The French Film Festival UK has prided itself on spotting and supporting the rising new stars of le cinéma français, both behind and in front of the camera. Discovery is the name of the game. This year demonstrates the verve and vitality of film-makers and actors, among them Emmanuelle Bercot on her second feature, previous FFF UK attendee Emmanuel Mouret with a charming romantic comedy, and in this Presidential election year an off-beat take on Jacques Chirac. Add in scriptwriter Emmanuel Carrère’s auspicious directorial debut, a feisty performance from Josiane Balasko’s daughter Marilou Berry and a riotous spy spoof to complete the tantalising choices.
| Backstage (18) Dir: Emmanuelle Bercot |
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EDINBURGH
FILMHOUSE 20 April 8.40pm GLASGOW GFT 21 April 3.30pm LONDON RIVERSIDE 28 April 2.00pm & 6.25pm DUNDEE DCA 1 May 6.00pm |
| The second feature from Emmanuelle
Berco investigages a dependent relationship between an admirer and
her idol (Isild Le Besco and Emmanuelle Seigner). They fashion a strange,
mutually parasitic relationship that treads a middle ground between
celebrity obsession and a hormone-fueled attraction, in this fascinating
music-driven character piece. A simple young girl from deep in the French countryside, Lucie is surprised to find herself, in her own home and in front of the TV cameras, face to face with the famous singer Lauren whom she worships. In a state of shock, the fan refuses to communicate with the woman who occupies all her thoughts, the walls of her room and the speakers of her stereo. In despair, she follows her star to Paris and manages to get into her hotel suite, then into her daily life. A perverse relationship grows, the idol falling from her pedestal and her admirer snooping around and getting involved with the singer’s personal life and love life. Blending professional actors (among them the director Noémie Lvovsky) and characters playing themselves, in particular the excellent manager Valéry Zeitoun, Bercot manages to create a venomous atmosphere haunted by the demands of success: body guards, recordings to be made at any price, psychological pressure, legal medicinal drugs, capriciousness and abuse of power... Having passed to the other side of the mirror, the gullible Lucie, bit by bit, involves herself deeper in a bitter-sweet form of corruption, becoming in turn a dangerous manipulator. |
Cast:
Emmanuelle Seigner, Isild Le Besco, Noémie Lvovsky, Valéry Zeitoun Director  |
| Dans la peau de Jacques
Chirac (15) Being Jacques Chirac Dir: Karl Zéro & Michel Royer |
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GLASGOW
GFT 23 April 6.30pm EDINBURGH FILMHOUSE 24 April 6.15pm DUNDEE DCA 30 April 8.20pm ABERDEEN BELMONT 2 May 6.30pm & 3 May 8.45pm |
| This is a satirical portrait of Jacques
Chirac’s political career, hopping from his time as mayor of Paris,
to Prime Minister to President. There is also commented footage from
the last 40 years or so, where the voice-over plays the role of the
thoughts of Chirac, as a cynical go-getter with a thirst for power.
Even if you don’t know too much about French politics the film is
very accessible. It is decidedly not only for the intellectuals or
chattering classes. Chirac is shown to be such a clown and a real
showman wearing a perpetual suave grin, basking in his vanity and
famous political dithering and U-turning which saw him named the ‘weathervane’. Don’t expect a documentary or even hard analysis but there are rewards aplenty in this sharp look inside the system – all the more relevant and pertinent in this the Presidential year. Commentators say the film would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. Being Jacques Chirac has been compared to a Michael Moore-style treatment. But its writer-director team, the satirists Karl Zéro and Michel Royer, disagree. “Moore’s film about George Bush came out at the time of the US 2004 election campaign, it was a piece of propaganda against his re-election,” Zéro said. “We know Chirac doesn't aspire to a third term as president ... this is not a propaganda film anti-, or pro-, Chirac.” Zéro described it as an “unauthorised biography”, an unflinching and comic look at France’s political elite and their behaviour. |
DirectorS |
| La trahison (15)
The Betrayal Dir: Philippe Faucon |
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GLASGOW
GFT 20 April 3.00pm EDINBURGH FILMHOUSE 21 April 8.40pm LONDON RIVERSIDE 27 April 7.00pm DUNDEE DCA 2 May 6.00pm |
| During the Algerian civil war, French Lieutenant
Roque has been posted to a small, isolated village in Algeria. His
role is, officially, to pacify the Algerians, and to convince that
the "good intentions" of the French presence in the country is well
meant. But in fact, the main goal is the dismantling and severe repression
of the FLN (Algerian undercover army of liberation). He tries hard
to live up to his function, torn as he is between the resentful locals
"who are subjected to brutality and torture", and the soldiers "whose
morale and vigilance must be kept up at all costs". After the discovery of a notebook, containing confidential information, Roque is confronted with the possible betrayal of some of his men, all of them young recruits of North-African extraction. One of the suspects, Taieb, a protege of Roque's, attempts to make him aware of the agonising dilemmas he faces, being at once a French soldier, and Algerian-born. For Roque, the ensuing crisis, and its dramatic consequences for the already vulnerable unit, only emphasise the contradictions and absurdities of this "Nameless War". |
Cast:
Vincent Martinez, Ahmed Berrhama, Cyril Troley, Medhi Yacef, Medhi Idriss Director |
| Changement d'adresse
(15) Change of Address Dir: Emmanuel Mouret |
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GLASGOW
GFT 20 April 6.15pm EDINBURGH FILMHOUSE 22 April 6.15pm LONDON RIVERSIDE 29 April 6.45pm DUNDEE DCA 3 May 6.00pm Edinburgh screening sponsored by  |
| Change of Address from and with filmmaker
Emmanuel Mouret is a real charmer about an awkward French horn player
recently relocated to Paris, who falls in love with his young student.
His female flatmate is not shy about anything except her budding relationship
with a man who uses the photocopier at her shop. But things get complicated when the roommates get up close and personal when they try to encourage each other in their love quests. The comedy of errors reaches its hilarious climax as fortunes change and love plays musical chairs. And love can change its form as readily as its participants can change addresses. Charming and funny, this is a sparkling feel-good film that simply dances. Mouret finds comparison to Woody Allen and François Truffaut to be exaggerated but, he says, “they are certainly [the directors] who made me want to make films, who inspired my characters’ fatalism, along with the great ‘fools’ created by Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton”. |
Cast:
Fanny Valette, Frédérique Bel, Dany Brillant, Emmanuel Mouret, Ariane Ascaride Director |
| La première fois
que j'ai eu 20 ans (15) The First Time I was Twenty Dir: Lorraine Levy |
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GLASGOW
GFT 22 April 8.40pm EDINBURGH FILMHOUSE 23 April 6.15pm LONDON CINELUMIERE 25 April 6.30pm |
| Sixteen year-old Hannah (Marilou Berry) lives in the 1960s Parisian suburbs. Although she is very intelligent, she isn’t very popular with boys. When she is accepted in the high-school jazz band (her dream come true), she thinks things will get better. However, gender barriers and prejudice seem to be hard to overcome in this all male environment. Based on a novel by Susie Morgenstern, an American expatriate in France, this comedy by writer/director Lorraine Levy is the upbeat story of an underdog establishing her place in a hostile environment. Before making this first feature, Lorraine Levy wrote episodic series and films made for television. Marilou Berry was one of the revelations of 2005 for her performance in Look at Me, by Agn`es Jaoui. | Cast:
Marilou Berry, Catherine Jacob, Serge Riaboukine, Stéphanie Pasterkamp, Laurent Spielvogel, Pierre Arditi, Nathalie Courval, Michel Vuillermoz, Adrien Jolivet, Raphaël Personnaz, Romain Vissol, Renan Mazeras Director |
| La moustache (15)
The Moustache Dir: Emmanuel Carrère |
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LONDON CINELUMIERE
22 April 4.00pm GLASGOW GFT 25 April 8.45pm & 26 April 3.00pm ABERDEEN BELMONT 28 April 6.30pm & 29 April 6.30pm MANCHESTER CORNERHOUSE 3 May (Contact cinema for time) |
| When a man spontaneously shaves off the title occupant
of his upper lip in The Moustache, an apparent shift in the fabric
of the universe results. Adapting his own 1986 novel, Emmanuel Carrère
– whose books Class Trip and The Adversary became award-winning titles
by Claude Miller and Nicole Garcia respectively – provides a feast
of sustained tension as the man's wife and his closest friends deny
that he ever had a moustache. Viewers who like their conclusions tidy
may rebel, but those who relish outstanding performances in the service
of an intriguing idea will be entertained. The originality of Carrère’s conception is that he takes an idea that initially seems little more than material perhaps for a gently absurdist comedy of manners, and takes it absolutely seriously. From seemingly inconsequential beginnings, Carrère mercilessly raises the stakes, as Marc flounders in a vortex of existential anxiety that he appears to have unleashed himself. |
Cast:
Vincent Lindon, Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Amalric Director |
| OSS 117: Le Caire - nid
d'espions (12) OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies Dir: Michel Hazanavicius |
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GLASGOW
GFT 24 April 8.15pm EDINBURGH FILMHOUSE 25 April 6.00pm EDINBURGH VUE OCEAN TERMINAL 26 April 8.30pm ABERDEEN BELMONT 27 April 8.45pm DUNDEE DCA 28 April 3.30pm Actress Bérénice Béjo and director Michel Hazanavicius will be present at these screenings: Glasgow GFT 24 April 8.15pm Edinburgh Filmouse 25 April 6.00pm Edinburgh Vue Ocean Terminal 26 April 8.30pm |
| Not surprisingly this was a box-office sensation
in France. Special Agent OSS 117 pops up in Cairo, circa 1955, to
monitor the Suez Canal, check up on the Brits and Soviets, burnish
France's reputation, quell a fundamentalist rebellion and broker peace
in the Middle East. You should think James Bond crossed with Austin
Powers, with a little bit of The Naked Gun antics thrown in for good
measure. Cairo is a total spy ring. Everyone is suspicious of everyone
else, everyone is plotting against everyone else: English, French,
Soviets, the family of deposed King Farouk, who wants to reclaim the
throne, and the Kheops Eagles, a religious sect that wants to take
power. René Coty, the President of the French Republic, sends his
master weapon to establish law and order in this bedlam on the edge
of chaos. "No problem," replies Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath. Author Jean Bruce's character OSS 117 first saw print in 1949, four years before Bond, and eventually figured in 265 novels. The French secret agent appeared in seven movies between 1956 and 1970, incarnated by a variety of actors including Ivan Desny, Kerwin Mathews and Frederick Stafford. In a pre-credits sequence in 1945 Berlin OSS 117 is shown outsmarting the Nazis, rescuing documents crucial to the Allies and taking a propeller plane out of a nosedive without breaking a sweat or forgetting to make a deliberately lame pun or two. Versatile actor Jean Dujardin who made his breakthrough as the dumb surfer Brice in the cult comedy Brice de Nice is hugely entertaining in the title role while Bérénice Béjo does a fine job as his curvaceous and long-suffering assistant. Impeccable production designs, a suitably retro score all conspire to give a slice of nostalgia with added bite. |
Cast:
Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Béjo, Aure Atika, Philippe Lefebvre, Constantin Alexandrov, Said Amadis Director |
| Le Pont des Arts (15)
Dir: Eugene Green |
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GLASGOW
GFT 21 April 1.00pm ABERDEEN BELMONT 28 April 1.45pm & 8.45pm DUNDEE DCA 29 April 5.30pm EDINBURGH FILMHOUSE 30 April 2.30pm & 8.15pm |
| In the rarefied stratosphere of Eugène Green's
Le Pont des Arts, music, literature, philosophy and aesthetics,
and the characters' engagement with them, are literally matters of
life and death. Here and in his other films, Green, the American-born French filmmaker who founded the Théâtre de la Sapience, a group dedicated to revitalising 17th-century Baroque theatre in modern productions, has invented a cinematic vocabulary that radically juxtaposes classical and contemporary themes and characters and should trounce any notions that le cinéma français is being “dumbed down.” Green's propensity for throwing in academically heavyweight references and concepts may seem intimidating, but it is more than an exercise in name-dropping. The movie is an audacious, mythically slanted inquiry into the place of high art in today's chaotic culture and an assertion of its primacy. This complex Parisian drama-stroke-comedy of manners that might very loosely be compared to an André Gide novel jointly adapted by Robert Bresson, Éric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette. The characters include a discontented young student who, like Melville's Bartleby, would simply prefer not to; a gifted young singer (Natacha Régnier); a monstrously autocratic conductor of Baroque music, known only as 'The Unnameable One' (Denis Podalydès); and his idealistic young assistant (Jérémie Rénier). Flippant yet deadly serious, and often enigmatically beautiful, this intelligent, rigorously styled provocation confirms Eugène Green as one of the most individual voices in current French cinema. |
Cast:
Natacha Régnier, Adrien Michaux, Denis Podalydès, Olivier Gourmet, Alexis Loret, Jérémie Rénier Director |