short Films"
Wonderful things can sometimes come in very small packages, as this prize-winning selection of provocative short films from France amply demonstrates. See tomorrow's auteurs today!

(The above is all FSLC press release material, not my own descriptions, which will be found in the Festival Coverage section of Filmleaf. White as Snow has apparently been removed from the series slate.)

[oscar jubis]

Restless and the Gondry doc are MIFF selections so I'll get a chance to watch them the week before the Rendez-Vous. If I remember correctly, reviews of both fall in the mildly favorable range.

[Chris Knipp]

I've seen
L'Affaire Farewell/Farewell Christian Carion (mediocre; Allocine 50, good -)
Mademoiselle Chambon Stéphane Brizé (delicate, nicely done; Allocine 58, good)

Allociné ratings and a few comments:

8 Times Up (Huit Fois Debout), Xabi Molia opens in Paris April 14.
In the Beginning (A l'origine) Xavier Giannoli Allocine 69 (very, very good). I liked his The Singer very much.
Farewell (L'affaire Farewell) Christian Carion Allocine 50 (good-)
French Kissers (Les Beaux Gosses) Riad Sattouf, 52 Allocine stars (good)
Hideaway (Le refuge), François Ozon Allocine 53 (good)
I'm Happy that My Mother is Alive (Je suis heureux que ma mère soit vivante) (Claude Miller) Allocine 54 stars (good)
Making Plans for Lena (Non ma fille tu n'iras pas danser), Christophe Honoré Allocine stars 73 (excellent). I am a fan of Honoré
OSS 117 - Lost in Rio (OSS 117 - Rio ne répond plus), Michel Hazanavicius Allocine stars 88 (ecstatic)
Rapt, Lucas Belvaux Allocine stars 58 (very good)
Regrets (Les Regrets), Cédric Kahn Allocine 50 (good-)
Restless (Le bel âge), Laurent Perreau Allocine 46 (fair)
The Army of Crime (L'armée du crime), Robert Guédiguian Allocone 62 (very good)
The Hedgehog (Le hérisson), Mona Achache Allocine 39 (very fair)
The King of Escape (Le roi de l'évasion), Alain Guiraudie Allocine 41 (fair)
The Law (La loi/La legge), Jules Dassin, 1959 No comments User review: "To be avoided."
The Thorn in the Heart (L'épine dans le coeur), Michel Gondry opens in Paris April 21. VARIETY: "a lovely, minor-key ode," "moving, but far from revelatory," "slight and personal"
The Wolberg Family (La famille Wolberg), Axelle Ropert Allocine 60 (very good)
White as Snow (Blanc comme neige), Christophe Blanc opens in Paris March 17, 2010.


So what emerges as the most obviously solid titles are Giannoli's In the Beginning, Honoré's Making Plans for Lena, Guédiguian's The Army of Crime, and Ropert's The Wolberg Family. Michel Hazanavicius's OSS 117 - Lost in Rio promises to be another slick and funny spy satire like the 2006 OSS 117 -- Cairo, Nest of Spies, both starring the talented Jean Dujardin. Plus there are some unknowns, Molia's 8 Times Up and Blanc's White As Snow.

More shall be revealed.

[Chris Knipp]

February 16, 2010

The screenings are just beginning. Unfortunately due to the holiday and bad weather the first one of Guérdiguians The Army of Crime had to be projected from a somewhat cut and visually poor quality screener DVD (not that projecting a DVD ever produces good quality). It's now announced that White As Snow (and possibly one other title?) will not be included in the pubic Rendez-Vous slate.

[Chris Knipp]

Robert Guérdiguian: The Army of Crime/L'Armée du crime (2009).
A rousing, lengthy and straightforward political thriller about a key aspect of the French resistance during the Second Wold War, Robert Guérdiguin's new film focuses on the movement's early stages, when both leaders and foot soldiers made up an organization called the FTP-MOI: Francs-tireurs et partisans – main-d'œuvre immigrée or Partisans and Irregulars - Immigrant Work Force. It was made up of non-Party member communists or communist sympathizers of foreign, often Jewish, origin -- Spanish, Romanian, Hungarian, Polish, Italian, or, like the director himself, Armenian.

For the Festival Coverage discussion go here:

Robert Guérdiguian: The Army of Crime (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24007#post24007)

This film's weaknesses are its conventionality and unspectacular mise-en-scène; its strengths its fresh angle on the French resistance and engaging characters.

[oscar jubis]

Checking-in mainly to congratulate you on yet another year covering the RendezVous and to declare myself an avid reader of your reviews.

THE THORN IN THE HEART and RESTLESS are playing at the MIFF. Maybe by then you have reviewed them so I can have a better idea as to whether I should see them too. This year I am covering the fest for Film International magazine. The contract has an exclusivity clause, meaning of course that I would have to write something entirely different for Filmleaf. Also I will be in Los Angeles for a cinema studies conference the week after the fest and other commitments follow thus my coverage this year will be (much) more concise.

OSS 117 - Lost in Rio (OSS 117 - Rio ne répond plus), Michel Hazanavicius Allocine stars 88 (ecstatic)
I don't know how much you value this spy spoof genre. I enjoyed the Cairo installment but up to a point. This is rather silly if fun fare, non?

I see that Ozon has another film in the can. I receNtly watched RICKY. Did you watch it?

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks, good to have an "avid reader." Don't think I've seen Ricky. Congratulations on your new assignment, but i hope we don't lose your coverage of Miami. I'd suggest seeing different films so we don't overlap, unless they're wonderful of course, or you can't resist the sound of my descriptions. I have just written about Restless.

[Chris Knipp]

Two films, both beautifully photographed by rising-star French cinematographer Céline Bozon, show that the French still know a lot about love.

This one is a variety of "amour fou," love madness, an adulterous pair who run around as recklessly endangering themselves and others as criiminals in a thriller. It stars the well known actors (both also directors) Yvan Attal and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. Here's the link to my Festival Coverage review of Filmleaf:

Cédric Kahn: Regrets (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24011#post24011)

[Chris Knipp]

And the other film about love beginning with R in this year's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema is about the uneasy relationship between a teenage girl and her monumental, mysterious grandfather, and it features rising star Pauline Étienne and French film giant Michel Piccoli. It's called Restless. Link to Festival Coverage review:

Laurent Perreau: Restless (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24013#post24013)


Like Regret, also handsomely photographed by Céline Bozon.

[Chris Knipp]

A beautiful little love story about a repressed, inarticulate mason and a shy schoolteacher. Brizé continues his series of subtle, emotionally muted character studies. With Vincent Lindon (La Moustache, Friday Night) and former wife Sandrine Kiberlain (Seventh Heaven, A Self-Made Hero) and Aure Atika (The Beat My Heart Skipped).

Stéphane Brizé: Mademoiselle Chambon (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24023#post24023)

[Johann]

2 Avid READERS, Chris.

I don't post so much anymore, but I lurk.

[Chris Knipp]

Lurk on, old pal. But also, post again, when you can.

[Chris Knipp]

Mid-life crisis of an overweight gay salesman in the South of France takes an odd turn when he rescues a luscious 16-year-old girl -- who falls in love with him.

Alain Guiraudie: The King of Escape (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24030#post24030)

[Chris Knipp]

Fascinating but ultimately frustrating documentary by Gondry about his aunt Suzette, a wife and mother and schoolteacher in the Cévennes region of France for thirty-four years. A warm portrait, richly illustrated with home movies and present day documentation and interviews, the film touches on family issues but does not go into enough depth or provide full context. Taken by new US indie distributor Oscilloscope. April release in France.

Michel Gondry: The Thorn in the Heart (2010 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24032#post24032)

[Chris Knipp]

Michel Hazanavicius: OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24034#post24034)


Michel Hazanavicius again collaborates brilliantly and with no loss of comic energy with his star Jean Dujardin and co-writer Jean-François Halin in another film spoofing the novels and films of De Gaulle era, Bond-like French super-spy and politically incorrect ladies'-man Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath AKA OSS 117.

No, this isn't in my view just "silly" after a while. It's stylistically brilliant and continually fun, and in many ways this is more outrageous and droll than the first Haanaviciou parody.

[Chris Knipp]

Xabia Molia: 8 Times Up (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24054#post24054)

To be released in France in April 2010.

Meeting on the way down: a film about economic marginality

Xabia Molia's first feature, 8 Times Up/Huit fois debout, a psychological and social study with a light touch, seeks to be an easy film about a hard subject, and largely succeeds in this aim. The narrative describes a process of decline but it's more spinning in circles than a straight drop. Hopelessness and desperation are tempered by whimsy, and however downbeat the film, it is delicate and specific.. . .8 Times Up is a film that shows how thin the line between security and homelessness can be. But the light touch in part backfires: the very delicacy and the tenuousness of the couple's relationship makes the film feel itself marginal and tentative at times.

[Chris Knipp]

Christophe Honoré: Making Plans for Léna (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24056#post24056)

Having completed what he now calls his "Paris trilogy" -- Dans Paris, Love Songs, and La Belle Personne -- and now being married with a daughter, he wanted to return to his native Brittany and focus on family, children,the role of women. And so, collaborating on the script with the writer Genevieve Brisac, he has made a more mature and many-layered work than he has ever done before.

He has also fulfilled his promise to work again with Chiara Mastroianni and provide her with a major role.

As Variety reviewer Jordan Mintzer writes of this career-capping performance, Mastroianni "manages to channel real energy into her character early on, making for a strong performance reminiscent of both Emmanuelle Devos in (Desplechin's) Kings and Queen and Gena Rowland's unruly protags in the films of John Cassavettes." And the thing is, the other principal actors are also in top form and do some of their best work.

(French title: Non ma fille, tu n'iras pas danser.

[Chris Knipp]

Mona Achache: The Hedghog (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24058#post24058)

In this adept and well-acted little sentimental charmer, a screen adaptation of Muriel Barbery's bestseller The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a precocious and artistic little rich girl, an intellectual concierge, and a benevolent Japanese gentleman come together in a posh Parisian apartment building for a brief period of understanding, communion, and the beginnings of love. The story is a little like an episode from Kay Thompson's Eloise, but set in Paris with philosophical and orientalist touches, a girl who is more smug and priggish than cute and an increasingly saccharine trajectory that is only just barely saved by a tart finale.

For the Festival Coverage review click on the title above.

[Chris Knipp]

Lucas Belvaux: Rapt (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24061#post24061)

For the full Festival Coverage review, click on the title and director's name above. Below, an except of the review:

The accomplishment of Rapt is to carry its story beyond the conventional climax into a kind of heroic struggle for identity and power, a drama of the essential loneliness of man and the dominance of image in the modern world. Some of the speeches in the last segment might come from a contemporary version of Corneille or Racine. Attal is remarkable, suffering, Christlike in confinement, also resembling the death mask of Marcel Proust; then reborn, fiery, but surrounded by confining police protectors and intimate betrayers of trust so his freedom seems anything but that and the real brutality may be in release, the real prisons wealth, power, and fame. But it's not that simple: Rapt isn't preachy or tendentious; it supplies you with a damn good time but leaves you pondering. It may be a better film than it seems, or even than its makers realized. In his famous "Trilogy" Belvaux played with genres. Here he uses a single genre to transcend genre. Like Cantet's Tell No One, this plays very well as a mainstream film, but is much more.

[cinemabon]

You put a lot of work and love into this post. I tried to read most of them. I would love to see "Making plans for Lena." I tried to bring it up on Netflix but it is not available yet. Great post, Chris. Excellent work. Bravo.

[Chris Knipp]

Thank you, cinemabon, for your compliments! I'll try to keep you posted on availability of the films. Making Plans for Lena has been picked up by IFCFilms. They are promoting it and Honoré is appearing at several venues, Lincoln Center, IFC Center (Sixth Ave. at W. 3rd St.), and at BAMcinématek (30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn) during the R-V public screenings of the film in March. It will be on DVD later, perhaps also in US theatrical release.

Any of the films that have been out for four months or more in France are available on French DVD's.

Directors and or stars of nearly all the films will on hand for public screenings (but these are not what I am attending).

In addition to that there will be special evenings with Vincent Lindon (at the Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center) and Yvan Attal (at the Alliance Francaise), both of whom are in several of the films this yea. The Alliance Francaise is at 22 E 60th St. between Park and Madison.

March 21 there will be a special screening of Honoré's 2008 IFC release, Love Songs, with the director and Chiara Mastroianni on hand for discussion, this at the Alliance Francaise.

It looks like a majority of the series this year have good US art house potential, but i don't have much information, and the economy makes one less optimistic.

[Chris Knipp]

For Filmleaf's Festival Coverage section review of this film click on the title below:

Xavier Giannoli: In the Beginning (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24069#post24069)

Philippe Miller is a lone con man who lives on the road.
One day he comes across an abandoned highway project halted several years ago by eco-activists to save a colony of beetles.
The work stopage has been an economic catastrophe for the inhabitants of the region.
Philippe sees in this a chance to achieve his best swindle ever. But his deception will get away from him. --Allociné.

Like Belvaux in creating Rapt, Giannoli has taken little item in a newspaper (about a petty swindler who built a highway) and turned it into a great film that transcends genre and shows why French cinema is still worth following.

[Chris Knipp]

Axelle Ropert: The Wolberg Family (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24077#post24077)

A Jewish mayor in a Basque town in rural France and his family turn out not to be as harmonious as he might like. First feature by the screenwriter for Serge Bozon (La France). Striking dialogue, acting, and cinematography; some disunity in the sequences.

To read the full Festival Coverage review click on the film title above.

[Chris Knipp]

Christian Carion: Farewell (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24078#post24078)

A bland spy story.

For the full review, click on the film title above.

[Chris Knipp]

Philippe Lioret: Welcome (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24089#post24089)

Illegal immigration is the subject of this ironically titled film. But whatever generalizations it has to make are embodied in beautifully realized and touching characters and a specific story, which combines one of France's ablest and most experienced actors, Vincent Lindon, with a young Kurdish newcomer, Firat Ayverdi. Ayverdi plays the role of Bilal, a 17-year-old Iraq-born Kurd who needs to get from France to England to meet his sweetheart. He's in France illegally and decides to swim the Channel. Simon (Vincent Lindon) is a swim coach whose aid he seeks.

This film was substituted and Christophe Blanc's White As Snow/Blac comme neige, which has a European theatrical release dat of March 17, was omitted from the original slate.

[Chris Knipp]

The Rendez-Vous with French Cinema public screenings schedule is now available on the FSLC website and can be viewed here (http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/rendezvous.html). Tickets are available online and at the box office.

The series runs from March 11th to 21st and is shown at both Lincoln Center (all but opening night's Farewell/L'affaire Farewell shown at the Walter Reade Theater, the latter at Alice Tully Hall) and the IFC Center, New York.

The series is jointly sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and uniFrance.

[Chris Knipp]

Riad Sattouf: French Kissers (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24101#post24101)

A funny and richly detailed and gross-out French version of the popular genre of obsessed-with-sex adolescent coming-of-age comedy. Probably not a likely hit with non-francophone audiences since much of the humor is in the language. But extremely well received (with praise from critics of outlets both hip and conventional) in France as a summer release after inclusion in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes.

For the Festival Coverage review, click on the title above.

[Chris Knipp]

Claude and Nathan Miller: I'm Glad That My Mother Is Alive (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24110#post24110)

Strange film based on a true story of an adopted child who pursues his birth mother when he is twenty years old. The film doesn't quite work, but there is great chemistry betwen Vincent Rottiers as the youth and Sophie Cattani as his birth mother. A project delayed 13 years and originally initiated by Jacques Audiard. It marks the writing and directorial debut of Claude Miller's 4-year-old son Nathan, long a cameraman on his father's films.

For the Festival Coverage review, click on the film name above.

[Chris Knipp]

François Ozon: Le Refuge (2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24116#post24116)

Ozon departs from from the playfulness of some (but not all!) of his earlier films for a beautiful and serious feature focused on a pregnant drug-addicted widow that refers to themes of loneliness, single parenthood, gay parenting and drug addiction, but his glossy, sunlit meditation feels only skin deep.

Fair reviews in France (Allociné 2.1, 44 points), wide distribution coming including Strand Releasing purchase in the US.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/7492/287ua.jpg

RENDEZ-VOUS 2010 SUMMARY (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24120#post24120)

Click on the title above title for concluding thumbnail comments on each of the main slate selections and my picks from this year's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. On the Festival Coverage Thread.

Again, the series runs from March 11-21 2010 and is co-sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and uniFrance All films are screened at both the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center and at the IFC Center. You can get the FSLC program and ticket sale information here. (http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/rendezvous.html)

Links to the reviews:

8 Times Up (Xabia Molia 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24054#post24054)
Army of Crime, The (Robert Guédiguian 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24007#post24007)
Farewell (Christian Carion 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24078#post24078)
French Kissers, The (Riad Sattouf 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24101#post24101)
Hedghog, The (Mona Achache 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24058#post24058)
I'm Glad That My Mother Is Alive (Claude and Nathan Miller 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24110#post24110)
In the Beginning (Xavier Giannoli 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24069#post24069)
King of Escape, The (Alain Guiraudie 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24030#post24030)
Mademoiselle Chambon (Stéphane Brizé 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24023#post24023)
Making Plans for Léna (Christophe Honoré 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24056#post24056)
OSS 117: Lost in Rio (Michel Hazanavicius 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24034#post24034)
Rapt (Lucas Belvaux 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24061#post24061)
Regrets (Cédric Kahn 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24011#post24011)
Refuge, Le (François Ozon 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24116#post24116)
Restless (Laurent Perreau 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24013#post24013)
Thorn in the Heart, The (Michel Gondry 2010) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24032#post24032)
Welcome (Philippe Lioret 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24089#post24089)
Wolberg Family, The (Axelle Ropert 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24077#post24077)

[oscar jubis]

Chris, a few questions...
Which were your favorite films from this year's RendezVous?
Is there a truly great film among them?
I know you have seen Chereau's PERSECUTION (from Film Comment Selects), have you reviewed it? Do you plan to do so? I am extremely curious about your opinion. I think of Chereau as a major director but last night, at the screening, I found myself having difficulty "sinking my teeth" into it. Still thinking about it though...

[Chris Knipp]

See the post just before yours for a link to my thumbnail comments and picks of the Rendez-Vous at the end of the Festival Coverage thread.

As for Persécution, I think it's a bust. I've been busy lately but I'm working on a short review of it. Not recommended at all. This will be in a Film Comment Selects+New Directors/New Films thread (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2808-Film-Comments-Selects-And-New-Directors-New-Films-2010) I've started in the Festival Coverage section. No content there yet.

Is there a "great" film among this year's Rendez-Vous? Well, that's a matter of opinion, but I don't think the Rendez-Vous usually works that way. The "great" ones, like 35 Shots of Rum or A Prophet, have already shown up as such with awards at Cannes and/or inclusion in the September/October NYFF, and the FSLC doesn't repeat presentations of the same film in different series.

[Chris Knipp]

My comment in reply to this question was a bit misleading: A Prophet (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2805-Jacques-Audiard-A-Prophet-%282009%29&p=24087)was not in any Lincoln Center series, and 35 Shots (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2468-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2009)was in the 2009 Rendez-Vous. Anyway, to stop there is to overlook some more quietly great films of the 2010 series, so let me backtrack for a minute -- and also review the availability of these recommendations to US viewers.

One of the best was Philippe Loiret's Welcome (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24089#post24089), about a very young Kurdish refugee in France desperately attempting to join the love of his life in London. It opened in New York May 7th and became a NY Times recommended film (http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/movies/07welcome.html). Limited theatrical release, but obviously coming DVD availability.

The week after that Stéphane Brizé's delicate Brief Interlude-esque love story Mademoiselle Chambon (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24023#post24023) -- like Welcome starring the fine Vincent Lindon -- opened at IFC Center. It will be in US theaters starting May 28, 2010. An online review by Brandon Judell on the site"CultureCatch" actually says (http://www.culturecatch.com/film/mademoiselle-chambon)this film "never strives for greatness. It just gently saunters there . . ."

Christophe Honré's star vehicle for Chiara Mastreoianni, Making Plans for Léna (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24056#post24056) . Also shown recently at a BAM-cinḿatek IFC Films series with Mastroianni on hand. IFC says in theaters + on demand + DVD.

The Bond-like spoof sequel directed by Michel Hazanavicius: OSS 117: Lost in Rio (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24034#post24034) (from a series actually started before the Bomnd books) is now showing in Landmark Theaters nationwide. I find the series amusing and well made, but some find them repetitious. Oscar Jubis expressed somewhat that view on this site. I would consider this cultishness rather than greatness.

Two of my other favorites, both remarkable crime action films plus character studies that surprised me and stuck in my mind, don't seem to have a US release in sight. These are Lucas Belvaux's true kidnapping story Rapt (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24061#post24061), starring Yvan Attal (also a director and husband of French icon Charlotte Gainsbourg) and Xavier Giannoli's' In the Beginning (http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/movies/07welcome.html), with the busy and popular François Cluzet (Tell No One) and Emmanuelle Devos. Rapt is scheduled for a US remake, but that ain't the same. These two are mind-bending twists on what might seem conventional genre themes, and I hope US viewers to get a crack at them in their original Gallic form.

[Chris Knipp]

Lucas Belvaux: Rapt (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2792-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-2010-at-Loncoln-Center&p=24061#post24061)


This film has been showing at the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley for the week of July 25-31, 2011. It showed earlier in NYC and was reviewed in the NYTimes July 5. One of several excellent action films in the 2010 Rendez-Vous series based on true events.