Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center 2014

[Chris Knipp]

. . . . March 6 – 16, 2014

APACHES/LES APACHES (Thierry de Peretti 2013)

Class distinctions, raging hormones, bad decisions when some French-Moroccan boys break into a rich resort house on the island of Corica one night for fun and do some damage. The owners don't care much but the consequences for the boys from the wrong side of the tracks are dire. A kind of neorealist thriller based on real events. Authentic locations and acting and a subtle understanding of the social distinctions.

EASTERN BOYS (Robin Campillo 2014)

A well-off gay man engages a young Ukrainian boy he meets in Paris' Gare du Nord for sex at his apartment outside Paris, with complex consequences. This excellent sophomore feature by Campillo, a frequent collaborator with Laurent Cantet, combines genres in ways that suggest Jacque Audiard's films. A dramatization of the plight of undocumented immigrants in France, Slavic mafias, and sexual politics in four chapters, each very different yet leading into each other.

[Chris Knipp]

. . . . March 6 – 16, 2014

27 March 2014 R-V press screenings. Two about relationships gone horribly wrong and one about a breakup and family drams.

TONNERRE (Guillaume Brac 2014)

A flailing 30-something rocker returns to live with dad in their small town in Burgundy (Tonnerre, which also means "thunder") and things get crazy when the 20-something journalist he gets involved with suddenly dumps him and won't answer his phone calls. Adorable French cinematic schlub du jour Vincent Macaigne again stars and shows versatility. Tone shifts are justified by how debuting director Brac livens up his mopey rom-com, and the snowy scenery in rural France adds poetry. Flawed but promising.

HIS WIFE/SON ÉPOUSE (Michel Spinosa 2014)

A stoical French veterinarian (Ivan Attal) goes to India to investigate the death of his wife (Attal's real-life spouse Charlotte Gainsbourg) and gets involved in ridding a young Tamil woman of possession by a spirit, which she said is that of his dead wife. Intermittently lovely natural light cinematography and "robust" acting (Hollywood Reporter) cannot compensate for incomprehensible fractured storytelling and pretentious overambitious structure.

A CASTLE IN ITALY/UN CHATEAU EN ITALIE (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi 2013)

I reviewed this in November as part of New French Cinema in San Francisco and then said that yes, rich people have problems too, but "it takes a greater director than this to make us care." Bruni Tedsechi plays something like herself and her own mother (as in Actresses plays her own mother, and ex Louis Garrel plays a callow young man. Fluent but shallow.

[Chris Knipp]

. . . . March 6 – 16, 2014

Last day of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2014 press screenings, three comedies of varying levels of success.

UNDER THE RAINBOW/AU BOU DU CONTE (Agnès Jaoui 2013)

The reliable Jaoui, with typically grumpy collaborator Jean-Pierre Bacri, delivers a romantic comedy of multiple resolutions, highly polished and genial, if not her very best work.

TIP TOP (Serge Bozon 2013)

This combo of ethic study, police procedural and oddball comedy from actor and sometime director Bozon still seems meandering and not very funny, or as various French critics said, not "top" at all. Hard to see it as a wise decision on the part of Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Kiberlain and François Damiens to lend their names to this effort.

THE FRENCH MINISTER/QUAY D'ORSAY (Bertrand Tavernier 2013)

Bertraind Tavernier's The French Minister/Quay d'Orsay is his first foray into political comedy, and also a peculiar combination of factual account and surreal reinvention. Rendez-Vous cloing night film. Good performances by Thierry Lhermitte as the minister, Raphaël Personnaz as his "language" aide, Niels Arestrup as chief of staff, Julie Gayet as advisor for Africa, and others.

[Chris Knipp]

. . . . March 6 – 16, 2014

Rating Rendez-Vous 2014

Time for a quick look at the Rendez-Vous now the two weeks of press screenings are over and I've seen all 24. In the first week definitely the opening night Catherine Deneuve vehicle, On My Way/Elle s'en va was worth seeing, and also the clever mashup of a couple battling over visitation rights and the Hollande election on the same day, The Age of Panic/La bataille de Solférino, is energetic and quite original. One might have time for the nuclear plant love affair Grand Central, since it has some good actors and a realistic atmosphere, though it's not that great a movie (Ben Nacir's The Marchers/La marche is in a similar category). I was very intrigued by Going Away/Un beau dimanche, Nicole Garcia's film about a mysterious young aristocrat; and (everybody agrees) Ozon's in fine form in Young and Beautiful/Jeune et jolie, his new movie about a well-off young lyçée student who has a fling as a high-paid call girl at 17.

The second week of press screenings started off with the splendid and touching documentary about immigrant kids in a Paris school, School of Babel/La cour de Babel. Apaches/Les apaches, about the class divide on the island of Corsica, is a neorealist noir worth a patient look. Eastern Boys, about a man who gets into trouble when he negotiates for sex with a youth met in the Gare du Nord, was surprisingly fine, with several remarkable set pieces. Suzanne, with the bold Sara Forestier, the saga of a young woman's mad love for a sexy young criminal, is thoroughly involving. Agnès Jaoui is reliably polished and entertaining even if her fairy tale series of resolutions [Under the Rainbow/Au bout du conte is a bit too much on the soft and sweet side for her. The closing night film about being a speechwriter for Doninique de Villepin, The French Minister/Quay d'Orsay (Bernard Tavernier) is fun and a bit strange. Some might like Michel Gondry's super-surreal Boris Vian adaptation Mood Indigo/L'Écume des jours; I and others found it unbearably high-concept from the get-go. Links to all my reviews are below.


Links to the reviews:

2 Autumns, 3 Winters /2 autunnes 3 hivers(Sébastien Betbeder 2013)
Age of Panic, The/La bataille de Solférino (Justine Triet 2013)
Apaches/Apaches, Les (Thierry de Peretti 2013)
Castle in Italy, A/Un chateau en Italie (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi 2013)
French Minister, The/Quay d'Orsay (Bertrand Tavernier 2013)
Eastern Boys (Robin Campillo 2013)
Gilded Cage, The/La cage dorée (Ruben Alves 2013)
Going Away/Un beau dimanche (Nicole Garcia 2013)
Grand Central (Rebecca Zlotkowski 2013)
His Wife/Son épouse (Michel Spinosa 2014)
If You Don't, I Will/Arrête ou je continue (Sophie Fillières 2014)
Love Battles/Mes séances de lutte (Jacques Doillon 2013)
Love Is the Perfect Crime/L'amour est un crime parfait (Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu 2013)
Marchers, The/La Marche (Nacir Ben Yadir 2013)
Miss and the Doctors/Tirez la langue, mademoiselle (Axelle Ropert 2013)
Mood Indigo/L'Écume des jours (Michel Gondry 2013)
On My Way/Elle s'en va (Emmanuelle Bercot 2013)
Playing Dead/Je fais le mort (Jean-Paul Salomé (2013)
School of Babel, The/La cour de Babel (Julie Bertuccelli 2013)
Suzanne (Katell Quillévéré 2013)
Tip Top (Serge Bozon 2013)
Tonnerre (Guillaume Brac 2013)
Under the Rainbow/Au fin du conte (Agnès Jaoui 2013)
Young and Beautiful/Jeune et jolie (François Ozon 2013)

[Chris Knipp]

Obsequies for Alain Resnais, b. Varennes June 3, 1922 - d. Paris March 1, 2014 (91)

[Chris Knipp]

News from the US distributor. François Ozon's YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL/JEUNE ET JOLIE , part of Rendez-Vous 2014:

Opens in New York (IFC Center) on Friday, April 25 followed by a national roll out.

[Chris Knipp]

ON MY WAY/Elle s'en va (Emmanuelle Bercot), starring Catherine Deneuve, is now showing locally in a limited countrywide US release. It's the most high profile film of the 2014 Rendez-Vous besides François Ozon's YOUNG AND PRETTY/Jeune et jojlie.

[Chris Knipp]

François Ozon: Young and Beautiful /Jenue et jolie (2013)

It opens in NYC 25 2014 at IFC Center, followed by a national rollout.

[Chris Knipp]

Sébbastien Betbeder: 2 Autumns, 3 Winters (2013) went into limited US theatrical release today, Friday, June 6, 2014. It has received a Metacritic rating of 74, based on seven reviews so far.

[Chris Knipp]

. . . . March 6 – 16, 2014

Michell Gondry: Mood Indigo (2013)

This film with Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris opens in NYC at the Landmark Sunshine and in Los Angeles 18 July 2014. So if you have access to Landmark theaters you can probably see it after that time.