INVITATION TO A FRENCH FEAST

Happily, it's that time of year again. The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Unifrance, The French Office/Unifrance USA and The French Cultural Services are presenting the annual RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA at the Walter Reade Theater. From March 11 through March 20, New Yorkers can see new works by such esteemed auteurs as Claude Chabrol, Olivier Assayas, André Téchiné and Bertrand Tavernier, featuring star-turns by Gerard Depardieu, Isabelle Huppert, Daniel Auteuil, and Catherine Deneuve (at left). Below, courtesy of Lincoln Center, is a series preview; for full details, pay a visit to www.filmlinc.com.

36 Quai des Orfèvres
Olivier Marchal, 2004; 110m
One of the big French box-office hits of 2004, 36 Quai des Orfèvres pits Daniel Auteuil against Gerard Depardieu in a taut, atmospheric thriller set in the shadowy world of a Parisian police section fighting organized crime. When their superior tells them that his choice of a successor will be based on who can bring down a gang currently causing havoc, he sets off a brutal competition between the two division heads, Vrinks (Auteuil) and Klein (Depardieu). Each has his connections into the gang world, and doesn’t hesitate to use them against the other. Beautifully photographed in rich, dark tones with slivers of silvery light, 36 Quai des Orfèvres is both an homage and an updating of France’s strong tradition of crime films, with a supporting cast featuring Valeria Golino, André Dussollier, and Roschdy Zem. Nominated for 8 Césars, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (Daniel Auteuil), Best Supporting Actor (André Dussollier), Best Supporting Actress (Mylène Demongeot), Best Screenplay, Best Sound, and Best Editing. (To read Diane Baroni's 1991 interview with Gerard Depardieu, click here.)
Fri March 11: 1; Sat March 12: 9:15; Sun March 13: 4

A tout de suite
Benoît Jacquot, 2004; 96m
"Shot in stunning black&white on digital video, A tout de suite is a period piece of a kind; set in 1975, it feels completely contemporary. It is a timeless story: Jacquot has said that its tale of lovers on the run is the stuff of classic movie drama and he cites Bonnie and Clyde, They Live By Night, Badlands, and Pierrot le Fou as references for his distinctive reworking of the narrative. Isild Le Besco is our nameless heroine, an art student living with her sister and father. One day she falls head over heels for a charismatic Moroccan. After he and a friend rob a bank and use her room as a hideaway, they persuade the young woman and another girl to join them on the run, taking their loot first to Madrid, then Tangiers. They live high on their ill-gotten gains before they are forced to flee to Greece, where the story takes a more somber turn. Told in an airy, breezy style that perfectly matches its tone, A tout de suite is reminiscent of early New Wave films. Jacquot seamlessly blends period documentary footage to evoke the 70s, but he never lets his gaze wander far from the distinctive features of his young actress." — Piers Handling, 2004 Toronto International Film Festival. A selection of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival. A Cinema Guild Release.
Fri March 11: 3:45; Sat March 12: 6:45; Sun March 13: 9:15

Changing Times / Les Temps qui changent
André Téchiné, 2004; 98m
There’s an extraordinary sense of warmth to André Téchiné’s lovely new film. The warmth comes not only from the powerful Moroccan sunlight that fills almost every scene, but also from the tremendous rapport between the director and his actors, whose performances are so open, at times so vulnerable, that they express levels of emotion rarely felt in movies. Gérard Depardieu plays Antoine, an engineer who’s been sent to Tangiers to oversee the construction of a major new television facility. But his real reason for coming is to re-establish contact with Cécile (Catherine Deneuve), a woman he loved and lost thirty years before. For her part, Cécile has created her own arrangement with her Moroccan husband, Nathan (Gilbert Melki), a quiet understanding that makes few demands on either of them. Add to the mix Samy (Malik Zidi), Cécile and Nathan’s son, who returns home from Paris with Nadia (Lubna Azabal), a single mother; Samy will have to decide what he wants the future of that relationship to be, as well as sort out his feelings for his friend Bilal. Téchiné allows each actor the space to fully explore their characters’ dilemmas, carefully delineating the difficult process that will lead to leaps of faith that could change their lives. Nominated for the César for Best Promising Actor, Malik Zidi. (To read Diane Baroni's 1991 interview with Gerard Depardieu, click here; for Guy Flatley's 2000 interview with Catherine Deneuve, click here.)
Fri March 11: 6:30; Sun March 13: 1:30

Holy Lola
Bertrand Tavernier, 2004; 130m
With his customary perceptiveness, Bertrand Tavernier has zeroed in on one of the most sensitive of contemporary issues: international adoptions. Pierre and Geraldine (Jacques Gamblin and Isabelle Carré) have been trying to have a child. Deciding to adopt, they head to Cambodia to begin the process: getting the proper clearance from the French Embassy, bringing documents to the Cambodian government officials. All seems to be going smoothly — until they begin meeting other prospective adoptive parents and discover how enormous and frustrating the task that lies ahead of them will be. Tavernier carefully addresses factors such as class, race, personal backgrounds, and colonial history—factors that make the deeply human and emotional process of adopting a baby so terribly complex. Tavernier captures the beauty and vibrancy of Cambodia while showing us the wounds still festering in that land after so many decades of suffering and war.
Fri March 11: 9; Sat March 12: 1:15

…Happily Ever After / Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d’enfants
Yvan Attal, 2004; 100m
Three male friends in contemporary Paris face their present lives and even more nervously their uncertain futures — meaning, Is This All There Is? Vincent (Yvan Attal) and Georges (Alain Chabat) are both married and fathers; their friend Fred is still single and seemingly possesses one of the finest little black books in town. Decent lives, to be sure — despite occasional blow-ups or frustrations, they’re muddling through pretty well. Then one day Georges and Fred discover that, much to their surprise, Vincent has been seeing another woman on the side without ever breathing a word about it. The news sends shock waves through their little worlds, and both wonder how Vincent’s wife, Gabrielle (Charlotte Gainsbourg), would react if she knew. But Gabrielle’s been aware of the affair for a while…. Yvan Attal’s first film, My Wife Is an Actress, was one of the discoveries of the 2002 ND/NF series. Full of great comic set pieces, surprising plot twists and standout performances, …Happily Ever After more than confirms the promise of his debut and signals Attal as one of the best guides to contemporary love and romance. A selection of the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival. A Kino International Release
Sat March 12: 4:15; Sun March 13: 6:45

Tell Me I’m Pretty / J’me sens pas belle
Bernard Jeanjean, 2004; 85m
Thirty-something Fanny has had enough of lonely nights. Tonight she’s prepared: a fine meal, soft lights, sexy underwear, just the right music. Now all she needs is for her cute co-worker Paul to show up like he said he would. But such a setup wasn’t exactly what Paul was expecting. For his first film, director Bernard Jeanjean takes on an extraordinary challenge: to create a romantic comedy located principally in one setting with only two actors. It’s remarkable how brilliantly he succeeds. Beyond the excellence of his own impressive work (Jeanjean also wrote the screenplay), much credit must be given to his two players, Marina Foïs and Julien Boisselier. Both have worked extensively in film and television, yet this is one of the first opportunities either has had to really shine on their own. Foïs finds just the right tone for her character, somewhere between sympathetic and exasperating, while Boisselier carefully calibrates his not entirely unhappy discovery of the evening’s possibilities.
Sun March 13: 11:15am; Mon March 14: 1 & 6:15

Clara and Me / Clara et Moi
Arnaud Viard, 2004; 86m
As his 33rd birthday approaches, struggling actor Anton decides that it’s time for him to settle down. The only problem is that he’s not really with anybody at the moment. Then, one day on the Metro, there she is: Clara, smart and funny, not to mention beautiful. Within moments they (and we) know that Anton and Clara are meant for each other. It’s a perfect romance set in the most romantic city in the world, Paris. But Paris is also a place where people have to get up every morning, go to (or find) work, and pay the bills. It’s also a place where even the most perfect matches don’t always work out. An impressive debut for director Arnaud Viard, Clara and Me is a very contemporary love story; Viard certainly knows all the tricks and conventions of the genre, but he also wants to make his lovers seem like people who actually could meet and fall in love. Two of France’s up-and-coming young stars, Julie Gayet and Julien Boisselier (also seen in Tell Me I’m Pretty), play the happy if fated couple. A selection of the 2004 Montréal Film Festival.
Mon March 14: 3:45 & 8:45; Tue March 15: 1

Innocence
Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2004; 115m
"Youthful joy and the menace of impending adulthood may seem the familiar stuff of cinema. But by knocking these themes out of the orbit of social realism and into a netherworld of seemingly utopian science fiction, Lucile Hadzihalilovic reconceives coming of age in unexpected and daringly original ways. The bleary, primordial credits that begin Innocence transform into a breathless trip through underground caverns with a coffin. When the lid is popped off in the drawing room of a country house, a gorgeous six-year-old girl named Iris is revealed. Confused but curious, she is taken in hand by Bianca, the leader of a group of girls who live in one of the five houses that make up a kind of boarding school…. The story gradually shifts its focus from Iris to her fellow housemates as they suffer the indignities of school life, longing for the ‘outside.’ There is a feeling of menace throughout, a sense that this idyll is fragile and requires protection…. The film’s visual and tonal ideas feel related to the most imaginative and frightening children’s stories." — Noah Cowan, 2004 Toronto International Film Festival. A selection of the 2004 Montréal and Toronto International Film Festivals.
Tue March 15: 3:45; Wed March 16: 6

Spelling Mistakes / Les Fautes d’orthographe
Jean-Jacques Zilbermann, 2004; 90m
We’re in France at the beginning of the 70s. Daniel Massu is fifteen but looks thirteen. His father and mother are, respectively, the principal and head of studies at a boarding school. For years, as one of the school’s day students, Daniel was pretty much able to escape their notice, but now his father has decided that it would be good for his son to join the other students in the dormitory. Dorm life is a revelation for Daniel. Among other things, he comes to see his parents as the petty tyrants they really are. His fellow students don’t trust him at first, believing him to be a spy or at least a teacher’s pet, so Daniel realizes there’s only one course of action: to lead the revolt against the school authorities — that is, Mom and Dad. The anarchic impulse that for many is the very definition of childhood has been a staple of French cinema at least since Jean Vigo’s Zéro de Conduite, and Jean-Jacques Zilbermann’s Spelling Mistakes is an excellent example of that proud tradition. Olivier Gourmet and Carole Bouquet, as Daniel’s parents, make a particularly effective pair of villains, and young Damien Jouillerot powerfully incarnates the transformation from mama’s boy to rebel leader. Nominated for the César for Best Promising Actor, Damien Jouillerot.
Tue March 15: 6:30; Wed March 16: 3:30

The Role of Her Life / Le Rôle de sa vie
François Favrat, 2004; 102m
A freelancer at a fashion magazine, Claire Rocher (Karin Viard) is assigned to do a story about film star Elisabeth Becker (Agnès Jaoui). After some initial missed signals, the two women seem to hit it off, and Elisabeth offers Claire a job as her personal assistant. At first Claire is taken aback, as she’s always prided herself on her independence. Yet the chance to get close to an actress she admires, and to experience something of her world, proves a temptation she can’t resist. Director François Favrat, here making his feature film debut, has been represented in previous editions of Rendez-Vous: he co-wrote the screenplays for Seaside (Rendez-vous 2003) and She’s One of Us (Rendez-vous 2004). Actress/director/writer Agnès Jaoui’s Look at Me opened the 2004 NYFF. "Sometimes serious, sometimes light-hearted, The Role of Her Life deals as much with the professional and emotional situation of women as with the behind-the-scenes of the movie business. Its portrait of the contemporary film world is funny, fierce, and accurate." — Patrick Fabre, Studio. Winner of the Best Screenplay award at the 2004 Montréal Film Festival, and nominated for the César for Best Actress, Karin Viard.
Tue March 15: 8:45; Thurs March 17: 3:45 & 9

Me and My Sister / Les Soeurs fachees
Alexandra Leclère, 2004; 93m
Two of France’s finest actors — Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Frot — go mano a mano in this unsettling comedy about the troubled reunion of two sisters. Country mouse Louise (Frot), a beautician living in her native Mans, comes to stay with her city mouse sister Martine (Huppert) for a few days. Well-off, always beautifully coiffed and dressed, Martine has lots of time on her hands. Louise on the other hand is a whirlwind of energy, managing a business and a family and even finding time to write a novel (the reason for her trip to Paris). The sisters don’t see each other much, and it’s easy to see why, but this encounter will wind up transforming both of them. Director Alexandra Leclère, here making her feature debut, doesn’t pull any punches; while the film has some very funny moments, it’s a work that always seems to be just on the edge — you’re never quite sure what the outcome of the many blow-ups between these women will be.
Wed March 16: 1; Fri March 18: 9; Sat March 19: 11am

The Silence / Le Silence
Orso Miret, 2004; 100m
A hallmark of contemporary French film production is a kind of regionalism that finds filmmakers working in some of the lesser-known areas of the country, revealing what remains of local cultures and ways of life. The Silence is set in Corsica, home of Napoleon and a part of France much in the news recently. Olivier (Mathieu Demy) and his pregnant girlfriend Marianne (Natacha Régnier) come to spend a few weeks on holiday there. Half-Corsican and half-mainlander, Olivier does his best to keep up with his relatives and old friends, joining in their hunting parties and other activities, but each encounter makes him feel his distance from them. Then one day Olivier witnesses a crime. The police begin their investigation, but local tradition demands a strict code of silence—forcing Olivier to decide how much a part of this culture he really is. Director Orso Miret does an excellent job detailing the rhythms and textures of this community’s daily life, while capturing the sense of how one comes to feel a stranger in one’s own country.
Wed March 16: 8:45; Thurs March 17: 1; Sat March 19: 1:30

The Bridesmaid / La Demoiselle d’honneur
Claude Chabrol, 2004; 110m
If, like Japan, France could nominate its artists as "national living treasures," Claude Chabrol would surely be among the first filmmakers so honored. In a career that spans almost fifty years, Chabrol has meticulously exposed the darker, seamy underside of the well-ordered world of the French middle class. Once again adapting a novel by Ruth Rendell (whose A Judgment in Stone became La Céremonie) Chabrol tells the story of Philippe Tardieu (Benoît Magimel), an ambitious, somewhat straitlaced young man living with his mother and two sisters near the Atlantic coast. His older sister, Sophie, is getting married, and it’s at her wedding that Philippe meets Senta, one of the bridesmaids. Their attraction is obvious, and soon they get together, but the more time he spends with her, the more he begins to wonder about her. Their passion is real, but Senta seems given to telling fantastic tales. When one day she asks Philippe for a terrible proof of his love, Philippe must come to terms with who his lover might really be. Senta is played by Laura Smet, who was so impressive in Xavier Giannoli’s Eager Bodies (ND/NF 2004); she is also, incidentally, the daughter of Nathalie Baye and Johnny Hallyday. A selection of the 2004 Venice Film Festival.
Thurs March 17: 6:15; Sat March 19: 6:45; Sun March 20: 9:15

Local Call ' Ne quittez pas!
Arthur Joffé, 2004; 102m
"When I cast my mind over the range of French actors, I couldn’t imagine any one of them who could play the character in the way that I wanted. Sergio Castellitto, who I already directed in the past, gave the perfect mix of whimsy, candor and emotion the character needed. He performed in front of my camera with an outstanding generosity and with no fear at all of his own image. Sergio is a real virtuoso, a world-class actor." — Arthur Joffé. Local Call is a Jewish cell-phone comedy taking place in Paris and a father-and-son fable. Félix Mandel (Castellitto) is sweet and deeply nostalgic by nature, but his wife, floored that he would see his childhood girlfriend to try to relive his first love, tosses out everything in his overflowing home office, leaving only the cashmere overcoat that belonged to his dead father, Lucien. Resolved to please his wife, Félix gives the coat to a homeless person, but no sooner does he perform this act of charity than his cell phone rings. It’s his father, Lucien, enraged that his son has given away that coat. But his father’s been dead for two years! Haunted and guided by his father's voice, Félix finds his life transformed into a tragicomic trip full of strange meetings, loss, and self-discovery. The crazy quest for the lost coat will lead Félix into a world he scarcely knew about, a world bound up with his father’s unforgettable trauma, as strong as the true love for his son.
Fri March 18: 1; Sun March 20: 6:45

Clean
Olivier Assayas, France, 2004; 110m
"Maggie Cheung has rarely looked so bad and hurt so good as in Clean, Olivier Assayas’s film about a junkie struggling to kick. A tough look at addiction — its seductions, stratagems, and self-immolating logic — the film stars Cheung as the wife and would-be manager of a faded rock star. When her husband overdoses, she finds herself without money, friends, and facing a prison term. After parole, she hits the road, eventually landing in Paris, where she tries to rebuild her life inch by inch. Slowly, as Assayas peels away his protagonist’s protective covering, revealing the all-too-human creature beneath the spit and poses, we understand that — as with many of his other films — Clean is a portrait of aching loneliness, of a radical disconnection." — Manohla Dargis, Film Comment, Jul/Aug 04. Winner of Best Actress for Maggie Cheung at Cannes 2004, and a selection of the 2004 Montréal and Toronto International Film Festivals. Nominated for Césars for Best Actress (Maggie Cheung) and Best Cinematography (Eric Gautier). A Palm Pictures Release
Fri March 18: 3:30; Sun March 20: 4

The Intruder / L’Intrus
Claire Denis, 2004; 123m
"With each new film, Claire Denis becomes more daringly cinematic, eschewing convention and seeking a unique visual language to tell her stories…. In The Intruder, conventional narrative storytelling has been replaced by an attempt to tell a story in purely visual and aural terms. The dialogue has been stripped down to bare essentials, while the image — sumptuous CinemaScope color shot with incomparable skill by Agnès Godard — assumes a privileged position…. The Intruder is a film that literally comes at us in shards, pieces of reality that Denis challenges us to assemble. Gradually our focus comes to rest on a white-haired man, Louis (Michel Subor), who takes money out of a Swiss bank and ends up somewhere in Asia. Slowly the fragments of Denis’s deliberately foggy narrative start to come together as we discover Louis is trying to reconcile his past with events in the present…. At a point in time when dialogue-driven projects and the primacy of the script reign across the world, it is most refreshing to see that artists of distinction are still creating films that make us realize there are other options available." — Piers Handling, 2004 Toronto International Film Festival. A selection of the 2004 Toronto, Montréal and Venice International Film Festivals.
Fri March 18: 6:15; Sat March 19: 9:15

When the Sea Rises / Quand La Mer Monte...
Gilles Porte and Yolande Moreau, 2004; 93m
Winner of the prestigious Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film, as well as a surprise box-office success, When the Sea Rises chronicles a few weeks in the life of Irène, an actress traveling across the north of France putting on a one-woman show (A Dirty Business) in town halls and makeshift theaters. One night she meets Dries, thirtysomething and going nowhere fast, whose most gainful employment seems to be when he helps carry giant mannequins in local parades. A flirtation turns into a tenuous relationship. He’s not sure what he has to offer her; she’s not sure what she might want. The film beautifully captures the ups and downs of this decidedly odd couple, but the film’s greatest achievement is its touching portrait of the world of traveling theater shows such as the one in which Irène performs. Wearing a battered housedress and a long-nosed, commedia dell’arte mask, Irène recounts the sad, lonely life of her character to small but appreciative audiences; gradually, much of her act begins to sound confessional. As Irène, co-director Yolande Moreau is extraordinarily touching, and is ably aided by Wim Willaert as Dries. Nominated for Césars for Best First Film and Best Actress (Yolande Moreau).
Sat March 19: 4:15; Sun March 20: 1:30