“TEAM France” is the way French Christophe Lecourtier likes to view the collaboration between the French State, industries and the Alliances Françaises across Australia as the 26th French Film Festival swings into action.
This is his first such festival, and director Lecourtier applauds the inclusion of a full 49 movies this year, especially highlighting films commemorating World War I, such as Jean Renoir’s 1937 movie “Grand Illusion”. As well, he notes that cinema critics David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz, the event’s new patrons, have been given carte blanche to choose their favourite films.
The good news is we’ll get to see all 49 films in Canberra.
The opening night comedy on March 6, “Gemma Bovery”, relates to “Madame Bovary”. In this case an English couple named Gemma and Charles Bovery move to a small Normandy town and encounter the local baker, a Flaubert fan.
The classic “Paris, je t’aime” is the closing-night choice on March 25. One of Stratton’s selections, it comprises 20 short films inspired by the subject of love, from directors as different as Olivier Assayas and Joel Cohen. And it’s the only place in the festival where the ubiquitous Gérard Depardieu surfaces.
As if to make up for that, Catherine Deneuve appears in “3 Hearts”, “In the courtyard” and as real-life casino heiress Renée Le Roux in “French Riviera”, part of the “living history” section of the festival.
This year there’s an overwhelming preponderance of comedy, but the serious aspect of contemporary life in France is also seen in “Samba”, where Omar Sy and Charlotte Gainsbourg play a Senegalese dishwasher and his immigration caseworker.
Thrillers are almost as popular as comedy. Director Mathieu Amalric’s adaptation for the big screen of Georges Simenon’s novel “The Blue Room” about an illicit, small-town love affair between a family man and a pharmacist’s wife proves the enduring popularity of crime combined with a bit of sex.
The Alliance Française French Film Festival has always been ahead of the game in what they call “Kiddies’ Korner” and this year is no exception, with popular animations such as the French-Belgian collaboration “Asterix – the Mansions of the Gods” and “Moomins on the Riviera”.
We knew Canberra film director and writer Simon Weaving had been invited to Paris by uniFrance films, but we didn’t know why.
That part of the deal was to sit on the panel for the Alliance Française French Film Festival 2015 Critics’ Prize. That goes to “Girlhood”, director Céline Sciamma’s story of female empowerment set in the tough neighbourhoods of Paris.
2015 Alliance Française French Film Festival, March 6-25, Palace Electric Cinema, program details at palacecinemas.com.au
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