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Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2017
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Rendez-Vous with French Cinema and French Film Comment Selects Program 2017 March 1-12
Presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and UniFrance
Festival coverage thread
I already saw and reviewed four of the titles in Paris last fall: Odyssey, Franz, From the Land of the Moon, and Heal the Living. I will give the French release dates and if released, the AlloCiné press rating.
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Rendez-Vous with French Cinema Main Slate (16 French films):
Opening Night
Django
Étienne Comar, France, 2017, 115m
French with English subtitles
The world of legendary Romani jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt is brought to vivid life in this riveting saga of survival, resistance, and artistic courage. Reinhardt (Reda Kateb) is the toast of 1943 Paris, thrilling audiences with his distinctive brand of "hot jazz" and charming his admirers (including an intrepid friend and muse played by Cécile de France). But even as the rise of Nazism and anti-Romani sentiment force Reinhardt—whose music is considered degenerate under the Third Reich—to make a daring escape from the city, he refuses to be silenced, his music becoming his form of protest. The feature debut from acclaimed screenwriter Étienne Comar (Of Gods and Men) immerses viewers in a tumultuous chapter in the life of one of the 20th century’s greatest musical geniuses. North American Premiere
French release coming 26 April 2017.
Wednesday, March 1, at 6:00pm and 8:30pm (Étienne Comar, Reda Kateb, and Cécile de France in person)[/B]
Closing Night
The Odyssey / L’odyssée
Jérôme Salle, France, 2016, 122m
French with English Subtitles
Lambert Wilson is magnetic in this grandly lyrical dramatization of legendary explorer-turned-filmmaker Jacques Cousteau. Spanning half a century and criss-crossing oceans, the film charts Cousteau’s professional triumphs and personal failures as he achieves renown for the underwater documentaries he produced on his oceanographic expeditions, amid the constant struggle to secure financial backing for increasingly ambitious scientific (and cinematic) objectives. Set against the backdrop of cross-generational family drama—centered on his long-suffering wife Simone (Audrey Tautou) and his talented, deeply conflicted son Philippe (Pierre Niney)—The Odyssey is an epic ode to scientific exploration and documentary filmmaking, and a celebration of the human drive to seek out new realms of discovery. U.S. Premiere. ) HERE. French release 31 Oct. 2016 AlloCiné press rating 3.4. [Previously reviewed on Filmleaf]
Saturday, March 11, 6:00pm (Q&A with Jérôme Salle)
Sunday, March 12, 8:00pm
150 Milligrams / La fille de Brest
Emmanuelle Bercot, France, 2016, 128m
French with English subtitles
A fearless everywoman stands up to a drug company in this gripping David vs. Goliath story, based on a real-life medical scandal. Irène Frachon (Sidse Babett Knudsen) is a pulmonologist at a hospital in Brest who begins digging into the connection between a widely prescribed diabetes drug and a spate of fatal valve disorders, with help from a research scientist (Benoît Magimel). Soon enough, Irène sets off a media firestorm, making powerful enemies in the pharmaceutical industry who will stop at nothing to suppress her story. Knudsen and writer-director Emmanuelle Bercot have created a memorably eccentric heroine, at once a tireless crusader and compelling human. U.S. Premiere. French release 23 Nov. 2016. AlloCiné press rating 3.7.
Saturday, March 4, 3:15pm (Q&A with Emmanuelle Bercot)
Monday, March 6, 4:15pm
The Dancer / La danseuse
Stéphanie Di Giusto, France/Belgium/Czech Republic, 2016, 108m
English and French with English subtitles
This visually sumptuous drama set amidst the opulence of La Belle Époque Paris charts the real-life saga of modern dance icon Loïe Fuller (Soko). Raised on the plains of the American Midwest, Fuller became the unlikely toast of turn-of-the-century France with her legendary performances, in which swirling swaths of silk fabric and dazzlingly colored lights created a kaleidoscopic spectacle of color and movement. Boasting lavish period detail, breathtaking dance sequences, and fiercely committed performances by Gaspard Ulliel, Mélanie Thierry, and Lily-Rose Depp as Fuller’s rival Isadora Duncan, The Dancer is an arresting chronicle of an artist’s struggle to realize her vision. French release 28 Sept. 2016. AlloCine press rating 3.4.
Thursday, March 2, 1:45pm
Monday, March 6, 9:30pm (Q&A with Stéphanie Di Giusto)
Daydreams / L'indomptée
Caroline Deruas, France, 2016, 98m
French and Italian with English subtitles
Past and present, fantasy and reality collide in the boldly original feature debut from Caroline Deruas. A group of young French artists converge at Rome’s sun-dappled Villa Medicis for a one-year residency. Among them are Camille (Clotilde Hesme), a writer whose marriage to a famous novelist (Tchéky Karyo) is disintegrating, and Axèle (Jenna Thiam), an erratic photographer haunted by spectral visions of the villa’s past. Deruas conjures a subtly surreal atmosphere through striking stylistic flourishes—iris shots, color effects, dream sequences—in this beguiling tale of creative struggle, romantic rivalry, and ghosts. U.S. Premiere. French release 15 Feb. 2017.
Wednesday, March 8, 4:30pm
Friday, March 10, 6:45pm (Q&A with Caroline Deruas)
Faultless / Irréprochable
Sébastien Marnier, France, 2016, 103m
French with English subtitles
Out of money and options, 40-year-old Constance (Marina Foïs) abandons her life in Paris and returns to her suburban hometown in hopes of picking up where she left off. After she finds no real romance from her occasional lover (Benjamin Biolay), something finally snaps when she discovers that her old job as a real-estate agent has been given to a younger woman (Joséphine Japy). It soon becomes clear: Constance is dangerous, and will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Both a wild-ride thriller and a chilling character study, Faultless is driven by a riveting central performance: almost always onscreen, Foïs brings unexpected depth and poignant humanity to her portrayal of a coldly calculating sociopath. French release 6 Jul. 2016, AlloCiné press rating 3.7.
Sunday, March 5, 6:15pm (Q&A with Sébastien Marnier and Marina Foïs)
Monday, March 6, 2:00pm
Frantz
François Ozon, France/Germany, 2016, 113m
French and German with English subtitles
The new film from acclaimed director François Ozon is a sublime, heartrending saga of guilt, forgiveness, and forbidden love in post–World War I Europe. Based on Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 antiwar drama Broken Lullaby, it charts the complex bond that forms between two strangers: Anna (Paula Beer), a young German woman grieving the loss of her fiancé, Frantz, in the war, and Adrien (Pierre Niney), a former French soldier. What plays out between them is a haunting investigation of postwar trauma and healing rendered in gorgeous black-and-white that occasionally gives way—gloriously—to psychologically charged bursts of color. French release 7 Sept. 2016, AlloCiné press rating 3.7. A Music Box Films release (US). [Previously reviewed on Filmleaf]
Thursday, March 2, 9:15pm (Q&A with François Ozon)
Saturday, March 11, 1:00pm
From the Land of the Moon / Mal de pierres
Nicole Garcia, France/Belgium/Canada, 2016, 116m
French and Spanish with English subtitles
Marion Cotillard delivers a performance of searing emotional intensity in this psychologically charged, 1950s-set saga of amour fou. She stars as Gabrielle, a troubled young woman—sick in both body and mind—who is stuck in a loveless marriage. When she travels to Switzerland for a rest cure, she meets the handsome, terminally ill lieutenant André (Louis Garrel), beginning a decades-long romantic obsession that will shape the course of her life. Beautifully photographed in the sunny south of France and the snow-capped Swiss mountains, From the Land of the Moon is an exquisite showcase for one of the finest actresses working today. French release 19 Oct. 2016, AlloCiné press rating 3.5. A Sundance Selects release (US). [Previously reviewed on Filmleaf]
Friday, March 3, 6:30pm (Q&A with Nicole Garcia)
Sunday, March 12, 1:00pm
Heal the Living / Réparer les vivants
Katell Quillévéré, France/Belgium, 2016, 103m
French with English subtitles
A medical drama of unusual depth and sensitivity, Heal the Living charts the disparate lives touched by a tragedy. Following a car accident, 17-year-old Simon (Gabin Verdet) is left brain-dead, setting into motion a chain of events that affects everyone from his family to the hospital staff to a mother of two (Anne Dorval) in need of a heart transplant. Director Katell Quillévéré weaves together the multistrand narrative with consummate grace, abetted by a remarkable ensemble cast (including Emmanuelle Seigner and Tahar Rahim), elegant camerawork, and a striking score by Alexandre Desplat. The result is an enormously affecting study of human interconnectedness that finds a silver lining of hope in a wrenching situation. French release 2 Nov. 2016, AlloCiné press rating 3.8. A Cohen Media Group release (US). [Previously reviewed on Filmleaf]
Thursday, March 2, 6:30pm (Q&A with Katell Quillévéré)
Friday, March 3, 1:45pm
In Bed With Victoria / Victoria
Justine Triet, France, 2016, 97m
English and French with English subtitles
Victoria (Virginie Efira) is a hotshot lawyer with a disastrous personal life. Between juggling a demanding job, raising two kids, and fending off an ex-husband who’s slandering her on the Internet, she can barely be bothered with the hit-or-miss (mostly miss) online hookups she sets up. Around the time Victoria agrees to help her old friend Vincent (Melvil Poupaud) with a decidedly bizarre legal matter, she runs into a charming former client Sam (Vincent Lacoste). Now that a shot at real romance comes along, will the perpetually harried Victoria even recognize it? This refreshingly offbeat (how else to describe a film that features a trial in which the star witness is a Dalmatian?) farce is propelled by Efira’s irresistible performance as a heroine who’s raw, real, and complicated in ways that transcend the rom-com formula. French release 14 Sept. 2016, AlloCiné press rating 4.0 (This is the biggest critical success in France on the list so far.)
Saturday, March 4, 9:30pm (Q&A with Justine Triet)
Sunday, March 12, 3:30pm
In the Forest of Siberia / Dans les forêts de Sibérie
Safy Nebbou, France, 2016, 105m
English, French, and Russian with English subtitles
Based on the award-winning memoir by adventurer Sylvain Tesson, this tale of survival follows Teddy (Raphaël Personnaz), a young Frenchman who leaves everything behind to live in isolation in the icy Siberian taiga. But initial exhilaration soon gives way to the harsh reality of staying alive in a frozen wilderness miles from civilization with roaming bears, life-threatening blizzards, and no electricity. The film captures majestic footage of the unspoiled Siberian landscape, its bleak beauty underscored by jazz trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf’s plaintive soundtrack. French release 15 Jun. 2016, AlloCiné press rating 3.4.
Sunday, March 5, 1:00pm
Thursday, March 9, 4:00pm
Journey to Greenland / Le Voyage au Groënland
Sébastien Betbeder, France, 2016, 98m
English, Inuktitut, and French with English subtitles
Scruffy, thirtysomething best friends both named Thomas (Thomas Blanchard and Thomas Scimeca) leave behind their struggling acting careers in Paris for an extended sojourn in a remote, snowbound stretch of Greenland. One is there to reconnect with his off-the-grid father, the other for adventure. What ensues is a perceptive, warm-spirited study of cross-cultural misunderstanding and connection, as the two men learn to survive in a place without alcohol, indoor plumbing, or a reliable Internet connection. Director Sébastien Betbeder balances wry, unforced comedy with casual insight into human relationships: between friends, family members, and the strangers who touch your life. Sébastien Betbeder previously made the 20-something loser rom-com with Vincent Macaigne, 2 Autumns, 3 Winters (Rendez-Vous 2014)[/I]. French release 30 Nov. 2016. AlloCiné press rating 3.5. A Netflix release (US).
Tuesday, March 7, 4:30pm
Wednesday, March 8, 6:45pm
Mum’s Wrong / Maman a tort
Marc Fitoussi, France/Belgium, 2016, 110m
French with English subtitles
When idealistic 14-year-old Anouk (Jeanne Jestin) embarks on a weeklong internship at her mom’s insurance company, she gets a crash course in the less-than-rosy reality of the corporate world, discovering some unsavory truths about her own mother along the way. An emotionally complex look at parents, children, and the moral compromises we make, Mum’s Wrong adroitly blends workplace satire with a compassionate social-issue message, while its leads Jestin and Émilie Dequenne (Rosetta, Our Children) create a nuanced, wholly believable portrait of a mother-daughter relationship undergoing a crisis. French release 9 Nov. 2016, AlloCiné press rating 3.3.
Sunday, March 5, 3:30pm (Q&A with Marc Fitoussi)
Friday, March 10, 2:00pm
Nocturama
Bertrand Bonello, France/Germany/Belgium, 2016, 130m
French with English subtitles
The audacious new film from Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent) unfolds in two mesmerizing segments. The first is a precision-crafted thriller, following a multi-ethnic group of millennial radicals as they carry out a mass-scale terrorist attack on Paris. The second—in which the perpetrators hide out in the consumerist mecca of a luxury department store—is the director’s coup, raising provocative questions about everything that came before. Bonello stages his apocalyptic vision with stylishly roving camerawork, blasts of hip-hop, and a lip-synced performance to Shirley Bassey’s "My Way." This is edgy, risk-taking filmmaking that is sure to ignite debate. A Netflix release (US). French release 31 Aug. 2016. AlloCiné press rating 3.4.
Saturday, March 4, 6:15pm (Q&A with Bertrand Bonello)
Sunday, March 5, 9:00pm (Introduction by Bertrand Bonello)
The Paris Opera / L'Opèra de Paris
Jean-Stéphane Bron, France, 2017, 110m
French with English subtitles
This all-access documentary goes behind the scenes of the Paris Opera, following the array of personnel—management, performers, costumers, cleaning crew—who work to bring breathtaking spectacle to audiences night after night. Over the course of a season, director Jean-Stéphane Bron nimbly juggles a dizzying number of storylines, from labor disputes to procuring a live bull for Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron to a PR crisis involving the head of the company’s ballet. Sweeping in scope yet full of intimate human moments, The Paris Opera offers a candid look at everything that goes into operating one of the world’s foremost performing arts institutions. U.S. Premiere. French release 5 Apr. 2017. AlloCiné lists the title as L'Opéra.
Thursday, March 2, 4:00pm
Saturday, March 11, 3:30pm
Planetarium
Rebecca Zlotowski, France/Belgium, 2016, 105m
English and French with English subtitles
Natalie Portman lends her star power to this dreamy, visually ravishing tale of magic and movies set in a glamorous vision of 1930s Paris. She and her sister (Lily-Rose Depp) form a psychic duo, touring the stages of Europe performing séances. When they catch the eye of a movie producer (Emmanuel Salinger), he resolves to make them stars and to capture an act of spiritualism on film. Forgoing traditional narrative structure in favor of swooning atmosphere, director Rebecca Zlotowksi revels in the Art Deco architecture, sumptuous period couture, and doomed decadence of prewar Paris. Zlotowski made the 2010 Belle Épine (ND/NF 2011 and 2013 Grand Central (R-V 2014), both with Léa Seydoux. French release 16 Nov. 2016, AlloCiné press rating 3.1 A Swen Group release (US).
Friday, March 3, 9:30pm (Q&A with Rebecca Zlotowski)
Tuesday, March 7, 2:00pm
Film Comment Presents
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Raw/Grave
Raw / Grave
Julia Ducournau, France/Belgium, 2016, 99m
French with English subtitles
When incoming freshman — and lifelong vegetarian — Justine (Garance Marillier) joins her older sister (Ella Rumpf) at a strangely decrepit veterinary college, she seems poised to be the school’s new star pupil. But a hazing ritual in which she’s forced to eat raw meat awakens something primal in Justine: a newfound — and highly disturbing — taste for flesh. The feature debut from Julia Ducournau marks the arrival of a bold new directorial voice, blending blood-spattered body horror, pitch-black comedy, and one of the most dysfunctional sisterly relationships ever depicted on screen into a potent, emotionally resonant coming-of-age nightmare. Many reviews, including Walter Chaw 4-our-of-4 stars at Fantastic Fest. French release 17 Mar. 2017. Seems to have had an online release in Jan. US release 10 Mar. A Focus Features release (US).
Tuesday, March 7, 6:45pm (Q&A with Julia Ducournau)
Wednesday, March 8, 9:15pm (Introduction by Julia Ducournau)
Right Here Right Now/ Tout de suite maintenant
Pascal Bonitzer, France/Belgium/Luxembourg, 2016, 98m
French with English subtitles
Workplace drama doesn’t get any messier than in this intriguingly knotty tale of corporate backbiting and buried secrets. Nora (Agathe Bonitzer) is a bright young professional whose new job at a financial firm turns out to be a trial by fire when she learns that her bosses (Lambert Wilson and Pascal Greggory) share a tumultuous history with her prickly mathematician father (Jean-Pierre Bacri). Meanwhile, an interoffice romance with a competitive colleague (Vincent Lacoste) leads to even more complications, leaving Nora to navigate a minefield of delicate relationships as she climbs the corporate ladder. Isabelle Huppert costars and delivers a typically multilayered performance as one of many sharply etched characters populating this complex moral tale. Bonitzer was Raoul Peck's writer forMurder in Pacot and 2014 FCS included his Cherchez Hortense French release 22 Jun. 2016, AlloCiné press rating 3.5.
Friday, March 10, 9:30pm
Sunday, March 12, 5:45pm
Slack Bay / Ma Loute
Bruno Dumont, France/Germany, 2016, 122m
English and French with English subtitles
In a postcard-perfect seaside village in 1910, an eccentric (to put it mildly) leisure-class family whiles away the summer. But something troubling is afoot: what’s behind the string of tourists gone mysteriously missing? Former enfant terrible Bruno Dumont continues his surprising foray into farce—which began with 2014’s acclaimed Li’l Quinquin—with this surreal, oddball mix of slapstick and detective story. The director and his cast (which includes Fabrice Luchini, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, and a very game Juliette Binoche) stretch each joke to its breaking point, resulting in a winking, weirdly captivating comedy that’s in on its own absurdity. French release 13 May 2016, AlloCiné press raging 4.1 (highest in this list so far). A Kino Lorber release (US).
Thursday, March 9, 6:30pm
Saturday, March 11, 9:00pm
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Slack Bay
Sophie’s Misfortunes / Les malheurs de Sophie
Christophe Honoré, France, 2016, 106m
French with English subtitles
Based on the French children’s classic by the Countess of Ségur, the latest from Christophe Honoré is an enchanting fable for adults and kids alike, set in a light-filled 19th-century chateau. The film captures the imaginative freedom of childhood through the eyes of the irrepressible Sophie (Caroline Grant), a mischievous young girl whose life changes drastically after she’s left in the care of a severe stepmother (Muriel Robin)—a far cry from the life she had with her loving mother (Golshifteh Farahani of Jarmusch's Paterson and Louis Garrel's Two Friends/Les deux amis). With the help of her two friends and their mother (Anaïs Demoustier), Sophie works to escape her stepmother’s wicked grasp. Throughout, Honoré combines gorgeous period detail with playful modern touches: a bouncy electronic score by Alex Beaupain (who wrote the songs for Honoré;s Lse chansons d'amour/Love Songs, expressive handheld camerawork, and a menagerie of animated animals. French release 20 Apr. 2016, AlloCiné press rating 3.4 (Users rating 2.2). U.S. Premiere.
Saturday, March 4, 12:30pm (Q&A with Christophe Honoré)
Wednesday, March 8, 2:00pm (Intro with Christophe Honoré)
The Stopover / Voir du pays
Delphine & Muriel Coulin, France/Greece, 2016, 102m
French and Greek with English subtitles
On their way home from Afghanistan, a band of French soldiers stop in Cyprus for decompression: three-days at a sun-splashed resort, where they will undergo intense psychological debriefing. There, amidst the crystal-blue waters and hordes of vacationing tourists, Marine (Soko) and Aurore (Ariane Labed)—two of only three women in their male-dominated unit—confront rage, trauma, and army sexism as they struggle to readjust to "normal" life. This riveting drama—winner of the Best Screenplay award in the Un Certain Regard competition at Cannes—is an all-too-rare exploration of war’s psychological wounds on female soldiers. This debuted in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. The sisters previously made 17 Girls (R-V 2012)and Samba. A First Run Features release (US).
Thursday, March 9, 9:00pm
Friday, March 10, 4:15pm
Struggle for Life / La Loi de la jungle
Antonin Peretjatko, France, 2016, 99m
French with English subtitles
In this wild, joke-a-minute slapstick satire, a middle-aged intern (Vincent Macaigne) is sent from France to French Guiana to oversee the creation of a South American ski resort led by Galgaric (Mathieu Amalric). There, he meets a beautiful intern at the National Forestry Office named Tarzan (Vimala Pons) and what ensues is a surreal journey through the Amazon jungle, with absurdist bureaucratic disasters, an aphrodisiac mishap, and a cannibal encounter. Playing something like a Jerry Lewis gag-fest meets Survivor, Struggle for Life combines anarchic black comedy with a scathing critique of colonialism. French release 13 Jun 2016, AlloCiné press rating 3.6 (USers 3.0).
Monday, March 6, 7:00pm (Q&A with Antonin Peretjatko)
Tuesday, March 7, 9:15pm (Introduction by Antonin Peretjatko)
The Together Project / L'effet aquatique
Sólveig Anspach, France/Iceland, 2016, 83m
English, French, and Icelandic with English subtitles
The final film from the late French-Icelandic director Sólveig Anspach is an irresistibly offbeat aquatic comedy. When gawky construction worker Samir (Samir Guesmi) encounters prickly swim instructor Agathe (Florence Loiret Caille), he’s immediately smitten. But his unconventional plan to win her over—pretending he can’t swim in order to take lessons from her — proves more than a little problematic. Sweet without being cloying, quirky without being grating, this romantic charmer succeeds thanks to the interplay between the two leads and Anspach’s breezy sincerity. French release 29 Jun. 2016, AlloCiné press rating a very favorable 3.9.
Friday, March 3, 4:00pm (Q&A with composer Martin Wheeler)
Thursday, March 9, 2:00pm
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Highlights. Notable directors, films; panels.
(As a press release says) this new Rendez-Vous season features films by François Ozon, Bertrand Bonello, Emmanuelle Bercot, Bruno Dumont, Christophe Honoré, Justine Triet, Rebecca Zlotowski, and others, with many stars and meteurs en scène expected to be on hand.
It's exciting that Bonello's Nocturama is included, one at Cannes I have had my eye on. Ozon's Franz is good, with an above-average AlloCiné press rating (3.7), but a bit conventional. Nocturama's AlloCiné press rating was only average (3.4), but some good sources (Les Inrocks, Le Monde, Télérama, gave it top marks. It's a bit of a provocation, though, in the view of Cahiers du Cinéma, a formally conventional one; Cahiers hated it, but when don't they?
Special events include a conversation with Agnès Varda, panels focusing on international co-production and film as political intervention, a free screening of an episode of the popular TV series "Call My Agent" ("Dix pour cent", and an exhibition from Arles.
Click on the image for the trailer:
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Previews.
I'll be screening or re-screening the following films in the series in the weeks to come.
The Dancer / La danseuse
Stéphanie Di Giusto, France/Belgium/Czech Republic, 2016, 108m
English and French with English subtitles
This visually sumptuous drama set amidst the opulence of La Belle Époque Paris charts the true-life saga of American-born modern dance icon Loïe Fuller and boasts a fiercely committed lead performance by Soko
Django (Opening Night Selection)
Étienne Comar, France, 2017, 115m
French with English subtitles
The world and music of legendary jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt (Reda Kateb) are brought vividly to life in this riveting saga of survival, resistance, and artistic courage set against the tumultuous backdrop of World War II-era Paris.
Frantz
François Ozon, France/Germany, 2016, 113m
French and German with English subtitles
Based on Ernst Lubitsch's 1932 antiwar drama Broken Lullaby, the new film from acclaimed director François Ozon is a sublime, heartrending saga of guilt, forgiveness, and forbidden love in post-World War I Europe. A Music Box Films release.
From the Land of the Moon / Mal de pierres
Nicole Garcia, France/Belgium/Canada, 2016, 116m
French and Spanish with English subtitles
Marion Cotillard delivers a performance of searing emotional intensity as a troubled woman in love with a terminally ill lieutenant (Louis Garrel) in this psychologically charged, 1950s-set saga of amour fou. A Sundance Selects release.
Heal the Living / Réparer les vivants
Katell Quillévéré, France/Belgium, 2016, 103m
French with English subtitles
A fatal car accident sets into motion a chain of events that touches the lives of seemingly disparate people in this enormously affecting medical drama of unusual depth and sensitivity. A Cohen Media Group release.
Nocturama
Bertrand Bonello, France/Germany/Belgium, 2016, 130m
French with English subtitles
The audacious new film from Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent) is both a precision-crafted thriller about a mass-scale terrorist attack on Paris and a provocative exploration of consumerism and millennial disaffection. A Netflix release.
The Odyssey / L'odyssée (Closing Night Selection)
Jérôme Salle, France, 2016, 122m
French with English subtitles
Lambert Wilson is magnetic in this grandly lyrical dramatization of legendary explorer-turned-filmmaker Jacques Cousteau. Set against the backdrop of cross-generational family drama, The Odyssey is an epic ode to exploration and documentary filmmaking, and a celebration of the human drive to seek out new realms of discovery.
The Paris Opera / L'Opéra
Jean-Stéphane Bron, France, 2017, 110m
French with English subtitles
Go behind the scenes of the Paris Opera, where backstage dramas, crises, and triumphs play out each night before the curtain rises.
In Bed With Victoria / Victoria
Justine Triet, France, 2016, 97m
English and French with English subtitles
A hotshot lawyer with a disastrous love life gets a shot at real romance-if only she could recognize it. This refreshingly offbeat farce is raw, real, and complicated in ways that transcend the rom-com formula.
Slack Bay / Ma Loute
Bruno Dumont, France/Germany, 2016, 122m
English and French with English subtitles
Juliette Binoche, Fabrice Luchini, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi costar in this surreal, weirdly captivating mix of slapstick comedy and oddball detective story, the latest foray into farce from former enfant terrible Bruno Dumont. A Kino Lorber release.
Raw / Grave
Julia Ducournau, France/Belgium, 2016, 99m
French with English subtitles
When a young vegetarian undergoes a carnivorous hazing ritual at vet school, an unbidden taste for meat begins to grow in her.
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Some awards won by the films
At the Césars.
Best Film nominees: Frantz (11 noms)
Slack Bay (nine noms)
Frem the Land of the Moon (eight noms)
In Bed with Victoria (five)
150 Milligrams (two)
The Dancer (two)
Mentions:
Faultless
Heal the Living
Odyssey
Some of the filmmakers and talent of Rendez-Vous 2017 who'll be present:
Emannuelle Bercot
Bertrand Bonello
Etienne Comar
Caroline Deruas
Stéphanie Di Giusto
Julia Ducournau
Marc Fitoussi
Marina Foïs
Cécile de France
Nicole Garcia
Christophe Honoré
Reda Kateb
Sébastien Marnier
François Ozon
Antonin Peretjatko
Katell Quillévéré
Jérôme Salle
Justin Taurand
Justine Triet
Martin Wheeler
Rebecca Zlotowski.
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DJANGO (Étienne Comar 2017)
The music really shines but the plot line is humdrum in this recreation of a wartime moment in the life of Roma jazz guitar legend Django Reinhardt, one of the genre's greatest guitarists, whose Quintette du Hot Club de France played with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, and Duke Ellington.
The little known Reda Kateb (A Prophet) has a rare lead role, with Cécille de France as a double agent more-than-fan femme fatale.
The Rendez-Vous with French Cinema's Opening Night film. A preview.
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NOCTURAMA (Bertrand Bonello 2016)
As Mike D'Angelo tweeted at Toronto, this is stunning.
Quote:
A group of young, multiracial radicals execute a series of terrorist attacks across Paris and then take shelter for the night in a shopping center while a massive manhunt is conducted outside.
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FRANTZ (François Ozon 2016)
This film I reviewed in Paris last October but watched at the press screenings at Lincolnn Center again is a beautiful and mysterious adaptation of an Ernst Lubitsch film full of seriousness, calm, symmetry, and beauty - and one of the best film roles yet for the up and coming Comédie Française actor Pierre Niney. It looked even better the second time.
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RÉPARER LES VIVANTS/HEAL THE LIVING (Katell Quillévéré 2016)
This is a movie about a heart transplant. But that sounds like a TV afternoon picture, and not such a humanistic and sophisticated work of art as Katell Quillévéré has made of it. It's a double story, first of a 17-year-old blond surfer who's rendered brain dead in a car crash, and second the middle-aged woman with severe heart disease who gets his heart. The key figure is the "coordinator" played by a boyish-looking but wonderfully gentle and sympathetic Taher Raim (of Audiard's A Prophet. US release coming. This, like Ozon's Frantz, was even better, and clearer in its fine construction, the second time at the Lincoln Center press screening.
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MAL DE PIERRES/FROM THE LAND OF THE MOON (Nicole Garcia 2016)
Another one I saw in Paris but rewatched at the Rendez-Vous press screenings. Not much emerged from rewatching except another chance to see the irrelevance of the long opening section and the unconvincing curve-pitching of the final section. This would be interesting to talk about in the context of Nicole Garcia's filmography; her choice of this novel to adapt fits with her apparent love of movies that are wild romantic adventures. And Marion Cotillard and Louis Garrel make a romantic fantasy couple, she the uncooperative slightly nutty patient and he the dying French officer and general's son who caught something nasty in Indochina.
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THE DANCER/LA DANCEUSE (Stéphanie Di Giusto 2016)
Di Giusto's first feature is a biopic starring Soko (Wincour's Augustine as the American dancer and theatrical design/staging pioneer Loïe Fuller, who took her act to Paris and stayed in Europe. Soko's 200% dedication to the demanding role, including re-staging of Loïs' performances, doesn't keep this from biopic clichés. Interesting depiction of the déco styles of the time.
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VICTORIA/IN BED WITH VICTORIA (Justine Triet 2016)
A rom-com that takes off from Hollywood/Woody Allen comedy with engaging riffs by Virginie Efira as a hotshot lawyer whose personal life is pretty much a total mess, with fine support by Vincent Lacoste, Melvil Poupaud, and others, including an on-point dalmatian and somewhat unruly chimp who takes selfies ad a wedding party. Got raves in France even from Les Inrocks and Cahiers. If you get with the spirit of amiable chaos, you will see why the French found this hilarious.
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LA FILLE DE BREST/150 MILIGRAMS (Emmanuelle Bercot 2016)
The tireless Emmanuelle Bercot had an amazing year last year, winning Best Actress at Cannes for her performance in My King/Mon roi with Vincent Cassel and directing a prizewinning film about an at risk teenager, with Catherine Deneuve, Benoît Magimel, and young unknown Rod Paradot, who won a César. Now Bercot is back with another issue picture, about Dr. Irène Franchon and her long, hard, ultimately successful campaign against French Big Pharma to bar a killer drug. Again Magimel is back, and there is a unique central performance by Danish-born Sidse Babett Knudsen as the feisty Dr. Franchon. This is a movie in a class with Silkwood and Erin Brockovich. Its long string of sometimes numbing details win respect and a sense of joy when the gathering team of crusaders against money interests win the battle to save lives.
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SLACK BAY/MA LOUTE (Bruno Dumont 2016)
A sort of offshoot of his RV miniseries L'il Quinquin, this is just far-out crazy. Set in 1910 by the sea where a romance between a rough sailer boy from a cannibal family and a sort-of trans person from the local snooty aristos, does not bring together the classes. If this is Dumont's ongoing effort to break into comedy, it needs more work. But he has created a completely unique world. This time Juliette Binoche is joined by other well-known actors playing with Dumont's usual unknowns: Fabrice Lucchini and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, in their strangest and most unflattering roles ever.
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PARIS OPERA/L'OPÉRA (Jean-Stéphane Bron 2016)
A rich taste of the manifold wonders of the Opéra de Paris - which comprises two venues, but that is just one of many things that aren't really explained. Bron, who is Swiss, flits about too much. This lacks the determined focus of Fred Wiseman, who applied his treatment to the Paris Opera Ballet a few years ago, so we can compare methods. Everything here is interesting - except, to me, the use of a huge live bull in a Schoenberg opera production. But there needed to be more time on some and less or none on other topics, more follow-through, and more context provided.
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ODYSSEY/L'ODYSSÉE (Jérôme Salle 2016)
For those who are in the mood for a glamorous, beautiful biopic, this one about the Calypso undersea explorer and US TV star will be worth watching. The problem is that though it apparently rubbed the Cousteau Society the wrong way and so declared no connection of approval at the end, it doesn't go deep enough in exploring Cousteau's tricky private life. We get hints that he had many affairs. Did he have another family? The dramatic highlight used to bookend the film is his conflict with his favorite son Philippe and the tragedy of Philippe's death piloting a seaplane. Philippe is played by rising star Pierre Niney of Yves Saint Laurent and Frantz, who's never looked more dashing and handsome. Audrey Tautou plays Yves-Jacques' alcoholic, long-suffering wife.
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FILLE DE BREST/150 MILLIGRAMS (Emmanuelle Bercot 2016)
Dramatizing a battle to have a dangerous drug off the market in France, this is a film like Silkwood or Erin Brockovich and while it may be a bit dry, pedestrian, or over-detailed at times, that is its strength, too, that it really takes us to the long struggle it took. Another good supporting performance for Benoît Magimel, who also shone in Bercot's previous film, Standing Tall/La tête haute.
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STRUGGLE FOR LIFE/LA LOI DE LA JUNGLE (Antonin Peretjatko 2016)
French indie schlub regular Vincent Macaigne again, this time in a slapstick satire of French bureaucracy and colonialist commercialism. The issues take second place to the pratfalls and slogs in the mud. Macaigne and his costar Vimala Pons show good sportsmanship going through all this stuff, but you can save your time for other examples of French cinema. This kind of comedy is better in your own language.
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VOIR DU PAYS/STOPOVER (Delphine, Muriel Coulin 2016)
A film about women in the military and the toll taken by combat duty. The three women (including Soko) stop over on Cyprus for a debriefing and psychological session with the rest of their nearly all-male unit returning from Afghanistan, where they had a brief but traumatic tour. There is also standard R&R stuff too - sleeping with a local guy, getting drunk - and lots of indications that the male soldiers are not only hostile to each other in some cases but to anybody including the women and the Cypriote locals. The problem with this film for me is that the emotions and nightmare memories never really come to life. It's too much all in the head and in the virtual reality. The Coulin sisters' previous, debut film was 17 Girls/17 Filles about teen pregnancy, a topic they probably had more of a handle on.
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RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW/TOUT DE SUITE MAINTENANT (Pascal Bonitzer 2016)
Love and finance are the subjects in this ingenious mashup by the famous screenwriter (notably for Rivette and Teechiné) who here has assembled a top-of-the-line cast with Isabelle Huppert, Lambert Wilson, Pascal Greggory, Agathe Bonitzer, Jean-Pierre Bacri, and Vincent Lacoste. The best moments are those when Huppert is on the screen. Boy can she hold it. Without seeming to turn a hair. But Bonitzer's writing may have more zing with others directing. (He's done dozens of screenplays; this is his seventh directorial effort.) Critics liked this better than viewers have, on AlloCiné.
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Fabulous.
Thanks for these reviews.
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You're welcome, Johann, my pleasure as always. I'll talk about the best of them when I've finished seeing all the ones I can see in the series. The top title I hadn't seen was Bonello's Nocturama. I's say weird as it is, Dumont's Slack Bay/Ma Loute stands out. I haven't seen Raw. That is getting theatrical release here March 10 anyway though.
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Wed., March 1, 2017, the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema opens. Here are some recommendations
Find the Film Society of Lincoln Center's listings of all the films here.
Wednesday is the day when movies open in France so it's a good day to open the annual Unifrance-Film Society of Lincoln Center collaboration, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. In his as usual excellent and interesting preview, Stephen Holden of the New York Times sums up this year's 23 films in his preview as being a lot about horror and fear. The dazzler, Bonello's Nocturama, about youths blowing things up in Paris, then idling and losing their focus at a posh department store the night thereafter, certainly is about boredom, anger, and malaise. So perhaps also is Bruno Dumont's strange but somehow wonderful period film Slack Bay/Ma Loute, about class differences, love and cannibalism. And Raw, a horror movie in Film Comment selects also included in the French series, is about flesh-eating too. (I'm not recommending it, though it might appeal to fans of foreign horror films.)
But let's just mention some of the other good films included this year. As Holden acknowledges, François Ozon's beautiful Frantz, also a period story, is (maybe an "anomaly") isn't about those nasty things but an anti-war story about guilt and romance and new beginnings, a remake of Ernst Lubitsch's Broken Lulliby. There's no denying that Salle's Odyssey/L'Odyssé, a biopic about Yves-Jacques Cousteau, if a little bland and conventional, is beautiful and entrancing. Surprisingly, so is Katell Quillévéré's To Heal the Living/Réparer les vivants - about a heart transplant. It's a rich and humanistic treatment of what might in lesser hands just see an afternoon special.
Though its humor may lose something in subtitles, Justine Triet's Victoria/In Bed with Victoria], an improvisation-filled rom-com about a ditzy but accomplished woman lawyer (a genius Virginie Efira) whose career was going fine while her personal life was disintegrating, shows the French talent for elegant, tongue-in-cheek comedy; Efira is ably abetted by Vincent Lacoste and Melvil Poupaud.
Some of the other more watchable films of the series this year are:
- The Dancer/La danseuse (Stéphanie Di Giusto, starring Soko) about Louïe Fuller, a turn-of-the century American dance and theater innovator, who found fame in Paris.
- Django (Étienne Comar 2017), the opening night film, about the great gypsy-jazz guitarist. The storyt's a bit blah but the music is absolutely great, and the filmmakers allow it to play through instead of giving only tiny clips.
- La Fille de Brest/150 Miligrams , Emmanuelle Bercot's filmed story of a Silkwood, Brockovitch-like lady whistleblower, whose battle was with French Big Pharma. The multi-hyphenate Bercot is serous about issues, and this one is notable for its commitment to the story.
Right Here, Right Now/Tout de suite mainetnant directed by Pascal Bonitzer has a panoply of French stars including Isabelle Huppert, who's on screen only briefly, but tears it up without lifting a finger. Rising stars Pierre Niney and Vincent Lacoste are on hand in several films, Lacoste in Victoria and Right Hear, Right Now, Niney in Odyssey and Frantz.
There are only a few films in the series I'd be reluctant to say are entertaining or interesting. Anyway, there's no disputing matters of taste! But don't miss Nocturama. And note: many of the directors and some of the stars will be on hand for the festival Q&A's.
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DAYDREAMS/L'INDOMPTÉE (Caroline Deruas 2016)
A somewhat superficial but beautiful and very watchable first feature by Philippe Garrel's young girlfriend. The action, partly fantastic or surreal, takes place at the French Academy in Rome at the Villa Medici (or Médicis in French), with Clotilde Hesme, up-and-comer Jenna Thiam, and old dog Tchéky Karyo as a jealous husband whose distinguished writing career may be drying up while his young wife is penning her first success.
Showtimes at the Walter Reade Theater:
Wednesday, March 8, 4:30pm
Friday, March 10, 6:45pm (Q&A with Caroline Deruas)
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An exhibition in the lobby gallery of the Walter Reade Theater along with the Rendez-Vous, which is right in the middle now.
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RAW (Julia Ducournau 2016)
The sisterly vegetarian-cannibal movie, a much-awarded debut is a pretty stylish French entry into gore horror genre which debuted at Critics Week at Cannes and won the FIPRESCI Prize, and subsequently many other prizes and nominations at prestigious festivals. It was bought up and - an unusual move - opened in US theaters March 10th, five days before the official March 15 French theatrical release. It has garnered raves on both shores, a Metacritic rating of 82% and an AlloCiné press rating of 4.1. I think it's overrated. It lacks the class and individuality to warrant such accolades. However, it's French, and classy, and the writer-director shows talent.
In an usual move, this was a Film Comment Selects film and listed as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema; they're usually separate. It was not shown to the press in the Rendez-Vous screenings, which in any case were abbreviated, not covering all 23 films but only 10 this year. I added 8 via online screeners that were made available. I watched Raw/Grave today, 18 March, at Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley; it came to Northern California a week after opening in NYC.
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FRANZ (François Ozon) revisited by ARMOND WHITE.
Armond White, writing in the gay magazine Out, focuses on the gay aspects of Franz - which I knew were there. He teases them out.
Quote:
In Frantz, Ozon dispenses with the storytelling and political conventions of most gay films—in fact, he teases them in profound ways. During a battle scene, Adrien and Frantz are coupled in a trench and after an explosion, Adrian brushes dirt and blood from Frantz’s face with a lover’s tenderness.
-White
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NOCTURAMA (Bertrand Bonello 2016)
NYC release for one week at the Metrograph August 11-17.
No.7 Ludlow Street
New York City, NY 10002
metrograph.com
Is that all??
Distributed by Grasshopper Film.
Click on the new US trailer here.
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NOCTURAMA coming to US theaters.
Opening at New York's Metrograph and
the Film Society of Lincoln Center on August 11
US release date was listed as July 28, so I don't know. . .
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Bonello's "Deeper into Nocturama" is a personal anthology of films that inspired him showing at Lincoln Center, followed by his dazzling new film, Nocturama.
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See the list of them HERE.
Below I have edited down the schedule to just the film titles and Bonello's comments.
Go Deeper into Nocturama, Beginning August 18
FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
All films screen at the Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th St.) unless otherwise noted. Quotes in italic below by Bertrand Bonello.
Assault on Precinct 13
John Carpenter, USA, 1976, 91m
“A barely disguised remake of Rio Bravo, Assault on Precinct 13 is as dry as Rio Bravo is meandering. In both cases, the director entraps characters in postures of anticipation in order to watch them live. One of the finest examples of directing in cinema.” —BB
The Brood
David Cronenberg, Canada, 1979, 35mm, 92m
“I saw this movie as a 12-year-old, and I will always remember the image of those children in the colorful jackets, hammers in hand. I realized later that these children were terrifying because they were terrified. I also realized that, in the guise of a B movie, The Brood demonstrated that Cronenberg’s visionary and organic genius was already at play.” —BB
Close-up
Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1990, 35mm, 98m
“This is perhaps the film in which Kiarostami’s distortion of the principles of fiction and reality reaches its apogee, resulting in his most upsetting film. At the same time, it is a work of rare humanity and invention.” —BB
The Devil, Probably / Le Diable, probablement
“Shooting this film in 1977 was a crazy act of clairvoyance. The film is punk, ecological, romantic, radical, desperate, and yet endowed with the energy and vitality of rebellion.” —BB
Full Moon in Paris / Les nuits de la pleine lune
Éric Rohmer, France, 1984, 102m
“It was a 64-year-old man who best captured the youthful energy of the 1980s, the decade’s transformations, its carefree spirit, its music, and ultimately its melancholy. And to top it off, the film features the dazzling Pascale Ogier.” —BB
Rio Bravo
Howard Hawks, USA, 1959, 35mm, 141m
“Released a year apart, Vertigo and Rio Bravo were the last two great Hollywood classics. Each one is imbued, within the framework of a genre film, with all the modernity of the cinema that was yet to come. This swan song features one of the most beautiful guitar-playing scenes in all of cinema.” —BB
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
David Lynch, USA, 1992, 134m
T“The most upsetting, the most terrifying, the most inventive and the most crazy of all of David Lynch’s films. It’s here that he discovered the theme that he would develop in years to come: emotional terror.” —BB
Nocturama
Bertrand Bonello, France/Germany/Belgium, 2016, 130m
French with English subtitles
[SFLC blurb]
The audacious new film from Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent) unfolds in two mesmerizing segments. The first is a precision-crafted thriller, following a multi-ethnic group of millennial radicals as they carry out a mass-scale terrorist attack on Paris. The second—in which the perpetrators hide out in the consumerist mecca of a luxury department store—is the director’s coup, raising provocative questions about everything that came before. Bonello stages his apocalyptic vision with stylishly roving camerawork, blasts of hip-hop, and a lip-synced performance to Shirley Bassey’s “My Way.” This is edgy, risk-taking filmmaking that is sure to ignite debate. A 2017 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema selection. A Grasshopper Film release.
Opens August 11 at FSLC
