20th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema (FSLC) 2015

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/r-v15.jpg

For Filmleaf Festival Coverage thread go HERE (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33272#post33272).

From the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

22 Premieres Set for 20th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, March 6-15, 2015 (http://www.filmlinc.com/daily/entry/rendez-vous-with-french-cinema-2015-festival)

Posted by Brian Brooks on February 02, 2015
in Rendez-Vous • Announcements

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/3coeurs.jpg
Benoît Jacquot's 3 Hearts

The U.S. premiere of Benoît Jacquot's 3 Hearts will open the 20th anniversary edition of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema festival. A showcase of contemporary French cinema, this year's lineup includes 22 features and four short films making their New York, U.S., or North American premieres. Director Quentin Dupieux will close out the festival with his latest film, Reality, a comedy shot in L.A. Organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance Films, this year's Rendez-Vous will take place March 6-15.

Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Chiara Mastroianni, and Catherine Deneuve, 3 Hearts is touching and tense drama about destiny, connections, and passion surrounding a classic love triangle between Benoît Poelvoorde (Man Bites Dog), Charlotte Gainsbourg (Nymphomaniac), and Mastroianni (Persepolis).

Rubber director Quentin Dupieux's Reality stars French veteran Alain Chabat with Eric Wareheim and Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), and features Philip Glass’s Music with Changing Parts. The film weaves together the journeys of an 8-year-old girl who finds a mysterious VHS tape, a failed filmmaker shooting his first horror movie, and a culinary TV host who loses his self-confidence because of an imaginary skin disease.

"Rendez-Vous is the biggest French film festival in North America. France makes a lot of movies every year—about 200-plus, so we have a lot of great films to choose from," said Film Society of Lincoln Center Senior Programmer, Florence Almozini. "France invented cinema and there's a long tradition of the country supporting its filmmakers. In France, it's not just about the box office. Directors are allowed to be creative and develop their stories, and school children are exposed early on to the diversity of cinema."

New and veteran filmmakers will share the spotlight over the 10-day series. Stéphane Demoustier's debut feature 40-Love stars Olivier Gourmet as a department store sales manager who loses his job as well as his wife (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi). But hope is found through his 11-year-old son who shows promise as a tennis pro. Actress Lucie Borleteau makes her feature directing debut with Fidelio, Alice’s Odyssey, starring Greek actress Lucie Borleteau, who won Best Actress at last year's Locarno Film Festival. Celebrated rapper and spoken word artist Abd Al Malik makes his directorial debut with May Allah Bless France!, a candid account of his early life and artistic awakening, shot in black and white. The feature won the FIPRESCI Discovery Prize at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. And Frédéric Tellier joins Rendez-Vous with his suspenseful feature debut SK1, starring frequent Dardennes collaborator Olivier Gourmet, Christa Théret (star of Rendez-Vous 2013’s Renoir), Raphaël Personnaz (star of Rendez-Vous 2014’s The French Minister), and four-time César winner Nathalie Baye.

"Some trends we see among current young filmmakers relate to coming-of-age and social issues," observed Almozini. "This is particularly true for films like 40-Love and May Allah Bless France!, which looks at the [controversies] surrounding immigration and other facets of society."

Internationally acclaimed actress Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) follows up her 2011 feature directorial debut, The Adopted, with a story about high-school angst and obsession in Breathe. Academy Award winner Jean Dujardin (The Artist) stars in The Connection, a gripping thriller from the files of the same criminal ring that inspired William Friedkin’s classic The French Connection and includes an all-star French cast. And renowned director Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent, and the subject of a retrospective at the Film Society last May) stars as “Bertrand,” a filmmaker approaching his next project with a peculiar obsession.

Filmmakers and talent who will be in attendance at this year’s festival include Cédric Anger, Nathalie Baye, Lucie Borleteau, Thomas Cailley, Guillaume Canet, Stéphane Demoustier, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Christophe Honoré, Benoît Jacquot, Cédric Jimenez, Cédric Kahn, Ariane Labed, Melanie Laurent, Abd Al Malik, Chiara Mastroianni, Celine Sallette, Frederic Tellier, and more to be confirmed at a later date.

"We are thrilled to be celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema with our partners at Unifrance Films. We have an exciting lineup including a focus on New French Noirs, in the great tradition of Jean-Pierre Melville and Claude Chabrol, with Cédric Jimenez’s The Connection, Cédric Anger’s Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart, and Frédéric Tellier’s SK1 that will prove the vitality of the genre," said Almozini. "Once again, the festival will also introduce audiences to new talent, discoveries from behind and in front of the camera, with many first-time films, including Thomas Cailley’s Love at First Fight, Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq, Claire Burger, and Samuel Theis’s Party Girl, Thomas Lilti’s Hippocrates, and Lucie Borleteau’s Fidelio, Alice’s Odyssey, which all prove the vitality and the creativity coming from France."

In addition to 3 Hearts, French screen icon Catherine Deneuve stars in two other films—In the Courtyard and In the Name of My Daughter. In the former she plays a retired woman who befriends a new and eccentric caretaker in her apartment building. And the latter is a psychological drama set in mid-70s Nice.

Festival award winners are ubiquitous in this year's Rendez-Vous roster. including the gritty Party Girl, which took home two awards at Cannes (including the Camera d’Or), and was a standout in Un Certain Regard; the debut feature from Thomas Cailley, Love at First Fight, was a triple winner at last year’s Cannes, where it played in the Directors’ Fortnight; and Wild Life, directed by Cédric Kahn (Red Lights), received a special jury prize at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rdv15.jpg

The 20th UniFrance-Film Society of Lincoln Center event Rendez-Vous with French Cinema press screenings schedule (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33313#post33313) has been accnounced. Reviews will begin in Filmleaf's Festival Coverage section Wed., 18 February.

The series public screenings run from March 6-15.

Screenings for the 20th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema will take place at the Film Society, 144 West 65th St. New York; the IFC Center, Sixth Ave. & West 4th St.; and BAMcinématek, Brooklyn..


Links to the reviews:

3 Hearts (Opening Night Selection) (Benoît Jacquot 2014 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33329#post33329))
Reality (Closing Night Selection) (Quentin Dupieux 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33359#post33359)
40-Love/Terre battue (Stéphane Demoustier 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33358#post33358)
Breathe/Respire (Mélanie Laurent 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33331#post33331)
The Connection/La French (Cédric Jimenez 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33334#post33334)
Eat Your Bones/Mange tes morts (Jean-Charles Hue 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33330#post33330)
Fidelio, Alice's Odyssey/Fidelio, l'odysée d'Alice (Lucie Borleteau 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33353#post33353)
Gaby Baby Doll (Sophie Letourneur 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33348#post33348)
Hippocrates/Hippocrate (Thomas Lilti 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33335#post33335)
In the Courtyard/Dans la court (Pierre Salvadori 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33350#post33350)
In the Name of My Daughter/L'homme qu'on aimait trop (André Téchiné 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33355#post33355)
Love at First Flight/Les combattants (Thomas Cailley 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33351#post33351)
May Allah Bless France!/Qu'Allah bénisse la France! (Abd Al Malik 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33347#post33347)
Métamorphoses (Christophe Honoré 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33336#post33336)
My Friend Victoria/Mon amie Victoria (Jean-Paul Civeyrac 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33332#post33332)
Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart/La prochain fois je viserai le coeur (Cédric Anger 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33354#post33354)
Party Girl (Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq, Claire Burger & Samuel Theis 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33349#post33349)
Portrait of an Artist/Le dos rouge (Antoine Barraud 2050) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33337#post33337)
SK1/L'Affaire SK1 (Frédéric Tellier 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33346#post33346)
Stubborn/Une histoire américaine (Armel Hostiou 2015 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33356#post33356)
Wild Life/Vie suavage (Cédric Kahn 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33333#post33333)
Young Tiger/Bébé tigre (Cyprien Vial 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33352#post33352)
SHORTS PROGRAM (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33357#post33357)

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rdv15.jpg

Benoît Jacquot: 3 HEARTS/3 COEURS (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33329#post33329)

Opening night film, March 6, 2015. A rom-com à trois with a tragic edge. Implausibility is offset by charm and gloss and a magical trifecta of three French film icons: Catherine Deneuve, her daughter Chiara Mastroianni, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. With Belgian-born acting vet Benoît Poelvoorde.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rdv15.jpg

Jean Charles Hue: EAT YOUR BONES/MANGE TES MORTS (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33330#post33330)

Docudrama about real lives of outlaw gypsies of northeastern France.

Mélanie Laurent: BREATHE/RESPIRE (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33331#post33331)

Second feature as a director from beautiful actress Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) depicts a dangerously dysfunctional relationship that develops between two teenager girls attending the same lycée.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rdv15.jpg

Jean-Paul Civeyrac: MY FRIEND VICTORIA/MON AMIE VICTORIA (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33332#post33332)

A glossy, well-written adaptation of the story by Doris Lessing (shifted from London to Paris) about issues of race, class, and power seen through the experience of a black girl who becomes connected by chance and love with a well-off white family. With its constant voice-over narration, this socio-political study has considerable warmth and specificity, but is perhaps ultimately a bit more telling than showing.

Cédric Kahn: WILD LIFE/VIE SAUVAGE (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33333#post33333)

The second recent fiction film (the other is Jean Denizot's THE GOOD LIFE/LA BELLE VIE) based on the real-life story of Xavier Fortin, who lived on the run, outside society, for over a decade with two sons after a custody battle with his wife. This film, intentionally, is more chaotic. I think I'd go for Denizot's version, though this one got marginally better reviews in France.

Cédric Jimenez: THE CONNECTION/LA FRENCH (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33334#post33334)

Starring THE ARTIST's Jean Dujardin, this is an ambitious but conventional police film set in 1975 about the Marseille side of the heroin network depicted in THE FRENCH CONNECTION. Many good scenes. The screenplay needed tightening up.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rdv15.jpg


Thomas Lilti: HIPPOCRATES/HIPPOCRATE (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33335#post33335)

A film about what it's like to be an intern in a French hospital beleaguered by budget cuts and rules that don't favor the patient's comfort or perhaps observe the basic principle of the Hippocratic Oath: FIRST DO NO HARM. Focused on a green boyish but privileged newbie (Vincent Lacoste of FRENCH KISSERS) and an experienced Algerian doctor forced to continue as an intern (the excellent Reda Kateb of A PROPHET and ZERO DARK THIRTY). I liked its humanistic focus and eschewing of the hyperdrama of American equivalents.

Christophe Honoré: MÉTAMORPHOSES (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33336#post33336)

A free contemporary-dress film adaptation (not the first) of Ovid's long and complex Latin poem, starring a bevy of good-looking, mostly non-pro, often naked actors, and various animals, whom they turn into, from time to time; with classical music that ranges from antique to contemporary. I am normally a fan of Honoré and of his muse Louis Garrel (absent here); his LOVE SONGS/LES CHANSONS D'AMOUR, Rendez-Vous 2008, is a favorite of mine. But I could not connect with this. I note CAHIERS DU CINÉMA says this is good for the visual side of Ovid but misses out on the rest, and that Honoré confronts the contemporary world but doesn't know what to do with it.

Antoine Barraud: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST/LE DOS ROUGE (2015) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33337#post33337)

Starring (and scored by) director Bertrand Bonello (HOUSE OF PLEASURE, SAINT LAURENT), with Jeanne Balibar, Barbet Schroeder, and others, this depicts a highly intellectual "artist" (filmmaker) pursuing images (mostly paintings in multiple museums - closely studied in some cases) that represent the "monstrous", while at the same time (in a case of Stendhal Syndrome, perhaps) "Bertrand" develops spreading bright red birthmark-like markings on his back. This recalled other museum-related films like Assayas' SUMMER HOURS and Hou's FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON as well as Jem Cohen's MUSEUM HOURS, but it's for a different audience. Overlong, meandering, and self-indulgent, perhaps, but beautiful and interesting. Cult item? Venice debut; April French theatrical release coming.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rdv15.jpg

Frédéric Tellier: SK1/L'AFFAIRE SK1 (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33346#post33346)

A French ZODIAC-style "policier," a full-bore investigation and trial film about the search for a serial killer who operated over several decades, with a top cast that includes Raphaël Personnaz, Olivier Gourmet, and Natalie Baye. A lot is going on here in this film based on a non-fiction book about real events (mostly set in the Nineties). There is a close look into the world of a serial killer. There is good stuff about the combination of infighting and bureaucratic snafus and the camaraderie and esprit de corps of the Paris police. And we get to see how very differently the French court system operates.

Abd Al Malik: MAY ALLAH BLESS FRANCE (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33347#post33347)

Based on the memoir of the director, a well-known slam and rap artist in France, who came up from a life of petty crime in the Stasbourg banlieue. Excellent work by Mark Zinga, who plays Abd Al Malik, and authentic-sounding people around him. But this is no 8 MILE: there's not enough of Malik's rapping, and perhaps because of his conversion to Islam (and abandoning his mother's Congolese Christianity), he avoids the gritty truths and doesn't even kiss his girlfriend till the end, when they marry.

Sophie Letourneur: GABY BABY DOLL (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33348#post33348)

A Greta Gerwig type out in the country who takes home men one by one from a provincial cafe to help her sleep, then winds up with a bearded, sloppy groundskeeper of a chateau. This is almost nothing. But the natural light photography is often beautiful, and a story develops that turns into a kind of fairy tale about love and the need for companionship.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rdv15.jpg

Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq, Claire Burger & Samuel Theis: PARTY GIRL (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33349#post33349)

Three grads of the prestigious film school La Femis direct the mother of one of them playing herself, with his three siblings, others, to recreate a whole milieu of a heavy drinking, smoking, over-the-hill bar "girl" who quits to marry an adoring customer -- with bad results. Desite Camera d'Or Un Certain Regard Cannes admiration, this seems more a well-wrangled reality show than an example of cinematic art. Set in Alsace, where people speak both French and German.

Pierre Salvadori: IN THE COURTYARD (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015/page2)

Salvadori specializes in mainstream French comedies like APÈS VOUS, and this is one of his most unusual ones, about an eccentric retired social worker in a big apartment who hires an unreliable musician to be the new concierge. But this one did not work for me either, and Catherine Deneuve seems wasted in an unusually unflattering role. The amiable eccentrics are supposed to be funny, but the incidents are forced, and mental confusion and drug addiction wind up seeming more pathetic than funny.

Thomas Cailley: LOVE AT FIRST FIGHT (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33351#post33351)

A boy and girl meet at in combat staged by Army recruiters. The girl knocks the boy down. But he wins by biting her. He joins an extreme military summer camp to be with her. Eventually they fall in love - sort of. One of the most fun, engaging and successful films of the series, with Adèle Haenel of Céline Sciamma's great debut WATER LILIES as the girl. Memorable sequences. Freshness created effortlessly out of seemingly familiar genre material.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rdv15.jpg

Cyprien Vial: YOUNG TIGER/BÉBE TIGRE (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33352#post33352)

A contemporary coming-of-age adventure about a Punjabi teenager who arrives illegally in Paris. In this first feature Vial shows what he's learned of the realities and contradictions of French law in this situation. An engaging feature whose genre is familiar but whose specifics are fresh.

Lucie Borleteau: FIDELIO, ALICE'S ODYSSEY/FIDELIO, L'ODYSÉE D'ALICE (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33353#post33353)

In this first feature, a woman (Ariane Labed, ATTENBERG) starts to serve as assistant engineer on a cargo ship and the old boyfriend (Melvil Poupaud, A SUMMER'S TALE) who turns out to be the captain leads her to cheat on her boyfriend on land (Anders Danielsen Lie, OSLO, AUGUST 31). Interweaving mechanical problems, a found diary, and the protagonist's sexual adventures, Borleteau seeks a novelistic complexity. The film meanders, but this is offset by vivid on board atmosphere and the good cast.

Cédric Anger: NEXT TIME I'LL AIM FOR THE HEART/LA PROCHAINE FOI JE VISERAI LE COEUR (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33354#post33354)

In his third feature Anger based in a real case in 1978 France, the serial killer of young women everyone is looking for (Guillaume Canet, veteran actor who directed TELL NO ONE and BLOOD TIES) is actually one of the gendarmes looking for -- himself. Unlike the other serial killer film in this year's Rendez-Vous (SK1/L'AFFAIRE SK1) this focuses on the strange double (or triple) life of the assassin/cop, building up a chilling atmosphere with a series of drab, understated scenes. Canet delivers one of his best performances as the insane, blank killer.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rdv15.jpg

André Téchiné: IN THE NAME OF MY DAUGHTER/L'HOMME QU'ON AIMAIT TROP (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33355#post33355)

Téchiné's delivers a high-gloss traditional-style recreation of a 1970's Le Roux Riviera casino takeover scandal, with a regal Catherine Deneuve (her third Rendez-Vous appearance this year), the feisty Adèle Haenel (also in THE FIGHTERS this year), and Guillaume Canet (in the creepy NEXT TIME I'LL AIM FOR THE HEART). Unfortunately, most of the exciting stuff happens off screen, and it does not come to life.

Armel Hostiou: STUBBORN/UNE HISTOIRE AMÉRICAINE (2015) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33356#post33356)

A French indie regular these days, the soulful Vincent Macaigne perfects his Lonely Guy act here as a persistent lover who comes to New York to rejoin an American girlfriend. The intensely colored low-light photography provides some nice shots of the city through French eyes. But the use of very limited English and a lot of repetitive improvisation make make Macaigne's act wear thin.

Rendez-Vous 2015 SHORTS PROGRAM (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33357#post33357)

I make brief comments on the four about: a tiny apartment; African competition for a French prostitute; a schoolgirl's concerns about female rights in the schoolyard; arts students jostling for position with a trendy new teacher.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rdv15.jpg

Stéphane Demoustier: 40-LOVE/TERRE BATTUE (201 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33358#post33358)

A harried fifty-ish dad (Dardennes regular Olivier Gourmet) loses his retail management job. His wife (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) leaves him. He has an 11-year-old son who is under great pressure as a budding star tennis player who has the potential to become a pro and wants to do nothing else. Focus of this interesting and often specific first feature for Demoustier may oscillate too much between the father and the son, but there is talent and originality here in this treatment of material drawn from a news story.

Quentin Dupieux: REALITY/RÉALITÉ (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33359#post33359)

An absurd, surreal, almost dadaist tale set in a misty 1970's-ish Hollywood of a goofy French expatriate TV cameraman (Alain Chabat) whose wife (Élodie Bouchez) is a shrink. He wants to make a silly chichéed sci-fi horror movie of TV sets killing the world's population with poisonous rays and his potential producer (Jonathan Lambert) will only take on the project if he can come up with the perfect death groan. As the story develops people start dreaming, and there are dreams within dreams, and the line between reality and dreams is no longer clear. The combination of silliness and complexity has delighted some French film critics, most of all those at Cahiers du Cinéma. An IFC Midnight sele tion.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rdv15.jpg

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2015 Full Filmleaf Coverage

General comments on the 2015 Rendez-Vous.
If there is less that truly stands out this year, still for all fans of French cinema there are plenty of films worth watching. Notably, there are three good-to-fine crime films, four if you count Téchiné's waxworks recreation of the Le Roux casino embezzlement/murder story IN THE NAME OF MY DAUGHTER. THE CONNECTION is about a Marseille cop trying to quash the heroin trade. SK1/L'AFFAIRE SK1 and NEXT TIME I'LL AIM FOR THE HEART are both tense films about serial killers. 3 HEARTS is a glamorous, sad rom-com; LOVE AT FIRST FIGHT (a winner) is a feisty youthful one. YOUNG TIGER, MY FRIEND VICTORIA, and MAY ALLAH BLESS FRANCE! are each distinctive coming-of-age films, in this case persons of color. Coming of age is the topic in a way is HIPPOCRATES, the coming-of-age of a young doctor from a privileged background (a feature by an actual M.D.). In a way coming of age is the theme of 40-LOVE/TERRE BATTUE, though it's also a portrait of a middle-aged in crisis. These were all films I found worth watching.

Less compelling, WILD LIFE and BREATHE are about youth too, but in those cases in extreme situations. PARTY GIRL, GABY BABY DOLL and FIDELIO, ALICE'S ODYSSEY are all about loves and conflicts of mature (or sort of mature) women. One should not overlook EAT YOUR BONES, where gypsy outlaws from northeastern France play themselves, a French critical favorite. Or Quentin Dupieux's dada-crazy-silly-intricate dreams-within-dreams movie about a goofy, would-be French filmmaker in Hollywood. I must mention Christophe Honoré's MÉTAMORPHOSES, though his modern-day version of Ovid didn't work for me. Nor did Barraud's arty, drawn-out PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST, though I like the director Bertrand Bonello who plays its central character. I could not recommend Vincent Macaigne's tiresome Lonely Guy impersonation in STUBBORN. Or the effort to make humor out of winsome losers in IN THE COURTYARD, a misfire for Catherine Deneuve.

Links to the reviews:

3 Hearts (Opening Night Selection) (Benoît Jacquot 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33329#post33329)
Reality (Closing Night Selection) (Quentin Dupieux 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33359#post33359)
40-Love/Terre battue (Stéphane Demoustier 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33358#post33358)
Breathe/Respire (Mélanie Laurent 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33331#post33331)
The Connection/La French (Cédric Jimenez 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33334#post33334)
Eat Your Bones/Mange tes morts (Jean-Charles Hue 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33330#post33330)
Fidelio, Alice's Odyssey/Fidelio, l'odysée d'Alice (Lucie Borleteau 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33353#post33353)
Gaby Baby Doll (Sophie Letourneur 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33348#post33348)
Hippocrates/Hippocrate (Thomas Lilti 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33335#post33335)
In the Courtyard/Dans la court (Pierre Salvadori 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33350#post33350)
In the Name of My Daughter/L'homme qu'on aimait trop (André Téchiné 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33355#post33355)
Love at First Flight/Les combattants (Thomas Cailley 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33351#post33351)
May Allah Bless France!/Qu'Allah bénisse la France! (Abd Al Malik 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33347#post33347)
Métamorphoses (Christophe Honoré 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33336#post33336)
My Friend Victoria/Mon amie Victoria (Jean-Paul Civeyrac 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33332#post33332)
Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart/La prochain fois je viserai le coeur (Cédric Anger 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33354#post33354)
Party Girl (Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq, Claire Burger & Samuel Theis 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33349#post33349)
Portrait of an Artist/Le dos rouge (Antoine Barraud 2050) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33337#post33337)
SK1/L'Affaire SK1 (Frédéric Tellier 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33346#post33346)
Stubborn/Une histoire américaine (Armel Hostiou 2015) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33356#post33356)
Wild Life/Vie suavage (Cédric Kahn 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33333#post33333)
Young Tiger/Bébé tigre (Cyprien Vial 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33352#post33352)
SHORTS PROGRAM (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33357#post33357)

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rdv15.jpg

The Rendez-Vous's 20th edition begins tomorrow and runs from 6-15 March 2015, with screenings at Lincoln Center, the IFC Center, and BAM-Cinématek. Stephen Holden's introductory preview in the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/movies/cesar-winners-fill-roster-at-rendez-vous-with-french-cinema.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0) has appeared. He thinks the series has gotten grittier.

Last year, the series — presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance Films — took steps to inject a sense of everyday life, and this year Rendez-Vous has fully awakened to reality. Although it may not include any masterpieces, the edition starting Friday is the strongest I can remember, mercifully devoid of the comedic froufrou that used to serve as filler.--Stephen Holden.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rdv15.jpg

My Friend Victoria (Jean-Paul Civeyrac 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3913-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2015&p=33332#post33332)

US theatrical release begins this Friday 4 Dec. 2015 in NYC (at IFC Center).