May Cinema Selection from TV5MONDE

May 8, 2021

FROM 8 MAY 2021

May Cinema Selection from TV5MONDE

With the Cannes Film Festival now due to take place this July rather than in its traditional slot in May, TV5MONDE will be screening a selection of award-winning films from previous years. Here are some of the highlights.

Festival favourite Christophe Honoré’s Sorry Angel shows on Thursday 20 May. We first screened this foray into love and friendship during the 2018 Festival and Honoré himself was a guest with Beloved in 2011. The line-up also includes two films by Canadian director Xavier Dolan, who featured in the 2012 Festival with Laurence Anyways.

All films will be available to watch on TV5MONDE live via their website, or via the new TV5MONDE Smart TV App for Samsung / Android / Amazon Fire TVs at their scheduled time, just like in the cinema – tune in at the scheduled time and sit back and enjoy the film. Catch up is also available via the TV5MONDE Smart TV App – just search in your TV App Store to find it.

In the meantime why not take a look at some of the other great content available for free from TV5MONDE, including news, TV drama and programmes aimed at younger audiences? We hope you enjoy the films.

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I Killed My Mother / J’ai tué ma mère

Screening on Sunday 16 May (20:00)

Dir Xavier Dolan

Synopsis

The conflicting love-hate relationship between a mother and her son.
In the prodigy director’s first film, a teenager loves his mother but can’t stand being her son. Her tastes and personality horrify him, as does her crass ignorance.

Awards

Cannes Film Festival (2009)
Directors’ Fortnight

Credits

Dir Xavier Dolan
Cast Xavier Dolan, Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clément
2009 | Canada | 96 mins | French with English subtitles.

Sorry Angel / Plaire, aimer et courir vite

Screening on Thursday 20 May (20:00)

Dir Christophe Honoré

Synopsis

By the time you learn to love yourself, it’s already too late.
In Paris in the 1990s, 22-year-old Arthur meets Jacques, a gay writer. This marks the beginning of a passionate relationship. But time is short because Jacques is dying of AIDS so a lifetime of love will have to be lived in the time they have…

Awards

Cannes Film Festival (2018)
Official Selection
Winner Louis-Delluc Prize

Credits

Dir Christophe Honoré
Cast Vincent Lacoste, Pierre Deladonchamps, Denis Podalydès
2018 | France | 132 mins | French with English subtitles.

Heartbeats / Les Amours imaginaires

Screening on Sunday 23 May (20:00)

Dir Xavier Dolan

Synopsis

Three is obviously one too many to be a couple.
Two friends in love with the same person engage in an unhealthy duel to win the object of their desires. Each obsessively interprets the ambiguous and destructive behaviours of the object of their desire.

Awards

Cannes Film Festival (2010)
Official selection – Un certain regard

Credits

Dir Xavier Dolan
Cast Monia Chokri, Niels Schneider, Xavier Dolan
2010 | Canada | 101 mins | English and French with English subtitles.

Sofia / Sofia

Screening on Sunday 30 May (20:00)

Dir Meryem Benm’Barek

Synopsis

When the victim is guilty.
After denying her pregnancy, a young Moroccan woman finds herself in the illegal situation of giving birth to a child out of wedlock. She has 24 hours to find a solution before the hospital alerts the authorities…

Awards

Cannes Film Festival (2018)
Winner Screenplay Award

Credits

Dir Meryem Benm’Barek
Cast Maha Alemi, Sarah Perles, Hamza Khafif
2018 | Belgium | 80 mins | French with English subtitles.

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Films to watch on MUBI in May

April 29, 2021

FROM 29 April 2021

Watch Award-winning French films from MUBI

This week we take a look at some of the great titles which are coming up in May on MUBI. To give you some ideas we’ve picked our top four, which are a mixture of documentaries, feature films, and shorts.

Included in the line-up is The Things of Life, based on a novel by Paul Guimard. Directed by previous Festival guest Claude Sautet, it circles around a car accident experienced by Pierre (Piccoli) and the events leading up to and after it.

To watch, just log in to your MUBI account. If you don’t have one, sign up today and get MUBI free for the next three months.

We hope you enjoy the films.

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Personal Shopper / Personal Shopper

Available 2 May

Dir Olivier Assayas

Synopsis

Maureen, mid-20s, is a personal shopper for a media celebrity. The job pays for her stay in Paris, a city she refuses to leave until she makes contact with the spirit of her twin brother who died there. Her life becomes more complicated when strange anonymous text messages start appearing on her phone.

Awards

Cannes Film Festival (2016)
Winner: Best Director

Watch the trailer

Credits

Director Olivier Assayas
Cast Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz, Anders Danielsen Lie
2016 | France, Germany | English | 106 mins

WATCH IT FROM 2 MAY

Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno / L’enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot

Available 3 May

Dirs Serge Bromberg & Ruxandra Medreau

Synopsis

Documentary. In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s production of L’Enfer starring Romy Schneider came to a sudden halt after only three weeks. The initial footage was forgotten about for over fifty years till film archivist Serge Bromberg uncovered a treasure trove of breathtaking imagery, and from it tells us of what would have been a unique film.

Watch the trailer

Credits

Directors Serge Bromberg & Ruxandra Medrea
2009 | France | French with English subtitles | 100 mins.

WATCH IT FROM 3 MAY

The Things of Life / Les Choses de la vie

Available 17 May

Dir Claude Sautet

Synopsis

In the aftermath of a violent car crash, as Pierre lies semi-conscious beside the burning wreckage of his car, his life flashes before his eyes – specifically, his complex entanglement with two very different women: his dutiful, long-suffering wife and his adoring, free-spirited mistress.

Watch the trailer

Credits

Director Claude Sautet
Cast Michel Piccoli, Romy Schneider
1970 | France, Italy | French with English subtitles | 81 mins.

WATCH IT FROM 17 MAY

Tender / Tendre

Available 26 May

Dir Isabel Pagliai

Synopsis

Documentary. On a hot summer day by a small lake, 11-year-old Mia asks Hugo, 15, to tell her about his love story with Chaïnes. Despite his reluctance, memories of evenings spend with her at the edge of the lake a few months earlier come flooding back.

Awards

IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival (2020)
Winner, Short Film Grand Prize

Watch the trailer

Credits

Director Isabel Pagliai
2020 | France | French with English subtitles | 43 mins.

WATCH IT FROM 26 MAY

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Suzanne Lindon’s Spring Blossom

April 24, 2021

FROM 24 April 2021

Suzanne Lindon’s Spring Blossom

This week we take a look at Suzanne Lindon’s directorial debut, Spring Blossom, which has just been released on Curzon Home Cinema.

Premiering in the UK earlier this year at Glasgow Film Festival, it’s a remarkably assured debut film. Delicately evoking the worlds of François Truffaut and Éric Rohmer, Lindon proves herself a dazzling new screen talent in a complete charmer of a film.

For a bit of a flavour why not take a look at this short introduction by FFF Director Richard Mowe in our Trailer of the Week? We hope you enjoy the film.

Spring Blossom / Seize printemps

(N/C 12+)

Dir Suzanne Lindon

Synopsis

Suzanne (Lindon) is 16. She is bored with people of her age. Every day on her way to high school, she passes a theatre. There, she meets an older man, and becomes obsessed with him. Despite their age difference, they find in each other an answer to their ennui and fall in love. But Suzanne is afraid she’s missing out on life – that life of a 16-year-old, which she had struggled so much to enjoy in the same way as her peers.

Read FFF Director Richard Mowe’s review on Eye For Film

Watch the trailer on YouTube

Credits

Director Suzanne Lindon
Cast Suzanne Lindon, Arnaud Valois
2020 | France | English subtitles | 73 mins

WATCH IT NOW ON CURZON HOME CINEMA

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A Selection of Documentaries from Arte

April 17, 2021

FROM 17 April 2021

A Selection of Documentaries from Arte

This week we take a look at a selection of documentaries that are free and available to watch through European culture channel, Arte.

Included in the line-up is Amine Mestari’s documentary A Subtle Director about the late French film director Claude Sautet. He was a guest at the second French Film Festival back in 1993 and was a joint patron with actress Jeanne Moreau.

Also available is Callisto McNulty’s documentary about Delphine Seyrig and Carole Roussopoulos. A portrait of 1970s enchanted feminism, Delphine and Carole screened at the 27th French Film Festival in 2019.

In the meantime why not take a look at some of the other great content available for free from Arte? We hope you enjoy our selection.

TAKE A LOOK AT THE FULL LINE-UP ON ARTE

Behind the Mask

Philosophy

Synopsis

The mask is both a symbol of altruism and civicism, and of personal liberty curtailed. Raphaël Enthoven explores its many paradoxes with the philosophy researcher Elsa Novelli and the Secretary of State Sophie Cluzel responsible for People with Disabilities.

Credits

Dir Philippe Truffaut
Guests Elsa Novelli, Sophie Cluzel
Presenter Raphaël Enthoven
2021 | France | 26 mins | French with English subtitles.

WATCH IT NOW

Carte Blanche to Pierre Lemaître

Square Artiste

Synopsis

Last winter, the writer Pierre Lemaître completed a film about the volunteers from the charity Secours populaire. Filmed in Reims, this documentary relates the daily life of Jacques Bresson, a retired teacher who now devotes part of his life to supporting the most disadvantaged among us.

Credits

2017 | France | 25 mins | French with English subtitles.

WATCH IT NOW

Claude Sautet – A Subtle Director

Synopsis

Claude Sautet’s portrayals of French life in the 1970s and 1980s made him one of the best-loved French filmmakers of his era with characters and situations that rang true. A shy man who had trouble expressing himself, he was above all a filmmaker of human emotions in works such as The Things of Life, César and Rosalie and Vincent, François, Paul and the Others.

Credits

Dir Amine Mestari
2020 | France | 52 mins | French with English subtitles.

WATCH IT NOW

Delphine Seyrig and Carole Roussopoulos

Two Liberated Women

Synopsis

In 2009, just a few months before her death, feminist director and video artist Carole Roussopoulos began a documentary about her friend and fellow activist the actress Delphine Seyrig. That project was the starting point for this film, a tribute to the joyous energy of 1970s feminism.

Credits

Dir Callisto McNullty
2019 | France | 70 mins | French with English subtitles.

WATCH IT NOW

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Blandine Lenoir’s I Got Life

April 7, 2021

FROM 7 April 2021

Blandine Lenoir’s I Got Life

This week we take a look at Blandine Lenoir’s French drama, I Got Life, currently screening on the BBC iPlayer.

On her second outing as a director, Blandine treads the difficult tightrope between comedy and drama with a gift of a role for Agnès Jaoui. Premiering in the UK at the 25th French Film Festival in 2017, it’s a smart and joyous observation on women, motherhood, friendship and relationships.

It’s available to watch for free on the BBC iPlayer until Tuesday 13 April. We hope you enjoy the film and our look back at the 2017 Festival.

The Festival team was delighted to welcome Blandine and Agnès as guests at the opening screenings in London and Edinburgh in November 2017. Festival director Richard Mowe and co-director ilona Morison presented a lively Q&A with the guests at both Edinburgh’s Filmhouse and London’s Ciné Lumière.

Blandine and Agnès also recorded a short introduction to the film, which can be seen below as well as on our YouTube channel.

Watch the intro recorded at London’s Ciné Lumière

I Got Life / Aurore

Available until Tuesday 13 April

Dir Blandine Lenoir

Synopsis

With humour and sensitivity, Blandine Lenoir with her second feature offers an endearing film with a perfect role for Agnès Jaoui to reveal the full extent of her talents in the title role. Aurore, separated from her husband, has just lost her job and been told that she is going to be a grandmother. She feels she is slowly being pushed out of the way, yet she refuses to be relegated to the sidelines. What if now was the time to start over? What if a whole new life could begin? She has the chance among other things to rekindle the flame for her first love Totoche (Thibault de Montalembert). Delightful, warm-hearted and brimming with charm and optimism.

Watch the trailer on YouTube

What the critics say

“Strikes a realistic and unpretentious balance between moving moments and purely comical sequences…” Cineuropa

Credits

Director Blandine Lenoir
Cast Agnès Jaoui, Thibault de Montalembert, Pascale Arbillot, Sarah Suco, Lou Roy-Lecollinet
2016 | France | 89 mins | UK Distributor Peccadillo

WATCH IT NOW ON THE BBC IPLAYER

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TV5MONDE April Cinema Selection

April 4, 2021

FROM 3 April 2021

April Cinema Selection from TV5MONDE

This week we take a look at some of the great classic French films that TV5MONDE will be screening for free online in April. Here are some of the highlights.

The April line-up commences with Lucky Jo, directed by previous Festival guest Michel Deville. There’s also the original 1951 version of Knock, by Guy Lefranc. It was later re-made into the 1997 version, Dr Knock, starring Festival favourite Omar Sy. Also screening is Marc Allégret’s romantic comedy Julietta starring Jeanne Moreau, a past patron of the Festival.

WATCH TV5MONDE LIVE

Lucky Jo / Lucky Jo

Available Sunday 4 April (20:00)

Dir Michel Deville

Synopsis

Jo the black sheep.
Jo has bad luck. When he comes out of prison, everyone turns their back on him except just one friend, who lends him a car. And Jo then promptly finds himself in the midst of a hold-up!

Credits

Dir Michel Deville
Cast Eddie Constantine, Pierre Brasseur, Christiane Minazzoli
1964 | France | 90 mins | French with English subtitles.

Knock / Knock

Available Sunday 11 April (20:00)

Dir Guy Lefranc

Synopsis

“Does it itch, or does it tickle you?”
Newly installed in Saint-Maurice where everyone is in perfect health, Dr Knock convinces everyone that “healthy people are sick people who just don’t know it yet”.

Credits

Dir Guy Lefranc
Cast Louis Jouvet, Jean Brochard, Pierre Renoir
1951 | France | 99 mins | French with English subtitles.

Julietta / Julietta

Available Sunday 18 April (20:00)

Dir Marc Allégret

Synopsis

Falsely naïve or a real pain in the neck?
Julietta is promised to a man she doesn’t want. She falls in love with someone else, who is already engaged, and decides to do everything in her power to win him over.

Credits

Dir Marc Allégret
Cast Jean Marais, Dany Robin, Jeanne Moreau
1953 | France | 96 mins | French with English subtitles.

Fric-Frac / Fric-Frac

Available Sunday 25 April (20:00)

Dirs Maurice Lehmann & Claude Autant-Lara

Synopsis

A stooge in a world of comics.
Marcel, an employee of a jewellery store, falls under the spell of beautiful Loulou. He has no idea that she and her companion plan to rob the jewellery store…

Credits

Dirs Maurice Lehmann & Claude Autant-Lara
Cast Fernandel, Michel Simon, Arletty, Hélène Robert
1939 | France | 105 mins | French with English subtitles.

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