RendezVous with French Cinema 2010 at Loncoln Center

[oscar jubis]

Chris, a few questions...
Which were your favorite films from this year's RendezVous?
Is there a truly great film among them?
I know you have seen Chereau's PERSECUTION (from Film Comment Selects), have you reviewed it? Do you plan to do so? I am extremely curious about your opinion. I think of Chereau as a major director but last night, at the screening, I found myself having difficulty "sinking my teeth" into it. Still thinking about it though...

[Chris Knipp]

See the post just before yours for a link to my thumbnail comments and picks of the Rendez-Vous at the end of the Festival Coverage thread.

As for Persécution, I think it's a bust. I've been busy lately but I'm working on a short review of it. Not recommended at all. This will be in a Film Comment Selects+New Directors/New Films thread I've started in the Festival Coverage section. No content there yet.

Is there a "great" film among this year's Rendez-Vous? Well, that's a matter of opinion, but I don't think the Rendez-Vous usually works that way. The "great" ones, like 35 Shots of Rum or A Prophet, have already shown up as such with awards at Cannes and/or inclusion in the September/October NYFF, and the FSLC doesn't repeat presentations of the same film in different series.

[Chris Knipp]

My comment in reply to this question was a bit misleading: A Prophet was not in any Lincoln Center series, and 35 Shots was in the 2009 Rendez-Vous. Anyway, to stop there is to overlook some more quietly great films of the 2010 series, so let me backtrack for a minute -- and also review the availability of these recommendations to US viewers.

One of the best was Philippe Loiret's Welcome, about a very young Kurdish refugee in France desperately attempting to join the love of his life in London. It opened in New York May 7th and became a NY Times recommended film. Limited theatrical release, but obviously coming DVD availability.

The week after that Stéphane Brizé's delicate Brief Interlude-esque love story Mademoiselle Chambon -- like Welcome starring the fine Vincent Lindon -- opened at IFC Center. It will be in US theaters starting May 28, 2010. An online review by Brandon Judell on the site"CultureCatch" actually says this film "never strives for greatness. It just gently saunters there . . ."

Christophe Honré's star vehicle for Chiara Mastreoianni, Making Plans for Léna . Also shown recently at a BAM-cinḿatek IFC Films series with Mastroianni on hand. IFC says in theaters + on demand + DVD.

The Bond-like spoof sequel directed by Michel Hazanavicius: OSS 117: Lost in Rio (from a series actually started before the Bomnd books) is now showing in Landmark Theaters nationwide. I find the series amusing and well made, but some find them repetitious. Oscar Jubis expressed somewhat that view on this site. I would consider this cultishness rather than greatness.

Two of my other favorites, both remarkable crime action films plus character studies that surprised me and stuck in my mind, don't seem to have a US release in sight. These are Lucas Belvaux's true kidnapping story Rapt, starring Yvan Attal (also a director and husband of French icon Charlotte Gainsbourg) and Xavier Giannoli's' In the Beginning, with the busy and popular François Cluzet (Tell No One) and Emmanuelle Devos. Rapt is scheduled for a US remake, but that ain't the same. These two are mind-bending twists on what might seem conventional genre themes, and I hope US viewers to get a crack at them in their original Gallic form.

[Chris Knipp]

Lucas Belvaux: Rapt (2009)


This film has been showing at the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley for the week of July 25-31, 2011. It showed earlier in NYC and was reviewed in the NYTimes July 5. One of several excellent action films in the 2010 Rendez-Vous series based on true events.