Cinema Newsletter September 8,2011
We are delighted to bring you a cinema e-newsletter with information on the best of French cinema available in New York. Twice a month, you will find in "French screens" a selection of films newly released in theaters, repertory revivals, festivals and films shown on TV and on VoD.
There are plenty of French films to go and see. And theaters are the best places to stay dry... ! Bonne lecture.
The team of the Film, TV and New Media Department
Cultural Services of the French Embassy | www.frenchculture.org
Two Days in Paris
Deux Jours à Paris
Directed by Julie Delpy
Running time: 96 minutes, France-Germany, 2007
With Julie Delpy and Adam Goldberg
September 8 @ Columbia University – Outdoor / Low Library Steps (entrance at 116th St), 7:30 pm
No alcohol allowed at this on-campus event – in case of rain, please checkwww.maisonfrancaise.org
Marion (Delpy), a French photographer, lives in New York with Jack (Goldberg), an interior designer. After a brief stay in Venice, they decide to go to Paris to visit Marion's family. But the romantic getaway is cut short: between Marion’s bizarre parents, her numerous ex-boyfriends and Jack’s obsession for photography, their relationship is tense!
Film Trailer
9/11
Directed by James Hanlon, Jules and Gedeon Naudet
Running time 112 minutes, USA/France, 2002.
September 10 at 12pm, at Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center.
Followed by Q&A session with Jules Naudet, Christian Delage and Peter Goodrich.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, brothers Jules and Gedeon Naudet were working on a documentary about a rookie New York City firefighter. Hearing a roar in the sky, Jules turned his camera upward—just in time to film the only existing image of the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center. In a fateful instant, Jules and Gedeon became eyewitnesses to the most shocking and defining moment of our time. With cameras rolling, the Naudet followed NYC firefighters into the heart of what would be known as Ground Zero. What emerged is an unforgettably powerful visual document and a stirring tribute to real-life heroes who, in their city's darkest hour, rose to extraordinary acts of courage and compassion.
Film Trailer
Band of outsiders
Bande à part
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Running time 94 minutes, France, 1964.
With Anna Karina, Claude Brasseur, Sami Frey and Danièle Girard.
At FIlm Forum - September 7 - 13
“All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun.” Jean-Luc Godard.
In the dreary suburb of Joinville, hoods Claude Brasseur and Sami Frey horse around with the idea of burglarizing the villa where shared girlfriend Karina is staying, but then things go memorably awry. A jeu d’esprit, with set pieces including the trio dancing “Le Madison” and then “doing” the Louvre in record time.
Show Times & Places
Film Trailer
My Afternoons with Margueritte
La tête en friche
Directed by Jean Becker
Running time 82 minutes, France, 2010.
With Gérard Depardieu, Gisèle Casadesus, Maurane, Patrick Bouchitey.
Opening September 16.
It's the story of one of those improbable encounters that can change the course of one's life: the encounter, in a small public garden, between Germain, fifty and barely literate, and Margueritte, a little old lady passionate about reading. Forty years and 220 pounds separate them. One day, purely by chance, Germain sits down beside Margueritte. She'll go on to read aloud extracts from novels and thereby allow him to discover the magic of books, from which Germain imagined he was excluded for life.
Show Times & Places
Film Trailer
Gainsbourg : A Heroic Life
Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque)
Directed by Joann Sfar
Running time 130 minutes, France, 2010.
With Eric Elmosnino, Lucy Gordon, Laetitia Casta.
The film is based on Sfar’s best-selling graphic novel and follows the singer, born Lucien Ginsburg to Russian-Jewish parents, from his precocious childhood in Nazi-occupied Paris, to his transition from painter to jazz musician to pop superstar, and through his relationships with the many women in his life including Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta), Juliette Greco (Anna Mouglalis), and Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon). Gainsbourg was as famous for his decadent life, fin-de-siecle aesthetic, and cynical wit as for his clever lyrics and musical genius, which went through several reinventions.
Show Times & Places
Film Trailer
Special Treatment
Sans queue ni tête
Directed by Jeanne Labrune
Running time 95 minutes, France/ Luxembourg, 2010.
With Isabelle Huppert, Bouli Lanners, Sabila Moussadek.
French star Isabelle Huppert plays a high-class prostitute named Alice who serves up sexual fantasies for her clientele, from schoolgirl innocent to S&M dominatrix. Fed up with the seamy underbelly of French masculinity, Alice crosses paths with Xavier, a neurotic psychoanalyst facing a marriage crisis. The two quickly realize their professions share a thing or two in common as they navigate the overlapping worlds of psychotherapy and sexual therapy.
Show Times & Places
Film Trailer
Love Crime
Crime d'Amour
Directed by Alain Corneau
Running time 104 minutes, France, 2010.
With Kristin Scott Thomas, Ludivine Sagnier and Patrick Mille.
Isabelle (Sagnier) is the young ingénue assistant, while Christine (Scott Thomas) is the older woman, a senior executive in a multinational company doing deals around the world. At first they are friendly. Christine, the able executive, is happy to pass the grunt work along to the up-and-coming Isabelle as she learns the ropes. But when Christine starts to take credit for Isabelle's ideas, and a fellow worker bee begins to fuel Isabelle's growing doubts about Christine's duplicitous "all-for-one" attitude, the ground is prepared for all out war.
Show Times & Places
Film Trailer
I'm Glad My Mother Is Alive
Je Suis Heureux Que Ma Mère Soit Vivante
Directed by Claude Miller & Nathan Miller
Running time 90 minutes, France, 2009.
With Vincent Rottiers, Sophie Cattani and Christine Citti.
Given up for adoption as a toddler, troubled teenager Thomas (César nominee for Best Male Newcomer Vincent Rottiers) becomes obsessed with tracking down his birth mother. After years of searching, Thomas finds her (Sophie Cattani) single, with a small child, living in a nearby suburb, and introduces himself. Traumatized by years of emptiness and longing for his mother, he starts an ambiguous relationship with her - part courtship, part obsession, which slowly drives him to an act of madness.
Show Times & Places
Film Trailer
Mozart's Sister
Nannerl, la soeur de Mozart
Directed by René Féret.
Running time: 120 minutes, France, 2010.
With Marie Féret, David Moreau, Marc Barbe, Clovis Fouin.
A speculative account of Maria Anna “Nannerl” Mozart (Marie Feret), five years older than Wolfgang (David Moreau) and a musical prodigy in her own right. Originally the featured performer, she has given way to Wolfgang as the main attraction, as their strict but loving father Leopold (Marc Barbe) tours his talented offspring in front of the royal courts of pre-French revolution Europe. Approaching marriageable age and now forbidden to play the violin or compose, Nannerl chafes at the limitations imposed on her gender. But a friendship with the son and daughter of Louis XV offers an alternative.
Show Times & Places
Film Trailer
The Hedgehog
Le Hérisson
Directed by Mona Achache.
Running time: 100 minutes, France/ Italy, 2009.
With Josiane Balasko, Garance Le Guillermic, Togo Igawa.
Inspired by the beloved New York Times bestseller, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery, The Hedgehog is the timely story of Paloma (Garance Le Guillermic) a young girl bent on ending it all on her upcoming twelfth birthday. Using her father's old camcorder to chronicle the hypocrisy she sees in adults, Paloma begins to learn about life from the grumpy building concierge, Renee Michel (Josiane Balasko). When Paloma's camera reveals the extensive secret library in Renee's back room, and that the often gruff matron reads Tolstoy to her cat, Paloma begins to understand that there are allies to be found beneath the prickliest of exteriors.
Show Times & Places
Film Trailer
Mysteries of Lisbon
Les Mystères de Lisbonne
Directed by Raúl Ruiz.
Running time 257 minutes, Portugal/France, 2010.
With Adriano Luz, Maria João Bastos, Ricardo Pereira, Clotilde Hesme, Afonso Pimentel.
Spanning three decades, Mysteries of Lisbon plunges us into a whirlwind of adventures, coincidences, revelations, vengeance, betrayals and love affairs, wrapped in a rhapsodic voyage that takes us to Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and as far as Brazil. Evoking the complex intertwined narratives of Charles Dickens, the film’s central character is Joao, the illegitimate child of an ill-fated romance between two members of the aristocracy who are forbidden to marry, and follows Joao’s quest to discover the truth of his parentage.
Show Times & Places
Film Trailer
Point Blank
A bout portant
Directed by Fred Cavayé.
Running time 84 minutes, France, 2010.
With Gilles Lellouche, Roschdy Zem, Gérard Lanvin, Elena Anaya.
Samuel (Lellouche) is a happily married nurse working in a Paris hospital. When his very pregnant wife (Anaya) is kidnapped before his helpless eyes, everything falls apart. After being knocked unconscious, he comes to and his cell phone rings: he has three hours to get Sartet (Zem), a man under police surveillance, out of the hospital. A race through the subways and streets of Paris ensues, and the body count rises. Can Samuel evade the cops and the criminal underground and save the lives of his wife and unborn child ?
Show Times & Places
Film Trailer
Sarah's Keys
Elle s'appelait Sarah
Directed by Gilles Pasquet-Brenner
Running time: 111 minutes, France, 2010.
With Kristin Scott Thomas, Mélusine Mayance and Niels Arestrup
Based on the international best seller by Tatiana De Rosnay, SARAH'S KEY stars Oscar nominee Kristin Scott Thomas as Julia Jarmond, an American journalist married to a Frenchman, who is commissioned to write an article about the notorious Vel d’Hiv round up in 1942 Paris, when the French police went door-to-door arresting Jewish families. As Julia researches for her article, she stumbles upon a family secret which will links her to the destiny of a young Jewish girl, Sarah.
Show Times & Places
Film Trailer
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Directed by Werner Herzog
Running time 95 minutes, Canada/USA/France/Germany/UK, IFC Films/History Films, 2010.
With Werner Herzog, Dominique Baffier, Jean Clottes, Jean-Michel Geneste, Carole Fritz.
Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams', a breathtaking new 3D documentary from the incomparable Werner Herzog ('Encounters at the End of the World,' 'Grizzly Man') follows an exclusive expedition into the nearly inaccessible Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient visual art known to have been created by man.
Show Times & Places
Film Trailer
Adolfo Arrieta
@ Anthology Film Archives
Adolfo Arrieta is a spanish filmmaker, considered as the pioneer of independent film both in Spain and France, due to the artisan quality and the unique spirit of freedom of his films. His cinematic language is very poetic, apart from narrative conventions, which has made it to be compared with the cinema of Jean Cocteau. He won the Great Prize at the Toulon Film Festival with Les intrigues de Sylvia Couski (1974), acclaimed by the critics and considered as the first underground parisian film. He would follow with Tam Tam (1976), the record of an uninterrupted party between New York, Paris and Spain; and Flammes (1978), a story about a sexual childhood fantasy turning into a real passion in the adulthood.
Anthology Film Archives proposes four French films directed by Adolfo Arrieta:
Pointilly, September 15, 9pm and September 18, 8:30pm
Les Intrigues de Sylvia Couski, September 16, 7:15pm and September 17, 9:15pm
Tam Tam, September 16, 9:15pm and September 18, 6:30pm
Flammes, September 17, 7:15pm and September 18, 4:30pm
For further information : click here
Crossing the Line - Ariane Michel
@ Anthology Film Archives and Van Cortlandt Park
As part of the fifth edition of Crossing the Line 2011, FIAF’s annual transdisciplinary festival of contemporary arts, the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) together with Van Cortlandt Park and the Anthology Film Archives, presents the North American premiere of Ariane Michel’s The Screening, a mysterious cinematic adventure, as well as the French artist and director’s acclaimed debut documentary feature Les Hommesand other recent video works.
@ Anthology Film Archives:
Les Hommes, September 19, 6:45pm, September 29 and 30, at 7:30
The Cellar and Other Video Works, Sept 19, 9:15pm and Sept 28, 7:30pm
@ Van Cortlandt Park:
The Screening, September 22 at 8pm and 9pm.
For further information: click here
Roman Polanski
@ MOMA
Roman Polanski (b. Paris, 1933) has, over the course of a half century, become recognized as one of the great modern masters of the cinema. Many of his films are infused with a mysterious, difficult-to-define sense of dread, which is understandable given much of his early life experience.
In this series, MOMA presents French coproductions:
Le Locataire, Sept 12, 4:30 pm, Theater 1, and Sept 25, 5pm, Theater 2
Pirates, Sept 12, 8pm, Theater 1 and Sept 26, 4pm, Theater 2
Tess, Sept 14, 7:00 pm, and Sept 18, 1:30 pm, Theater 1
Frantic, Sept 15, 4:30 pm, Theater 1, and Sept 26, 7:00 pm, Theater 2
Bitter Moon, Sept 15, 7:30pm, Theater 1 and Sept 28, 4:00pm, Theater 2
Death and the Maiden, Sept 16, 4:30pm, Theater 1 and Sept 28, 7:30pm, Theater 2
The Ninth Gate, Sept 16, 8pm, Theater 1, and Sept 29, 4pm, Theater 2
Oliver Twist, Sept 17, 2pm, and Sept 18, 5:30pm, Theater 1
The Pianist, Sept 17, 5pm, Theater 1
The Ghost Writer, Sept 17, 8:30 pm and Sept 21, 4:30pm, Theater 1
For further information : click here
On Sundance Channel
Carlos, Olivier Assayas, 2010
The Father of My Children, Mia Hansen Love, 2009
The Red Carpet Issue, Olivier Nicklaus, 2010
Après lui, Gaël Morel, 2007
The Last Deadly Mission, Olivier Marchal, 2008
The Last Mistress, Catherine Breillat, 2007
Johnny Mad Dog, Jean-Stephane Sauvaire, 2008
A l'aventure, Jean-Claude Brisseau, 2008
In their sleep, Cédric et Caroline du Potet, 2010
Oktapodi, Julien Bocabeille & Francois-Xavier Chanioux, 2007
French Roast, Fabrice Joubert, 2008
On TV5 MONDE
To find out about French programs shown on TV5 MONDE : click here
On Eurochannel
To find out about French programs shown on Eurochannel : click here
On Eurocinema
L'ex femme de ma vie, de Josianne Balasko, 2004
Peindre ou Faire l'Amour, Arnaud Larrieu & Jean-Marie Larrieu, 2004.
Diamant 13, Gilles Béhat, 2009.
Nothing Personal, Mathias Gokalp, 2009.
24 Bars, Jalil Lespert, 2007.
• The exhibition of 95 photos of French Talent: NEW YORK MON AMOUR: A View of French Cinema by Catherine Verret-Vimont, opens at the Furman Gallery at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theatre on September10, 2011 and runs through October 4.
• The French filmmaker Pierre Etaix has received at Telluride Film Festival a Silver Medallion award, given to recognize his significant contribution to the world of cinema.
• Luc Besson's Aung San Suu Kyi biopic, The Lady, will have its world premiere at September's Toronto film festival.
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Film, TV & New Media Department | Cultural Services | French Embassy 972 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10075 E cinema-ny@frenchculture.org | T 212 439 1400
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