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Claude Miller's L'Effrontée

Special Film Society Discount—tickets just $11! To redeem: Select the affiliate option from the ticket menu when purchasing online or mention "New York in French" at the Walter Reade Theater box office. For more info, visit filmlinc.org/janeandcharlotte

Charlotte Gainsbourg, who won the César Award for Most Promising Actress, conveys a nuance and sensitivity beyond her years in this tender coming-of-age drama inspired by Carson McCullers's classic novel The Member of the Wedding. She stars as Charlotte, a precocious 13-year-old who chafes at the drab reality of her school and home life. When a child prodigy pianist (Clothilde Baudon) comes to town, Charlotte develops an all-consuming fascination with the girl, whose life—worldly, glamorous, exciting—is everything hers is not. A frank, keenly observed portrait of female adolescence, L'Effrontée captures both the heartache and wonder of growing up. An NYFF23 selection.

L'Effrontée
Claude Miller, France, 1985, 35m

Claude Miller's The Little Thief

Special Film Society Discount—tickets just $11! To redeem: Select the affiliate option from the ticket menu when purchasing online or mention "New York in French" at the Walter Reade Theater box office. For more info, visit filmlinc.org/janeandcharlotte

Based on a story by François Truffaut (who died before he could direct it) and Claude de Givray, this post–World War II portrait of wayward youth plays not unlike a female-driven version of The 400 Blows. Charlotte Gainsbourg stars as the titular kleptomaniac, a distaff Antoine Doinel who, with her bad-boy lover, descends into a life of crime before landing in a hellish reformatory. Reunited with L’Effrontée director Claude Miller, Gainsbourg (who was nominated for a Best Actress César Award) delivers a fascinatingly enigmatic performance, at once open and opaque. With The Little Thief she blossomed into a truly compelling screen presence.

The Little Thief / La petite voleuse
Claude Miller, France, 1988, 35

Agnès Varda's Jane B. for Agnes V.

Q&A with Jane Birkin! Special Film Society Discount—tickets just $11! To redeem: Select the affiliate option from the ticket menu when purchasing online or mention "New York in French" at the Walter Reade Theater box office. For more info, visit filmlinc.org/janeandcharlotte

“It's as if I was going to film your self-portrait,” explains godmother of the nouvelle vague Agnès Varda to Jane Birkin in this extraordinarily complex, kaleidoscopic consideration of the actress as a woman, wife, mother, muse, and icon. Varda intercuts footage of the “real” Birkin—lounging at home in a T-shirt, stripped of makeup, and discussing her desire to be filmed “as if I were transparent, anonymous, like everyone else”—with the Birkin of her (and our) fantasies, casting the actress in everything from re-creations of Renaissance portraiture to a heist thriller to a black-and-white Laurel & Hardy–esque short. The result is a thrillingly discursive reflection not only on the f

Intro by Jane Birkin! Agnès Varda's Kung Fu Master!

Special Film Society Discount—tickets just $11! To redeem: Select the affiliate option from the ticket menu when purchasing online or mention "New York in French" at the Walter Reade Theater box office. For more info, visit filmlinc.org/janeandcharlotte

In one of her finest, most vulnerable performances, Jane Birkin is a 40-year-old divorcée who falls in love with her daughter’s 14-year-old, video-game-obsessed classmate (Mathieu Demy, son of director Agnès Varda and filmmaker Jacques Demy). This eyebrow-raising premise is presented with surprising sympathy and tenderness, a radical challenge to audience identification and an all-too-rare exploration of female subjectivity. Throughout, Varda interweaves snapshots of the AIDS crisis, adding a pointed sociopolitical subtext to this one-of-a-kind romance. Based on an original story by Birkin, Kung Fu Master! is a true family affair, with the actress’ daughters (Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou