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AUCTION/LE TABLEAU VOLÉ (Pascal Bonitzer 2023)
This tale of an Egon Schiele painting lost since the Nazis seized it in the late 1930's, found in the rural French town of Mulhouse, was complex and suspenseful enough for a TV series, but the experienced writer-director Pascal Bonitzer has woven it into a feature that sparkles, charms, and excites.
Screened for this review as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, New York (Feb. 29-Mar. 10, 2024. Showtimes:
Friday, March 1 at 9:00pm (Q&A with Pascal Bonitzer)
Sunday, March 10 at 6:30pm
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THE BOOK OF SOLUTIONS/LE LIVRE DE SOLUTIONS (Michel Gondry 2023)
After an eight-year break since his Microbe & Gasoline, Gondry depicts a semi-autobiographical story of a filmmaker who grabs his rushes from controlling producers and tries to finish the film - something like this happened with his Mood Indigo, apparently - at his aunt's house in the country, without a conventional studio, using what the French call bricolage, working improvisationally. He also goes off his meds, which makes the improvisations off the wall. Manic fun that's not everybody's dish of tea.
Screened for this review as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, New York (Feb. 29-Mar. 10, 2024. Showtimes:
Thursday, March 7 at 6:00pm
Sunday, March 10 at 4:00pm
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 02-23-2024 at 10:42 AM.
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LITTLE GIRL BLUE (Mona Acache 2023)
Marion Cottilard is the star of reenactments of recorded statements of Carole, the filmmaker's mother, a writer and artist abused by men, including the writer Jean Genet, interacting with the filmmaker. This recounts stories of three generations of women who were writers, one of them an editor for the publishing house of Gallimard. Cotillard is all in on this project, indicated by her being present for the Q&A of the film.
Screened for this review as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, New York (Feb. 29-Mar. 10, 2024. Showtimes: Friday, March 1 at 6:15pm (Q&A with Mona Achache and Marion Cotillard)
Wednesday, March 6 at 8:30pm
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SPIRIT OF ECSTASY/LA VÉNUS D'ARGENT (Hélena Klotz 2023)
A young gender-questioning person, played by the pop star Pomme (Claire Pommet), works in high finance, which leads to unprecedented opportunities with astonishing speed. But can she leave her military boyfriend (Niels Schneider) and gendarme father (Grégoire Colin) and two little siblings behind? An exciting experimental-feeling film that taps into the French cinematic gift for fantasy and elegance.
Screened for this review as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, New York (Feb. 29-Mar. 10, 2024. Showtimes:
Monday, March 4 at 9:00pm
Friday, March 8 at 6:15pm (Q&A with Héléna Klotz)
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LES INDÉSIRABLES/BÂTIMENT 5 (Ladj Ly 2023)
Ly's followup to his Cannes Jury Prize, Oscar-nominated debut Les Misérables is mainly a reenactment of a mass eviction without warning from the housing estate he grew up in. Powerful and angry, it is much shorter than the first film and lacks its subtlety - and didn't get to debut at Cannes or receive high marks from French critics or spectators. But there is passion and ambitious staging.
Screened for this review as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, New York (Feb. 29-Mar. 10, 2024. Showtimes:
Saturday, March 2 at 9:15pm (Q&A with Ladj Ly)
Thursday, March 7 at 8:30pm
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BANEL & ADAMA/BANEL E ADAMA (Ranata-Toulaye Sy 2023)
The pretty young firs time filmmaker was born in France of Senegalese parents. Her first film, which debuted in competition at Cannes, is a fable in the Pulaar language of a striking, independent-minded young man and woman in a remote, primitive village in northern Senegal. A tale of independence and of global warming, and mystery. A Kino Lorber release.
Screened for this review as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, New York (Feb. 29-Mar. 10, 2024. Showtimes:
Sunday, March 3 at 1:00pm (Q&A with Ramata-Toulaye Sy)
Wednesday, March 6 at 3:45pm
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POMME IN THE SPIRIT OF ECSTASY
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2024: Favorites so far.
I've seen close to two-thirds of the series. Go to the Filmleaf reviews of these HERE.
The Animal KIngdom/Le règne animal (Cailley), with Romain Duris
This Opening Night film may not win over the New York glitterati. Its fantasy-sci-fi actioner about a French father and son (Romain Duris, Paul Kircher) struggling in a world where humans are turning into animals may seem an odd choice for them. But Thomas Cailley knows how to ring new changes on familiar human combinations. This is the film that was most popular of all the Rendez-Vous in France.
Banel e Adama (Sy)
A beautiful fable of love, drought, and young stubbornness set in a desert-like region of Northern Senegal, by a young French-born, Senegalese-descent director whose debut was selected to be in Competition at Cannes last year. Lush image and sound, fresh and gorgeous.
Auction /Le tableau volé (Bonitzer)
A snappy, smart art thriller about the discovery of an important Egon Schiele painting lost since the late Thirties when it was seized from its Jewish owner by the Nazis. There is absolutely nothing not to like about this cool film.
The Spirit of Ecstasy/La Vénus d'argent (Klotz)
The pop star Pomme incarnates a gender-questioning young woman of tremendous ambition who toys with abandoning her dull world on a military base and being a high flyer in the world of finance. A fresh and magical film.
Toni/Toni en famille (Ambrosiani)
The "Call My Agent" Netflix star Camille Cottin as the single mother of five loving but turbulent teenagers who wants to nurture them along their different paths while striking out on a new one herself by attending university at 42. A movie full of warm humanity, affection, and hope. The director, Nathan Ambrosioni, is a wunderkind.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 02-17-2024 at 05:39 PM.
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ÀMA GLORIA (Marie Amachoukeli 2013)
An unusually complex as well as colorful and emotional look at the relation between a six-year-old French girl and her Cape Verdean nanny. It deepens by separation, when the child, Cléo (a remarkable Louise Mauroy-Panzani), flies by herself to West Africa to visit her nanny, Gloria ((Ilça Moreno Zego) for the summer, and things happen. A warm and touching film. Bring your handkerchiefs.
Screened for this review as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, New York (Feb. 29-Mar. 10, 2024. Showtimes:
Saturday, March 2 at 3:45pm (Q&A with Marie Amachoukeli)
Thursday, March 7 at 1:30pm
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