Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2009

[Chris Knipp]

Watch this new thread in the "Festival Coverage" section for my reports and reviews about the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 2009 RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA. Press screenings have begun. There will be eighteen new French films on view.

Links to the reviews:

35 SHOTS OF RUM (CLAIRE DENIS 2008)
APPRENTICE, THE (SAMUEL COLLARDEY 2008)
BEACHES OF AGNES, THE (AGNES VARDA 2008)
BELLAMY (CLAUDE CHABROL 2009)
CHANGE OF PLANS (DANIELLE THOMPSON 2009)
EDEN IS WEST (COSTA-GAVRAS (2009)
GIRL FROM MONACO, THE (ANNE FONTAINE 2008)
GIRL ON THE TRAIN, THE (ANDRE TECHINE 2009)
JOY OF SINGING,THE (ILAN DURAN COHEN 2008)
MESRINE, PART 1 (JEAN-FRANCOIS RICHET 2008)
MESRINE, PART 2 (JEAN-FRANCOIS RICHET 2008)
OTHER ONE, THE (PATRICK MARIO BERNARD, PIERRE TRIVIDIC 2008)
PARIS 36 (CHRISTOPHE BARRATIER 2008)
SERAPHINE (MARTIN PROVOST 2008)
STELLA (SYLVIE VERHEYDE 2008)
VERSAILLES (PIERRE SCHOELLER 2008)
VILLA AMALIA (BENOIT JACQUOT 2009)
WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MYSELF (FRANCOIS DUPEYRON 2008)
Extra, BAM Cinematek:
BELLE PERSONNE, LA (CHRISTOPHE HONORE 2008)


Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2009, March 5-15

At Lincoln Center, NYC

Press Screening Schedule

Wednesday, Feb. 11
10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.:
Paris 36 / Faubourg 36
Christophe Barratier, France/Germany/Czech Republic, 2008; 120m

Thursday, Feb. 12
10:00 a.m. - 11:42 a.m.:
Versailles
Pierre Schoeller, France, 2008; 102m

12:00 Noon - 1:37 p.m.:
The Other One / L'Autre
Patrick Mario Bernard and Pierre Trividic, France, 2008; 97m
PLEASE NOTE: This film will be press screened on Digibeta. It will be shown to the public on a 35mm print.

Tuesday, Feb. 17
11:00 a.m. - 12:50 p.m.:
The Beaches of Agnes / Les Plages d'Agnes
Agnes Varda, France, 2008; 110m

Wednesday, Feb. 18
10:00 a.m. - 11:22 a.m.:
The Apprentice / L'apprenti
Samuel Collardey, France, 2008; 82m

12:00 Noon - 1:40 p.m.:
35 Shots of Rum / 35 Rhums
Claire Denis, France/Germany, 2008; 100m

Thursday, Feb. 19
10:00 a.m. - 11:34 a.m.:
With a Little Help from Myself / Aide-toi, le ciel t;aidera
Francois Dupeyron, France, 2008; 94m

12:00 Noon -1:35 p.m.:
The Girl from Monaco / La Fille de Monaco
Anne Fontaine, France, 2008; 95m

Friday, Feb. 20
10:00 a.m. - 11:53 a.m.:
Mesrine Part 1 / Mesrine, L'instinct de mort
Jean-Francois Richet, France/Canada/Italy, 2008; 113m

12:45 p.m. - 2:57 p.m.:
Mesrine Part 2 / Mesrine, L'ennemi public no. 1
Jean-Francois Richet, France/Canada, 2008; 132m

Monday, Feb. 23
10:00 a.m. - 11:39 a.m.:
The Joy of Singing / Le Plaisir de chanter
Ilan Duran Cohen, France, 2008; 99m

12:00 Noon - 2:05 p.m.:
Seraphine
Martin Provost, France/Belgium, 2008; 125m

3:00 p.m. - 4:43 p.m.:
Stella
Sylvie Verheyde, France, 2008; 103m
PLEASE NOTE: This film will be press screened on Digibeta. It will be shown to the public on a 35mm print.

Tuesday, Feb. 24
10:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m.:
Eden Is West / Eden a l'ouest
Costa-Gavras, France/Greece/Italy, 2009; 110m

12:00 Noon - 1:50 p.m.:
Bellamy
Claude Chabrol, France, 2009; 110m

3:00 p.m. - 4:34 p.m.:
Villa Amalia
Benoit Jacquot, France, 2009; 94m

Wednesday, Feb. 25
10:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m.:
The Girl on the Train / La Fille du RER
Andre Techine, France, 2009; 110m

12:00 Noon - 1:40 p.m.:
Change of Plans / Le code a change'
Daniele Thompson, France, 2009; 100m

[Chris Knipp]

The opening night gala film for the series. See Festival Coverage section review here:

Christophe Barratier: PARIS 36/FAUBOURG 36 (2008).

An atmospheric crowd-pleaser from Barratier, whose 2004 The Chorus did well in art houses in the US and was a hit in France. This one is set 12 years earlier, in 1936, during the time of the Popular Front in France when worker-owner conflicts were inflamed. Focus is on a working class music hall struggling to stay afloat when the crew takes it over, with a few colorful personalities, socio-political overtones, a romance, multiple plot lines, and a mystery. If you like period French musicals, this is your movie. But it's somewhat short on originality and runs out of momentum for much of the last third.

[Chris Knipp]

Another bit of introduction to give you a thumbnail note on what the series offers this year.

The eighteen titles include a lot of famous French film names, including Claude Chabrol, Claire Denis, Costa-Gavras, Benoit Jacquot, Anne Fontaine, and the 80-year-old but still vigorous French film icon Agnes Varda. Andre Techine's "social drama" (I'll figure out what that means later) The Girl on the Train and Jean-Francois Richet's multiple prizewinning Mesrine (biopic of a French arch criminal) will have their world premiers. Jacques Mesrine. Techine's name is familiar to us. Richet is a young ghetto-bred director who first got notieced with Ma 6-T va crack-er ("My see-tay ['hood] is down the tubes"), which mashed together a B-actioner and social revolt. Then he went Hollywood mainstream with the John Carpenter remake Assault on Precinct 13. This is a return to native sources, and may be interesting. Or not; we'll see.

I'm always excited to see new work by Techine, Varda, Jacquot, Denis, Fontaine, even Chabrol; but I'm especially hoping that some of the newcomers will be revelations. The lineup looks solid, anyway.

The public screenings will return to the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall, home of the New York Film Festival. Filmmakers and guests attending screenings (not sure about press ones) include Claire Denis, Samuel Collardey, Patrick Mario Bernard, Pierre Trividic, Daniele Thompson, Costa-Gavras, Anne Fontaine, Jean-Francois Richet, Ilan Duran Cohen, Agnes Varda, Sylvie Verheyde, Martin Provost, Pierre Schoeller, and Benoit Jacquot, and prizewinning thespian newcomer Felicite Wouassi.

[oscar jubis]

Looking forward to your coverage of this excellent series. I've written brief reviews of Richet's previous Assault on Precinct 13 and My 6-T va Crack-er

[Chris Knipp]

I hope you and all Filmleaf readers and contributors enjoy this year's Rendez-Vous coverage and I also hope that some of the films turn out to have legs in this country and the rest of the world. I also have reviewed Assault on District 13 and have talked about Ma 6-T va craquer in various places including in response to your brief review and explanation of how you got hold of it, but still haven't seen it myself. Hey, "6-T' doesn't mean gun. It's sort of ghetto spelling--6-T in French pronunciation sounds like="cite'"=ghetto district, AKA banlieue in France, esp. outside Paris. Pierre ("Taken") Morel had a similar interest with his 2004 DISTRICT B-13 , and I was really interested to learn about Parkour. The 4-hour 2-part Richet twofor is in the running for the Best Film Cesar, Cesars coming up in ten days. I've so far posted two reviews:

Christophe Barratier: PARIS 36/FAUBOURG 36 (2008).

Agnes Varda: THE BEACHES OF AGNES (2008)

[Chris Knipp]

Samuel Collardey: THE APPRENTICE (2008)

Collardey won prizes for this first feature. He takes the paintings of Courbet as his model in using big cameras to treat small subjects with dignity and some grandeur in a humanistic study of a young boy learning agriculture and bonding with a farmer near the French Alps.

[Chris Knipp]

Claire Denis: 35 SHOTS OF RUM (2008)

Denis at her best, subtle and deceptively simple this time, a film about a group of people indissolubly bound up with each other, who must part, or join. A rainstorm or the death of a cat can tip the scale.

[Chris Knipp]

Fransois Dupeyron: WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MYSELF (2008)

Yellow-tinted turbulence and hope from the French urban ghetto. Star Felicite Wouassi, Best Actress at the Tokyo Film Festival, is a discovery, a whirlwind of energy and a force of nature.

[Chris Knipp]

Anne Fontaine: THE GIRL FROM MONACO (2008)

An entertaining, bright romantic comedy-cum-buddy picture set on the Riviera released by Magnolia Pictures in July 2009. Not Fontaine's most interesting work.

[Chris Knipp]

Coming today or tomorrow: reviews of the two parts of MESSINE, the Richet gangster biopic that has been compared to Soderbergh's CHE.

[Chris Knipp]

MESRINE PART 1/MESRINE, L'INSTINCT DE MORT

A real-life French gangster superstar who died in 1979 at the age of 43. He became famous for his skillfully planned bank robberies and spectacular escapes from prison and at the end of this first half of the two-part biopic, has been decalred "Public Enemy No. 1" in Canada. Vincent Cassel goes for broke in the title role.

Jean-Francois Richet: MESRINE PART 1 (2008)

[Chris Knipp]

MESRINE PART 2/MESRINE, PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1

Mesrine continues his life of spectacular crime, more and more conscious of his public image as a media star. In the time of the Red Brigades and Bader-Meinhof, he starts to call himself a "revolutionary." French police form a special unit just to track him down and he comes to the eventual violent end.

Jean-Francois Richet: MESRINE, PART 2

[Chris Knipp]

Ilan Duran Cohen: THE JOY OF SINGING (2008)

A droll spy comedy about lovers, uranium dealing, and a singing class. Jeanne Balibar shines.

[Chris Knipp]

Martin Provost: SERAPHINE (2008)

A visionary artist, her sometime mentor, and her sad decline. Restrained, beautifully photographed biopic.

125 minutes.

[Chris Knipp]

Sylvie Verheyde: STELLA (2008)

A very fine autobiographical film about an 11-year-old girl from a working-class district whose home is a noisy cafe, who in 1977 gets the chance to attend a posh and famous lycee in the center of Paris.