In keeping with its reputation for showing the very best of French cinema, the 2015 Alliance Française French Film Festival will captivate Australian audiences with an intoxicating selection of films.
For its 26th season, the AF French Film Festival will offer 49 fantastic features – most of which will be screening for the first time in Australia. Taking place in Palace Cinema venues across eight cities through March and April, the festival will launch in each city with a Gala Opening Night featuring the beguiling romantic comedy-drama, 'Gemma Bovery'.
Starring Fabrice Luchini alongside Gemma Arterton, 'Gemma Bovery' tells the story of an English couple who move to a small, picturesque Normandy town. Local baker and resident Gustave Flaubert fan, Martin Joubert (Luchini) can’t believe that here are two real-life figures who seem to be replicating the behavior of his favourite fictional characters and becomes a man obsessed. Based on the popular graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, 'Gemma Bovery 'is an endearing film about the dangers of stirring passions.
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And for the Festival’s Closing Night celebrations, revisit a modern French classic, 'Paris, Je T’aime', that will take audiences through the arrondissements of Paris, with 20 superb short films inspired by the subject of love, from acclaimed directors such as Olivier Assayas, Bruno Podalydès, Gus Van Sant and Ethan and Joel Cohen.
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Each film in this year’s line-up is a highlight, but here is but a small taste of the decedent feast ahead:
Stranded in a provincial French city one evening after missing a return train to Paris, '3 Hearts' follows Marc meeting Sylvie. Together, they wander the streets until morning, talking happily, falling in love and making a date to meet again. When circumstances prevent this reunion, Marc searches for Sylvie but ends by finding someone else: Sophie. What Marc doesn’t realise is that Sophie is Sylvie’s sister. '3 Hearts' is a sublime, if painful, romance about love and the capricious nature of fate.
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A spectacular celebration of the famous and flamboyant designer’s artistry, drive and inspiration, 'Saint Laurent' is a biopic focusing on Yves Saint Laurent at the zenith of his celebrity. Exploring his relationships, neuroses, addictions and insecurities, this film is France’s entry in the 2015 Academy Awards.
'Saint Laurent'
Karin Viard and Emmanuelle Devos star together for the first time in 'Almost Friends' as two women who want more out of life – both at work and in the bedroom. Devos plays Carole, who feels overshadowed by her husband, Sam, a Michelin-starred chef. While taking a course at an adult training centre, she meets Marithé (Viard) who wants to help Carole create a new, fulfilling life. They become close friends, however complications ensue when Marithé encounters Carole’s charming husband.
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An uproarious box office smash-hit about family ties, the joy of music and breaking free, in 'The Bélier Family', everyone is deaf, except dutiful sixteen-year-old Paula, who acts as an indispensable interpreter for her parents and younger brother, especially in the running of the family dairy farm. Though her salt-of-the-earth father has decided to run for mayor, Paula’s attentions are very much elsewhere. She’s witnessed the handsome new boy at school enroll in the choir, and impulsively joins too. It’s not long before her music teacher discovers her considerable talent, however his encouragement only exacerbates the matter of Paula’s independence.
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Acclaimed actress Mélanie Laurent takes the director’s chair for the emotionally seductive and affecting drama about an adolescent friendship perched on the brink of obsession in 'Breathe'. When Charlie, an attractive but self-doubting 17-year-old girl meets the charismatic, forthright and unruly Sarah, they immediately form an intense and exhilarating bond. Sarah offers both companionship and much needed support for Charlie whilst her unstable mother copes badly with impending divorce. But their inseparable, idyllic existence soon steers into dangerous territory.
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From Oscar-winning director Régis Warnier, 'The Gate' is set in French Cambodia during the reign of Pol Pot in the early 1970s. A true story, it relates the capture of François Bizot, a French ethnologist,who is imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge and accused of being a CIA spy. François forms an unlikely bond with his interrogator and torturer, Duch, a man with a pragmatic sense of morality. Assisted by Duch, François escapes Cambodia. Years later, their paths cross, under different circumstances.
Effortlessly fusing the best of Hitchcock and Almodóvar, 'The New Girlfriend' is a psychological drama owing its origins to a Ruth Rendell short story. Claire is grieving the loss of her very best friend, who has left behind a husband, David, and a newborn baby. But during an unannounced visit, she is shocked to discover David nuzzling his infant while wearing his dead wife’s clothes. Unfazed, David explains that his former wife was aware of this particular idiosyncrasy and over time, Claire overcomes her initial reaction and helps David to create his own female persona to inhabit.
'The New Girlfriend'
'Summer Nights' follows Michel, an ambitious provincial solicitor with a devoted wife and dreams of public office. However, he harbours a dark secret. Every weekend, he flees to the country to indulge his urge to cross-dress as Mylène, spending time in the company of his old war buddy, Jean-Marie who also has a female alter ego, Flavia. Flavia’s house becomes the secret refuge for a collection of similar minded men, who meet to live, love and sing as women. When they are joined by a young soldier fleeing France’s war in Algeria, the conflict provides a dark emotional backdrop to their double lives. 'Summer Nights' is the winner of the Queer Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival 2014.
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For the full festival programme, head to Alliance Françsaise French Film Festival.
Win a double pass to a session of your choice at any of the cinemas hosting the festival.
Alliance Française French Film Festival Dates
3-22 March – Palace Norton Street, Palace Verona, Chauvel Cinema & Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace (Sydney)4-22 March – Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Westgarth & Kino Cinemas (Melbourne)
5-24 March – Palace Nova Eastend (Adelaide)
6-25 March – Palace Electric Cinema (Canberra)
13 March - 1 April – Palace Barracks & Palace Centro (Brisbane)
19 March - 7 April – Cinema Paradiso, Luna on SX & Windsor Cinema (Perth)
9-14 April – Palace Byron Bay
16-21 April – State Cinema (Hobart)
