Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center 2012

[Chris Knipp]

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Festival Coverage thread is here. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27361#post27361)

Soon I expect to be seeing and reviewing the press screenings of the 2012 FSLC-UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. UniFrance has announced the dates and the opening and closing night films. The public screenings will be at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, NYC.

It's March 1-11, 2-12.
Opening night film : UNTOUCHABLE by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano. March 1.
Based on a true story of two men who should never have met - a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects. Jay Weissberg of Variety describes this as "cringe-worthy" for its "Uncle Tom racism." More likely it's just cliched and saccharine, which UniFrance and the Rendez-Vous unfortunately has a weakness for, and would provide on opening night. The French love it: it's the second biggest box office for a French film in France ever. Allociné rating 3.7. The black star Omar Sy beat Jean Dujardin at the Césars for Best Actor. It sounds entertaining and likely to do well here. Harvey Weinberg is releasing it, and he knows how to pick winners. The press screenings did not include this nor was there a screener, and I didn't get into a public screening. But it will be viewable in US theaters generally in several months.

Directors: Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano
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Closing night film : DELICACY by Stéphane and David Foenkino. March 11.
A French woman mourning over the death of her husband three years prior is courted by a Swedish co-worker. Audrey Tatous: need I say more? More cliched sugar, evidently less well executed, since the Allociné rating was a measly 2.5. In the event, this seemed messy and disorganized to me, but the press audience in general seemed to love it.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/9937/delicacyrdvfrenchcinema.jpg

But the good stuff is usually between the opening and closing films anyway. However, last year was better since the opening night film was POTICHE, with Deneuve and Depardieu and Fabrice Lucchini.

Links to the reviews:

17 Girls (Muriel, Delphhine Coulin 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27448#post27448)
18 Years Old and Rising (Fréderic Louf 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27431#post27431)
38 Witnesses (Lucas Belvaux 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27437#post27437)
Americano (Mathieu Demy 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27394#post27394)
Delicacy (David and Stéphane Foekinos 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27433#post27433)
Farewell, My Queen (Benoît Jacquot 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27445#post27445)
Free Men (Ismaël Faroukhi 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27393#post27393)
Gang Story, A (Olivier Marchal 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27487#post27487)
Head Winds (Jalil Lespert 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27417#post27417)
Last Screening (Laurent Achard 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27439#post27439)
Louise Wimmer (Cyril Mennegun 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27474#post27474)
Low Life (Nicolas Klotz 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27469#post27469)
Moon Child (Delphine Gleize 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27429#post27429)
Painting, The (Jean-Pierre Laguionie 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27403#post27403)
Paris by Night (Philippe Lefebvre 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27420#post27420)
Pater (Alain Cavalier 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27466#post27466)
Screen Illusion, The (Mathieu Amalric 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27386#post27386)
Smuggler's Songs (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27383#post27383)
Snows of Kilimanjaro (Robert Guédiguian 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27399#post27399)
Unforgivable (André Téchiné 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27451#post27451)
Well-Digger's Daughter, The (Daniel Auteuil 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27392#post27392)

[Chris Knipp]

Feb. 6, 2012.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance Films have announced the full lineup for the 17th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema (March 1-11), their joint annual showcase of contemporary French cinema that plays at the Film Society, the IFC Center and BAMcinematek --Indiewire.

In the next post I will give the main items from the FSLC press release. This schedule is given in full on Indiewire. (http://www.indiewire.com/article/rendez-vous-with-french-cinema-reveals-complete-lineup-the-intouchables-to-open)

I'll be reporting on the press screenings of all the new feature films. The P&I screenings will follow an as yet unannounced schedule that starts earlier and lasts longer. Futhermomre they are showing more films than they did when I began reviewing this series seven years ago. In 2006 there were 15 films, and this year counting only new films there are 25.

Bear in mind that the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema Today tends to be mainstream stuff these days. It no longer a set of critics' picks but some kind of collaboration for French film promotion, presumably of likely US releases in many cases (though not all). Many items can be rather disappointing. This is not the New York Film Festival. But the general standard of Frency filmmaking is high and there is certain to be much of interest. In sometimes glossy settings we will get to see some of any French film buff's favorite actors and directors. We'll also see work by relative unknowns that may contain real surprises.

This time among current favorites we'll see the always impressive Vincent Lindon in two films (not for the first time); Matthieu Amalric, with another directing stint that he stars in; the new cult lady Emmanuelle Devos (who's been in several of Jacques Audiard's films); the tantalizing director Benoît Jacquot with a costume drama. Actor Jalil Lespert, whom I loved in LE PETIT LIEUTENANT, has his second directorial effort on offer starring Benoît Magimel, an actor who has worked for many great directors and most legendary actresses, yet remains modest and adventurous. Nicolas Klotz, whose HEARTBEAT DECTECTOR (with Amalric in the lead) was one of the most interesting films of the 2008 Rendez-Vous, is back with LOW LIFE. André Téchiné is back with a film starring veteram actor (one of Rivette's regulars) André Dussollier. Daniel Auteuil is another veteran represented here. One of the busiest and most famous movie actors in France, delivers his directing debut here with a Pagnol adaptation. He has since directored re-makes of Pagnol films MARIUS, FANNY and CESAR. And he also stars. Claude Sautet, who directed TELL NO ONE, is back directing Auteuil with the always interesting Sandrine Bonnaire. Yvan Attal is back in a police thriller, 38 WITNESSES. The young star of Audiard's amazing A PROPHET is back in FREE MEN, a film about a young Algerian in Paris in 1942 inspired to join the resistance by his friendship with a Jewish man. With Michael Lonsdale and Lubna Azabal (sounds very interesting). Other famous names this year: French-Armenian auteur Robert Guédiguian and directors Alain Cavalier and Lucas Belvaux; the pretty, talented ladies Carol Bouquet and Audrey Tatou.

But it's very likely the most intriguing new films will be ones whose directors and cast have names we haven't yet heard of.

[Chris Knipp]

French box office sensation "The Intouchables," starring "Tell No One" star Francois Cluzet," will kick-off the series, while the latest Audrey Tatou vehicle, "Delicacy," will close.

Other highlights include: New French Shorts, an award-winning selection of shorts from France; a special Centerpiece screening of the newly restored version of "Children of Paradise," from filmmaker Marcel Carne, which premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival; "Farewell, My Queen," the latest from Benoît Jacquot, that stars Diane Kruger as Marie Antoinette; and a tribute to French film magazine Positif, with the founding editor in person presenting some of his favorite films.

Filmmakers and talent slated to make appearances include: Mathieu Amalric, Laurent Achard, Carole Bouquet, Pascal Cervo, François Cluzet, Delphine and Muriel Coulin, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Mathieu Demy, Ismael Ferroukhi, David and Stéphane Foenkinos, Benoît Jacquot, Nicolas Klotz, Jean-François Laguionie, Vincent Lindon, Frédéric Louf, Olivier Nakache, Sylvie Pialat, Tahar Rahim, Audrey Tautou, Eric Toledano and Rabah Ameur-Zaïméche.

If a title has been released in France I give the Allociné scores, press and public, which gives some idea of the local reception of the film.



Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2012, March 1-11, 2012
Films, Descriptions & Schedule

Alice Tully Hall (ATH)/ BAMcinématek (BAM)/Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (EBM)/IFC Center (IFC)/Walter Reade Theater (WRT)

OPENING NIGHT
THE INTOUCHABLES (INTOUCHABLES)
Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, 2011, France; 112m
(Allociné: press 3.7, public 4.5)
A phenomenon in France, where it shattered box-office records to become the second most successful film of all time, The Intouchables tells the true story of the unlikely friendship between a handicapped white millionaire (François Cluzet) and his unconventional Senegalese caretaker (breakout star Omar Sy). A Weinstein Company release.
*Thurs., March 1, 7:30pm – ATH; *Sun., March 4, 1:05pm - IFC
*In person: Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache and François Cluzet

CLOSING NIGHT
DELICACY (La Délicatesse)
David and Stéphane Foenkinos, 2011, France, 108 min.
(Allociné: press 2.5, public 3.5)
Audrey Tautou returns with this touching portrait of a woman trying to put her life back together after the loss of her husband, including embarking on an unexpected affair with a co-worker. A charming adult fable about starting over. A Cohen Media Group release.
*Sun., March 11, 6pm & 9pm - WRT
*In person: David & Stéphane Foenkinos and Audrey Tautou

17 Girls (17 FILLES)
Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin, 2011, France, 90 min.
(Allociné: press 3.8, public 3.2)
Based on a headline-grabbing incident in the U.S., sisters Delphine and Muriel Coulin’s provocative debut feature follows the fallout in a sleepy French coastal town when a group of teenage girls all decide to become pregnant at the same time. A Strand Releasing film.
*Fri., March 2, 9:15pm – WRT; *Sat., March 3, 9:30pm – IFC; *Sun., March 4, 1pm - WRT
*In person: Delphine and Muriel Coulin

18 YEARS OLD AND RISING (J’AIME REGARDER LES FILLES)
Fred Louf, 2011, France, 92 min.
(Allociné: press 2.9, public 3.3)
As France prepares for a presidential election that will determine the fate of François Mitterand, a young man from the provinces falls head over heels for a bourgeois girl from Paris in this charming and inventive spin on a classic tale of first love.
Mon., March 5, 6pm – IFC; *Sat., March 10, 3:45pm - WRT
*In person: Frédéric Louf

38 Witnesses (38 TÉMOINS)
Lucas Belvaux, 2012, France/Belgium, 104 min.
(Release in France: March 14, 2012)
A woman is brutally murdered in front of an apartment building, but all of the residents claim to have seen and heard nothing in this taut, haunting thriller from RAPT director Lucas Belvaux. Inspired by New York’s infamous 1964 Kitty Genovese case.
Fri., March 2, 7pm – IFC; Sat., March 10, 6:15pm – WRT; Sun., March 11, 1:30pm – WRT

Americano
Mathieu Demy, 2011, France, 105 min.
(Allociné: press 3.2, public 3.1)
When thirty-something Martin (played by actor-writer-director Mathieu Demy) travels from Paris to Los Angeles to settle his estranged mother’s estate, the journey dredges up long-submerged emotions...and unexpected revelations about a woman he hardly knew. Salma Hayek and Geraldine Chaplin co-star. An MPI release.
*Sat., March 3, 6:30pm – WRT; *Sun., March 4, 6:45pm – IFC; *Tues., March 6, 7:30pm - BAM
*In person: Mathieu Demy

Farewell to the Queen (LES ADIEUX À LA REINE)
Benoit Jacquot, 2012, France, 97 min.
(French release: March 21, 2012.)
A brilliant snapshot of the final days of Marie Antoinette, starring a terrific Diane Kruger as the ill-fated Queen and rising star Léa Seydoux (MIDNIGHT IN PARIS) as her quietly ambitious lady-in-waiting. This was the Opening Night Film, 2012 Berlin Film Festival.
*Fri., March 2, 6:30pm – WRT; *Sat., March 3, 1:30pm – WRT; *Sat., March 3, 7pm – IFC; *Sun., March 4, 6pm – BAM
*In person: Benoit Jacquot

Free Men (LES HOMMES LIBRES)
Ismael Ferroukhi, 2011, France, 99 min.
(Allociné: press 3.0, public 3.1)
During the German Occupation of France, an Algerian black marketeer (A PROPHET star Tahar Rahim) is coerced into spying on the denizens of the Paris Grand Mosque, whereupon he discovers a clandestine operation to provide North African Jews with fake Muslim IDs. A Film Movement release.
Fri., March 2, 1pm – WRT; *Sat., March 3, 9:15pm – WRT; *Sun., March 4, 4pm - IFC
*In person: Ismael Ferroukhi and Tahar Rahim.

A Gang Story (LES LYONNAIS)
Olivier Marchal, 2011, France, 102 min.
(Allociné: press 2.8, public 3.7)
Based on the autobiography of a real crime boss, A GANG STORY follows aging ex-gangster Momon (Gérard Lanvin) as he agrees to break his old partner (Tchéky Karyo) out of prison. A solid return to the gangster genre—in the French style, of course! A Weinstein Company release.
Sat., March 3, 4:45pm – IFC; Thurs., March 8, 8:45pm – WRT; Fri., March 9, 4pm - WRT

Guilty (PRESUMÉ COUPABLE)
Vincent Garenq, 2011, France, 102 min.
(Allociné: press 3.6, public 4.1)
A breathtaking, fact-based journey into a Kafka-esque judicial nightmare: a provincial court bailiff (the extraordinary Philippe Torreton) is accused of horrifying crimes against children. Imprisoned, he maintains his innocence, even as his reputation and family life are destroyed.
Mon., March 5, 6:15pm – WRT; Tues., March 6, 1:30pm – WRT; Thurs., March 8, 10:25pm – IFC

Headwinds (DES VENTS CONTRAIRES)
Jalil Lespert, 2011, France, 91 min.
(Allociné: press 3.1, public 3.4)
Benoît Magimel (THE PIANO TEACHER) gives perhaps his greatest performance as a struggling writer who tries to start a new life in the coastal Brittany of his youth after his wife (Audrey Tatou) mysteriously vanishes. He is joined by an all-star cast, including Isabelle Carré, Bouli Lanners and Aurore Clement. Based on Oliver Adam’s best-selling novel.
Tues., March 6, 6pm – IFC; Thurs., March 8, 4pm – WRT; Fri., March 9, 6:15pm - WRT

Here Below (ICI-BAS)
Jean-Pierre Denis, 2012, France, 100 min.
2.8, 3.2
The brief, tempestuous relationship between a nun and a priest working for the French Resistance is the focus of director Denis’s taut, suspenseful look at closing months of WWII and the transformation of private passion into national politics.
Sat., March 3, 4:15pm – WRT; Sun., March 4, 9:30pm – IFC; Wed., March 7, 4:40pm - WRT

The Last Screening (LA DERNIÈRE SEANCE)
Laurent Achard, 2011, France, 81 min.
2.8, 2.4
CINEMA PARADISO meets PSYCHO in a provocative genre film about the dutiful manager/projectionist (Pascal Cervo) of a repertory cinema in the French provinces...and the many secrets he holds.
*Tues., March 6, 8:30pm – WRT; *Thurs., March 8, 6pm – IFC; *Sat., March 10, 1:30pm – WRT
*In person: Laurent Achard, Pascal Cervo and producer Sylvie Pialat

Louise Wimmer
Cyril Mennegun, 2011, France, 80 min.
4.1, 3.7
In a tough, unapologetic work of social realism, director Mennegun observes the daily life of a middle-aged chambermaid (the riveting Corinne Masiero) who lives out of her car while desperately trying to make a fresh start.
Sat., March 3, 3pm – IFC; Mon., March 5, 2pm – WRT; Tues., March 6, 6:15pm - WRT

Low Life French release: April 4, 2012
Nicolas Klotz and Elisabeth Perceval, 2011, France, 120 min.
French release: April 4, 2012.
Carmen, a young French student, enters into an intense affair with Hussain, an Afghan poet living illegally in the country, in this bracingly radical movie about the revolt of the human spirit against a heartless, unjust world.
*Sun., March 4, 8:30pm – WRT; *Mon., March 5, 10:05pm – IFC; Wed., March 7, 2pm - WRT
*In person: Nicolas Klotz

The Painting (LE TABLEAU)
Jean-François Laguionie, 2011, France, 76 min.
4.1, 3.9
A touching, wonderfully inventive animated fable, THE PAINTING takes place within the borders of an unfinished canvas, where the fully drawn and colored creatures lord their privilege over the half-drawn and merely sketched underclasses. Presented in collaboration with the New York International Children’s Film Festival
Sat., March 3, 1:15pm – EBM; *Sun., March 4, 11am - IFC
*In person: Jean-François Laguionie

Paris by Night (UNE NUIT)
Philippe Lefebvre, 2012, France, 100 min.
3.8, 3.4
Roschdy Zem gives a tour-de-force performance as a police commander supervising Paris’s demi-monde of bars, discos and strip clubs in this searing voyage into the City of Light’s darkest corners.
Mon., March 5, 4pm & 8:30pm – WRT; Tues., March 6, 10:10pm - IFC

PATER
Alain Cavalier, 2011, France, 105 min.
4.3, 2.9
France’s most unpredictable filmmaker, Alain Cavalier, teams up with actor Vincent Lindon for a witty, semi-improvised look at men, power and politics, starring Cavalier himself as a fictional French President and Lindon as his newly appointed Prime Minister.
Fri., March 2, 3:45pm – WRT; *Fri., March 2, 9:15pm – IFC; *Sat., March 3, 6:30pm – BAM; *Sun., March 4, 3:30pm - WRT
*In person: Vincent Lindon

The Screen Illusion (L’ILLUSION COMIQUE)
Mathieu Amalric, 2011, France, 77 min.[/COLOR]
(Film made for TV)
Commissioned by La Comédie-Française, actor-director Mathieu Amalric’s wildly inventive update of Corneille’s popular 17th century tragicomedy follows a hotel concierge on the trail of a missing young man who seems to have left many a young female heart aflutter.
*Sun., March 4, 6:15pm – WRT; *Sun., March 4, 9pm – BAM; *Mon., March 5, 8pm – IFC; *Tues., March 6, 4pm - WRT
*In person: Mathieu Amalric

Smugglers’ Songs (LES CHANTS DE MANDRIN)
Rabah Ameur-Zaïméche, 2011, France, 97 min.
3.6, 2.9
The 18th century folk hero and bandit Louis Mandrin is the inspiration for this strikingly relevant period tale, tracing the efforts of Mandrin’s followers to distribute his songs and stories in the build-up to the French Revolution.
*Wed., March 7, 9:30pm – IFC; *Thurs., March 8, 6:15pm – WRT; Fri., March 9, 1:30pm - WRT
*In person: Rabah Ameur-Zaïméche

The Snows of KilImanjaro (LES NEIGES DU KILIMANDJARO)
Robert Guédiguian, 2011, France; 107m
4.1, 3.7
When a newly retired union rep (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) is robbed, thwarting a dream vacation to Kenya, he finds himself reflecting on the many compromises and lost ideals of his career. An engaging, affecting drama from one of the cinema’s great observers of the politics of everyday life.
*Tues., March 6, 7:45pm – IFC; Thurs., March 8, 1:30pm – WRT; *Sat., March 10, 9pm – WRT
*In person: Jean-Pierre Darroussin

Unforgivable (IMPARDONNABLES)
André Téchiné, 2011, France/Italy, 111 min.
2.6, 2.5
In the latest from acclaimed director Téchiné, a blocked mystery novelist (André Dussolier) on vacation in Venice falls for an expat real estate agent (Carole Bouquet). Then jealousy rears its head and the writer puts a detective on the trail of this possibly unfaithful femme. A Strand Releasing Film.
*Wed., March 7, 6:30pm – IFC; *Fri., March 9, 8:45pm – WRT
*In person: Carole Bouquet

The Well-Digger’s Daughter (LA FILLE DU PUISATIER)
Daniel Auteuil, 2011, France, 107 min.
2.8, 3.6
Daniel Auteuil, veteran of Marcel Pagnol adaptations Jean de Florette and Manon des sources, returns to Pagnol for his first work as a director, telling moving story of a hardscrabble well digger, his eldest daughter and her passion for the son of a local shopkeeper. The cast also includes Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Sabine Azema, and Kad Merad. A Kino Lorber release.
*Thurs., March 8, 8pm – IFC; *Sun., March 11, 3:45pm – WRT
*In person: Jean-Pierre Darroussin

ZARAFA
3.6, 3.7
Rémi Bezançon and Jean-Christophe Lie, 2011, France; 78m
French release: February 8, 2012.
In this beautiful hand-drawn animation, 10-year-old Maki and the orphaned giraffe, Zarafa, go on an epic adventure from the Sudan, where Maki escapes from slave traders, to Alexandria, Marseille and Paris. Ages 7+. In French with English subtitles.
Sat., March 3, 1:15pm – IFC; Sun., March 4, 1:15pm – EBM; Sun., March 11, 10am – EBM

NEW FRENCH SHORTS
Sun., March 4, 7:20pm – EBM; Wed., March 7, 4pm - EBM

60 YEARS OF POSITIF
60th anniversary tribute to pioneering French film magazine Positif with Michel Ciment, the founding editor in person presenting some of his favorite seldom-seen films
A FEW DAYS WITH ME (QUELQUE JOURS AVEC MOI)
Claude Sautet, 1988, 131 min.
In a César nominated performance, Daniel Auteuil plays the sensitive Martial, heir to a chain of department stores run by his mother (Gallic acting doyenne Danielle Darrieux) in this comic fable meets bourgeois critique by acclaimed director Sautet. Emerging from a nervous breakdown, Martial is sent to the provincial town of Limoges, where he has a dalliance with a young waitress and prostitute (Sandrine Bonnaire), and discovers that the chain’s regional director (a frostily understated Jean-Pierre Marielle, also César nominated) is embezzling money. An exploration of the contemporary upper class and its laissez-faire mores, this charmingly affable sketch of France in the 80s is an underrated discovery.
*Mon., March 5, 7pm
*In person: Positif editor Michel Ciment

MOON CHILD (LA PERMISSION DE MINUIT)
Delphine Gleize, 2011, France, 110 min.
3.4,3.0
Vincent Lindon and Emmanuelle Devos star in this affecting drama about Romain, a teenager afflicted since birth by a rare genetic disorder that makes him unable to stand exposure to daylight. Romain finds a surrogate father figure in David, a dermatologist who is passionate about his case and has treated him since infancy, but both of their lives are thrown into turmoil when David must leave to take a job in Switzerland.
With Vincent Lindon, Emmanuelle Devos and Quentin Challal.
*Sat., March 3, 9:30pm BAMcinematek
*In person: Vincent Lindon

There will also be a "special centerpiece screening" of Carné's classic, CHILDREN OF PARADISE, in a restored print introduced in France in May 2011 at Cannes:

Children of Paradise (LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS)
Marcel Carné, 1945, France, 163 min.
At last year’s Cannes Film Festival, one of the most eagerly awaited events was the unveiling of Pathé's newly restored version of Children of Paradise, one of the best-loved masterworks of French cinema and our special Centerpiece at this year’s Rendez-vous. In 1830s Paris, theatrical mime Baptiste (the amazing Jean-Louis Barrault) falls in love with an actress and notorious woman about town, Garance (Arletty, enough said); when she’s falsely accused of a crime, Garance must seek the protection of one of her admirers. Yet Baptiste’s passion, once kindled, never really dies. Made in the last years of the War, Children boasted the largest set ever constructed for a French film, a tour-de-force for legendary production designer Alexander Trauner (who worked in secret because of the occupation) and a sparkling script from acclaimed poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert. Carné moves the action effortlessly between stage and audience, teeming streets and intimate boudoirs, bringing the world of these characters to pulsing, vibrant life. A Janus Films release, opening on March 9th at Film Forum.
*Wed., March 7, 7pm – WRT
*In person: Positif editor Michel Ciment

[Chris Knipp]

RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA TODAY 2006 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?1693-Rendez-vous-With-French-Cinema-06&highlight=rendez-vous+french+cinema+2006)

I updated this Festival Coverage thread (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?1693-Rendez-vous-With-French-Cinema-06&highlight=rendez-vous+french+cinema+2006) from my first Rendez-Vous. The photos had been spammed because they were dead Filmwurld links. You might want to take a look at this earlier series. There were some excellent films and some beloved actors, Deneuve, Nathalie Bay, Michel Blanc, Emmanuelle Devos, Charlotte Rampling, Jean-Pierre Marielle, who is close to 80 now but constantly on the screen.

This entry is way back in the Festival Coverage section with many others since, but I'm happy to say it has had 8,648 hits.

LE PETIT LIEUTENANT.......................GOOD GIRL

ZIM AND CO.......................................HEADING SOUTH

RUSSIAN DOLLS.................................LA MOUSTACHE

NOT HERE TO BE LOVED.....................GREY SOULS

COLD SHOWERS.................................HELL

YOU LOOK VERY HANDSOME...............HOUSEWARMING

ORCHESTRA SEATS.............................PALAIS ROYAL!

........................I SAW BEN BARKA KILLED............................

I still like LE PETIT LIEUTENANT a lot and wouldn't necessarily change this order, except I might put the cliched ORCHESTRR SEATS and PALAIS ROYAL! above the aimless HOUSEWARMING. Not sure. GOOD GIRL may not be that great, but I love Emmanuelle Devos, the star. I'd like to see ZIM AND CO. again, but though a US DVD of it exists, it's not on Netflix.

[Chris Knipp]

RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA TODAY 2012 PRESS SCREENINGS.

The press screenings schedule has been announced today (Feb. 8, 2012). It's as foillows:

Monday, February 13
NO SCREENINGS

Tuesday, February 14
9AM – SMUGGLER’S SONG (97 min) - WRT
11AM - THE SCREEN ILLUSION (80 min) - WRT

Wednesday, February 15
10AM – THE WELL-DIGGERS DAUGHTER (107 min) - IFC
1PM – FREE MEN (99 min) - WRT
3PM – AMERICANO (105 min) - WRT

Thursday, February 16
10AM – THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO (107 min) – IFC

Friday, February 17
10AM - THE PAINTING (76 min) - IFC

Monday, February 20
NO SCREENINGS

Tuesday, February 21
9AM – THE LAST SCREENING (81 min) - WRT
10:45AM – DELICACY (108 min) - WRT

Wednesday, February 22
9AM - 38 WITNESSES (104 min) – WRT
11AM – 18 YEARS OLD AND RISING (96 min) – WRT

Thursday, February 23
9AM - FAREWELL, MY QUEEN (100 min) – WRT
11AM – 17 GIRLS (90 min) - WRT

Friday, February 24
10AM – UNFORGIVABLE (113 min)– WRT

Monday, February 27
10AM – PATER (105 min) - IFC

Tuesday, February 28
9:30AM – LOW LIFE (120 min) – IFC

Festival Coverage thread is here. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27361#post27361)

[Johann]

I always look forward to these Chris.
(even though I don't post much I read them all)

[Chris Knipp]

Great, Johann, good to know. In NYC now.

[Chris Knipp]

This press screening schedule is only a part of the whole public schedule, missing nine films. I will check into this because some of the most interesting ones seem to be missing here.

The films not in the screenings are as follows. The ones I got screeners of (or in the case of A GANG STORY saw at the public screening) and reviewed are in in black. The ones I didn't get to see are in red.

UNTOUCHABLES
A GANG STORY
GUILTY
HEADWINDS
HERE BELOW
LOUISE WIMMER
MOON CHILD
PARIS BY NIGHT
ZARAFA

[Chris Knipp]

Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche: SMUGGLERS' SONGS (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27383#post27383)

A loose, musical costume drama about followers of the French Robin Hood, Louis Matrin, a pre-revolutinoary idol and national martyr killed in 1755. The very famous song celebrating his life and mourning his death has been performed by many famous artists, from the turn-of-the century Chat Noir cabaret to punk bands.

[Chris Knipp]

Matthieu Amalric: THE SCREEN ILLUSION (2011-TV) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27386#post27386)

Shot on commission for the French national theater, an early play by Pierre Corneille performed in modern dress by actors of the Comédie Française under special requirements.

[Chris Knipp]

Daniel Auteuil: THE WELL-DIGGER'S DAUGHTER (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27392#post27392)

Auteuil returns to Marcel Pagnol's warm sagas of the south of France 25 years from Jean de Florette, this time writing his adaptation, starring in, and staging his directorial debut in this remake of the 1940 film. The producers were so pleased they hired him to do the same for Pagnol's Marseille trilogy, Marius, César and Fanny, which are done and will come out later this year.

[Chris Knipp]

Ismaël Faroukhi: FREE MEN (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27393#post27393)

This film about the Rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris (played by Michael Lonsdale), an Arab singing star who is Jewish, and Algerians who helped save Jews in Paris under German occupation stars Tahar Rahim, the young lead in Jacque Adiard's prize-winning 2009 A Prophet. In French and Algerian Arabic.

[Chris Knipp]

Mathieu Demy: AMERICANO (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27394#post27394)

This directorial debut road movie is by the son of two French cinema icons, Jacques Demy and Agnès Varda. It concerns a 30-something with dual French and American citizenship who returns to the California of his childhood after his estranged mother dies, and pursues a mysterious friend called Lola at a Tijuana dive bar, played by Selma Hayek. Chiara Mastroianni and Geraldine Chaplin are in the cast.

[Chris Knipp]

Robert Guédiguian: THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27399#post27399)

A couple given money and a trip to Kenya by friends, coworkers and family are robbed, and this trauma causes them to reflect on their lives and their good fortune and act accodingly. Guédiguian is in top form in this warmly humanistic and beautifully acted and directed exploration of social and economic reality set, as usual, around Marseille and the docks where Guédiguian grew up. The cast consists of regulars and friends, plus Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, who was in the director's last film, The Army of Crime (Rendez-Vous 2010).

[Chris Knipp]

Jean-François Laguionie: THE PAINTING (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27403#post27403)

A lush French-language animated film that is a philosophical tale about racism and creation, the power of art and the power to recreate oneself. The idea is so suggestive and the images are so beautiful the film by French animation veteran Laguionie can be forgiven for not quite living up to its promise and for its narrative's meandering at times. Recommended for animation fans of all ages.

Public screenings, Lincoln Center and downtown:

Sat., March 3, 1:15pm – EBM; *Sun., March 4, 11am - IFC
*In person: Jean-François Laguionie

[Chris Knipp]

COMING:

This long weekend thanks to the kindness of John Wildman, Senior Publicist of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, I have in my hands screener DVD's of five additional Rendez-Vous 2012 films not included in the schedule of press screenings:

HEADWINDS/DES VENTS CONTRAIRES (Jalil Lespert, 2011)
GUILTY/PRÉSUMÉ COUPLABLE (Vincent Garenq, 2011)
PARIS BY NIGHT/UNE NUIT (Philippe Lefebvre 2012)
MOON CHILD/LA PERMISSION DE MINUIT (Delphine Gleize -- coming in March)
LOUISE WIMMER (Cyril Mennegun 2011)

I'll be reporting on these for you shortly.

As mentioned on the MARGARET thread I also watched Sokurov's Golden Lion-winning FAUST last night, as the Film Comment Selects series kicked off at Lincoln Center. I watched most of the footage of James Franco's MY OWN PRIVATE RIVER, but probably won't be able to see Franco's presentation (also part of FCS) tomorrow because it is sold out. Delving back into River Phoenix's immersion in his character in MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO was saddening, remembering his premature death, but also impressive. This young man had a rare gift, and his disappearance from this earth at the age of 23 is something it's still painful to think about. You'll find an appreciation of Franco's project on the Guardian cinema blog, "James Franco brings River Phoenix back to life," here. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/mar/07/james-franco-river-phoenix-film)

[Chris Knipp]

Jalil Lespert: HEAD WINDS (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27417#post27417)

Excellent actor Jalil Lespert (of Human Resources and Le petit lieutenant) choses as his second time behind the camera to direct an adaptation he coscripted of Olivier Adam's novel, a bestseller in France, about a man who returns to his native Brittany when the disappearance of his wife forces him to start life again from scratch with his two little children. Benoît Magimel stars.

[Chris Knipp]

Philippe Lefebvre: PARIS BY NIGHT (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27420#post27420)

The French action film vet Roschdy Zem costars with strong newcomer Sara Forestier in a Paris neo-noir about a vice squad cop called Weiss and his driver who encounter a series of devious doings in the course of a single evening tour of duty. There have been comparisons with Michael Mann and Jean-Pierre Melville in the generally very favorable French reviews.

[Chris Knipp]

Delphine Gleize: MOONCHILD (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27429#post27429)

A young teenager with the rare genetic condition of XP must accept his doctor's moving away to accept an important post. Gleize does everything possible to tell the story with taste and without melodrama or smugness, but a disease drama is going to be called a dumb movie of the week by some critics no matter what. The film is worth watching for the excellent performances of Vincent Lindon, Emmanuelle Devos, and young newcomer Quentin Challal.

Screening at the festival:

*Sat., March 3, 2012, 9:30pm BAMcinematek
*In person: Vincent Lindon

[Chris Knipp]

Frédéric Louf: 18 YEARS OLD AND RISING (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27431#post27431)

A witty, fast-moving socio-political comedy of a working class boy from the provinces who flirts with rich girls in Paris. Set at a timely moment when François Mitterand's socialist government has just come in in 1981, infuriating the right. Starring the nimble youngest member of the Comédie Française, Pierre Nemey.

[Chris Knipp]

David and Stéphane Foekinos: DELICACY (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27433#post27433)

Audrey Tautou stars in this melodrama-as-rom-com about a recent widow who gets involved with a seemingly inappropriate coworker. It is in many ways laborious and inexplicable, but audiences seem not to see this; critics do. Mainstream French cinema, directed by two brothers, newcomers to directing, from the bestselling novel of one of them. Fans of Audrey Tautou will come to cheer her. But the real actor to watch is the excellent Francçois Damiens who's Belgian, but (one of the inexplicable things) is supposed to be Swedish. Bruno Todeschini is miscast as a clumsily predatory boss.

[Chris Knipp]

Lucas Belvaux: 28 WITNESSES (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27437#post27437)

Belvaux's cold, stylish evocation of the 1964 Kitty Genovese case set in contemporary Le Havre and starring Yvan Attal and Nicole Garcia is a meditation on cowardice and guilt among witnesses who failed to report a brutal murder rape in progress.

[Chris Knipp]

Laurent Achard: THE LAST SCREENING (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27439#post27439)


This is Achard's third feature. He is known for combining auteurist concerns and a fascination with B-horror or slasher films. So here we have a young one-man operator of a little provincial rep cinema who wigs out when the owner tells him it has to close and goes on selling tickets to Renoir's French Can Can to the handful of regulars while going out and committing serial killings after the show. It's all somehow connected with a domineering stage mother obsessed with movie divas. Late-nite punk movie freaks could love this. Straight art house French film fans are more likely to think it's about the worst thing they've ever had to sit through in their lives. They will miss that this is highly allusive and a pastiche of bad movie rather than a bad movie.

[Chris Knipp]

Benoît Jacquot: FAREWELL, MY QUEEN (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27445#post27445)

Jacquot does a costume film adapting the prize-winning novel by Chantal Thomas glimpsing Versailles in the few days around the time of the storming of the Bastille from the viewpoint of a young woman who's Marie Antoinette's "reader." It's only a glimpse, but the odd angle does make the material seem fresh. The cast includes Léa Seydoux of Midnight in Paris, with Virginie Ledoyen, Noémie Lvovsky, Xavier Beauvois as Louis XVI, and Diane Kruger as Marie Antoinette.

[Chris Knipp]

Muriel and Delphine Coulin: 17 GIRLS (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012/page2#post27448)

This sister team from Brittany took off from a recent American urban legend about a "pregnancy pact" at a high school in a depressed coastal town and made a colorful and provocative first feature transposed to their own home town in Brittany. "17 Girls' features a debate ready topic and model-pretty cast." - Boyd van Hoij's review in Variety. This film was included in Critics' Week at Cannes and opened in Paris December 14, 2011 to generally welcoming reviews.

[Chris Knipp]

André Téchiné: UNFORGIVABLE (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27451#post27451)

Set in Venice, a film about a writer who gets blocked when he becomes happy, with André Dussollier and Carole Bouquet. The multi-strand plot does not cohere as Téchiné's plots have cohered in the past. But his misfires still are worth seeing because the familiar elements are there, and they my shed light on his other works.

[Chris Knipp]

Alain Cavalier: PATER (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27466#post27466)

The filmmaker and the actor; the President and his Prime Minister; Alain Cavalier and Vincent Lindon. In each of these three roles, personal, professional, and metaphorical, the two men interact and improvise on camera in a fiction they invent together. This is Pater. Variety hated this and called it "the epitome of an in-joke." At Cannes it got nine nominations and a 17-minute standing ovation. The Paris critics adored it. Too French and too political and conceptual for Americans? Combining Alain Cavalier with Vincent Lindon is like mixing the most theoretical and cooly provocative of filmmakers with the most soulful and morally responsible of actors. And they long wanted to work together. A marriage made in heave? A dreary bore? You decide.

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2012 Public screenings will be four times at three locations: the Walter Reade Theater, IFC Center, and BAMcinematek in Brooklyn:

Fri., March 2, 3:45pm – WRT; *Fri., March 2, 9:15pm – IFC; *Sat., March 3, 6:30pm – BAM; *Sun., March 4, 3:30pm - WRT
*In person: Vincent Lindon

[Chris Knipp]

Nicolas Klotz: LOW LIFE (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012/page2#post27469)

This film, which releases in France April 4, 2012, concerns bourgeois university students in Lyon who become involved in protecting illegal Africans in a squat; then a young woman called Carmen drops her boyfriend, Charles, and falls hopelessly in love with a young illegal Afghan poet and literature student who winds up hiding from the authorities. The pretentious romantic posing of the students, though charming and amusing at times, tends to overwhelm the serious themes, and this is not as unified or powerful as Klotz's previous film Heartbeat Dectector (Rendez-Vous 2008 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2211-Rendez-vous-With-French-Cinema-2008&p=19405#post19405)), which featured Mathieu Amalric and Michael Lonsdale and concerned a French-German corporation that turns out to have sinister Nazi ties.

[Chris Knipp]

Cyril Mennegun: LOUISE WIMMER (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27474#post27474)

Louise Wimmer is a closely observed, brief work of social realism focused on the day to day events in the life of a woman whom circumstances have for the moment forced to live out of her car while she works as a hotel chambermaid and tries to survive and accumulate the money to get an apartment.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/7452/rendezvouswithfrenchcin.png

Opening night film : UNTOUCHABLE by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano. March 1.
A true story of two men who should never have met - a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects. Jay Weissberg of Variety describes this as "cringe-worthy" for its "Uncle Tom racism." More likely it's just cliched and saccharine, which UniFrance and the Rendez-Vous unfortunately have a weakness for, and would provide on opening night. It has been box office gold in Franc. Allociné rating 3.7.
NOT SHOWN TO US
http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/316/untoucablerdvfrenchcine.jpg
OPENING NIGHT FILM

Closing night film : DELICACY by Stéphane and David Foenkino. March 11.
A French woman mourning over the death of her husband three years prior is courted by a Swedish co-worker. Audrey Tatous: need I say more? More clichéd sugar, evidently less well executed, since the Allociné rating was a measly 2.5.
NOT LIKED
http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/9937/delicacyrdvfrenchcinema.jpg
CLOSING NIGHT FILM

SUMMING UP THE RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA OF 2012. ("Best and worst" may be a misnomer.)

The Rendez-Vous is a representative series that shows the quality and variety of French filmmaking. It would be nice but unusual if it included the best French film of the year but also unlikely to include the worst. The opening and closing films are usually the series' most glitzily mainstream. Much else is more sophisticated.

A favorite of mine was first-time director Fred Louf's 18 Years Old and Rising, a witty and fun period coming-of-ager satirizing bourgeois fat-cats and starring Pierre Niney, the youngest member of the Comédie Française, who is fabulously nimble and funny. This film is something Americans don't know very well how to do: smart, sexy political comedy (compare The Names of Love).

I was struck by the warmth and fluency of Robert Guédiguian's left-oriented family story that talks about the working class and its responsibility to the have-nots, The Snows of Kilimanjaro. This is the first time I've seen him fully on his own turf and it was impressive. Very enjoyable to see his regular team of actors working so well together.

I must admit to thoroughly enjoying Daniel Auteuil's remake of Pagnol's 1940 The Well-Digger's Daughter. It's such a humane and satisfying world, and Auteuil's chops are certainly up, in a directorial debut he wrote and starred in. The French critics were not very excited. They've been there too many times before. For me it was satisfying to find Auteuil in a Pagnol movie that didn't bore me. All this stuff is tremendously retro: but why not go back and look at it?

A surprise and a place where I seemed on another wavelength from the rest of the mostly American press audience at the Rendez-Vous IFC screening was my enjoyment of Alain Cavalier's conceptual piece about French politics, Pater, which may succeed better through the sympathetic presence of Vincent Lindon. His warmth (not to mention his tremendous authority and credibility as an actor) balances out the dry rather smug manner of Monsieur Cavalier, who however is to thank for the structure and many of the ideas.

The press screenings put on by Lincoln Center for this series didn't include everything this year and the most notable omission was Untouchable, which is the opening night film and a huge blockbuster in France. In his NYTimes' intro piece for this year's Rendez-Vous, Stephen Holden calls this "a crass escapist comedy that feels like a Gallic throwback to an ’80s Eddie Murphy movie." But it would be good to see what's box office gold in France now. The Artist received six Césars the other day, echoing the Oscars and other prior American and English awards for this safe, nostalgic, and French-free film, but they gave the Best Actor César to Omar Sy, the black star of Untouchable, rewarding popularity. Untouchable has been picked up by Harvey Weinstein (who scored with The King's Speech and The Artist and for him perhaps this is another promising import). Americans will get to see Untouchable in theaters starting May 25th.

Holden joined the early American band wagon condemning Untouchable. He is right to harp on this inclusion, to make clear the Rendez-Vous is not by any means an elite cream-of-the-crop festival like the Lincoln Center's fall New York Film Festival. Holden particularly liked Benoît Jacquot's off-center film about Marie Antoinette, Farewell, My Queen, which indeed is different and nice, and Léa Seydoux seductive and offbeat, but the film not so very memorable, I think. Holden thought the teen prenancy piece, 17 Girls "feels really contemporary." Yes, feels. But it'd be better if it were not inaccurate and so light. Jean-François Laguionie’s The Painting animation is indeed "witty" and rather touching; I liked it. I liked almost everything! The world is full of nice animations. Holden expressed some "disappointments." Yes, one cann find those, I suppose (but I said I liked almost everything). He was disappointed in the Audry Tatou vehicle Delicacy. Yes, it's a kitsch pseudo-American mess; but why was he expecting anything? (It is the closing night film -- often a warning). Holden was disappointed in Belvaux's 28 Witnesses -- because it's cold and gray and Belvaux made the riveting Rapt. Yes, we all were.

Francly a low point was Mathieu Demy's clumsy Americano, which the French press gave a free ride to (their picture of America is different from ours). Amalric's modern dress Corneille The Last Screening was a bit disappointing, too hard to follow and -- dare one say it? -- unnecessary. I wanted to love Low Life, but it seems self-indulgent.

Others films that were good if not extraordinary are the grim but true Guilty (whose star Phiippe Torreton got a César nomination); the film about a special friendship, Moon Child; the solid policier, Paris by Night (with Roschdy Zem); the slightly pale (but about a good topic) Free Men, with Tahar Rahim (who I hope can live up to the extraordinary beginning Audiard gave him in The Prophet). Headwinds, Magimel directed by Lespert, was creditable.

But there don't seem to have been as much in the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema to set my heart on fire this year. I don't think there was anything as exciting as Rapt or In the Beginning in 2010, 35 Shots of Rum, Mesrine (both parts) or Séraphine in 2009; Lovesongs, Heartbeat Detector or All Is Forgiven in 2008; Flanders or La Vie en Rose or The Singer or Tell No One in 2007; The Little Lieutenant in 2006.

It says something that one of the most striking new French films I've seen in the past few weeks was Mathieu Kassovitz's Rebellion/L'ordre et la morale. It is very accomplished technically and approaches a complex modern subject on many levels. And it wasn't in the Rendez-Vous series at all. It was in Film Comment Selects, which also included a new film by Chantal Ackerman (which I missed).

New Directors/New Films, the Lincoln Center film series coming up after the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, will include several French films: Djinn Carrénard's Donoma, Pierre Schoeller's The Minister/L'Exercise de l'État (which I've already reviewed), Roschdy Zem's Omar Killed Me, and Antoine Delesvaux's animation from Joanne Sfar, The Rabbi's Cat. New Directors/New Films 41 runs from March 21-April 1, 2012, but I will be commenting on the films earlier during the Mar. 5-21 press screening period.

Note that I watched some of the eclectic, unclassifiable Feb. 17-Mar. 1, 2012 Film Comment Selects series: Alexandr Sokurov's Faust, James Franco's My Own Private River (all except the Franco part), Hirakazu Koreeda's I Wish, and the aforementioned Kassevitz's Rebellion.

ND/NF and FCS will be found on other Filmleaf Festival Coverage threads.

Links to the reviews:

17 Girls (Muriel, Delphhine Coulin 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27448#post27448)
18 Years Old and Rising (Fréderic Louf 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27431#post27431)
38 Witnesses (Lucas Belvaux 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27437#post27437)
Americano (Mathieu Demy 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27394#post27394)
Delicacy (David and Stéphane Foekinos 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27433#post27433)
Farewell, My Queen (Benoît Jacquot 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27445#post27445)
Free Men (Ismaël Faroukhi 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27393#post27393)
Gang Story, A (Olivier Marchal 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27487#post27487)
Head Winds (Jalil Lespert 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27417#post27417)
Last Screening (Laurent Achard 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27439#post27439)
Louise Wimmer (Cyril Mennegun 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27474#post27474)
Low Life (Nicolas Klotz 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27469#post27469)
Moon Child (Delphine Gleize 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27429#post27429)
Painting, The (Jean-Pierre Laguionie 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27403#post27403)
Paris by Night (Philippe Lefebvre 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27420#post27420)
Pater (Alain Cavalier 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27466#post27466)
Screen Illusion, The (Mathieu Amalric 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27386#post27386)
Smuggler's Songs (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27383#post27383)
Snows of Kilimanjaro (Robert Guédiguian 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27399#post27399)
Unforgivable (André Téchiné 2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27451#post27451)
Well-Digger's Daughter, The (Daniel Auteuil 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27392#post27392)

[Chris Knipp]

IFC CENTER, March 2, 2012

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/4810/img1033nu.jpg

[Chris Knipp]

Olivier Marchal: A GANG STORY (2011) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3239-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2012&p=27487#post27487)

Based on a memoir, directed by a former cop. The story, called Les Lyonnais (The Lyons Gang) in French, focuses on the bond that links two criminals who were friends in childhood and carried out many robberies together as young men. One is a gypsy who grew up in misery and feels a sense of duty to his friend that he's called upon to honor thirty years later, with violent consequences. This is an imperfect, not great, but highly fluent and engaging gangster movie worth watching for fans of the genre. Harvey Weinstein has picked it up for later US release, date not yet announced.

This was not in the press screenings. I caught it at the public screening at IFC Center.

Presented as a part of the UniFrance and Film Society of Lincoln Center March 1-11, 2012 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. Scheduled at IFC Center and Walter Reade Theater for:

Sat., March 3, 4:45pm – IFC; Thurs., March 8, 8:45pm – WRT; Fri., March 9, 4pm - WRT

[oscar jubis]

17 Girls is alright but I had great difficulty sitting through Pater. I tend to like "talky films" like My Dinner with Andre, Claire's Knee, and Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage but I was thoroughly uninvested in the patter in Pater (couldn't help myself...).
I tend to like films that are self-reflexive, that "foreground the device" in modernist fashion, that place themselves at the interstice between documentary and fiction. But that is not enough to make a good picture. You have to do something with it and remember that you still have to engage the viewer's interest and hold it. Calling attention to the fact that the characters in a film are played by people who have an identity outside the character goes at least as far back as Horse Feathers (1932), starring the Marx Brothers. Godard turned it into a recurrent motif. By the time of the release of The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), it had been incorporated into the mainstream. The fact that the film is directed by Alain Cavalier should have been a warning. He made a good film in 1962 (Le Combat dans l'ile) that was closely supervised by his mentor Louis Malle and benefits greatly from the presence of Romy Schneider and Jean-Louis Trintignant. His only film that is mentioned in most histories of French Cinema is the spare, minimalist Therese (1986) which I'd have to rewatch to find out how it holds up. That's it.

Sometimes I get the impression that I watch more French movies than their quality deserves. Sometimes I get the impression that if I don't I'm going to miss out on really worthwhile but under-hyped movies like Tomboy and House of Pleasures (L'Appolonide).

[Chris Knipp]

Alright? All right? Okay? Sure.
I enjoyed Pater, found it achieves a new metafiction level, but nobody else did. Yes, you watch more French films than are good. That goes for all of everything if you're surveying new stuff that comes out rather than the classics assigned in school. I would hardly have called Tomboy or L'Apollonide underhyped. They were very well received, Tomboy extravagantly well received by French critics. If My Dinner with Andre, Scenes from a Marriage and Claire's Knee have in common that they are "talky," does the term "talky" mean anythig? How could it mean anything to put Pater in such a category? What's your take on The Intouchablers? Unforgiveable? Farewell My Queen? -- all showing in US theaters now. There are some other interesting or fun films in this series, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, 18 Years Old and Rising, but there just weren't any outstanding ones this year.