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