Olivier Dahan’s fascinating, deeply moving portrait of the great Édith Piaf, one of the iconic figures and voices of 20th century France. Piaf (Marion Cotillard) was born into poverty, abandoned by her mother and shuttled between her brothel keeper grandmother and circus performer father. Singing on street corners for pennies, she one day attracts the attention of Louis Leplée (Gérard Depardieu), owner of one of the most posh nightclubs in town. Soon she’s the toast of Paris, with a soaring, deep-throated voice that came to symbolize a certain kind of tenacious humanity, a willingness to go on no matter what the odds. Cotillard (A Good Year, A Very Long Engagement, Big Fish) brilliantly captures Piaf’s fragility, the constant, nagging fear that everything around her will disappear in an instant, leaving her back on the streets. A powerful supporting cast includes Depardieu, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner and Marc Barbé.
Prominent industrialist Pierre Levasseur (Daniel Auteuil) and his beautiful mistress Elena (Alice Taglioni) are in the midst of an argument when a photographer immortalizes the moment on film. It looks as if Mrs. Levasseur (Kristin Scott Thomas) has all the evidence she needs of her husband’s infidelity — if someone else wasn’t in the photograph. The result is a wry and revealing look at the uses (and misuses) of celebrity, with director Francis Veber (The Dinner Game, The Closet) drawing superb performances from an all-star cast.
Catherine Corsini – whose second film The New Eve was presented in Rendez-Vous 2000 – returns with this coolly observed study of commitment and betrayal. When aspiring writer Julien (Eric Caravaca) begins a tryst with influential editor Judith (Karin Viard), Julien gets the opportunity to look through her things. He learns that Judith’s father, a radical philosopher in the 1960s, had left France to join a Latin American guerilla movement and had been killed there. Suddenly, Julien has the idea for that novel he’s always wanted to write…
Set in 1970, Blame it on Fidel is a wry and engaging look how personal the political becomes in the life of one nine-year-old girl. Fernando (Stefano Acorsi) and Marie (Julie Depardieu) are left-leaning and very comfortably upper middle-class, when a trip to Latin America convinces both to dedicate themselves full-time to the many causes they’ve only verbally supported, to the consternation of their daughter, Anna (Nina Kervel). Full of wonderful historical asides and period detail, Blame it on Fidel is about that moment when parents realize that their children are their own separate selves — and the moment when children discover the same thing about their parents.
A young boy, Pierrot (Alphonse Emery), lives by measuring his moments. Each tick seems to leave a physical impression on him, yet increasingly, Pierrot moves inward, living not for the moment but for the future he knows is speeding towards him. The inspiration for Countdown came when screenwriter Sébastien Régnier asked Sandrine Veysset, “If one day you met an old woman, and then realized she was actually you, what would you ask her?” From that discussion, Sandrine Veysset (Will it Snow for Christmas?, Martha…Martha) created a lyrical, provocative look at the terror that time holds for all of us, its control over even our simplest actions and relationships, and how it seems to gain power the less we are aware of its effects.
Returning home from a vacation in Barcelona, 19-year-old Lili (newcomer Mélanie Laurent) discovers that her twin brother, Loïc, has disappeared after a fight with their father. When repeated messages to Loïc’s cell phone go unanswered, Lili can’t understand her parents’ reticence to get involved in the search for their son. The fears and pressure begin to take their toll, forcing Lili to question herself and her relationship to her parents as she sets out to track down her brother. Lioret perfectly calibrates the growing sense of shock and awareness that transform Lili’s life. What begins as a seemingly normal suburban family is gradually revealed to contain surprisingly dark secrets.
Always controversial, director Bruno Dumont (La vie de Jésus) once again brings us into a very human heart of darkness with Flanders, one of the most heatedly debated films at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Moving from the sprawling, tilled farmlands of the northern reaches of France to battlefields in a distant desert land and back again, the film develops a seasonal feeling, as if the war he is depicting — in all its horror — is part of a very natural cycle of life
Luis (Alain Chabat) has it made. He’s successful, handsome, and at 43, still single. But when his family decides they have had enough with his bachelor’s lifestyle, arranging for Luis a series of grueling bad dates, Luis decides to take matters into his own hands. He turns to his best friend’s sister, Emmanuelle (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who has just moved to Paris and is looking for work… One of the great hits of 2006, a smart and very contemporary comedy of manners that features terrific work by Chabat (who also wrote the screenplay) and Gainsbourg.
After his controversial adaptation of Georges Bataille’s My Mother, Christophe Honoré switches gears for this elegant, deeply felt tale of a family dealing with a son’s depression. When Paul’s (Romain Duris) relationship with girlfriend Anna (Joana Preiss) comes apart, he heads for the apartment shared by his brother and their divorced father Mirko (Guy Marchand). Retreating into his brother’s room, Paul refuses to get out of bed, despite the entreaties of his father, a visit from his mother (Marie-France Pisier), brother Jonathan’s (Louis Garrel) doomed attempt to cheer him up.
The scene is a beautiful patch of French countryside, perfect for a family vacation — which is exactly what Frédéric (Bernard Campin) and his wife Frédérique (Léa Drucker) are enjoying. Then their new neighbor, Hugo (Charles Berling), reveals that he is gay. Thus begins a complex, constantly shifting emotional tango. Breitman expertly guides the two lead performances, bringing out nuances and details that continually transform these characters right before our eyes.
19-year-olds Nina (Hande Kodja) and Lizzy (Céline Sallette) are living in a kind of asylum. Discovering in each other kindred spirits, they decide to take off, with no real destination in mind. Together they have a kind of strength and energy, and at first handle everything the world throws at them. But in time things start to fall apart. Based on a script idea by the late, great Maurice Pialat and produced by his widow, Sylvie Pialat, Patrick Grandperret introduces here two fine young actors, who both seem to live these roles rather than merely play them.
A young woman, Lucie (Lizzie Brocheré), and four handsome young men sunbathe together, enraptured by their own youth and sensuality. Gradually, the complex network among them is revealed — the sexual and emotional entanglements, as well as those still waiting to be expressed. Inevitably, tragedy strikes, transforming the group and each member of it… For their fourth collaboration, writer/director team Pascal Arnold and Jean- Marc Barr fashion this haunting look at teenage fears and desires — based on an actual incident—memorably and powerfully capturing their sense of the evanescence of youth.
The big day has finally arrived: Mélanie is auditioning for a scholarship to advance her piano studies. But one of the judges, famed concert pianist Ariane Fouchecourt (Catherine Frot), unnerves the young girl — and Mélanie loses the scholarship. Several years later, Mélanie (Déborah François) starts an internship at a prestigious Paris law firm run by prominent attorney — who just happens to be married to a famed concert pianist named Ariane… Well-received last year at the Cannes Film Festival and subsequently a popular hit in France, The Page Turner features some ingenious surprises as we follow Melanie’s plans for revenge.
The Singer / Quand j’etais chanteur Xavier Giannoli, 2006; 112m
Alain Moreau (Gérard Depardieu) is a popular dance hall singer working the circuit in the provinces when he spots a pretty blonde in the audience and succeeds in taking her home. Something about this woman, Marion (Cécile de France), makes Alain want to keep it going — much to the concern of Alain’s ex-wife and manager, Michele (Christine Citti). Alongside a tour-de-force performance by Depardieu – who does his own singing in the role – is director Xavier Giannoli’s (Eager Bodies, ND/NF 2004) wonderful depiction of a little-seen part of France, a world of Saturday night dance halls and cheap drive-in motels in which a performance by even an over-the-hill crooner can spell a bit of glamour.
Popular American mystery writer Harlan Coben finally makes it to the silver screen in this powerful French adaptation of his novel Tell No One. Eight years after his wife’s murder, Dr. Alex Beck (François Cluzet) has done what he could to rebuild his world. On the anniversary of her death, evidence suddenly appears that may link Alex directly to the murder, while Alex receives an e-mail with a subject heading that only his dead wife could know… Actor Guillaume Canet (Merry Christmas), whose directorial debut Mon Idole was presented in Rendez-Vous 2003, expertly orchestrates the various themes and subplots of this complex thriller. An extraordinary cast includes Nathalie Baye, André Dussollier, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jean Rochefort, François Berléand, and Marina Hands.
Isild Le Besco plays Jeanne, an unsuccessful actor who discovers that her unknown father may have been from India. The news hits her like a bolt. Suddenly, her long-held feelings of being an outsider start to make some sense. Though she has no real evidence of her father’s identity, she takes off for India in the hope that she will discover what she’s looking for… Again working with the remarkable French cinematographer Caroline Champetier, Jacquot plunges the viewer into the vastness and confusion of the new world Jeanne encounters. He is less interested in providing a guided tour than in capturing the strangeness of what his character sees and feels.
On February 10, 2005, the French film world lost one of its brightest stars: Humbert Balsan. He was not an actor per se (although he made an impressive Gauvain in Bresson’s Lancelot du Lac), nor a director. Rather, Humbert was a film producer, in the richest, most creative sense of that term. For 25 years, he backed—and in most cases simply made possible — works by some of the most creative filmmakers of the past three decades, including many films presented in the New York Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, and Rendez-Vous: Claire Denis’s The Intruder, Yolande Moreau and Gille Porte’s When the Sea Rises, and Robert Salis’ Grande École are just some of the more recently screened examples. Humbert was a dear friend and loyal supporter of our programs, and we’re delighted to be able to present Anne Andreu’s affecting tribute to him as part of this year’s Rendez-Vous; in addition, we’re also screening the last film Humbert worked on, Sandrine Veysset’s Countdown, in this year’s program.
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 was presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance USA. It was sponsored by the Grand Marnier Foundation and Société Générale Private Banking with major support from The Florence Gould Foundation. Additional support came from Air France, Bureau d’Export, agnès b., LVT Laser Subtitling and the French Cultural Services.
Tickets for Rendez-Vous with French Cinema went on sale Feb. 12 and were available at both the Walter Reade Theater and the IFC Center, as well as online at www.filmlinc.com and www.ifccenter.com.
Tickets for Walter Reade Theater screenings were $12 for the general public, $8 for Film Society members and students and $8 for seniors at weekday screenings before 6 p.m.
Tickets for IFC Center screenings were $12 for the general public and $8 for members and seniors all day. For more information, call the Film Society at (212) 875-5600 or the IFC Center at (212) 924-7771.
The IFC Center is located at 323 Sixth Ave. at West 3rd Street. The Walter Reade Theater is at 165 West 65th Street close to Amsterdam Avenue. Due to construction work taking place around Alice Tully Hall, the only access to the Walter Reade Theater is via the West 65th Street escalator and stairs to the upper level.