2007 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema
The Film Society of Lincoln Center along with
Unifrance USA jointly presented the 12th annual
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema
Feb. 28-March 11

The roster of films included:

Opening Night
La Vie en Rose / La Môme
Olivier Dahan, 2007; 140m

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.


Closing Night
The Valet / La Doublure
Francis Veber, 2006;  85m

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.


Ambitious / Les ambitieux
Catherine Corsini, 2006; 90m

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…


Blame it on Fidel / La faute à Fidel
Julie Gavras, 2006; 99 m

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.


Countdown / Once Upon a Tomorrow / Il sera une fois
Sandrine Veysset, 2007; 78m

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.


Don’t Worry, I’m Fine / Je vais bien ne t’en fais pas
Philippe Lioret, 2006; 86m

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.


Flanders / Flandres
Bruno Dumont, 2006; 91m

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


I Do! / Prête-moi ta main
Eric Lartigau, 2006; 90m

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.


Inside Paris / Dans Paris
Christophe Honoré, 2006; 93m

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 Man of My Life / L’Homme de sa vie
Zabou Breitman, 2006;  114m

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.


Murderers / Meurtrières
Patrick Grandperret, 2006; 101 m

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.


One to Another / Chacun sa nuit
Pascal Arnold & Jean-Marc Barr, 2006; 95m

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 Page Turner / La tourneuse de pages
Denis Dercourt, 2006; 85m

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.


Tell No One / Ne le dis à personne
Guillaume Canet, 2006; 126m

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.


The Untouchable / L’Intouchable
Benoît Jacquot, 2006; 82m

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.


A Tribute to Humbert Balsan
Humbert Balsan: Rebel Producer / Humbert Balsan, producteur rebelle
Anne Andreu, 2006; 57m

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.  
© 2007 by C.E. Murphy. All Rights Reserved.
Films reviewed
(English titles)
Films reviewed
(French titles)