Events
French Cinema Now
October 29-November 4
French Cinema Now is a festival dedicated to celebrating the best in contemporary French cinema. For the second year, FCN joins the Film Society’s expanding slate of fall festivals and brings the most significant new work from one of the world’s most renown filmmaking countries to astute Bay Area cineastes.
This year’s FCN selection showcases the broad-ranging thematic concerns and cinematic styles of directors working today from acknowledged master Claude Chabrol to Riad Sattouf, whose comedic debut feature The French Kissers, opens the festival.
The visceral and cerebral extremes of Gallic cinema in French Cinema Now provide a
snapshot of this moment in French filmmaking, culture and society, with a nod to the impactful New Wave movement that began in 1959, what might be considered a surprising number of comedies and, not surprisingly, more attention than usual to the ethnic tensions in a country coping with the strains of immigration. New and established talents share the spotlight to remind viewers of the transporting power of cinema
Thursday, October 29
Landmark Clay Theatre, 2261 Fillmore st
7:00 pm The French Kissers
Raging with hormones, Hervé and best friend Camel troll their school
for a glimpse of female flesh in this humorous look at adolescence
among a multicultural group of French teens.
9:30 pm The King of Escape
This eccentric comedy chronicles the midlife crisis of a pudgy, gay
tractor salesman who, for a change of pace, runs away with a
16-year-old female beauty with half the town in pursuit.
9:00 pm Opening Celebration
Cassis Restaurant, 2101 Sutter st
Commemorate Opening Night of the best in contemporary French cinema
with debuting director Riad Sattouf and producer Anne-Dominique
Toussaint presenting their film The French Kissers. Limited VIP tickets are available to an exclusive reception after the screening with complementary wine and hors doeuvres.
Friday, October 30
Landmark Clay Theatre, 2261 Fillmore st
5:00 pm Yuki and Nina
This enchantingly understated look at a child’s experience of uprooting
follows two best friends, Yuki and Nina, away from Yukis divorcing
parents to the childrens own refuge in the forest.
7:00 pm The King of Escape see 10/29
9:30 pm The Wolberg Family
Simon Wolberg, Jewish mayor of a small provincial town, is a devoted
but highly rigid paterfamilias struggling with the individualities of
his family members in this winningly eccentric, deeply resonant family
melodrama.
Saturday, October 31
Landmark\'s Clay Theatre, 2261 Fillmore st
2:30 pm Stella
Sylvie Verheydes precisely, passionately observed drama is a
semiautobiographical story about a socially isolated 11-year-old girl
attending her first year of secondary school in 1977.
4:45 pm The French Kissers see 10/29
7:15 pm Yuki and Nina see 10/30
9:30 pm OSS 117, Lost in Rio
Temperatures are up, tops are down and cultural sensitivity at an
all-time low in this deft sendup featuring super-spy Hubert Bonisseur
de La Bath, aka OSS 117.
Sunday, November 1
Landmark\'s Clay Theatre, 2261 Fillmore st
2:00 pm The 400 Blows
On the 50th anniversary of the rise of the French New Wave, here is a chance to revisit the film that started it all.
4:15 pm Adhen
A factory owner builds a mosque for his workers in a bleak industrial
strip outside Paris in this visually bold meditation on the clash of
capitalism and religious traditions.
6:30 pm The Wolberg Family see 10/30
8:30 pm Welcome
A master swimming instructor decides to help a 17-year-old Iraqi
Kurdish refugee cross the English Channel from France in this
absorbing, exquisitely crafted drama from veteran director Philippe
Lioret.
Monday, November 2
Landmark\'s Clay Theatre, 2261 Fillmore st
7:00 pm The Thorn in the Heart
The ever inventive and versatile Michel Gondry travels into new
territory for this idiosyncratic family documentary, while keeping his
inimitable cinematic flair intact.
9:00 pm Welcome see 11/1
Tuesday, November 3
Landmark\'s Clay Theatre, 2261 Fillmore st
7:00 pm Stella see 10/31
9:15 pm Adhen see 11/1
Wednesday, November 4
Landmark\'s Clay Theatre, 2261 Fillmore st
7:00 pm Villa Amalia
Provoked by the sight of her husband kissing another woman, Ann
(Isabelle Huppert) abandons her staid life for an open-ended journey of
self-discovery.
9:15 pm Bellamy
Claude Chabrols droll detective tale stars Gérard Depardieu as the
titular Paris police commissioner investigating a possible murder while
on vacation in the South of France.
9:00 pm Closing Celebration
Dosa, 1700 Fillmore st
Celebrate Closing Night with Benoît Jacquot and Isabelle Huppert’s latest collaboration Villa Amalia. Limited VIP tickets are available to a special reception with complimentary wine and appetizers.
Box office information: $12.50 general/$10.00 Film Society members/$11.00 seniors, students and persons with disabilities; Opening or Closing Night Film and Reception – $30.00 general/$22.00 members; Opening or Closing Night film only – $12.50 general/$10.00 members/$11.00 seniors; and Fall Season CineVoucher 10-Pack – $115.00 general/$90.00 members. Box office opens September 29 for members and October 6 for the general public: online at sffs.org , by calling 925-866-9559 or by faxing 925-866-9597.
French Cinema Now is sponsored by the French American Cultural Society,
the French Consulate of San Francisco, Unifrance USA, Crystal Geyser,
Bank of the West, TV5 Monde, Hewlett-Packard, Landmark Theatres and the
Fairmont San Francisco. Special support provided by William R. Hearst
III. Support for the Opening Night reception is provided by Restaurant
Cassis and support for the Closing Night reception is provided by Dosa.
For more information visit: sffs.org
The Beautiful Person (La belle personne, France 2008), Loosely based on Madame de Lafayette’s landmark 1678 novel La Princesse de Clèves, maverick director Christophe Honoré’s new film, The Beautiful Person, tracks an ensemble of Parisian high school students as they navigate through the turbulent imbroglios of young love. The voluptuous and enigmatic Léa Seydoux plays Junie, a world-weary 16-year-old who has just transferred into the school following the death of her mother. Immediately becoming the center of attention, she chooses the gentle but intense Otto as her boyfriend. But what could have been a smooth transition into her new environment is complicated by the ardent attentions of her unscrupulous Italian teacher Nemours, a serial seducer played in a carefully disheveled bohemian manner by the dashing Louis Garrel. As passions flare, it becomes readily apparent that Nemours maintains a rather liberal approach to student-teacher relationships. Director Honoré brings to the mix a heartfelt empathy for the emotional enormity and painful yearning that are part and parcel of teenage relationships, deftly capturing the romantic intrigue and sexual frisson familiar to teenagers everywhere. A former critic for Cahiers du cinéma, Honoré revises the familiar filmic iconography of the French New Wave with rigor and affection, adding to it a contemporary pop sensibility and a willingness to treat teenagers as intelligent and interesting human beings.
Written by Christophe Honoré, Gilles Taurand. Photographed by Laurent Brunet. With Louis Garrel, Léa Seydoux, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet. In French with English subtitles. 90 min. Distributed by IFC Films.
At the Sundance Kabuki all seats are reserved and an amenities fee is in effect for most shows. Tickets are available through the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas box office, at kiosks in the lobby and online at sundancecinemas.com/kabuki with print-at-home capability. San Francisco Film Society members receive discounted admission only to SFFS Screen programs and only at the box office, not online or at the lobby kiosks.
For full, complete and up-to-date information on all SFFS Screen programming, including buying tickets, visit sffs.org. Information and tickets are also available at sundancecinemas.com.
WHALE SONG CRUISE. The Shelltone Whale Project organise a "special whale songs cruise" at the Farallonnes Islands for the summer solstice.
WHALE MUSIC CONFERENCE. Pierre Lavagne will give a serie of conferences about whale songs and whale music, and perform live with the Shelltone while showing a beautiful movie of whales swimming, and singing.
WHALE TRANCE GATHERING. Listen to live whale music, performed by Pierre Lavagne playing the Shelltone and guests musicians, while you watch a movie of beautiful footages of humpback whales swimming, dancing and singing. A relaxing experience and a unique journey through the most beautiful songs of the ocean. You can bring your own music instrument and share whale songs. Free entrance. Donations.
SFIFF52 FRENCH-LANGUAGE FILMS
It's Not Me, I Swear!
Philippe Falardeau, Canada (pictured)
In a placid Montreal suburb in 1968, ten-year-old Léon is a hellion
with a cause. The child of dysfunctional but au courant parents, he
needs attention. Philippe Falardeau's (Congorama) intelligent comedy is also a touching study of abandonment.
Bluebeard
Catherine Breillat, France
Following last year's opening night sensation The Last Mistress,
France's masterful Catherine Breillat returns to the Festival with this
playful, intoxicating and surprisingly personal rumination on Charles
Perrault's 17th-century fairytale.
Karim Dridi, France
Karim Dridi creates a vivid picture of Roma life in an enclave on the outskirts of Marseille. Thirteen-year-old Marco, a runaway from foster care, prefers this place of hard living and big, messy families to life on the outside.
Home
Ursula Meier, Switzerland/France/Belgium (pictured)
Isabelle Huppert stars in this look at the gradual deterioration of a family's peaceful existence when the long-unused stretch of highway that borders their house suddenly opens to public use.
35 Shots of Rum
Claire Denis, France
Claire Denis magically limns the story of a father and daughter facing her inevitable independence in this beautiful tale set among a small circle of Parisians and their friends. Soulful Alex Descas stars, and Ingrid Caven has a memorable cameo.
Modern Life
Raymond Depardon, France
Raymond Depardon has been documenting the changing face of rural France in his Profils Paysans series. Modern Life combines his flair for widescreen shots and the perfect light with his patience for the kitchen interview, and always, his love for his subjects.
Sacred Places
Jean-Marie Téno, Cameroon/France
Cameroonian filmmaker Jean-Marie Téno profiles a poor but lively neighborhood in the capital of Burkina Faso, where a cine club proprietor tries to include Burkinabe films among the action and Bollywood fare. With short Homage (13 min).
Versailles
Pierre Schoeller, France
Guillaume Depardieu, in one of his last performances, brings heart-piercing intensity to the role of a brooding social outcast living in a hut in the woods near Versailles whose life is upended when a young homeless woman decides to leave her five-year-old son in his care.
Mesrine: A Film in Two Parts
This two-fisted, two-part epic charts the remarkable 20-year crime spree of Jacques Mesrine, France's public enemy number one.
Mesrine: Part One charts the notorious criminal's stint in Algeria and his awakening to his hunger for power and violence. Returning home, Mesrine takes to the role of gangster like he was born to it in Richet's white-knuckle thriller.
In Mesrine: Part Two the criminal's celebrity only increases as a gangster, would-be revolutionary and megalomaniacal media hound. Both exciting and historically meticulous, Mesrine is a fitting tribute for this celebrity criminal.
Summer Hours
Olivier Assayas, France
Olivier Assayas's richly meditative and expressive new film uses the perspectives of three adult siblings on the disposition of their mother's estate to explore the meaning, passions and memories we invest in objects and our surroundings.
The Other One
Patrick Mario Bernard, Pierre Trividic, France
When a middle-aged woman discovers her young ex-lover's new girlfriend is her own age, her obsessive jealousy takes its biggest toll on her sense of self as paranoia and self-loathing lead to a full-blown identity crisis.