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

[Chris Knipp]

For Filmleaf Festival Coverage thread go HERE.

From the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

22 Premieres Set for 20th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, March 6-15, 2015

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


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.