Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center 2013

[Chris Knipp]

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We have the dates of the public screenings. The program has not yet been announced. Stay tuned to this thread.

The Filmleaf Festival Coverage thread will b here. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29389#post29389)




Links to the reviews:

Augustine (Alice Winocour 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29689#post29689)
The Atomic Age (Héléna Klotz 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29756#post29756)
Bad Girl (Patrick Mille 2012) . (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29735#post29735)
The Day of Crows (Jean-Christophe Dessaint 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29730#post29730)
The Girl from Nowhere (Jean-Claude Brisseau 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29670#post29670)
Granny’s Funeral (Bruno Podalydès 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29670#post29670)
In the House (François Ozon 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29667#post29667)
Jappeloup (Christian Duguay 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29674#post29674)
Journal de France (Raymond Depardon, Claudine Nougaret 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29685#post29685)
A Lady in Paris (Ilmar Raag 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29686#post29686)
La Maison de la radio (Nicolas Philibert 2013)--CANCELLED
My Blue-Eyed Girl (Shalimar Preuss 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29742#post29742)
The Nun (Guillaume Nicloux 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29768#post29768)
Populaire (Régis Roinsard 2012)--NO FSLC PRESS SCREENING
Renoir (Gilles Bourdos 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29661#post29661)
Rich is the Wolf (Damien Odoul 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29733#post29733)
The Suicide Shop (Patrice Leconte 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29759#post29759)
Thérèse Desqueyroux (Claude Miller 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29665#post29665)
Three Worlds (Catherine Corsini 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29744#post29744)
You, Me and Us (Jacques Doillon 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29739#post29739)
You Will Be my Son (Gilles Legrand 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29759#post29759)

[Chris Knipp]

Here is the full FSLC press release for the 2013 Rendez-Vous, received today (Feb. 5, 2013). Comments invited. I will add in information about French release of these and Allociné press ratings, as usual and give the Press & Industry screenings schedule when it's available.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17th RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FEBRUARY 28 - MARCH 10, 2013
COMPLETE LINEUP ANNOUNCED

OPENING NIGHT LAUNCHES WITH POPULAIRE, US PREMIERE AND DIRECTORIAL DEBUT FROM RÉGIS ROINSARD STARRING ROMAIN DURIS

IN-PERSON APPEARANCES INCLUDE NIELS ARESTRUP, CATHERINE CORSINI, JACQUES DOILLON, ROMAIN DURIS, ANNIE MILLER, FRANÇOIS OZON, NICOLAS PHILIBERT, AUDREY TAUTOU AND MANY MORE!

NEW YORK – February 5, 2013 – The 18th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance Films’ celebrated annual showcase of the best in contemporary French film, hits screens at The Film Society, the IFC Center and BAMcinématek, February 28 – March 10. French cinema is as varied and vital as ever in 2013, and the new edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema covers the widest possible spectrum. This range includes grand and engaging entertainments such as Régis Roinsard’s POPULAIRE, uncompromising auteurs such as Jean-Claude Brisseau and Damien Odoul, rising independent voices including Héléna Klotz and Shalimar Preuss, and master filmmakers François Ozon, Patrice Leconte, Raymond Depardon, Nicolas Philibert and the late Claude Miller.

Film Society of Lincoln Center Director of Programming, Year-round, Robert Koehler said, "This year’s edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema offers another entertaining and informative look at the current state of cinema by the French, with a celebration of fresh and upcoming talent behind the camera and today's prominent directors as well as a healthy nod to the film artists of the past. It is a varied and rich collection of films by a diverse group of filmmakers and actors, several of whom will be on hand for their screenings as well."

Highlights this year also include the animated feature THE DAY OF THE CROWS, an enchanting visualization of Jean-François Beauchemin’s novel from director Jean-Christophe Dessaint and featuring the voices of Jean Reno, Lorànt Deutsch, Isabelle Carré and the late Claude Chabrol in his final film credit. François Ozon’s cautionary tale, IN THE HOUSE (nominated at this year’s César Awards for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor) features the brilliant Fabrice Luchini as a frustrated author - married to gallerist Kristin Scott Thomas - who becomes swept up in the writing of a precocious student.

This year’s lineup will also include the late Claude Miller’s final film, Thérèse Desqueyroux, which elegantly adapts François Mauriac’s modern classic of a woman’s growing resistance to her suffocating marriage, and showcases a remarkable Audrey Tautou as the disturbed titular heroine. The 1962 original, directed by Georges Franju and starring AMOUR Academy Award® Best Actress nominee Emmanuelle Riva, Philippe Noiret and Edith Scob, will also be screened. The festival will host the New York premiere of Gilles Bourdos’ atmospheric drama RENOIR, which takes place in 1915, a pivotal time for master painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his son Jean, the legendary filmmaker.

In conjunction with the premiere of RENOIR, the films of Renoir fils receive a special focus in this year’s Rendez-Vous with screenings of three of his masterworks at each of the festival’s venues. The Film Society of Lincoln Center will show Renoir’s classic THE RIVER, his first color film, presented in a gorgeously restored print, which remains a special and deeply emotional work in the master filmmaker’s oeuvre. The IFC Center presents a digital restoration of the master’s beloved satire BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING, one of Renoir’s most innovative early works. And BAM will screen THE RULES OF THE GAME, Jean Renoir’s influential ensemble drama that is perennially ranked as one of the greatest films ever made.

An exciting addition to the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema lineup this year will be a free Convergence event, ALT-MINDS and the Art of French Transmedia. One of Europe’s leading transmedia designers, Eric Viennot, will present an adventure spanning a web series, mobile applications, and live events that thrust the audience into the heart of an action-packed thriller. Made possible with support from the French Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

This also marks the second year in a row collaborating with Emerging Pictures on a select number of titles. The films will screen in venues across the country contemporaneously with their showings at Lincoln Center via Emerging’s network of digital theaters. Q&A’s from the Film Society venues will be broadcast live to many of those locations. Titles and schedule to follow.

“For the 18th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, Unifrance films is happy to present a rich and varied line-up”, says Régine Hatchondo, Executive Director of Unifrance films. “The success of this film festival is due to the faithful New York audiences and the tremendous efforts of our partners: the Film Society of Lincoln Center, IFC Center and BAM. We would like to also thank Emerging Pictures for their initiative, Rendez-Vous Near You, bringing a select number of the films to audiences across the country.”

Filmmakers and talent who will be in attendance at this years festival include – Niels Arestrup (YOU WILL BE MY SON), Gilles Bourdos (RENOIR), Catherine Corsini (THREE WORLDS), Jean-Christophe Dessaint (THE DAY OF CROWS), Jacques Doillon (YOU, ME AND US), Romain Duris (POPULAIRE), Deborah François (POPULAIRE), Héléna Klotz (THE ATOMIC AGE), Gilles Legrand (YOU WILL BE MY SON), Patrick Mille (BAD GIRL), Annie Miller (producing partner and widow of THÉRÈSE DESQUEYROUX director Claude Miller), Guillaume Nicloux (THE NUN), François Ozon (IN THE HOUSE), Raphaël Personnaz (THREE WORLDS), Nicolas Philibert (LA MAISON DE LA RADIO), Ilmar Raag (A LADY IN PARIS), Régis Roinsard (POPULAIRE), Audrey Tautou (THÉRÈSE DESQUEYROUX) and Alice Winocour (AUGUSTINE).

For the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Patrons and Members have an advance on-sale date of February 7. IFC Center Members may purchase tickets to IFC Center screenings starting February 7th. BAM Cinema Club members may purchase tickets to BAMcinématek screenings beginning February 7. General Public Tickets for the 2013 Rendez-Vous series at all three locations will go on sale February 14.

Tickets are available online for each participating venue at www.filmlinc.com, www.ifccenter.com and www.BAM.org/BAMcinematek respectively, as well as directly from the box offices. For more information, call The Film Society at (212) 875-5601, the IFC Center at (212) 924-7771, or BAMcinématek at (718) 636-4100 x2 or please visit: www.rendezvouswithfrenchcinema.com. Tickets for Opening Night at the Paris Theater will be available online at www.filmlinc.com.

FSLC’s Walter Reade Theater’s address is 165 West 65th St. (between Amsterdam
Avenue and Broadway) and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center’s address is 144 West 65th Street (between Amsterdam and Broadway). The IFC Center is located at 323 Sixth Ave. at West 3rd Street. BAMcinématek is located at 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn. The Paris Theater is located at 4 West 58th Street.

[Chris Knipp]

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .Films, Descriptions & Schedule

Main Venues: BAMcinématek (BAM)/Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (EBM)/IFC Center (IFC)/Walter Reade Theater (WRT)
Opening Night: The Paris Theater (PARIS)

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Déborah François, Romain Duris in Populaire

OPENING NIGHT!
US PREMIERE
Populaire
Régis Roinsard, 2012, France, 111m
Stuck in the provinces of 1950s France, Rose (Deborah François) is taken under the wing of her handsome boss (Romain Duris) and develops astonishing skills as a high-speed typist, leading to unexpected fame. In the grand tradition of French social comedy, Régis Roinsard has concocted a scintillating entertainment lovingly looking back on an idealized and innocent decade. Starring Deborah François, Romain Duris. The Weinstein Company will release the movie in July 2013.
Thurs., Feb. 28, 7:30pm – PARIS; Fri. Mar. 1, 7:00pm - BAM; Sat., Mar. 2, 7:00pm - IFC
In person: Romain Duris, Régis Roinsard, Deborah François
French release: 28 novembre 2012 (1h 51min) Allocinè press: 3.8 (based on 24 reviews). Now available on VOD, DVD and Blu-ray in France.
Weinstein will release this movie in the US in July.

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NEW YORK PREMIERE
The Atomic Age/L’age atomique
Héléna Klotz, 2012, France, DCP; 68m
Arriving from the Paris outskirts for a round of weekend clubbing, good-looking Victor (Eliott Paquet) and his Central European friend Rainer (Dominik Wojcik) are full of self-confidence and a youthfully self-conscious hipness. But across the span of one night, their impulsive adventure tests emotional and physical limits the lads never before knew in Klotz’s impressively mesmerizing feature debut. Winner of the 2012 Prix Jean Vigo. A TLA Releasing film.
Wed. Mar. 6, 9:30pm – IFC; Thurs. Mar. 7, 4pm – WRT; Fri. Mar. 8, 9:00pm - WRT
French release: 28 novembre 2012 (1h 8min). Allociné press: 3.4

NEW YORK PREMIERE
AUGUSTINE
Alice Winocour, 2012, France, 102m
Based on a true case, writer-director Winocour has adapted the story of a progressive 19th century doctor/therapist and his unusual patient into a study of personal wills, hidden desires and reversals of fate. A maid who suffers from seizures is sent to a mental hospital, where it seems she’ll be condemned for life until Professor Charcot finds in her the possibilities of testing his advanced notions of the sources of so-called “hysteria.” Soko as Augustine and Vincent Lindon as Charcot deliver astonishing performances. A Music Box Films release.
Sun. Mar. 3, 6pm – WRT (no talent); Tues. Mar. 5, 9:00pm – WRT; Wed. Mar. 6, 7:00pm – BAM; Thurs. Mar. 7, 7:00pm – IFC
In person: Alice Winocour
French release: 7 novembre 2012 (1h 42min). Allociné press rating: 3.9

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NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Bad Girl/Mauvaise fille
Patrick Mille, 2012, France, 108m
25-year-old Louise is suddenly hit with a double dose of life-altering reality: She learns that she’s pregnant and that her mother has had a relapse of advanced cancer. Justine Lévy has adapted her own novel with spiky humor and brilliance, and director Mille mines the complex family material for an amazingly wide range of tones from poignant to irreverent. Izïa Higelin, Carole Bouquet, Bob Geldof and Arthur Dupont co-star.
Tues. Mar. 5, 7:00pm – IFC; Wed. Mar. 6, 9:00PM – WRT; Thur. Mar. 7, 6pm – WRT;
In person: Patrick Mille
French release: 28 novembre 2012 (1h 48min). Allociné press rating: 3.1
Available on DVD and Blu-ray in France.

BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING/BOUDU SAUVÉ DES EAUX
Jean Renoir, 1932, France, 84 min.
Boudu (the irrepressible and unforgettable Michel Simon), a Parisian tramp, tries to end it all with a plunge into the river, only to be saved by a well-meaning bookseller. But when his rescuer offers him shelter, Boudu’s anarchic charms rock the household to its foundations. Shot largely on location along the quays of the Seine, Renoir’s freewheeling satire of bourgeois respectability is one of the master’s most innovative early works; it remains, in the words of critic Dave Kehr, “as informal, beguiling, and subversive as its eponymous hero.” Screening in a digital restoration.
Sat. Mar. 2, 1:00pm – IFC

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The Day of the Crows / Le jour des corneilles
Jean-Christophe Dessaint, 2012, France, 96m
Raised like a wild child in the woods by his bitter and fearsome father, a boy finds himself discovering the world beyond the forest in director Dessaint’s enchanting visualization of Jean-Francois Beauchemin’s novel. The sensitively rendered hand-drawn animation and depth of characterization seem like a tribute to the films of Hayao Miyazaki, and yet, this movie for all ages stands very much on its own. Featuring the voices of Jean Reno, Lorànt Deutsch, Isabelle Carré and the late Claude Chabrol in his final film credit.
Sat., Mar. 9, 1:00pm – WRT
In person: Jean-Christophe Dessaint
French release: 24 octobre 2012 (1h 36min) . Allocine press rating: 3.9 This is an animated film. Available in France on DVD and Blu-ray.

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Virginie Legeay, Jean-Claude Brisseau in The Girl from Nowhere

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
The Girl From Nowhere/La fille de nulle part
Jean-Claude Brisseau, 2012, France, 91m
Lost in a maze of his philosophizing while trying to write a book, a retired math teacher is forced to deal with the real world when he must rescue a young woman from the clutches of a thug outside his Paris apartment. What the teacher doesn’t know is that this woman may be his muse, a mystical agent or an angel of death. Stars director Brisseau and Virginie Legeay. Winner of the Golden Leopard, Locarno Film Festival 2012.
Sat. Mar. 2, 2:45pm – IFC; Sun. Mar. 10, 2:30pm - WRT
French release: 6 Feb. 2013. Allociné press: 4.0 (7 reviews)

NEW YORK PREMIERE
Granny’s Funeral/Adieu Berthe: L’enterrement de mémé
Bruno Podalydès, 2012, France, 100m
Although he made no effort to see his grandmother in her waning years, pharmacist Armand (director Podalydès’ brother and co-writer Denis) must now deal with her funeral arrangements. This is awkward enough, but nothing like his emotional swings between a wife he can’t quite part from and a lover he can’t quite commit to, in a comedy stamped with the Podalydès brand of caustic, Gallic wit. With Valérie Lemercier, Isabelle Candelier, Catherine Hiegel and Benoît Hamon.
Fri. Mar. 1, 9:45pm – IFC; Sun. Mar. 3, 8:15pm – WRT; Mon. Mar. 4, 3:45pm – WRT
French release: 20 June 2012 (1h 40min). Allociné press rating: 3.9 (26 reviews)

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Ernst Umhauer, Fabrice Luchini in In the House

NEW YORK PREMIERE
In the House/Dans la maison
François Ozon, 2012, France, 105m
Swept up in the increasingly dazzling and inventive fiction writing of a precocious student, a high school literature teacher and frustrated author (Fabrice Luchini) married to a gallerist (Kristin Scott Thomas) sees real life overtake the fiction. Ozon is at the height of his powers in this ironic, cautionary tale on the dangers of mentoring gone too far. With Emmanuelle Seigner and Ernst Umhauer. A Cohen Media Group release.
Fri. Mar. 1, 9:00pm – WRT; Sat. Mar. 2, 9:00pm - BAM; Sun. Mar. 3, 6:15pm – IFC
In person: François Ozon
French release: 10 octobre 2012 (1h 45min). Allociné press rating: 3.5 (25 reviews) Now available in France on DVD and Blu-ray. (There has been some buzz around this film.)

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Actor-director (Tell No One) Guillaume Canet in Jappeloup

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Jappeloup
Christian Duguay, 2013, France, 130m
A true sports story that utterly defies the odds, Duguay’s film captures the wild ups and downs of the Olympics-bound career of legendary equine star Jappeloup and his troubled rider, locked in a tense relationship with his horseman father and forever uncertain of his own skills as an equestrian. Stars Guillaume Canet, Daniel Auteuil, Marina Hands and Tchéky Karyo.
Sat. Mar. 2, 9:40pm – IFC; Wed. Mar. 6, 3:30pm – WRT; Sat. Mar. 9, 5:30pm - WRT
French release: 13 March 2013 (2h 10min)

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Journal de France
Raymond Depardon & Claudine Nougaret, 2012, France, 100m
Depardon’s brilliant self-portrait (co-directed by his longtime collaborator and sound engineer Claudine Nougaret) takes a surprising point of view on the great documentarian’s life—not only as a filmmaker, but as a photographer of expressive precision, capturing the entirety of French society over the decades. The patience of this imagemaker’s practice is testament to an alternative to the hyper-fast, instant delivery of digital images that now dominates the culture.
Mon. Mar. 4, 8:30pm – IFC; Fri. Mar. 8, 4:15pm – WRT; Sun. Mar. 10, 12:15pm - WRT
French release: 13 June 2012 (1h 40min). Allociné press rating: 3.9 (20 reviews).

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Laine Mägi IN A Lady in Paris

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
A Lady in Paris/Une Estonienne À Paris
Ilmar Raag, 2012, France/Belgium/Estonia, 94m
Offered a job in Paris to look after a fellow Estonian-born woman, Anne leaves her homeland and finds herself in an emotional hornet’s nest. Frida, the elderly Estonian, gives new meaning to the word prickly and won’t be tended to, even though that’s exactly what Frida’s younger ex-lover wants. Stars a stunning, flinty and memorable Jeanne Moreau, Laine Magi and Patrick Pineau.
Sat. Mar. 2, 4:30PM – IFC; Sun. Mar. 3, 3:15pm – WRT; Mon. Mar. 4, 9:15pm – WRT
In person: Ilmar Raag
French release: 26 décembre 2012 (1h 34min). Allociné press rating: 3.1 (from 20 reviews). Still showing in three small cinemas in the Paris area (5 Feb. 2013).

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North american premiere
La maison de la radio
Nicolas Philibert, 2013, France, 103m
Radio France is a massive 24/7 operation, a national network which explores every aspect of life from breaking news to live cultural events. Applying his attuned senses to the mega-complex that is Radio France, non-fiction film master Philibert reveals the vast, rich and unexpected world of radio production and the imaginative power of sound.
Fri. Mar. 1, 3:30pm – WRT; Sat. Mar. 2, 3:15pm – WRT; Sun. Mar. 3, 1:00pm - IFC
In person: Nicolas Philibert
French release: 3 April 2013

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
My Blue-Eyed Girl/Ma belle gosse
Shalimar Preuss, 2012, France, 80m
Preuss’ uncommonly sensitive and nuanced debut follows the eldest daughter of a family on holiday as she navigates her growing desires for a prison inmate with her heartfelt but fraying familial love. Under the film’s placid surface is a teenage, and very human, restlessness that suggests impulsive curiosity, yet also wisdom. Stars Lou Aziosmanoff, Jocelyn Lagarrigue, Victor Laforge.
Mon. Mar. 4, 10:20pm – IFC; Tues. Mar. 5, 4pm – WRT; Sun. Mar. 10, 4:40pm - WRT
French release date: 26 November 2012, 80 min. No reviews listed on Allociné. VOD release.

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NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
The Nun/La religieuse
Guillaume Nicloux, 2013, France/Germany/Belgium, 114m
Drawing on the same Denis Diderot classic as Jacques Rivette’s 1966 film, Nicloux’s version provides a fresh take on the 18th-century story of a young woman’s (a stunning Pauline Etienne) harrowing experiences in nunneries, one run by a too-loving Mother Superior (Isabelle Huppert). Young Suzanne’s discovery that she’s an illegitimate child compels her to a life in the convent, where inhumanity rules and battles of wills ensue. With Louise Bourgoin, Martina Gedeck, Françoise Lebrun.
Fri. Mar. 1, 7:00pm – IFC; Sat. Mar. 2, 9pm – WRT; Sun. Mar. 3, 8pm – BAM
In person: Guillaume Nicloux
French release: ; 20 march 2013 (1h 54min)

NEW YORK PREMIERE
PERSECUTION
Patrice Chéreau, 2009, France, 100min
A brutally intimate close-up of the moment-to-moment dissolution of a love affair, this psychological drama stars Romain Duris as a brooding, bestubbled Parisian juggling a hot-and-cold relationship with a jet-setting careerist (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and the intrusions of a middle-aged male stalker who has claimed him as the love of his life. Fueled by emotionally charged dialogue and nervy, passionate performances, Persecution continues Chéreau’s masterful observation of human desire in all its intricacies and contradictions. With Jean-Hugues Anglade.
Fri. Mar. 1, 9:40pm – BAM
In person: Romain Duris
French release: 9 décembre 2009 (1h 40min). Allocine: 3.0.
This film was actually shown as part of Film Comment Selects in 2010 and I reviewed (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2808-Film-Comments-Selects-And-New-Directors-New-Films-2010&p=24128#post24128) it at that time, not very favorably: I said Chéreau "is running on empty here." It would be interesting to see the popular and prolific Romain Duris in person though, and his current film the Fifties gender roles comedy Populaire, this series' opener, is a hit.

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NEW YORK PREMIERE
RENOIR
Gilles Bourdos, 2012, France, 111m
Set in 1915, a pivotal time in the lives of master painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his war-wounded son Jean (who’d become one of cinema’s great masters), Bourdos’ atmospheric drama explores the ways in which creative powers wax and wane as one generation gives way to the next. Key to the changes that father and son experience is a female model who’s the elder painter’s last inspiration, and the figure who may turn Jean’s life around. Stars Michel Bouquet, Christa Théret, Vincent Rottiers, Thomas Doret, Romane Bohringer. A Samuel Goldwyn Films release.
Sat. Mar. 2, 6pm – WRT; Sun. Mar. 3, 5:00pm – BAM; Wed. Mar. 6, 7:00pm – IFC
In person: Gilles Bourdos
French release:
2 January 2013 (1h 41min) . Allociné: 3.4 (19 reviews).

NEW YORK PREMIERE
Rich Is The Wolf/La richesse du loup
Damien Odoul, 2012, France, 82m
Perplexed at the sudden disappearance of her husband, a wife watches hours of videotape that he’s recorded over the previous seven years to piece together some clues. Odoul’s most daring feature, whose color and black-and-white images are culled from his own videotaping, confirms his place as one of France’s genuinely exploratory filmmakers. Stars Marie-Eve Nadeau, Damien Odoul.
Mon. Mar. 4, 6:45pm – IFC; Sat. Mar. 9, 3:30pm – WRT
Damien Odoul is the director of Le souffle/Deep Breath, reviewed by Howard Schumann \ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0296210/reviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt) and one of his favorite films of the decade (http://www.filmleaf.net/archive/index.php/t-2750.html).
No French release listed. IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2230656/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1). Variety review (http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117948087/?refcatid=31)(Jay Weissberg). Debuted at Locarno 20 August 2012. 86min.

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New French DVD of The River

THE RIVER (LE FLEUVE)
Jean Renoir, 1951, France/India/US, 99 min.
One of a British upper middle-class family of eight living on the banks of the Ganges River, teenage Harriet grows up in a tolerant and loving atmosphere that blends East and West. But when a dashing captain arrives at a neighbor’s home, the girl’s passions are ignited in ways she can barely fathom or control. Renoir’s classic, first color film, presented in a gorgeously restored print, remains a special and deeply emotional work in the master filmmaker’s oeuvre. Stars Patricia Walters, Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight. Restored by The Academy Film Archive in cooperation with The British Film Institute and Janus Films. Restoration funding provided by The Film Foundation and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Sun. Mar. 3, 1:00pm - WRT

THE RULES OF THE GAME/LA RÈGLE DU JEU
Jean Renoir, 1939, France 106m
Renoir’s finest achievement and consistently praised as one of the best films ever made, The Rules of the Game is essential cinema; entire styles of filmmaking (Altman’s for one) are unthinkable without it. As a cast of characters from all classes assembles at a country house, the farce and melodrama commence, giving occasion for everything from hunting parties and gala balls to extramarital affairs and finally even murder.
Sun. Mar. 3, 2:30pm – BAM
In person: Introduction by RENOIR director Gilles Bourdos

NEW YORK PREMIERE
The Suicide Shop/Le magasin des suicides
Patrice Leconte, 2012, France, 105m
Master filmmaker Leconte makes a startling and unforgettable departure from his previous work with this whimsical animated 3D musical about a family business offering certain special "end-of-life" services. Rather than succumbing to a purely mordant perspective, the movie switches course and mood, driven by the family’s perpetually happy child whom they can’t control. Based on the novel by Jean Teulé and with the voices of Bernard Alane, Isabelle Space, Kacey Mottet Klein, Isabelle Giami, Laurent Gendron.
Thurs. Mar. 7, 9:30pm – IFC; Fri. Mar. 8, 6:30pm – WRT; Sat. Mar. 9, 8:15pm - WRT
French release: 26 septembre 2012 (1h 25min). Allociné press rating: 3.1 (23 reviews).
Still showing in Paris - in its 20th week (6 Feb '13).

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/262/20255135jpgr160240b1d6d.jpg

US PREMIERE
Thérèse Desqueyroux (2012)
Claude Miller, 2012, France, 110m
The late Miller’s final film elegantly adapts François Mauriac’s modern classic of a woman’s growing resistance to her suffocating marriage, and showcases a remarkable Audrey Tautou as the disturbed titular heroine. With Gilles Lelouche, Anaïs Demoustier, Catherine Arditi. An MPI Pictures release.
Fri. Mar. 1, 6:15pm – WRT; Sat. Mar. 2, 6:00pm – BAM; Sun. Mar. 3, 3:30pm – IFC
In person: Annie Miller (producing partner and widow of director Claude Miller), Audrey Tautou
French release:
21 November 2012 (1h 50min). Allociné critic rating: 3.4 (based on 17 reviews). Still showing, coming on DVD and Blu-ray in March.

Thérèse Desqueyroux (1962)
Georges Franju, 1962, France, 109m
Franju’s adaptation of François Mauriac’s novel adheres closely to the source’s flashback structure, while set in a somewhat more contemporary setting, thus providing fascinating contrast to Claude Miller’s new version. Continuing to tap into the extremities of human behavior that engrossed him as an artist, Franju crucially assembled a brilliant cast, including Emmanuelle Riva, Philippe Noiret and Edith Scob, with a magnificent Maurice Jarre score.
Sat. Mar. 2, 1pm - WRT

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/3208/20102653.jpg
Clotilde Hesme, Raphaël Personnaz in Three Worlds
NEW YORK PREMIERE
Three Worlds/Trois Mondes
Catherine Corsini, 2012, France, 101m
A hit-and-run accident involving a hotshot car salesman and an émigré worker from Moldavia triggers a chain of dramatic events with life-altering consequences. Corsini’s complex narrative traces the small yet crucial events that expose a character’s true self, and the rottenness at the core of certain nouveau riche. A Film Movement release.
Tues. Mar. 5, 9:30pm – IFC; Wed. Mar. 6, 6:15pm – WRT; Thur. Mar. 7, 9pm – WRT;
In person: Catherine Corsini, Raphaël Personnaz


NEW YORK PREMIERE
You, Me and Us/Un enfant de toi
Jacques Doillon, 2012, France, 136m
The tentative nature of relationships is explored in dazzling, three-dimensional fashion in this cleverly written and directed roundelay between current and former lovers. Aya, the mother of a bright young daughter, struggles to come to terms with the end of her marriage, while hoping to have a child with her new lover. Stars Lou Doillon, Samuel Benchetrit, Malik Zidi, Olga Milshtein.
Sun. Mar. 3, 8:45pm – IFC; Mon. Mar. 4, 6pm – WRT; Tues. Mar. 5, 6:00pm – WRT
In person: Jacques Doillon

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/9373/19736559jpgr160240b1d6d.jpg
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
YOU WILL BE MY SON/TU SERAS MON FILS
Gilles Legrand, 2012, France, 102m
Instead of grooming his son to inherit his lucrative wine-growing business, an imperious vintner (Niels Arestrup) looks to a talented California-based grower, rendering a harvest of jealousy and worse. Legrand’s narrative takes on Shakespearean qualities, driven by a titanic performance by Arestrup, while the film’s observations on the wine-growing business are thoroughly engrossing. A Cohen Media Group release.
Sun. Mar. 10, 6:30pm – WRT
In person: Gilles Legrand, Niels Arestrup
French release: 24 Aug. 2011 (1h 42min). Allociné press: 2.8 (17 reviews); online audience vote: 3.9.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . .CONVERGENCE
ALT-MINDS AND THE ART OF FRENCH TRANSMEDIA
Some of the most exciting advances in storytelling are taking place in France, with independent creators, corporations, and game companies reshaping how audiences consume stories. At the forefront of this transmedia revolution is the epic pan-European immersive experience ALT-MINDS. When six scientists disappear while on assignment their kidnapping sparks a multinational manhunt. Mysterious online videos, mind-bending puzzles, and clues that point to a dark conspiracy of vast proportions threaten to ensnare the investigators charged with unraveling the mystery. The trick is that in this interactive experience the part of investigator is not played by an actor but assumed by the audience. Game designer, Eric Viennot of Lexis Numérique, will discuss this genre-bending project and the future of storytelling.
Sat. Mar. 2, 5:00pm– EBM (Free)
In person: Eric Viennot

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/4129/20340371.jpg

Axe-Apollo (https://www2.axeapollo.com/fr_FR/96186/rafik-belkacem)interactive online space travel game.

Visit http://en.unifrance.org/

[Chris Knipp]

Speaking of a Rendez-Vous with Frenh Cinema, the following current French movies have interesting stories, actors, and directors and at least two seem reliably good. In addition James Marsh's well-reviewed Irish troubles drama SHADOW DANCER opened in Paris today (6 Feb. '13) and was well reviewed (Allociné 3.4). Is a US release of it coming? Also released in Paris today: WADIJA, Haifa Al Mansour's landmark Saudi film about a rebellious young girl, directed by a woman. Raves for this (Allociné 4.1) and festival buzz. Some of the following may seem a bit lackluster, but they still illustrate the fact that there are interesting French films opening every week in Paris. Parisians are also watching: BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, THE MASTER, LINCOLN, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, ARGO, ZERO DARK THIRTY, and I fear GANGSTER SQUAD. And BLANCANIEVES, a Spanish period-modern version of SNOW WHITE set in the Nineteen Twenties (Allociné 4.0).

Below these sample blurbs are the Cesar (French Oscars) nominations, to see what is considered the best of the past year. A couple we haven't gotten to see and are also not in the Rendez-Vous.

MOBIUS
Preview
Released: February 27, 2013
Director: Eric Rochant
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Cécile De France, Tim Roth, John Lynch, Vladimir Menshov, Émilie Dequenne, Dean Constantin, Dmitri Nazarov, Branka Katic, Prasanna Puwanarajah
Genre: Thriller
Duration: 1h44min
synopsis
Grégory Lyubov, a Russian intelligence officer, is sent to Monaco to monitor the actions of a powerful businessman. As part of this mission, the team recruits Alice, a gifted financier. Suspecting a double-cross, Gregory will break the golden rule and contact Alice, his undercover agent. An illicit passion arises between them.
(This is an interesting cast; Eric Rochant made a favorite French film of mine of the Eighties, the 1989 LOVE WITHOUT PITY/LA VIE SANS PITIE; but his films are little known in the US.)

PAULETTE
Released: January 16, 2013
Director: Jérôme Enrico
Contact: Bernadette Lafont, Carmen Maura, Dominique Lavanant, Françoise Bertin
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 1h27min
synopsis
Paulette lives alone in a housing estate in the suburbs of Paris. With her meager pension, she can no longer make ends meet. One evening when she is present at an unusual deal in her building, Paulette sees an augury of the future. After all, why not get involved in the sale of ... cannabis? His gift for business and her skill as a cook help her find original solutions in her new job. But one can't just become a dealer on the spur of the moment. . . (Allociné 2.5)

ALCESTE ON A BIKE
Released: January 16, 2013
Director: Philippe Le Guay
Starring: Fabrice Luchini, Lambert Wilson, Maya Sansa
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 1h46min
synopsis
Serge Tanner was a great actor, before retiring from the limelight. For three years, he has lived alone on the island of Ré, spending most of his time traveling around the windswept countryside on a bike. His colleague Gauthier Valencia, whose career is at its peak, is preparing a revival of Molière's 'The Misanthrope' and would like to see Serge in the title role. But Serge proves difficult. Before embarking, he suggests to Gauthier that they rehearse together for a week ... (Allociné 3.6) This has a promising cast; Le Guay, a prolific writer, also directed the recent THE WOMAN ON THE 6TH FLOOR, an amiable farce, also with Luchini, was included in the 2011 Rendez-Vous as SERVICE ENTRANCE (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3026-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2011&p=25824#post25824). It had a US release but reviews were mixed (Metacritic 52).

SINCERE FRIENDSHIPS/AMITIES SINCERES
UGC M
Released: January 30, 2013
Director: Stephan Archinard, François Provost-Leygonie
Starring: Jean-Hugues Anglade, Gérard Lanvin, Wladimir Yordanoff, Zabou Breitman, Ana Girardot
Genre: drama
Duration: 1h44min
synopsis
Walter enjoys fishing, cooking and good wines, very much. He's passionately fond of his lifelong friends, Paul and Jacques. Even more, he madly loves Clemence, his 20 year old daughter. But he does not like lying -- not at all. 'In life, we tell each other everything" is what he says to anyone who wants to hear him and even some who don't. But he is quite alone in respecting this rule So how si the outspoken Walter to react when he discovers that those he loves are brazenly lying to him? (Allociné 2.8)

END OF STORY/AU BOUT DU CONTE
Preview
Released: March 6, 2013
Director: Agnès Jaoui
With: Jean-Pierre Bacri, Agnès Jaoui, Benjamin Biolay, Bonitzer, Nina Meurisse, Valadié Dominique Clement Roussier, Valerie Crouzet
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 1h52min
synopsis
There once was a girl who believed in great loves, signs, and fate, a woman who dreamed of being an actress and desperate to achieve it one day, a young man who believed in his talent as a composer but believed not so much in himself. There was once a little girl who believed in God. There once was a man who believed in nothing until the day when a psychic gave the date of his death and, reluctantly, he began to believe it.
(Anything by the Jaoui-Bacri team is worth a look. Their dry wit rarely falters.)

APPOINTMENT A KIRUNA
Released: January 30, 2013
Director: Anna Novion
With: Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Anastasios Soulis, Claes Ljungmark
Genre: Drama
Duration: 1h39min
synopsis
In August, a small seaside resort on the Picardy coast. Through giving them the keys to a rented apartment, Sylvain meets two attractive young women. It's a chance to get away, if only for a few days, from a lonely life from which women are desperately lacking. Soon, Sylvain becomes indispensable to his new friends. But things get complicated when feelings and especially Giles, a big local Casanova, become involved. (Allociné 3.1)
Jean-Pierre Darroussin is a mellow and sympathetic actor (98 credits) who was seen in two of last year's Rendez-Vous films, Auteuil's THE WELL-DIGGER'S DAUGHTER and Guédiguian's THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO.

THOU SHALT HONOR THY MOTHER AND THY MOTHER
new
Released: February 6, 2013
Director: Brigitte Roüan
Starring: Nicole Garcia, Eric Caravaca, Patrick Mille, Michael Abiteboul, Gaspard Ulliel, Emmanuelle Riva, Sandrine Dumas, Helene Ruys, Tovati Elisa, Sarah Gabriel
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 1h36min
synopsis
"Everything will be alright" promised the doctor when he delivered Jo. But forty years and four sons later nothing really happens as planned this August. When she comes to Greece for the traditional festival with her tribe, Jo learns that it is canceled under pressure of the economic crisis. Jo goes to battle anyway, ready to move mountains for the "happiness" of her children. Between bickering, blood and blows of fate, it's a summer like no other.
The names of Nicole Garcia, Gaspard Ulliel, and Emmanuelle Riva (nominated for the Best Actress Oscar) make this look watchable. Patrick Mille is an up-and-comer. Allociné 3.1.

What are the best French films of the last year? The Cesar nominations are as below. We have seen most of the Best Picture noms and CAMILLE REWINDS was in last year's Rendez-Vous. IN THE HOUSE is in this year's Rendez-Vous. Missing: WHAT'S IN A NAME. A couple other names that come up a lot that are not included are QUELQUES HEURES DU PRINTEMPS and CLOCLO. Maybe US releases are planned.

The Césars 2013

Best Picture
Farewell, My Queen
Amour
Camille Redouble
In The House
Rust & Bone
Holy Motors
What’s In A Name

Best Director
Benoît Jacquot, Farewell, My Queen
Michael Haneke, Amour
Noémie Lvovsky, Camille Redouble
François Ozon, In The House
Jacques Audiard, Rust & Bone
Leos Carax, Holy Motors
Stéphane Brizé, Quelques Heures De Printemps

Best Actress
Catherine Frot, Les Sauveurs Du Palais
Marion Cotillard, Rust & Bone
Noémie Lvovsky, Camille Redouble
Corinne Masiero, Louise Wimmer
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Léa Seydoux, Farewell, My Queen
Hélène Vincent, Quelques Heures De Printemps

Best Actor
Jean-Pierre Bacri, Cherchez Hortense
Patrick Bruel, What’s In A Name
Denis Lavant, Holy Motors
Vincent Lindon, Quelques Heures De Printemps
Fabrice Luchini, In The House
Jérémie Rénier, Cloclo
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Amour

Best Supporting Actress
Valérie Benguigui, What’s In A Name [Le Prénom]
Judith Chemla, Camille Redouble
Isabelle Huppert, Amour
Yolande Moreau, Camille Redouble
Edith Scob, Holy Motors

Best Supporting Actor
Samir Guesmi, Camille Redouble
Michel Vuillermoz, Camille Redouble
Benoit Magimel, Cloclo
Claude Rich, Cherchez Hortense
Guillaume de Tonquedec, What’s In A Name [Le Prénom]

Newcomer (Female)
Alice de Lencquesaing, Au Galop
Lola Dewaere, Mince Alors!
Julia Faure, Camille Redouble
India Hair, Camille Redouble
Izia Higelin, Mauvaise Fille [Bad Girl]

Necomer (Male)
Félix Moati, Télé Gaucho
Kacey Mottet Klein, Sister
Pierre Niney, Comme Des Frères
Matthias Schoenaerts, Rust and Bone
Ernst Umhauer, In The House

Best Original Screenplay
Amour

Best Screen Adaptation
Rust and Bone

Best First Film
Louise Wimmer [Rendez-Vous 2012]

[Chris Knipp]

The following press screenings of the Rendez-Vous have now been scheduled. As last year some are missing but maybe they're available on screeners as last year they were. The old films being presented for comparison or relevancy in the public series are omitted.


Press Screening Schedule

UPDATES BELOW IN RED

Tuesday, February 19
12:10PM – LA MAISON DE LA RADIO (90m)
2:00PM – RENOIR (111m)

Wednesday, February 20
10:00AM - Therese Desqueyroux (105m)
12PM – IN THE HOUSE (105m)
2PM – GRANNY’S FUNERAL (100m)

Thursday, February 21
10AM – THE GIRL FROM NOWHERE (91m)
11:45AM – JAPPELOUP (130m)

Friday, February 22
10AM – JOURNAL DE FRANCE (100m)
12PM – A LADY IN PARIS (94m)
1:45PM – AUGUSTINE (102m)

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25
NO SCREENINGS

Tuesday, February 26
10AM – THE DAY OF THE CROWS (96m)
11:50AM – RICH IS THE WOLF (82m)
1:30PM – BAD GIRL (108m)

Wednesday, February 27
10AM – YOU, ME AND US (136m)
12:30PM – MY BLUE-EYED GIRL (80m)
2:10PM – THREE WORLDS (101m)

Thursday, February 28
10AM – THE ATOMIC AGE (68m)
11:20AM –THE SUICIDE SHOP (79m)
12:50PM - YOU WILL BE MY SON (102m)

[Chris Knipp]

The titles missing from P&I screenings are THE NUN/LA RELIGIEUSE and the opening night film, POPULAIRE. There will be no press screening or screeners available for THE NUN, but the Weinstein company is setting up a separate screening of POPULAIRE.

Remember reviews of the series will be in the Festival Coverage section (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29617).

[Chris Knipp]

Gilles Bourdos: RENOIR (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29661#post29661)

LA MAISON DE LA RADIO was cancelled, the screening, and from the series.

This beautiful film about August Renoir in his last years and his son Jean (the future filmmaking great) at 21, recovering from a WWI wound, and their fascination with a young woman who was to become Jean's wife and film star and is his father's model, drops the ball on many issues but is well acted (screenplay issues, possible casting issues). Michel Bourdos was admired for his portrayal of the 74-year-old but arthritis-ridden painter (the actor is ten years older); the moody-looking Vincent Rottiers is mysterious as Jean, but lacks the spirit. As the spunky, stubborn youngest son, then about 15, Claude, Thomas Doret is as good as he was in the main role of the Dardennes' THE KID WITH THE BIKE. Christa Theret is luminous and sprightly as Andrée Heuschling, the model/future wife. But something is missing. Action, for one thing. Why did they choose a time when not much was happening? Except maybe for Andrée. And Claude seem to have won his elderly father's friendship at the end, which for him would have been huge.

[Chris Knipp]

Claude Miller: THÉRÈSE DESQUEROUX (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29665#post29665)

Story starring Audrey Tatou from a François Mauriac novel published in 1927 about a suffocating marriage. The Rendez-Vous includes a showing of the 1962 version by Georges Franju starring Emmanuelle Riva and Philippe Noiret. If I get to see that film I may have to revise or amend my review of Miller. This was his last film. He died last year at the age of seventy.

[Chris Knipp]

François Ozon: IN THE HOUSE (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29667&posted=1#post29667)

Definitely a return to form for Ozon, this stars Fabrice Lucchini and Ernst Uhmauer as a lycée prof and his French writing student. The student begins submitting a provocative series of portraits of a bourgeois household he gains entrance to by giving math coaching to his classmate, Rapha. The teacher becomes fascinated by his student and his accomplished narrations and is drawn led into misbehavior.

[Chris Knipp]

Bruno Podalydès: GRANNY'S FUNERAL (2012) (interment)

A man who barely knew his father's mother is saddled with arranging her funeral and interment. This comedy did not work for me, but was well received by home critics. Bruno and Denis Podalydès, writer/sctor/director brothers who collaborated, are well liked in France. Like the previous three films, this one debuted at the the 2012 Cannes festival.

[Chris Knipp]

Jean-Claude Brisseau: THE GIRL FROM NOWHERE (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29672#post29672)

A big old grizzled geezer with an impressive arty mop of hair, Jean-Claude Brisseau plays a retired math prof writing a speculative ook and living in a big old comfy apartment in the middle of Paris (Brisseau's own apartment, by reports), where he meets a young homeless woman who's beaten and left on his doorstep, takes her in, and at her later suggestion makes her his collaborator in the book. Eschewing his former elegant eroticism that some have thought salacious, the director achieves magic using much simpler means. The mixture of topics including Freud and the Bible and ghosts of the departed is as quirty as ever, but what hits home is an old man finding comfort in a young woman who's smart and lively and needs a place to stay. Most of my fellow press people didn't get this, and neither did the Variety reviewer. But the Locarno jury that gave it the top prize did, and so did the Paris critics (Allociné rating: 3.8).

[Chris Knipp]

Christian Duguay: JAPPELOUP (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29674#post29674)

Jappeloup was the horse and Pierre Durand was the rider who won the Gold Medal in Show Jumping in the Seoul Summer Olympics of 1988 after a bumpy road that included a miserable failure at LA in 1984. This is a movie full of beautiful landscapes, fine horses, and accomplished riding that will appeal to fans of sports and equestrian events in particular. What it lacks in Hollywood grand drama it makes up in realism and specific detail and it has a star studded cast including Guillaume Canet, who plays Durand the youngner, Daniel Auteuil, as his winegrower father Pierre Durand senior, and Maria Hinds of Lady Chatterley as young Durand's wife Nadia. The case includes a cameo by Donald Sutherland and an appearance by Jean Rochefort. Canet, who wrote the screenplay, was an equestrian competitor in his youth, as were both Duguay and Hinds. The film opens in France March 13.

[cinemabon]

It took me nearly twenty minutes to read through this post. You are amazing, Chris (as usual). Your devotion to French cinema is second to none and deserves recognition beyond this venue. I was fascinated by the French retrospective on the impressionist artist Renoir (both as the subject of the particular film and in the body of work of son, Jean), as most Americans and most cinemaphiles probably know his work and life only superficially. I gathered from your brief review that the film was a disappointment but you only alluded to the depth and in what regard. Culturally, the French have so much to offer, especially to America, if we would only open our minds and take the time to evaluate their contribution to film, even if we did in only a percentage that you do. Thank you for this exhaustive and thorough examination.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for reading my posts, cinemabon. That's what this thread is for. As for RENOIR, you and many American viewers may like it very much. I wouldn't say the film is a disappointment, exactly. It just didn't knock me out of my seat, and I was slightly puzzled by their choosing this particularly moment in the lives of father and son, who must have had more exciting times, maybe not when they were both in the same house, I don't know. Anyway this is a very beautiful film to look at. Stay tuned for more. We're only half way through the series. I'll have reviews of Dupardon's JOURNAL DE FRANCE, the Jeanne Moreau vehicle A LADY IN PARIS, and Alice Wincour's debut film about Charcot the 19th-century French doctor, AUUSTINE, all shown today. Then no more till next Tuesday.

I'm still hoping to take in the New Directors screenings, and the schedule of them is supposed to be coming out soon.

[Chris Knipp]

Claudine Nougaret, Raymond Depardon: JOURNAL DE FRANCE (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29685#post29685)

A tribute to and chronicle of the remarkable career of the preeminent French photojornalist and documentary filmmaker Raymond Depardon, codirected and narrated by his life partner and longtime collaborator (and sound recordist) Claudine Nougaret. The film mixes present-day scenes of Depardon traveling around rural France in a van and shooting stills of whatever he finds of interest with a big view camera, a tranquil life in stark contrast to the clips narrated by Nougaret from a big file of work dating back to the Fifties including Biafra mercenary wars, rioting in Caracas and Poland after the repressed revolt in 1969, insider views of Giscard d'Estaing campaigning for president of France, political paparazzi, documenting a French court's proceedings, the meeting of Nougaret and Depardon on the set of Éric Rohmer's SUMMMER/LE RAYON VERT in 1986, and much, much more. It's a bit of a mélange, but fascinating to anyone who loves photojournalism and documentary filmmaking.

[Chris Knipp]

Ilmar Raag: A LADY IN PARIS (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29686&posted=1#post29686)

Another chance to admire Jeanne Moreau, who at 85 is still elegant and formidable as an Estonian-born lady who has lived for many years in Paris in a "grand appartment bourgeois" and longs for her former young lover, who cares for her now by hiring an mousy woman to come from Estonia, a former retirement home worker, to be a live-in caretaker. The plan backfires. The old lady has no use for Estonians and doesn't want a caretaker The 44-year-old Raag, who has also been a media executive, previously made a film called THE CLASS that was a thriller laced with social commentary. Maybe next time he will do something with more umph than this well-acted and good-looking but tepid film. However if it did gain US distribution, A LADY IN PARIS would appeal to the arthouse oldsters who remember Jeanne Moreau in her glory days and who flock to see movies like A QUARTET and BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL.

[Chris Knipp]

Anne Wincour: AUGUSTINE (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013#post29689)

A first film about the 19th-French medical researcher Charcot and his relationship with one of his most famous "hysteria" patients. A powerful expressionistic blend of sound, image and emotion that intentionally explains almost nothing, keeping us in the dark as Augustine and most people at the time were. A nominee in the Césars for Best First Film and strong performances by the great Vincent Lindon and relative newcomer (and musician: she composed the score) Soko.

[Johann]

Excellent reviews and lovely images to go with them!

I just bought the UNRATED version of Francois Ozon's SWIMMING POOL on DVD, one of my favorite films.
I'll post about it soon.
Ozon is awesome. He doesn't get the attention I think he deserves. He's a skilled director.
Thanks for the coverage of this series Chris. Great stuff.

[Chris Knipp]

Ozon has not done anything that has caught international attention much since SWIMMING POOL. Maybe POTICHE, but that's a replay of a Boulevard comedy, though it has a nice cast. This new one is a return to form, definitely.

[Johann]

If Ozon will be there in person, then get his autograph for me. :)

I agree he hasn't had anything really engaging to offer me or you in a while. Looking forward to hearing what he's been up to lately.

[Johann]

Oh, I see I'm too late.
You are fast on the draw Chris...

Is IN THE HOUSE worth seeing twice?

[Chris Knipp]

For the Rendez-Vous press screenings the people aren't present. I might watch IN THE HOUSE twice, sure. IN THE HOUSE is what he's been up to lately. So you've heard.

[Johann]

If you go to it twice, pester the man for his John Henry.
Tell him it's for your young daughter who loves 8 Women.
LOL
:D

[Chris Knipp]

But after the Rendez-Vous press & industrey screenings are over I'll be starting on the New Directors/New Films ones, so I don't have a chance to go back and see R-V ones twice. I wish I could have seen some of the Film Comment Selects choices (going on now), but I haven't managed.

[Chris Knipp]

Jean-Christophe Dessaint: THE DAY OF CROWS (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29730#post29730)

Or THE DAY OF THE CROWS; both versions have been used to translate the French title, LE JOUR DES CORNEILLES. This is a charming animated feature about a feral boy raised in the woods by a gruff giant of a man, who discovers a village nearby and falls in love with a doctors daughter. Some links with Miyazaki, but from a French Canadian book. With the voices of Jean Reno, Isabelle Carré -- and, his last screen credit before his death, Claude Chabrol.

[Chris Knipp]

Damien Odoul: RICH IS THE WOLF (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29733#post29733)

An experiment in autobiography through found footage. The filmmaker, known as "Olaf", is a character who has suddenly disappeared from the life of his gf Marie, and she tried to find out who he is and why he left by going obsessively though a shelf containing hundreds of hours of vidoes he shot over the past seven years. An interesting idea but a result that is better to think about than to watch.

[Chris Knipp]

Patrick Mille: BAD GIRL (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29735#post29735)

The title also means "bad daughter" in French, a nuance lost in translation. This is partly worth watching if one's a fan of Carole Bouquet; or for Izïa Higelin, whose go-for-broke performance as the suddenly unwillingly pregnant daughter of the aging model with recurrent Stage Four cancer her got a César "Most Promising Young Actress" nomination. Or because the author of the screenplay, the wife of the director, who adapted her own autobiographical novel, is the daughter of rock-star French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy. Or because her previous autobiographical novel contained a thinly veiled portrait of Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni, whom her then husband had left her for, stealing Bruni from his own father. Or not, because this film seems messy, overdrawn, and not very convincing.

[oscar jubis]

I am baffled by the selection of PERSECUTION for this series. It's a 2009 film. I watched it at the 2010 or 2011 MIFF and thought that the film was surprisingly bad for a film made by this director and starring an actor of the stature of Duris. I am curious about your opinion of it.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, that's what I said. I didn't like it when I reviewed (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2808-Film-Comments-Selects-And-New-Directors-New-Films-2010&p=24128#post24128) it as part of the 2010 FILM COMMENT Selects series. You don't remember? No matter. We may even have had an exchange and agreed on it. That thread of FCL and ND/NF for 2010 is here. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2808-Film-Comments-Selects-And-New-Directors-New-Films-2010&p=24112#post24112) Maybe Duris likes it, since he's possibly going to be around to talk about it. Or maybe it's just a dumb mistake. The cast is Romain Duris, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jean-Hugues Anglade; Anglade achieved greatness and feature debut with Chéreau in WOUNDED MAN/L'HOMME BLESSÉ. I just go to press screenings and of the new films so I won't be around to find out more about this choice, but maybe I'll hear gossip.

[Chris Knipp]

Jacques Doillon: YOU, ME AND US (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29739#post29739)

Mainly a bore and inordinately long, but students of French "ronde" films might want to see it and compare it to Doillon's marginally sprightlier and shorter THE THREE-WAY WEDDING/MARRIAGE À TROIS (2010), which I saw in Paris then but did not review, or LA RONDE, or Eric Rohmer.

[Chris Knipp]

Shalimar Preuss: MY BLUE-EYED GIRL (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29742&posted=1#post29742)

The documentary style seems to exert a pointless tyranny here over natural material of a family at the beach in summer time in southwestern France, but without a sufficient effort to weave the material into something effective. No French release, VOD; debuted at Rotterdam. Hints of drama come, but are wasted, when the oldest girl turns out to be conducting a secret romantic correspondence with an inmate at a very nearby prison.

[Chris Knipp]

Catherine Crosini: THREE WORLDS (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29744&posted=1#post29744)

Finally something rare in this Rendez-Vous, a conventional thriller, a noirish moral one about a hitherto upright and correct man who's worked up from lowly origins to being named head of a huge garage and car dealership, and then dries a company car into a man at night and with two childood friends, runs away, ten days before he is to marry the boss's daughter. Raphaël Personnaz excels as the man who runs, and Clotilde Hesme as the bourgeois medical student who sees him and calls 911. Corsini previously made the 2007 Rendez-Vous film LES AMBITIEUX and the Kristin Scott Thomas vehicle, LEAVING.

[Chris Knipp]

Stephen Holden raves about the movie RENOIR in his Wednesday Feb. 27, 2013 NY Times preview piece (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/movies/inside-the-rendez-vous-with-french-cinema-series.html?_r=0) for the 2013 FSLC/Unifrance Rendez-Vous, which begins today Feb. 28 and runs to March 10. Read his article here. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/movies/inside-the-rendez-vous-with-french-cinema-series.html?_r=0)
After its success with the French films “The Artist,” which won the Oscar for best picture in 2012, and “The Intouchables,” which earned a whopping $400 million worldwide, the Weinstein Company is gambling that lightning will strike again with this year’s opening-night film, “Populaire.”

We haven't gotten to see POPULAIRE in the press screenings, just as we didn't get to see INTOUCHABLES last year.

Holden also logically singles out IN THE HOUSE and AUGUSTINE for special mention, as well as THÉRÈSE DESQUEYROUX, YOU WILL BE MY SON, and THE NUN. I'm a bit surprised at his mentioning YOU WILL BE MY SON, which hasn't gotten such good reviews in France, but I'll decide when I see it today; Niels Arestrup usually delivers, though he can't always save a picture.

[cinemabon]

I certainly hope you are making contributions to this site, Chris.

http://rendezvouswithfrenchcinema.com/

[Chris Knipp]

That's the Unifrance French governmental film promotion site I think. I contribute to their and the US reps' intreests by writing reviews of the Rendez-Fous series films elsewhere.

[Chris Knipp]

Héléna Klotz: THE ATOMIC AGE (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29756#post29756)

It's just a short film about two young pals who spend an unsuccessful evening clubbing in Paris, but this young filmmaker, daughter of a prof at France's prestigious La Frémis film school, has made it into a visual poem that's amazing and true to youthful friendship, disillusion, and longing.

[Chris Knipp]

Patrice Leconte: THE SUICIDE SHOP (2012 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29759#post29759)

A French 3D animated musical about a shop catering to the suicidal. The lives of the family running it are turned around eventually when a younger brother (voiced by Kacey Mottet Klein) comes along who's born with a big smile on his face. Some French critics thought this faux Gothic, without real conviction, and there may be some truth in that, but if you like the theme, it's watchable and fun.

[Chris Knipp]

Gilles Legrand: YOU WILL BE MY SON (2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29760#post29760)

Films about wine-making like films about art or about music are often disasters and this glossy one is an example with its transparently evil and mean head of the great vinticultural family who insists on pushing out his own hard-working but understandably not very confident son in favor of the flashier son of his general manager, who's dying of pancreatic cancer. Using an actor as good as Niels Arestrup for the role of the father can't save the picture from seeming totally predictable and simplistic. Yet the film will play, and there is already talk of a US adaptation set in California. Prepare for talk about smoke and oak and fruits and berries and shots of people diving in tanks of grapes.

[Chris Knipp]

Guillaume Nicloux: THE NUN (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013/page2#post29768)

A striking-looking but conventional and tonally uneven version of Denis Diderot's controversial anti-clerical novel of the later 18th century, with a young Belgian actress, Pauline Étienne in the main role as the girl sent away to a nunnery because she's not wanted at home. Isabelle appears nearly half-way in as a lesbian mother superior. Beautiful but plodding. Jacque Rivette did a version of this in 1966 starring Anna Karina.

[Chris Knipp]

Georges Franju: THÉRÈSE DESQUEROUX/THERESE (1962) redonsidered.

I've seen the 1962 Georges Franju version of THÉRÈSE DESQUEYROUX offered for comparison with the 2013 Rendez-Vous's Claude Miller version, and added the following additional paragraph to my Festival Coverage review of Miller: (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29665#post29665)

The Rendez-Vous also included a one-time screening of Georges Franju's 1962 version of François Maurois's Thérèse Desqueroux starring Emanuelle Riva, Philippe Noiret, and Édith Scob (of Franju's famous Eyes Without a Face) as Bernard's sister. Franju's film is a grand black and white early Sixties French art film, closer to Maurois in its flashback frame structure, some literary references exchanged between Thérèse and Jean Azevedo, and in more liberal use of Thérèse's voiceover, which can come at any moment, in any scene, and more stylish in every way, though the style is interchangeable in some ways with the work of several Nouvelle Vague directors of the period. Sami Frey as Jean Azevedo seems less a pretty boy, more intelligent. Above all instead of Tautou's pathetic, limp quality, there is the poetic sadness of Riva so memorably displayed in Alain Resnais's Hiroshima Mon Amour. Franju's version is set in the present, so it makes its points about the tyrannies of provincial ignorance and materialism with more immediacy. Franju's film has more notable actors and is more stylish. Certain aspects of the narrative -- Thérèse's original motivation for marrying Bernard, the gradual process by which she falls into poisoning him with arsenic -- are more embroidered by Miller, but in "explaining" things he may only weaken the force of Maurois's stark story, whose surreal "horror movie" aspects Franju seized upon so neatly half a century ago. Maurice Jarre's music for Franju's film is as distinctive as everything else, though a jazzy passage during the honeymoon dinner shot feels obtrusive. The writer for the French daily L'Express compares (http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/cinema/therese-desqueyroux_1185098.html) the two films, finds the new one "insipid," and concludes we'd do best to remember Claude Miller for his 1976 feature debut, The Best Way to Walk.

[Chris Knipp]

Links to the reviews:

Augustine (Alice Winocour 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29689#post29689)
The Atomic Age (Héléna Klotz 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29756#post29756)
Bad Girl (Patrick Mille 2012) . (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29735#post29735)
The Day of Crows (Jean-Christophe Dessaint 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29730#post29730)
The Girl from Nowhere (Jean-Claude Brisseau 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29670#post29670)
Granny’s Funeral (Bruno Podalydès 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29670#post29670)
In the House (François Ozon 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29667#post29667)
Jappeloup (Christian Duguay 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29674#post29674)
Journal de France (Raymond Depardon, Claudine Nougaret 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29685#post29685)
A Lady in Paris (Ilmar Raag 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29686#post29686)
La Maison de la radio (Nicolas Philibert 2013)--CANCELLED
My Blue-Eyed Girl (Shalimar Preuss 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29742#post29742)
The Nun (Guillaume Nicloux 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29768#post29768)
Populaire (Régis Roinsard 2012)--NO FSLC PRESS SCREENING
Renoir (Gilles Bourdos 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29661#post29661)
Rich is the Wolf (Damien Odoul 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29733#post29733)
The Suicide Shop (Patrice Leconte 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29759#post29759)
Thérèse Desqueyroux (Claude Miller 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29665#post29665)
Three Worlds (Catherine Corsini 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29744#post29744)
You, Me and Us (Jacques Doillon 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29739#post29739)
You Will Be My Son (Gilles Legrand 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29759#post29759)

Roundup.

For me this was not the best Rendez-Vous; there weren't films I cared as much about as in other years. I'd most recommend the soon-to-be-US-released In the House (François Ozon 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29667#post29667). It's sharp, bold, funny, and a return to for form Ozon. I personally very much enjoyed Jappeloup (Christian Duguay 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29674#post29674), a biopic about a man and his champion show-jumping horse. Not very ground-breaking, but beautiful, and it has heart. Also The Atomic Age (Héléna Klotz 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29756#post29756) is a little film that might look clichéd, but is poetic and beautiful; it does everything right and is very cinematic and very French. Those are the good ones. I might also mention the somewhat shapeless Journal de France (Raymond Depardon, Claudine Nougaret 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29685#post29685). After all, it is a journalistic run-through of the whole second half of the Twentieth Century. Depardon was a hell of a photojournalist. I'd also recommend The Girl from Nowhere (Jean-Claude Brisseau 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29670#post29670), a small, offbeat film, a bit of a surprise from Brisseau. Three Worlds (Catherine Corsini 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29744#post29744) is an ordinary film, without much originality. But in this field it was welcome because it's very watchable and exciting.

The rest were would-be's or also-rans or washouts. As for Renoir (Gilles Bourdos 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29661#post29661), which some ooed and ahed over, it's too pretty and too generic, and doesn't feel like a particularly important moment in Auguste or Jean Renoir's lives. Thérèse Desqueyroux (Claude Miller 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29665#post29665) may be hyped as special if it gets to US art houses, but it's a bit limp, especially if you watch the sharp, angular 1963 Georges Franju version. Something is seriously wrong with the very moody and poetic Augustine (Alice Winocour 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29689#post29689), another film about psychology and women in the nineteenth century. It tries too hard and is too full of itself. Sorry not to have seen Populaire: it may be pretty thin, but it's reportedly fun and nice to look at. People liked You Will Be My Son (Gilles Legrand 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29759#post29759) and think it plays well and there's even a Hollywood remake planned, but it seems to me to have a horribly deterministic and obvious plot setup. As for You, Me and Us (Jacques Doillon 2012) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29739#post29739), it may be utterly French with its endless nattering abut relationships, but I agree with the Cannes reviewer who said it was like Éric Rohmer without the charm or the sense of structure. Surely Doillon is going through an odd, self-indulgent period not worthy of his best work. The Nun (Guillaume Nicloux 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29768#post29768) doesn't work. It's clumsy and overbearing and has no rhythm. You would not even want to hear what I'd have to say about some of the others.

[Chris Knipp]

Richard Brody has a NYer column about NYC French films showing in New York this weekend. I wish I could give my own first hand report on the revival of Jacque Rivette's little known LE PONT DU NORD but I'm not there anymore so I cannot. Brody comments on the Rendez-Vous girlie film LES COQUILLETTES in a ridiculously overblown fashion, but I have said it does what it sets out to do very successfully. And I second Brody's comment on how the French often recognize US movie quality (like the now also revived HEAVEN'S GATE) before we do, noting the good reception of Apatow's THIS IS 40, just Metacritic 59 but Allociné French press rating a very good 3.5, retitled amusingly 4 ANS, MODE D'EMPLOI ("Age 40 User's Manual"). And here I am in the East Bay again and the best ting to see is ON THE ROAD or maybe the new Jack and the Beanstalk or Oz movies or a very plasticky-looking new animation called THE CROODS. I do not see ANY French films showing in the Bay Area right now (SIGH).


[RICHARD BRODY'S MOVIE BLOG IN THE NEW YORKER, March 22, 2013]

what-to-see-this-weekend.jpg

One of the most exhilarating recent performances in a movie isn’t exactly new, but it’s in a 1981 movie that is only today getting its U.S. theatrical release: it’s by the great, tragically short-lived actress Pascale Ogier (who died in 1984, at the age of twenty-five), in Jacques Rivette’s “Le Pont du Nord” (North Bridge), opening today at BAM Cinématek (I have a capsule review of it in the magazine this week). She was the daughter of Bulle Ogier (a luminary of the French cinema since the sixties) with whom she co-stars. Mother and daughter share a screenplay credit with Rivette and Suzanne Schiffman, and their engaged inventiveness is on view throughout the film. The story, shot on a scant budget, entirely out of doors and on location in Paris, is, like so many of Rivette’s films, a work of dark whimsy: a world of grim mystery shimmers through its puckish, colorful surfaces and playful activity.

Here, two lonely women connect by force of circumstance—one, Marie (Bulle Ogier), a little older, leaps into Paris from the back of a truck after her release from prison and tries to find her boyfriend, Julien (Pierre Clémenti); the other, Baptiste (Pascale Ogier), a helmeted wanderer on a scooter, young, tautly aggressive, with a martial bearing, a fierce gaze, and a paranoid streak, nearly runs into her and then teams up with her (“Once is an accident, twice is chance, three times is fate”). Marie, it turns out, was drawn into a plot of political crime that she has renounced but that Julien hasn’t quite abandoned. Baptiste, a self-styled guardian angel, steals Julien’s briefcase and, while uncovering the web of crime and politics, also finds a strange map of Paris that suggests a board game—one that the women play with their urban jaunts and that takes them deeper into the heart of espionage and of the city itself.

In a sense, Paris itself is the star of the film; Rivette brings the characters through obscurely picturesque locations—vast but recondite staircases, seemingly concealed public stages, desolate corners of bustling squares—all of which seem menaced by reason and time. The first shot of the film, reminiscent of the dominant motif of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Two or Three Things I Know About Her,” shows an array of huge rectilinear cranes dangling over the cityscape in the process of transforming it; those transformations—the demolition of shadowy old industrial hulks and opaque and stony outmoded neighborhoods in favor of a clean and transparent architectural (and psychological) modernity—are the very core of the drama. Marie’s quixotic political activism and Baptiste’s freelance heroism both come off as obsolete remains of a roiling romantic age in the process of demolition.

Baptiste’s paranoia has a marvellous onscreen correlate—with her jackknife, she tears through the city, cutting the eyes out of advertising posters. She’s a martial-arts expert whose aggressive streak gives the movie its first sublime jolt, a few minutes in, when she scoots up to a dapper man (Jean-François Stévenin) on a fancy motorcycle and defiantly edges over to him with a glare thrown at him like a gauntlet. Her paranoia proves well-founded; their confrontations recur throughout the film and build to a grand, surprising, ironic and poignant martial arts showdown that is as much a cinematic coup of invention as it is a showcase for Pascale Ogier’s forthrightly physical artistry. In its own way, “Le Pont du Nord” is Rivette’s “The Conversation,” with the bug transformed into a network so vast that it veers into the metaphysical and yet so ambient that it’s indistinguishable from the irresistibly alluring face of the city itself.

The subterranean wonders of daily life come through in an altogether different way in a new French film, “Les Coquillettes” (elbow macaroni), screening Monday and Tuesday in the New Directors/New Films series. It’s directed by Sophie Letourneur, who also co-stars as herself, a filmmaker with a film (her real-life short film “The Shady Sailor,” which I wrote about here) in the Locarno Film Festival. She travels there with two friends, Carole (Carole Le Page) and Camille (Camille Genaud)—but I’m telling the story all wrong. The three friends are hanging out one night in a Paris apartment and reminiscing about their Locarno jaunt, and their telling of it overlaps with—and often conflicts comically with—the flashbacks showing the events in question. The drama concerns romance—Carole’s pursuit of a minor playboy of an actor, Camille’s flirtation with a young man, Martin (the film critic Julien Gester), Sophie’s fixation on the well-known young French actor Louis Garrel—and involves lots of talk and action having to do with bodily functions and comforts and discomforts, lots of Franglais (“cupcakes,” “see you soon,” “glamor,” “badges,” “le life”), the push and pull of petty slights and tiny defeats and victories. Camille recalling running exultantly in the rain as she was about to discover that she “wasn’t into” Martin exemplifies the movie’s subtly formalistic magic, the transformation of the physical into the psychological, of matter into memory.

“Nowhere else does one have this passion in questions of form, this seriousness in mise en scène—which is Parisian seriousness par excellence.” Thus, Nietzsche, in “Ecce Homo,” from 1888. He didn’t live long enough to read Proust, let alone view films by Alain Resnais, but “Les Coquillettes” makes the point—its loopy and unstrung frivolity is deadly serious, held together by an exquisitely and (seemingly) effortlessly complex structure reminiscent of Resnais’ work, with the thread of identity being spun forward even as it’s pulled along, with its knots and breaks and tangles.

France makes its triple return—not as accident or chance but, therefore, as destiny—at Film Forum, with the screening (today through Thursday) of a new restoration of Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate.” While American critics dragged it through the mud at the time of its release in 1980, many French ones were quick to recognize its greatness—and so it has so often been, and so it still often is, with the best of American movies. (The generally enthusiastic, and consistently substantial, discussion of Judd Apatow’s “This Is 40” when it was released in France last week ago, under the title “40 Ans: Mode d’emploi”—“Forty, a User’s Manual”—is a recent example.)

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2013/03/this-weekend-french-confections.html#ixzz2OJlCxhoy

[oscar jubis]

A lot of mediocre films in this Rendez-vous, but that is always the case. The Rivette film played at the Film Comment Selects, a much better series historically than Rendez-vous, in 2005. Some Rivette films are a challenge to program (Out 1 for example) because of their extreme length.

[Chris Knipp]

More mediocre films than usual. There have been some quite memorable ones in previous years.

Film Comment Selects is indeed a more interesting but also somewhat iffy series. Some very interesting things. Lots of oddball stuff, some pretty weird. I would have done better indeed to come earlier and see some of the FCS press screenings. I mentioned in my intro to this years FCS three or four of the films I really wanted to see. But it was not to be.

[Chris Knipp]

See my New Directors reports, Oscar. There were several great Latin American films. What comes to mind is the Brazilian one, THEY'LL COME BACK.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks Chris. I will take note of this Brazilian film and others from ND/NF.

[Chris Knipp]

I gave you here (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3448-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2013/page3#post29908)a list of nine films from that series New Directors/New Films 2013 that you'd like to see, might even not want at all to miss. In other years, some of the Rendez-Vous films have been wonderful, just not this year, except for maybe one or two.