Benoit Lamairesse

America’s new sweetheart is coming straight out of France. Rookie director Pascal Chaumeil’s first featureL’Arnacoeur has the fresh faces, slapstick tempo, killer landscape and infectious moves every recent American installment of the formula has been missing.Romain Duris is the con-wooman, the momentary heart-breaker for the greater good. Paired with the rib-achingly funny François Damien and Julie Ferrier (Micmacs à tire-larigots), the three work a virtually flawless operation whose one caveat involves never breaking a harmonious union. Their mission : to make every girl see the light within her mismatched relationship. Until… hunted down by terrifyingly wide-bellied loan sharks they accept a mission to break up a match made in heaven, and whose female component is nothing short but heavenly (the delightfully ethereal Vanessa Paradis). Predictably, Duris falls head over heals for his target.

But none of it feels predictable. And everything between the guy meeting and getting the girl will charm your pants off. Chaumeil, simply put, gets it right, and all in wildly good – if occasionally naughty – taste : from every ridiculously ingenious ploy to pull off the bodyguard con, to the Dirty Dancing homage, the scene-stealing wacky nympho (Hélèna Noguerra), but most especially, and judiciously, it escapes the ‘chick flick’ pitfalls thanks to its refreshingly credible leading man and his goofy acolytes.

This is as good as the genre gets :

brought to you by the Focus on French Cinema blog

It happens I work a few minutes away from one of the last classified art houses, or cinema d’art et d’essai, of the 13th arrondissement : the Escurial panoramique on the Boulevard Port Royal near the Gobelins avenue – founded at the turn of the XXth century, known simply at the time as the “Royal”. Both a blessing and a curse, its tantalizing proximity offers an inescapable alternative every night I wait for a bus, having long abandoned the race to meet the earlier bus pulling away just as I near the stop… With barely ten minutes to spare, my mind and eventually legs wander straight to the small theatre, long the property of French director Jean Gourget and thankfully protected from a sell-out by a group of renegade cinephiles in the 80’s. Clueless regarding business but propelled by a zealous appetite for film, they devoted entire nights to inconic screen legends and saturated the weeks with film projections, thus multiplying attendance and subsequently expanding the theatre in order to accommodate larger crowds. Refurbished, cozy and with but a mildly decadent feel, the theatre split into two projection rooms what used to be the main floor and balcony. Eventually they sold the cinema to an art movie society in 1987.

Bursting with red and lined with velours, one purchases a ticket in this place almost expecting a magician’s performance. Perhaps inspired by the slightly baroque environment, the first film I chose to view was hardly a French classic, but rather an American whimsical delight : Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox. I won’t delve into the dazzling theatrics of an American animation on this blog, however the film had Guignolesque quality, panache and a French retro flavour reminiscent at times of Sylvain Chomet’s imagination, perfect to suit the stylish theatre hosting the projection. Interesting too, that Anderson spends half his year in Paris…

Blog post written by Isabelle, our Blog editor in Paris
Brought to you by Focus on French Cinema

When it comes to Cinema, while “Hollywood” may win the word-association game, New York surely would win a solid second place. It has this sort of dreamy quality to it that enthralls audiences from around the world: the bold skyscrapers, the hustle and bustle, the anonymity and yet strange intimacy that New York's pedestrian-filled streets and quiet East Village cafés provide... It's no wonder so many films and popular series are based in our very own back yard… and with the number of reputed international film festivals that our city hosts, plus the number of world-class film schools based in the area, it is evident that New York is one of the world centers of the Cinematographic Arts.

There is another city however, that comes to mind for me when I think of Cinema: my native city of Paris. With the third most productive film industry in the world, a whole host of world-class talent, and a capital city with more movie theaters per capita than any other in the world (by far!), France is one of those countries where cinema is almost a way of life. Contrasting with Hollywood's fantastic, often big-budget scenarios meant to entertain and escape from everyday life, French Cinema is much more subtle - often finding the fantastic within everyday life and offering up a much more personal experience.

What better, then, than to combine the two? To bring French Cinema, the 35mm reels, the directors and actors, the experience… to the City of New York? For those of us willing to step outside the bounds of the American movies, there’s a film festival that’s been brewing 30 minutes Northeast of downtown.

Since 2005, the Focus on French Cinema film festival has brought 53 feature films from France, Belgium, Quebec, and francophone Africa to 14,000 spectators in the New York Area, and counts among its guests Director Coline Serreau, César-winning Actress Sophie Marceau, legendary actor Claude Brasseur, the late Jocelyn Quivrin, and Director/Screenwriter Jean-Michel Ribes, and many more...

This year, on the weekend of April 9th, 10th, and 11th, we’ll be bringing you another set of fantastic guests and 12 more recently released feature films, including 5 US Premieres.

But here, on New York in French, we count on keeping those of you interested in French and Francophone Cinema, in the loop with what’s going on in the industry – films we recommend, lineups for awards – insider scoops from our blog editor Isabelle based right at the source, in Paris, France. Here, we’ll be reposting many of our official blog posts, for the Francophile community of New York.

So, keep in touch: there’ll be more to come.

Best,
Benoit
(and the Focus on French Cinema team)