Films & Schedules - French Language

In this retelling of the tale of the wife-killing Bluebeard, Breillat reminds us all that the best fairytales are dark around the edges. The film intercuts between the stories of two pairs of sisters. The first is set in the 1950s and features a young girl who loves torturing her older sister with dramatic readings of the story of Bluebeard. In the second, set during the Renaissance, a young girl becomes engaged to Lord Bluebeard, despite the suspicious disappearances of his previous wives.

Following the death of their father, Anne and Marie-Catherine are cast from boarding school and sent back to their mother. With no money for dowry, younger sister Marie-Catherine agrees to wed the wealthy but notorious aristocrat Lord Bluebeard, whose previous wives have all suspiciously disappeared. Will Marie-Catherine be next? Both surprisingly straightforward and slyly subversive, Breillat’s telling of Charles Perrault’s lurid 18th-century fable teases out the class and gender conflicts present in the original, reminding us that the best fairy tales are tinged with perverse darkness. Using parallel storylines, Breillat intercuts the fairy tale itself with childhood scenes set in a safe, bourgeois home in the 1950s, where a young girl frightens her older sister, and herself, with repeated readings of the titillating Freudian tale.

Selected Filmography: 36 Fillette (87), Romance (99), Fat Girl (00), Sex Is Comedy (02), The Last Mistress (06).

Sponsored by TV5MONDE and with support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

80 Minutes     Digital    

Interests: Narrative Feature, French Language, Literature.

This riveting, unusual documentary takes a tour of 20th century battlefields through the eyes of those who kept the soldiers fed and fighting: military cooks.

This riveting film opens the door to the secrets of little-known historians to show a dimension of war not found in textbooks or archives. Cooking History presents portraits of various army military cooks from all over Europe who have witnessed the European wars of the 20th century. Their recollections tap into a subjective view of historical events, one that diverges in some respects from conventional beliefs. They take us on a journey through pivotal dates, facts, declarations of war, battles, and peace agreements. The tales they tell convey a sense of life and death in the “war apparatus,” as well as a sense of hope, longing, and survival in the midst of destruction and despair. Kerekes’ look behind “great moments in time” introduces a fresh perspective on European history.

Filmography: About Three Days in Monastary Jasov (94), The Mary-Valery Bridge (00), 66 Seasons (03).

Special Jury Prize, Toronto Hot Docs.

Sponsored by KINK.FM.

88 Minutes     Digital    

Interests: Documentary Views, Narrative Feature, French Language, History.

The Girl On The Train tells the true story of a young woman who claimed to be the victim of an anti-Semitic attack on a Paris suburban train.

A young woman, Jeanne (Émilie Dequenne), reports that skinheads attacked her, seemingly for being a Jew. The incident becomes a media sensation and attorney Samuel Bleistein (Michel Blanc), an old friend of Jeanne’s mother Louise (Catherine Deneuve), takes the case. The incident and its aftermath, drawn from real events, formed the core of Jean-Marie Besset’s play on which the film is based, but for Téchiné, the dramatic entanglements provide an opportunity to explore the complex family and social relationships that surround and define his characters. Notions of class, ethnicity, and who’s in and who’s out in contemporary France course through the film, offering a provocative reflection on the creation of identity at a time of ever-increasing social tension.

Selected Filmography: The Bronte Sisters (79), I Don’t Kiss (91), My Favorite Season (93), Alice and Martin (98), Changing Times (04), The Witness (07).

Sponsored by TV5MONDE and with support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

110 Minutes     Digital    

Interests: Narrative Feature, French Language, Jewish.

Heliopolis follows the lives and frustrations of a host of characters living in Cairo's historic Heliopolis district.

This ensemble drama’s sharp critique of Egyptian society is matched by a nostalgia-drenched longing for life before the 1952 revolution. Using intertwining stories, Abdalla skillfully sheds light on the small struggles of everyday life in Cairo, and on the discontent that seems to pervade one particular district of the city. Criss-crossing Cairo’s historical Heliopolis neighborhood, we share the minor travails of various players over the course of a single day. Hany wants to procure a visa to travel abroad. Ali and Maha want to buy Hany’s apartment but must first negotiate gridlock. Grad student Ibrahim wants to interview an uncooperative subject. Hotel clerk Engy simply wants to be anywhere but Egypt. As they each fail to achieve their meager goals, Abdalla suggests that their individual frustrations stem from an underlying discontent endemic in Egyptian society.

First Feature Film.

96 Minutes    

Interests: New Directors, Narrative Feature, French Language, Middle Eastern.

Marthe and Michel live with their kids on the edge of a near-completed freeway. When the road is suddenly opened up to traffic, the noise and pollution threatens to destroy the family unit. Ursula Meier's absurd comedy—a "road movie in reverse"—brilliantly redefines the meaning of home.

With just the right touches of farce and drama, Home is what Meier has termed “a road movie in reverse.” An ordinary middle class family lives an ordinary life in their ordinary house that sits next to an unused highway. With no neighbors or cars for miles, they live a typical day-to-day existence. Michel (Olivier Gourmet) goes to work by getting into his car on the other side of the empty stretch of road that seems to lead nowhere. Marthe (Isabelle Huppert) maintains a calm household while her teenage daughter listens to music and suns herself next to the guardrails. Life is good—or at least average. But when the highway is suddenly opened and cars whizzing by become the norm, the family’s dynamic changes: dad’s stressed, mom’s freaking out, and things spiral out of control. Ultimately, the family needs to redefine what “home” means.

Filmography: Sleepless (99), Table Manners (01), Strong Shoulders (02).

In French with English subtitles.

Sponsored by Consulate General of Switzerland, San Francisco.

95 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, French Language.

Loach makes an unexpected leap into romantic comedy in this tale of a lovelorn mailman who receives some unexpected life coaching from Manchester United star Eric Cardona.

Loach and longtime screenwriter/collaborator Paul Laverty shift from their more despondent social-realist meditations to this fanciful romantic comedy, a whimsical, life-affirming nod to the possibility of second chances. Postman Eric Bishop has hit a true low: his two lazy stepsons ignore him, his second marriage is in ruins, a car accident lands him in the hospital—and that’s just the start of his troubles. The lovelorn Eric meanwhile pines for former wife Lily but lacks the confidence to reconnect. While his friends contrive to help him out, often to hilarious effect, the person who finally comes through is another Eric: Manchester United soccer icon Eric Cantona (playing himself), who appears rather unexpectedly in Bishop’s bedroom, offering the sage advice on life and love that Eric needs to turn his life around.

Selected Filmography: Kes (69), Riff-Raff (80), Raining Stones (93), My Name Is Joe (98), The Wind That Shakes the Barley (06).

116 Minutes    

Interests: Narrative Feature, French Language, Comedy.

Christine, a crippled skeptic, joins a pilgrimage to Lourdes in an effort to reconnect with society. When she is apparently healed and the media gets hold of the story, Hausner's film becomes a sensitive, satirical look at faith and doubt.

Christine (Sylvie Testud), confined to a wheelchair, is isolated and socially awkward. Desperate to engage with the world around her, she joins a religious group journeying to Lourdes, the iconic Christian shrine in the Pyrenees mountains. Skeptic though she is, Christine needs companionship, and, like the others, hopes for a miraculous cure from the grotto’s healing waters. When she wakes up one morning seemingly cured by a miracle, surprising attention comes her way. “Always treading a fine line between sorrow and satire, Hausner’s cool depiction wavers between a critique of religion and a story of redemption. Christine’s pilgrimage is perplexing and wonderful in its misguided search. She will discover that the most important part of the journey is to believe in something, whether basic human kindness or divine intervention.”—Cinematheque Ontario.

Filmography: Lovely Rita (01), Hotel (04).

In French with English subtitles.

Sponsored by Austrian Consulate General, Los Angeles.

99 Minutes    

Interests: Narrative Feature, French Language.

Sentenced to prison at age 19, A Prophet is the story of a seemingly shy and weak boy who slowly rises in the ranks of the prison’s reigning Corsican gang, all the while secretly devising his own plans.

Frenchman Malik El Djebena, part Arab, part Corsican, is condemned to six years in prison. Arriving at the jail entirely alone, he appears younger and more fragile than the other convicts. He is 19 years old and cannot read or write. Cornered by the leader of the Corsican gang currently ruling the prison, he is given a number of “missions” to carry out, which toughen him up and gain the gang leader’s confidence in the process. Malik is a fast learner and rises up the prison ranks, all the while secretly devising his own plans. “Audiard’s rich thriller is elegantly structured, arresting in its detailing of a little-known subculture, filled with fascinating characters, and gripping from beginning to end.”—Film Comment.

Selected Filmography: A Self-Made Hero (96), The Beat That My Heart Skipped (04).

Winner, Grand Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival, and this year’s French submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Co-sponsored by Alliance Française de Portland and TV5MONDE, and with support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

150 Minutes    

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, French Language.

Set in Tunis during the Nazi occupation, The Wedding Song is the story of the powerful friendship between Nour, a Muslim, and Myriam, a Jew.

Karin Albou returns to the themes of her first film, La Petite Jerusalem (PIFF 30), in The Wedding Song, mapping the intersection of Jewish and Arab cultures and exploring female sexuality. Unfolding against the backdrop of the German occupation of Tunis in 1942, this sensual and sexually frank story centers around two teen friends, Jewish Myriam and Muslim Nour, who have long desired the other’s life. Although far more interested in love than war, both girls find historical circumstances affecting their wedding plans. The occupying Nazis demand “reparation payments” from the Tunisian Jews, which Myriam’s impoverished mother cannot pay. Out of options, she promises Myriam’s hand to wealthy, older doctor Raoul. Meanwhile, Nour is happily betrothed to her handsome cousin Khaled, but her father postpones the wedding until Khaled gets a job. Unfortunately, Khaled finds work with the Germans, helping to round up Tunisian Jews.

Filmography: La Petite Jerusalem (06).

85 Minutes    

Interests: Narrative Feature, French Language, Jewish.

Welcome tells the story of a young Kurd, Bilal, who aims to swim to England from Calais, and the swimming instructor who agrees to train him for the treacherous crossing.

Managing to be political without being heavy-handed, Welcome focuses on illegal immigrants trying to reach England from Calais, and the risk taken by the French people who help them. Bilal, a 17-year-old Kurdish refugee, left his native Iraq shortly after his girlfriend emigrated to England, and wants to join her. His trek across Europe comes to an abrupt end on the northern coast of France. How to get across the cold English Channel? He decides to head for the local swimming pool to begin training for the swim of his life. There he meets lifeguard Simon, to whom he eventually confides his grand plan. Simon takes Bilal under his wing and secretly teaches him how to do the crawl, despite ongoing threats from the police, who imprison those who aid a growing community nurturing an inextinguishable hope of making a new life in the West.

Selected Filmography: Lost In Transit (93), Don’t Make Trouble (01), The Light (04).

Sponsored by TV5MONDE and with support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

116 Minutes    

Interests: Narrative Feature, French Language.

Resnais' career-defining masterpiece deals with the fate-altering ripples triggered by a seemingly ordinary purse snatching.

“Resnais delivers a career-crowning masterpiece with this delightful roundelay, based on Christian Gailly’s novel ‘The Incident,’ about the fate-altering ripples triggered by a seemingly ordinary purse snatching. The purse belongs to Marguerite (Sabine Azéma), a dentist who moonlights as an aviatrix. Its contents are retrieved by Georges (André Dussollier), a married man who soon finds himself infatuated with the purse’s owner, even though he hasn’t actually met her yet. Add in a couple of keystone cops, some dizzying aerial acrobatics, and the glorious camerawork of cinematographer Eric Gautier and you have the recipe for a uniquely playful meditation on coincidence and desire that suggests Resnais, at age 87, is truly in his prime.”—New York Film Festival.

Selected Filmography: Hiroshima mon amour (59), Last Year at Marienbad (61), Muriel (63), Mon oncle d’Amérique (80), Mélo (86), Smoking/No Smoking (93), The Same Old Song (97), Cœurs (06).

Sponsored by TV5MONDE and with support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

104 Minutes    

Interests: Narrative Feature, French Language.

This coming-of-age story follows a young Eurasian woman in Taipei as she transitions from high-school athlete to aspiring actress.

“Cheng Yu-Chieh has made a vibrantly alive coming-of-age story, combining contemporary energy with a French New Wave vibe. Young Eurasian high schooler Yang Yang is played by Taiwan’s most popular young indie movie muse Sandrine Pinna, whose half-Taiwanese, half-French looks are integrated into the film’s heart. Yang Yang’s best friend, her half sister Xiao-ru, is a rival both on the track and in their love lives. When Xiao-ru’s boyfriend falls for Yang Yang, jealousies explode in an act of shocking betrayal, changing Yang Yang’s life forever. A friendly manager Ming-ren takes her under his wing and her career as a model/actress takes off, thanks to her mixed ancestry and his tender care and training. Visually and thematically, Yang Yang precisely articulates, via sex, scandal, and heartbreak, that shaky, unstable, exhilarating moment between adolescence and adulthood.”—Vancouver Film Festival.

Filmography: Do Over (06).

112 Minutes    

Interests: Narrative Feature, French Language, Asian.