RENDEZ VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA 2009

The RENDEZ VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA 2009 is coming to Lincoln Center on March 5 (thru March 15).

Here is a quick preview of some of the films on the way! Following that is a detailed program from the Film Society...




Eighteen Premieres!

On Stage: Christopher Barratier, Claire Denis, Costa-Gavras,
Benoît Jacquot, Agnès Varda, and more...

The 14th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance’s celebrated annual showcase of the best in contemporary French film, arrives at The Film Society and the IFC Center, March 5-15.

Eighteen titles will premiere in the series, including new work by Claude Chabrol, Claire Denis, Costa-Gavras, Benoît Jacquot, Agnès Varda, the world premiere of André Téchiné’s social drama “The Girl on the Train,” and Jean-François Richet’s multiple prizewinner “Mesrine,” an energetic biography of French criminal mastermind Jacques Mesrine.

Opening Night features the U.S. premiere of Christophe Barratier’s “Paris 36,” a period charmer starring veteran comedian Gérard Jugnot as a high-strung theater manager leading a movement to bring his music hall back into prominence. The screening has the double honor of marking The Film Society’s return to the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall, home of the New York Film Festival, Thursday, March 5, at 8:00 p.m. Barratier, lauded newcomer Nora Arnezeder, and producer (and sometimes actor) Jacques Perrin will attend the screening.

Other filmmakers and guests who will attend screenings during the series include directors Claire Denis, Samuel Collardey, Patrick Mario Bernard, Pierre Trividic, Danièle Thompson, Costa-Gavras, Anne Fontaine, Jean-François Richet, Ilan Duran Cohen, Agnès Varda, Sylvie Verheyde, Martin Provost, Pierre Schoeller, Benoît Jacquot, and prizewinning actress Félicité Wouassi (“With a Little Help from Myself”).

Several of this year’s Rendez-Vous directors continue with the much-discussed style established in New York Film Festival Opening Night selection “The Class” with enterprising mixtures of documentary and fiction filmmaking. Frequent Rendez-Vous director Agnès Varda will present “The Beaches of Agnès,” a fascinating personal take on the beaches and cities that have influenced her creative life. Other long-time cinematic favorites complement newer voices, as Costa-Gavras tackles the economic hardships faced by illegal immigrants to Europe in his newest social critique, “Eden Is West,” and Samuel Collardey makes a lively directorial debut with “The Apprentice,” about the growth and family life of a young student in rural France.

Following similar social themes through more traditional methods, Pierre Schoeller’s lauded debut “Versailles” stars the late Guillaume Depardieu as a vagrant seeking redemption while caring for a five-year-old boy in the woods outside of France’s most opulent palace. Catherine Deneuve and Émilie Dequenne provide the emotional heart of André Téchiné’s harrowing drama about class and racial identity in France, “The Girl on the Train,” receiving its world premiere in the series. And Vincent Cassel leads a dynamic cast that includes Cécile De France, Olivier Gourmet, Mathieu Amalric, and Ludivine Sagnier in Jean-François Richet’s whirlwind, two-part crime story “Mesrine,” already a winner of multiple honors at this year’s Lumière Awards and Globes de Cristal.

Richet’s film also offers the first of two appearances in the series by France’s most illustrious actor, Gérard Depardieu, who stars as the title police commissioner in legendary filmmaker Claude Chabrol’s latest thriller “Bellamy.” “Avenue Montaigne” director Danièle Thompson also guides some of France’s finest actors through an appealing mix of social commentary and black comedy in “Change of Plans”—Karin Viard, Patrick Bruel, Patrick Chesnais, Marina Hands, Dany Boon, Emmanuelle Seigner, Pierre Arditi, and Marina Foïs.

Anchoring a slate full of strong women’s roles, Foïs also appears in Ilan Duran Cohen’s Rendez-Vous debut “The Joy of Singing,” a delicious spy thriller/comedy that takes a secret service couple into the world of amateur opera. Isabelle Huppert re-teams with Benoît Jacquot for the romantic tale “Villa Amalia,” based on Pascal Quignard’s Goncourt Prize-winning novel, and Yolande Moreau returns to Rendez-Vous as outsider artist Séraphine de Senlis in first-time director Martin Provost’s ambitious biopic “Séraphine.”

Moreau, Provost, and several “Séraphine” artists are currently nominated for top honors—including best picture—at this year’s César Awards, France’s equivalent to the Academy Awards. The film is one of several Rendez-Vous features and filmmakers to receive their country’s highest cinematic praise. Other notably honored titles in the series include “Mesrine” (best picture, best actor Vincent Cassel, and best director Jean-François Richet), “Versailles” (best first film and best actor Guillaume Depardieu), “Paris 36” (best cinematography), “The Girl from Monaco” (best supporting actor Roschdy Zem and best female newcomer Louise Bourgoin), “With a Little Help from Myself” (best supporting actor Claude Rich and best male newcomer Ralph Amoussou), and “The Beaches of Agnès” (best documentary feature).

Claude Chabrol, whose “Bellamy” will receive its North American premiere during Rendez-Vous, will be honored with the prestigious Berlinale Camera during this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

Finally, new this year to Rendez-Vous, a program of prizewinning short films by emerging filmmakers will provide “an exclusive introduction to the next generation of French cinema,” says Peña. The seven titles in Tout Court: New French Shorts will screen together, Friday, March 13, at 4:00 p.m. and Sunday, March 15, at 3:15 p.m.

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2009 is sponsored by Unifrance, Société Générale Private Banking, Maison de la France, agnès b., and LVT Laser Subtitling.

Regular tickets for Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2009 screenings at The Film Society of Lincoln Center (Walter Reade Theater) are $12.50; $8.50 for Film Society members, students, and children (6-12, accompanied by an adult); and $9.50 for seniors (62+).

Tickets for screenings at the IFC Center are $12.50; $9.50 for IFC Center members; and $8.50 for children and seniors. They are available online at www.filmlinc.com and www.ifccenter.com, and at the box offices at The Film Society’s Walter Reade Theater and the IFC Center.

Tickets for the Opening Night screening of “Paris 36” at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall are $20; $15 for Film Society members.

Tickets will go on sale Thursday, Feb. 19.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center was founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, to recognize and support new directors, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility and understanding of film. Advancing this mandate today, The Film Society hosts two distinguished festivals—The New York Film Festival and New Directors/New Films—as well as the annual Gala Tribute, and a year-round calendar of programming at its Walter Reade Theater. It also offers definitive examinations of essential films and artists to a worldwide audience through Film Comment magazine.

Founded in 1949, Unifrance is a government-sponsored association of French film industry professionals dedicated to the international promotion of French films. With offices in Paris, New York, Toyko and Beijing, Unifrance provides financial and logistical support to theatrical distributors and major film festivals showcasing new and recent French cinema throughout the world.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center is located at 165 West 65th St. between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway.

The IFC Center is located at 323 Sixth Ave. at West 3rd Street.


SCREENING SCHEDULE


Thursday, March 5
8:00 Paris 36 (at Alice Tully Hall)

WALTER READE THEATER (Film Society Of Lincoln Center = FSLC)
Friday, March 6
1:00 The Girl from Monaco
3:30 Versailles
6:20 Change of Plans
8:45 Séraphine

Saturday, March 7
1:30 The Beaches of Agnès
4:10 With a Little Help from Myself
6:35 The Girl from Monaco
9:00 Eden Is West

Sunday, March 8
12:30 Séraphine
3:30 The Joy of Singing
6:00 Versailles
8:45 Change of Plans

Monday, March 9
1:00 With a Little Help from Myself
3:30 Change of Plans
6:15 With a Little Help from Myself
8:45 The Beaches of Agnès

Tuesday, March 10
1:00 The Joy of Singing
3:30 The Girl on the Train
6:15 Mesrine Part 1
9:10 The Girl on the Train

Wednesday, March 11
1:30 Eden Is West
3:45 The Apprentice
6:00 Mesrine Part 2
9:00 The Other One

Thursday, March 12
1:00 Stella
3:45 Bellamy
6:15 Stella
8:45 The Apprentice

Friday, March 13
1:30 35 Shots of Rum
4:00 Tout Court: New French Shorts
6:15 35 Shots of Rum
8:45 Villa Amalia

Saturday, March 14
1:30 Mesrine Part 1
3:50 Mesrine Part 2
6:45 Villa Amalia
9:10 Bellamy

Sunday, March 15
1:00 Bellamy
3:15 Tout Court: New French Shorts
5:30 The Other One
8:00 35 Shots of Rum


THE IFC CENTER
323 Sixth Ave., at West Third Street

Friday, March 6
7:00 With a Little Help from Myself
9:30 Bellamy

Saturday, March 7
1:30 Versailles
4:00 Séraphine
7:00 Change of Plans
9:30 TBA

Sunday, March 8
1:30 The Girl from Monaco
4:00 Eden Is West
6:45 The Girl on the Train
9:00 TBA

Monday, March 9
7:00 The Apprentice
9:00 TBA

Tuesday, March 10
7:00 The Other One
9:00 TBA

Wednesday, March 11
7:00 The Joy of Singing
9:30 Stella

Thursday, March 12
7:00 35 Shots of Rum
9:30 Villa Amalia


all times p.m.




Detailed Program and Schedule Information:

OPENING NIGHT
Thursday, March 5, 8:00 p.m.

U.S. PREMIERE
Paris 36 / Faubourg 36
Christophe Barratier, France/Germany/Czech Republic, 2008; 120m
Encouraged by the electoral victories of The Popular Front, Pigoil (comedian Gérard Jugnot) leads a movement to turn his threadbare ’30s music hall into a cooperative in which everyone, from the actors to the stagehands, has a stake. His success hinges on a new act, the velvet-voiced chanteuse Douce (Nora Arnezeder). Filled with stunning camera movements and magnificent sets, Paris 36 is a loving, knowing homage to the pre-war cinema of Jean Renoir, Jacques Becker, and Marcel Pagnol. Newcomer Arnezeder is surely the French revelation of the year. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
Tickets: $15 member; $20 public
Alice Tully Hall: Thu Mar 5: 8:00pm

---

U.S. PREMIERE
35 Shots of Rum / 35 Rhums
Claire Denis, France/Germany, 2008; 100m
Claire Denis’s delicate and graceful new film begins in the territory of Renoir’s La Bête humaine and develops into an unlikely and enchanted evocation of Ozu’s Late Spring. Denis regular Alex Descas is Lionel, a Parisian train driver who lives in peace and contentment with his “marriageable” daughter Joséphine (Mati Diop), until she notices the stirrings of love from the boy across the hall (Grégoire Colin). Shot by frequent Denis collaborator Agnès Godard, with a score by Tindersticks.
Film Society of Lincoln Center (FSLC - Walter Reade Theater): Fri Mar 13: 1:30pm
FSLC: Fri Mar 13: 6:15pm
FSLC: Sun Mar 15: 8:00pm
IFC Center: Thu Mar 12: 7:00pm

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
The Apprentice / L’apprenti
Samuel Collardey, France, 2008; 82m
On the boundary of fiction and documentary, Samuel Collardey’s marvelous The Apprentice, winner of the prestigious Louis Delluc Prize for best first film, follows 15-year-old student Mathieu (Mathieu Bulle) as he develops a warm, close relationship with farm owner and mentor Paul (Paul Barbier) that provides a partial refuge from the emotional chaos of his parents’ failed marriage. The Apprentice offers a rich portrait of a young man facing his own limitations while discovering new possibilities.
FSLC: Wed Mar 11: 3:45pm
FSLC: Thu Mar 12: 8:45pm
IFC: Mon Mar 9: 7:00pm

NEW YORK PREMIERE
The Beaches of Agnès / Les Plages d’Agnès
Agnès Varda, France, 2008; 110m
“If you open people, you’ll find landscapes. If you open me, you’ll find beaches.” –Agnès Varda
For her 80th birthday, Agnès Varda offers us a gift: this gorgeous, affecting, revealing autobiographical reflection filtered through the many beaches that, in their way, have shaped her life. The cultural explosion that included the French New Wave; her life with her late husband, filmmaker Jacques Demy, and children, Rosalie and Mathieu; her long sojourn in the U.S., where she knew everybody from the Black Panthers to Jim Morrison—all are part of this extraordinary voyage through a most remarkable life. A Cinema Guild release.
FSLC: Sat Mar 7: 1:30pm
FSLC: Mon Mar 9: 8:45pm

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Bellamy
Claude Chabrol, France, 2009; 110m
Two of the indisputable giants of French cinema—Claude Chabrol and Gérard Depardieu—team up for the first time in this wry, engaging thriller about police commissioner Paul Bellamy’s attempts to draw the line between professional instinct and his duty to perennially troubled younger brother Jacques (Clovis Cornillac). Chabrol acknowledged his long-time desire to work with Depardieu by co-writing the screenplay with Odile Barski for the actor, creating what Chabrol called “a kind of portrait of Gérard Depardieu, or at least a vision of one of his many aspects.”
FSLC: Thu Mar 12: 3:45pm
FSLC: Sat Mar 14: 9:10pm
FSLC: Sun Mar 15: 1:00pm
IFC: Fri Mar 6: 9:30pm

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Change of Plans / Le code a changé
Danièle Thompson, France, 2009; 100m
A group of friends and acquaintances gather for dinner, and the atmosphere couldn’t be friendlier, with great food, wine, and conversation. Slowly the masks of civility drop and suspicions, jealousies, and fears emerge. Darker in tone than Danièle Thompson’s earlier work, Change of Plans still features her knowing and generous wit. As always, she has gathered a first-rate cast: Karin Viard, Patrick Bruel, Patrick Chesnais, Marina Hands, Dany Boon, Marina Foïs, Emmanuelle Seigner, and Pierre Arditi.
FSLC: Fri Mar 6: 6:20pm
FSLC: Sun Mar 8: 8:45pm
FSLC: Mon Mar 9: 3:30pm
IFC: Sat Mar 7: 7:00pm

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Eden Is West / Eden à l’ouest
Costa-Gavras, France/Greece/Italy, 2009; 110m
Costa-Gavras’s new film is the story of an illegal immigrant, Elias (Italian actor Riccardo Scarmarcio), for whom the West will literally be Eden, the name of the resort at which he lands. Costa-Gavras never shrinks away from showing the almost casual cruelty Elias continually experiences. The film also captures the magical nature of the world he encounters, in which every new experience is full of both promise and threat. The sense of social engagement in Costa-Gavras’s cinema has never been stronger or rendered more inventively.
FSLC: Sat Mar 7: 9:00pm
FSLC: Wed Mar 11: 1:30pm
IFC: Sun Mar 8: 4:00pm

NEW YORK PREMIERE
The Girl from Monaco / La Fille de Monaco
Anne Fontaine, France, 2008; 95m
High-priced Parisian lawyer Bertrand (Fabrice Luchini) travels to Monaco to defend a wealthy woman accused of murder. He discovers that his bodyguard, the scowling Christophe (Roschdy Zem), can be useful in a variety of ways, but the danger posed by the case is nothing to that posed by stunning TV weathergirl Audrey (Louise Bourgoin). Where, exactly, does a bodyguard’s job end? The latest work from Nathalie director Anne Fontaine confirms her role as an intrepid explorer of the seamier side of desire, where nothing is what we had first imagined. A Magnolia Pictures release.
FSLC: Fri Mar 6: 1:00pm
FSLC: Sat Mar 7: 6:35pm
IFC: Sun Mar 8: 1:30pm

WORLD PREMIERE
The Girl on the Train / La Fille du RER
André Téchiné, France, 2009; 110m
A young woman, Jeanne (Émilie Dequenne), reports that skinheads attacked her, seemingly for being a Jew. The incident becomes a media sensation, and attorney Samuel Bleistein (Michel Blanc), an old friend of Jeanne’s mother Louise (Catherine Deneuve), takes the case. Based on the play by Jean-Marie Besset, André Téchiné’s new film explores notions of class, ethnicity, and who’s in and who’s out in contemporary France, offering a provocative reflection on the creation of identity at a time of ever-increasing social tension.
FSLC: Tue Mar 10: 3:30pm
FSLC: Tue Mar 10: 9:10pm
IFC: Sun Mar 8: 6:45pm

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
The Joy of Singing / Le Plaisir de chanter
Ilan Duran Cohen, France, 2008; 99m
Secret service agents Muriel (Marina Foïs) and Philippe (Lorànt Deutsch) form an unlikely couple even before they are assigned to track down Constance (Jeanne Balibar), widow of a uranium trafficker and star pupil in a class for amateur opera singers. Muriel and Philippe enroll and discover their vocal chops, physical attraction, and the other students, who are also interested in what Constance may be concealing. Novelist and filmmaker Ilan Duran Cohen creates a delicious comedy thriller full of surprising characters and delightful and delirious plot twists.
FSLC: Sun Mar 8: 3:30pm
FSLC: Tue Mar 10: 1:00pm
IFC: Wed Mar 11: 7:00pm

U.S. PREMIERE
Mesrine Part 1 / Mesrine, L’instinct de mort
Jean-François Richet, France/Canada/Italy, 2008; 113m
Jean-François Richet, aided by a sensational performance by Vincent Cassel, spotlights the life and adventures of post-war France’s most notorious criminal, Jacques Mesrine. Part one begins in the ’60s, when Mesrine falls in with petty mobsters led by Guido (Gérard Depardieu). He quickly moves up the ranks, hooks up with the ruthless and cold-blooded Jeanne Schneider (Cécile de France), and masterminds ever more risky jobs. Based on Mesrine’s writings, the film is a vibrant relay of this extraordinary whirlwind of a life. A Senator Entertainment release.
FSLC: Tue Mar 10: 6:15pm
FSLC: Sat Mar 14: 1:30pm

U.S. PREMIERE
Mesrine Part 2 / Mesrine, L’ennemi public n° 1
Jean-François Richet, France/Canada, 2008; 132m
The second part of Jean-François Richet’s epic study of master criminal Jacques Mesrine is a completely separate film and can be readily understood and enjoyed without having seen its predecessor. The story begins where part one ends: with Mesrine’s escape from a Canadian prison and return to France. Already an enigmatic media celebrity, Mesrine becomes a master of disguise, but his increasing daring soon exacts its toll. Part two portrays a man whose world is inexorably spinning out of control, and who’s thrilled by every minute of it. A Senator Entertainment release.
FSLC: Wed Mar 11: 6:00pm
FSLC: Sat Mar 14: 3:50pm

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
The Other One / L’Autre
Patrick Mario Bernard and Pierre Trividic, France, 2008; 97m
When Anne-Marie (Dominique Blanc) discovers that her one-time lover Alex (Cyril Guei) is seeing someone else, awkwardness evolves into jealousy and obsession. Based on Annie Ernaux’s novel L’Occupation, Patrick Mario Bernard and Pierre Trividic’s second film depicts Anne-Marie in constant motion—walking, running, in cars, buses, and trains—with no fixed place in her life. Part of the greatness of Blanc’s award-winning performance is that she continually pulls herself and the film back just when it appears that everything has finally gone over the edge.
FSLC: Wed Mar 11: 9:00pm
FSLC: Sun Mar 15: 5:30pm
IFC: Tue Mar 10: 7:00pm

TOUT COURT: NEW FRENCH SHORTS
France, 2008; 90m
This new feature of Rendez-Vous offers you an exclusive introduction to the next generation of French cinema with a program of prizewinning short films: Baby (Bébé, Clément Michel); New Skin (Peau neuve, Clara Elalouf); Good Night Malik (Bonne nuit Malik, Bruno Danan); The Fire, The Blood, The Stars (Le feu, le sang, les étoiles, Caroline Deruas); My Little Brother from the Moon (Mon petit frère est de la lune, Frédéric Philibert); and My Name Is Dominic (Tous les enfants s’appellent Dominique, Nicolas Silhol).
FSLC: Fri Mar 13: 4:00pm
FSLC: Sun Mar 15: 3:15pm

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Stella
Sylvie Verheyde, France, 2008; 103m
With her first film A Brother, Sylvie Verheyde established herself as one of the most distinctive filmmakers of her generation. With Stella, shown to great acclaim at this year’s Venice Film Festival, she returns to the subject of modern family life: An 11-year-old girl (Léora Barbara) comes into her own while coping with her working-class family’s meltdown. Verheyde avoids easy clichés or stark heroes and villains, creating the sense of a warm, embracing atmosphere for Stella even as she drifts away from her parents’ world.
FSLC: Thu Mar 12: 1:00pm
FSLC: Thu Mar 12: 6:15pm
IFC: Wed Mar 11: 9:30pm

NEW YORK PREMIERE
Séraphine
Martin Provost, France/Belgium, 2008; 125m
Quiet, small-town eccentric Séraphine (Yolande Moreau) pursues her secret passion for painting by mixing soil, animal blood, and oil into pigments for her lush, sensual canvases of flowers. When a new arrival, German art critic and collector Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), arranges an exhibition, Séraphine is ushered into a new and unsettling world. Martin Provost has created a touching portrait of fascinating outsider artist Séraphine de Senlis, as well as a provocative reflection on the dichotomy between art as self-expression and art as commodity. A Music Box release.
FSLC: Fri Mar 6: 8:45pm
FSLC: Sun Mar 8: 12:30pm
IFC: Sat Mar 7: 4:00pm

NEW YORK PREMIERE
Versailles
Pierre Schoeller, France, 2008; 102m
This impressive debut feature by The Dreamlife of Angels screenwriter Pierre Schoeller is a subtle, perceptive look at poverty in contemporary France, which can be found even in the shadow of the nation’s grandest symbol of opulence. Nina (Judith Chemla) leaves her five-year-old son Enzo (Max Baissette de Malglaive) with a stranger, Damien (Guillaume Depardieu), in the woods beside the palace of Versailles. Schoeller examines the creation of a bond between Enzo and Damien, who discovers in his caring for the boy a possible road back to society.
FSLC: Fri Mar 6: 3:30pm
FSLC: Sun Mar 8: 6:00pm
IFC: Sat Mar 7: 1:30pm

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Villa Amalia
Benoît Jacquot, France, 2009; 94m
Ann (Isabelle Huppert) leaves Paris after seeing her long-time partner in the arms of another woman. She winds up on Ischia, off the coast of Naples, at an old house known as the Villa Amalia, where she is quite literally rescued by Giulia (Maya Sansa). Rendez-Vous veteran Benoît Jacquot perfectly captures the sparse, hard-edged feel of Pascal Quignard’s prize-winning novel. Locations change abruptly, and characters often embark on unexpected courses of action, creating a portrait of a world in which nothing is certain and every moment is ripe with possibility.
FSLC: Fri Mar 13: 8:45pm
FSLC: Sat Mar 14: 6:45pm
IFC: Thu Mar 12: 9:30pm

NEW YORK PREMIERE
With a Little Help from Myself / Aide-toi, le ciel t’aidera
François Dupeyron, France, 2008; 94m
Sonia (Félicité Wouassi), an African immigrant struggling to get by in a Paris housing project, conspires with her elderly white neighbor Robert (Claude Rich) to hide the body of Sonia’s husband and keep receiving the dead man’s pension. Thus begins an unlikely relationship between members of two of contemporary France’s most marginalized groups, immigrants and the elderly, in this dark and pointed social satire. Wouassi, winner of the Best Actress Award at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival, is a major discovery.
FSLC: Sat Mar 7: 4:10pm
FSLC: Mon Mar 9: 1:00pm
FLSC: Mon Mar 9: 6:15pm
IFC: Fri Mar 6: 7:00pm

FRENCH FILMS IN NY - MAY 16-22, 2008

Here's the latest news from the French Embassy about French Films playing in New York --

(But please note: Film schedules are notoriously prone to changes. Please double check the schedule with the theater before you go down there!)


>>>> Now Playing (May 16-22, 2008)

OSS 117: LE CAIRE - NID D'ESPIONS / CAIRO – NEST OF SPIES

City Cinemas Cinema 1, 2, and 3 1001 3rd Avenue New York, NY 10022 1:10pm 3:20pm 5:30pm 7:40pm 10:05pm

Landmark's Sunshine Cinema 143 East Houston Street New York, NY 10002 11:05am 1:15pm 3:30pm 5:50pm 8:10pm 10:20pm
http://movies.aol.com/movie/oss-117-cairo-nest-of-spies/31641/main

Directed by Michel Hazanavicius. With Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, Aure Atika, Philippe Lefebvre, Constantin Alexandrov, Said Amadis, Claude Brosset. 99 minutes. French with English subtitles

2006 Seattle Int’l Film Festival (Audience Award) 2006 Tokyo Int’l Film Festival (Grand Prix)

A box-office sensation in France, comic star Jean Dujardin stars as secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, a.k.a. OSS 117 who in the tradition of Maxwell Smart and Inspector Clouseau somehow succeeds in spite of his ineptitude. After a fellow agent and close friend is murdered, Hubert is ordered to take his place at the head of a poultry firm in Cairo. This is to be his cover while he investigates Jack's death, monitors the Suez Canal, checks up on the Brits and Soviets, burnishes France's reputation, quells a fundamentalist rebellion and brokers peace in the Middle East. A blithe and witty send-up not only of spy films of that era and the suave secret agent figure but also neo-colonialism, ethnocentrism and the very idea of Western covert action in the Middle East.

Trailer: www.oss117movie.com

“This inspired piece of silliness boasts gorgeous period design, deftly tweaks French colonial smugness, and, in Jean Dujardin's self-mocking playfulness as Agent 117 offers a charming comic turn closer in spirit to Cary Grant than Mike Myers." John Powers, Vogue

“an uproarious send-up of Jean Bruce’s long-running series of spy novels - a Gallic precursor to James Bond…makes joyous nonsense out of bad matte paintings, obvious miniatures, unsubtle sexual innuendo and a lead actor who plays the role to clueless, arched-eyebrow perfection” Scott Foundas, LA Weekly

“Sparkling production design, a jubilantly retro score and a genuine flair for using the film and TV vocabulary of the '60s to revisit colonial arrogance put pic in the same conceptual ballpark as Austin Powers or "The Naked Gun" series.” Lisa Nesselson, Variety

A Music Box Release:


FRONTIER(S)

City Cinemas Village East 181 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003 2:20pm 4:45pm 7:10pm 9:35pm

Directed by Xavier Gens. NC-17. 108 min. With Karina Testa, Aurelien Wiik, Patrick Ligardes, David Saracino

Alone in a Paris plagued by deadly race riots, the young and beautiful Yasmine is looking for a way out. In her desperation, she turns to her shady ex-boyfriend. Together with his two thug friends, they pull off a bold heist and head for the border. With the police close behind, they hide out in a seemingly peaceful inn. But the mysterious innkeeper is hiding a secret more terrifying than anything they could ever imagine. Trapped in an endless maze of tunnels crawling with hungry subhuman cannibals, they must fight to survive their bloody initiation into the innkeeper's evil family cult.
http://movies.aol.com/theater/city-cinemas-village-east/922/showtimes

An After Dark release: http://www.frontiersunrated.com/frontiers_main.html



ROMAN DE GARE

Lincoln Plaza Cinemas Broadway Between 62nd and 63rd New York, NY 1002311:20am 1:20pm 3:35pm 5:50pm 8:05pm 10:15pm

Angelika Film Center 18 W. Houston Street New York, NY 10012 12:15pm 2:45pm 5:05pm 7:40pm 10:00pm 12:15am

http://movies.aol.com/movie/roman-de-gare/32367/main?date=20080425

Jacob Burns Film Center 364 Manville Road Pleasantville, NY 10570 Fri. 5/16: 5:00, 7:15, 9:30, Sat. 5/17: 12:30, 2:45, 5:05, 7:20, 9:35, Sun. 5/18: 12:15, 2:30, 5:00, 7:15, Mon. 5/19: 7:30, Tues. 5/20: 5:30, Wed. 5/21: 5:15, 7:30, Thurs. 5/22: 5:00

http://www.burnsfilmcenter.org/

By Claude Lelouch, 2007. Color. 103min. In French with English subtitles. With Fanny Ardant, Dominique Pinon, Audrey Dana

In the still of the night, three lives are about to cross: an abandoned woman (Audrey Dana), a stranger awaiting his chance (Dominique Pinon), and a best-selling author (Fanny Ardant). Deceptively layered and intriguingly misleading, this thriller follows these three strangers as they uncover their respective secrets and betrayals. Academy-Award winning director Claude Lelouch originally wrote and directed the film under a nom de plume, further adding to the movie’s mystique. Presented at Cannes in 2007, Roman de gare stars the celebrated Fanny Ardant (La femme de la côté, Ridicule) and Dominique Pinon (Amélie, Delicatessen).

"Infectiously enjoyable. " - The Hollywood Reporter

Trailer: http://angelikafilmcenter.com/angelika_film.asp?hID=1&ID=22i14d8.4r72504390147166t.72#


LE VOYAGE DU BALLON ROUGE / FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON

The Two Boots Pioneer Theater 155 E 3rd St New York, NY 10009

http://movies.aol.com/movie/the-flight-of-the-red-balloon-le-voyage-du-ballon-rouge/31377/main?date=20080404


By Hou Hsiao-hsien. With Juliette Binoche, Simon Iteanu, Song Fang. 2007. 113 minutes. In French with English subtitles

Inspired by Albert Lamorisse’s classic 1956 short THE RED BALLOON, the film begins with a mysterious balloon affectionately following 7-year-old Simon (Simon Iteanu) around Paris. A precocious, wide-eyed boy, Simon lives in a shared split-level flat with his mother Suzanne (Binoche), a puppeteer and voice performer. Completely absorbed by her new show, single-mother Suzanne hires Song (Song Fan), a Taiwanese film student, to help care for Simon. They come to form a unique extended family, thoroughly interdependent yet all lost in separate thoughts and dreams. The fluid, unparalleled elegance of Hou’s camerawork finds grace in the simplest of details, and gently discovers a Paris previously unseen. Playing a flawed but disarmingly honest woman struggling to find her footing, Binoche is utterly hypnotic, and has never been better.

“A quiet, unassuming and flawless tribute to Paris, to the spirit of childhood and to the ability of art to compensate for some of the painful imperfections of life.” –A.O. Scott, New York Times
“One of the year’s most stirring sights. A movie whose profundity sneaks up on you and wraps you in a soft embrace.” –Gene Seymour, Newsday
“A work of tremendous precision and heartfelt emotion, made by one of the great artists in the medium. A masterpiece.” –Andrew O’Hehir, Salon


JELLYFISH

Jacob Burns Film Center 364 Manville Road Pleasantville, NY 10570 Sat. 5/17: 7:00, Thurs. 5/22: 7:30
http://www.burnsfilmcenter.org/


Cinema Village 22 East 12th Street New York, NY 10003 1:30pm; 5:30pm
http://movies.aol.com/movie/jellyfish-meduzot/33233/main?date=20080426

Directed by Etgar Keret, Shira Geffen. With Sarah Adler, Nikol Leidman, Gera Sandler, Noa Knoller, Ma-nenita De Latorre. Hebrew/French with English subtitles. 78 mins. Rated NR

Awards: Winner - Camera d’Or - Cannes Film Festival 10-Time Nominee - Awards of Israeli Film Academy

Poignant, often witty and exceedingly cinematic, JELLYFISH (MEDUZOT), tells the story of three very different Tel Aviv women whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren, a bride who breaks her leg escaping a locked toilet stall, ruining her chance at a dream Caribbean honeymoon. And attending the event with an employer is Joy, a non Hebrew-speaking domestic worker who has guiltily left her son behind in her native Philippines.

"Marvelously inventive, often-ironic Israeli storyteller Etgar Keret and his life- and workmate, Shira Geffen, spin in Jellyfish a dreamy, arty, alluringly cockeyed tale. " - Entertainment Weekly

"[A] tightly constructed, cleverly stylized, serio-comic ensemble piece. " - VarietyTrailer: www.zeitgeistfilms.com


HORS DE PRIX / PRICELESS

Cinema Village 22 East 12th Street New York, NY 100033:20pm 7:20pm 9:30pm
http://movies.aol.com/movie/priceless-2008/32366/main?date=20080328

By Pierre Salvadori. With Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh, Marie-Christine Adam, Vernon Dobtcheff, Jacques Spiesser, Annelise Hesme, Charlotte Vermeil. France 2006 1h43'

Jean (Gad Elmaleh), a shy young bartender, is mistaken for a millionaire by a beautiful seductress named Irene (Audrey Tautou). When Irene discovers his true identity, she abandons him, only to find that a love-struck Jean has no intention of letting her get away. Jean’s comical attempts to gain her affections gradually evolve into setting himself up as a gigolo at a luxury hotel, until Irene finally starts to warm to her persistent, persuasive suitor. Against the wildly atmospheric backdrop of the south of France, Pierre Salvadori (APRES VOUS) directs this sexy and thoroughly charming romantic comedy, which is a fresh re-imagining of the cinema classic, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S.




Revivals, Classics, Festivals…



World Nomads: African Cinema >>> May 6, 13, 20 & 27, 2008

Florence Gould Hall , 55 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison Avenues) http://www.fiaf.org/french%20film/spring2008/2008-05-african.shtml

This series is, at root, about the art and sensibility of storytelling and about the talent and mind that creates the story. No one in the lineage of African Cinema could better tell the story of a people within a space—the life of the country, the encroaching metropolis—than Ousmane Sembène. In conjunction with World Nomads, this film series captures some of his vision and influence through rare screenings of six Yennenga prize films. Concluding with an evening of cinema, spoken word, and music; FIAF and African Film Festival, Inc. create an anthem to African Cinema and a salute to Sembène.

Baara

Souleymane Cissé, 1978. Color. 93 min. With Ismaïla Sarr, Baba Niaré. In Bambara with English subtitles

The first feature ever produced in Mali, Baara recounts the story of a young engineer who is promoted as head of a factory. He succeeds in improving the factory, but his desire to involve and empower other workers provokes the anger of the owner, who orders the manager’s execution. Though set in a country rarely seen on film, Baara resonates with universality.

Tuesday, May 20 at 12:30 & 7pm*
*The 7pm screening will be introduced by director and producer Mamadou Niang

Drum

Zola Maseko, 2004. Color. 104 min. With Taye Diggs, Moshidi Motshegwa, Gabriel Mann, Jason FlemyngIn English, Afrikaans & German

Drum depicts Sophiatown in the 1950s, a vibrant place full of music, love, and laughter; and the breeding ground for resistance. The film captures a period when a generation of courageous South African writers, critics, and musicians emerged, intermingling with Shebeen queens, and tsotsis (young gangsters). Taye Diggs anchors a commanding ensemble with his portrayal of legendary journalist Henry Nxumalo.
Tuesday, May 20 at 4 & 9pm



Godard 60's >>> May 2 - June 5

Film Forum 209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014
http://www.filmforum.org/films/godards60.html

Throughout the 1960s, cinephiles eagerly awaited the latest film — or two— by Jean-Luc Godard (born 1930). A founding father of the nouvelle vague, the former critic was its most innovative in form, with each new work seemingly rewriting the grammar of film. Jump cuts, asynchronous soundtracks, self-narration, cinema as essay, cinema as collage, self-referential cinema, cinema of anarchy — you name it, Godard’s 60s oeuvre redefined “cutting edge” — and, with location and available-light shooting, now provides a near-documentary time capsule of Paris and environs. Through JLG’s movies, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, and Anna Karina became New Wave icons, with the dark-eyed, appealingly vulnerable Karina doubling as the director’s muse through seven quintessential collaborations — and a four-year marriage. Forty years after the tumultuous events of May ’68, and blessed with 100% hindsight, one can almost see the chaos coming through the satire and social criticism in Godard’s chronicles of “the children of Marx and Coca-Cola.” His eventual ever-more outré stylistic leaps would leave even art house audiences behind, but for at least one pivotal decade, Godard was a seminal force in redrawing the map of film. “From Breathless through Weekend, Godard reinvented cinema. Not since D.W. Griffith was knocking out a weekly two-reeler at the Biograph studio on 14th Street had there been anything to equal it.” – J. Hoberman. “The most gifted younger directors and student filmmakers all over the world recognize his liberation of the movies; like James Joyce, he is both kinds of master — both innovator and artist. Godard has already imposed his way of seeing on us; we look at cities, at billboards and brand names, at a girl’s hair different because of him.” – Pauline Kael.

Special thanks to Jonathan Howell (New Yorker Films); Sarah Finklea, Brian Belovarac, Peter Becker, Fumiko Takagi, Kim Hendrickson (Janus Films); Adrienne Halpern, Eric Dibernardo (Rialto Pictures); Delphine Selles (French Ministry of Culture, New York); Suzanne Fedak, Richard Lorber, Jason Viteritti (Koch Lorber); Andrew Youdell, Fleur Buckley (British Film Institute); Stephen Moore (Paul Kohner Agency); Donald Westlake; Laurence Braunberger (Les Films du Jeudi); Frazer Pennebaker (Pennebaker Hegedus Films); agnès b., Chris Apple (agnès b.); Robin Klein, Michael Gochanour, Valerie Collin, Jody Klein (ABKCO); and Mim Scala (Cupid Films).



LA CHINOISE

When Godard's La Chinoise opened in New York on April 3, 1968, the film both anticipated and critiqued the student movements that would storm barricades in Paris and take over buildings at Columbia just a few weeks later. Upper-class Veronique (Anne Wiazemsky) searches for the theoretical justification for her militant urges. Her actor boyfriend Guillaume (Jean-Pierre Léaud) wants to imagine a place for his art in the new order. Together they move into a well-appointed Parisian apartment for the summer, arguing militant strategies with fellow radicals while each battles for his place in the group's shifting hierarchy. No other Godard film more successfully uses the director's Pop Art sensibility: Images, colors and slogans flash across the screen as his characters act out their imagined revolutionary roles, living their lives as if they were quotations. "The children of Marx and Coca-Cola," indeed!

Release: 1967, Runtime: 96

“The cinematic techniques Godard used to evoke radical youth culture seem years ahead of their time.”– Stephen Holden, The New York Times.

“Eerily prophetic and spectacularly stylized.” – Andrew Sarris, The New York Observer.

“Léaud looks young, Wiazemsky beautiful, and La
Chinoise, thank God, not a day past essential.” – Nathan Kosub, Reverse Shot

FRI 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30*, 9:40


UN FILM COMME LES AUTRES

In a meadow outside Paris after the events of May ‘68, Renault auto workers and students from Vincennes do a mass recap and try to look ahead, with scenes from “Ciné-tracts,” shot by Godard and others during the turbulence, intercut throughout. The first step of the Dziga Vertov Group’s “road to correct ideas.” For its NYFF premiere, Godard told the projectionist to determine the order of the reels by a coin toss. Digital projection.
1968. Approx. 111 min.

THU 9:30 ONLY


WEEKEND

Bourgeois slimeballs Jean Yanne and Mireille Darc wreck cars, battle with neighbors, and rip off gas stations en route to that weekend in the country. Mixing porno, slapstick, violence, political rhetoric, and virtuosic camerawork, an epic vision of the last throes of middle-class society and its car culture, with a pièce de resistance: the screen’s greatest traffic jam, Godard’s camera tracking along a hilarious succession of set piece tableaux for nearly a full reel. With Jean-Pierre Léaud as “Saint-Just.” 1967. Approx. 105 min.

"Nightmarishly funny... a mere description of the plot can't do justice to Godard's fractured narrative and sudden intrusions of nihilistic satire."- The Onion

“Godard seems to be tuned into the youthful frequency of the future. I felt the film unwinding with all the clattering contemporaneity of a tickertape, and the reading for Western Civilization was down, down, and out.”– Andrew Sarris

“This film has more depth than any of Godard's earlier work. It's his vision of Hell and it ranks with the greatest.” – Pauline Kael

“It is as though the violent quality of life had driven Godard into and through insanity, and he had caught it and turned it into one of the most important and difficult films he has ever made. The film must be seen, for its power, ambition, humor, and scenes of really astonishing beauty. There are absurdist characters from Lewis Carroll, from Fellini, from La Chinoise, from Buñuel. It is an appalling comedy. It is hard to take. There is nothing like it at all.” – Renata Adler, The New York Times

SAT/SUN 1:00, 3:10, 5:20, 7:30, 9:40 MON 1:00, 3:10, 5:20


A MARRIED WOMAN

Twenty-four hours in the life of Macha Méril, as she leaves lover Philippe Leroy to meet husband Bernard Noël. Subtitled ‘Fragments of a film shot in 1964’, with detached love scenes underscored with Beethoven; interviews titled Memory, the Present, Intelligence, etc.; quotations from Céline and Racine; and Méril on the receiving end of the already-overwhelming barrage of advertising — at one point double-checking her bust size against the ideal. Digital projection.

1964. Approx. 95 min.

“Firmly established Godard as a politically and socially engaged artist. It placed Godard fully within his times and put his times clearly on his side. It also established the tonality for his work to come, both it its forthright assertion of the cinema as an analytical instrument and in its unique permeability to the events, moods, and ideas of the day.”– Richard Brody

“His best work since Breathless…Godard has made the bedroom scenes genuinely sexual and humanly genuine. The over-all effect is of a lonely loveliness.”– Stanley Kauffman

“One of Godard’s most sociological films, as well as one of his most formally accomplished.” – Jonathan Rosenbaum

MON 7:30, 9:40


LE GAI SAVOIR

“We must start again from zero.” “No, we must first go back to zero.” The beginning of Godard’s farewell to narrative, with Jean-Pierre Léaud and Juliet Berto meeting after hours in a TV studio to embark on seven dialogues on the relationship between politics and film, with street scenes occasionally intercut.

1969. Approx. 95 min. Digital projection.

“It was not going to be possible to make the new cinema by using the language of the old. Having returned to zero, Godard had to start over again. Le Gai Savoir is the first step.” – James Monaco, The Movie Guide

“One of Godard's most beautiful, most visually lucid movies, even when the screen goes completely black and the whispered dialogue is translated in hypnotically white subtitles.”– Vincent Canby

TUE 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30, 9:30


ALPHAVILLE & Charlotte et Véronique

A trip into the future with erstwhile B movie hero Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) trekking through space to track down Professor “von Braun,” aided by prof’s daughter Anna Karina, squaring off in a final showdown with the Alpha 60 computer. Plus short Charlotte et Véronique (aka All The Boys Are Called Patrick, 1958): “A profusion of winks and nods to initiates . . . The principal mode of expression is in the collection of fetish objects it depicts.” – Richard Brody.

1965. 115 min.

“One of Godard’s most sheerly enjoyable movies, a dazzling amalgam of film noir and science fiction. Not the least astonishing thing is the way Coutard’s camera turns contemporary Paris into a icily dehumanized city of the future.”– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

“It is difficult to think of any parallel work which so successfully shows the future in the present, and which can sustain viewings forty years after it was made.”– Colin MacCabe

“A science fiction film without special affects. Shifts in tone from satirically tongue-in-cheek futurism, to a parody of private-eye mannerisms, to a wildly romantic allegory depicting a computer-controlled society at war with artists, thinkers, and lovers.”– Andrew Sarris

WED 1:00, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45, 10:00


MADE IN U.S.A.

Trench-coated Anna Karina arrives in Atlantic City (apparently a provincial French town) to track down boyfriend Richard Widmark (a character, not the actor), only to find... And then the bodies start dropping, amid encounters with gangster M. Typhus, his nephew David Goodis (a character, not the Shoot the Piano Player author), Goodis’s singing Japanese girlfriend, and a reel-long Hegelian bar bull session. A (very) metaphorical treatment of the murders of JFK and Ben Barka.. . and Godard’s Karina swan song. With Marianne Faithfull and Jean-Pierre Léaud as Donald Siegel (the character, not the Dirty Harry director).

1966. Digital projection. Approx. 90 min.

“Offers the cinema after Pierrot le Fou what Finnegans Wake gave to the novel after Ulysses.” – Michel Capdenac, Les Lettres francaises

“Demonstrates the complete inability of the form to deal with the reality of politics which eludes the easy solutions of the thriller genre. An almost unconscious farewell to Anna Karina.”– Colin MacCabe

“The film’s visual raison d’etre is the extraordinary number and duration of close-ups of Anna Karina. The close-ups are the most expressive ones in color that Godard has made to date.” – Richard Brody

THU 7:30, 9:30


BAND OF OUTSIDERS

“All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun.” – Godard. In the dreary suburb of Joinville, Claude Brasseur and Sami Frey (“Belmondo’s suburban cousins” – JLG), and mutual girlfriend Anna Karina, horse around with the idea of burglarizing the villa where she’s staying, but then things go memorably awry. A jeu d’esprit, with set pieces including the trio dancing “Le Madison” (“Probably the singled most imitated sequence in art films.” – Phillip Lopate, NY Times) and then “doing” the Louvre in record time.

1964. Approx. 97 min.

“A reverie of a gangster movie…Godard re-creates the gangsters and the moll as people in a Paris café, mixing them with Rimbaud, Kafka, Alice in Wonderland. This lyrical tragicomedy is perhaps Godard’s most delicately charming film.”– Pauline Kael

“Godard’s band of outsiders are the Beautiful and Damned, whose grace and flair can dance into folly and explode into fatality. Transcendent…crisp editing, fine on-location photography and endless invention.” – Time magazine

“A joy ride done strictly for the fun of it. A giddy delight.” – New York Daily News

“Godard at his most off-the-cuff takes a série noire and spins a fast and loose tale. One of his most open and enjoyable films.”–Time Out (London)

"[There is] beauty and otherworldliness in its every shade of grey... Along with Raoul Coutard's radiant cinematography, what makes the film extraordinary is Karina, the pure curves of her face a contradiction to the marionette angularity of her body."– The Village Voice.

“About the tyranny of living a life of movie-fed fantasies, and while it makes us see the poverty of those fantasies, it also makes them unaccountably rich, poetic, sad.” – Charles Taylor, Salon.

“The audience, thrust out of its dream by Godard’s Brechtian alienation devices, is also flattered into becoming collaborators in the filmmaking process.”– Phillip Lopate, The New York Times.

THU 1:30, 3:30, 5:30



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