Danièle Thompson (Jet Lag, SFIFF 2003) returns with another glistening example of the brand of choral comedy she has perfected. A group of friends and acquaintances gather for dinner, and the atmosphere couldn’t be friendlier—with great food, wine and conversation on hand. Slowly the masks of civility drop and suspicions, jealousies and fears emerge. Darker in tone than 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. The seamlessness of their performances is a tribute not only to Thompson’s script, cowritten with her son Christopher, who appears in the film, but also to her very precise orchestration of the action as disparate characters and stories come together. As in her earlier films, Thompson returns to using shared spaces as ways to explore the banalities and transformative junctures of everyday life. With Change of Plans, she inverts the notion of bourgeois complacency, where the notion of settled lives at fortysomething collides with the reality of life-altering changes, mortality, new love and self-discovery. —Rendezvous with French Cinema, 2009

Written by Danièle Thompson, Christopher Thompson. Photographed by Jean-Marc Fabre. With Karin Viard, Dany Boon, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marina Hands. (100 min, IFC)

More information available at http://www.sffs.org/content.aspx?catid=8,59&pageid=1794&TitleId=screen-changeofplans

October 28–November 3, 2010
Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema 

This weeklong annual festival brings the most significant new work from one of the world’s most renowned filmmaking countries to discerning Bay Area audiences. Covering a broad spectrum of subject matter and genres, French Cinema Now builds a comprehensive picture of the current moment in Gallic film and delivers some of France’s most vital filmmakers in person to San Francisco audiences. Très magnifique!

Thursday, October 28, reception 9:00 pm 

Opening Night
Enjoy Opening Night with director Marc Fitoussi presenting his film Copacabana. A limited number of VIP tickets are available to an exclusive reception after the screening with complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres, 9:00–11:00 pm at the Bubble Lounge, 714 Montgomery Street (at Washington).

Thursday, October 28, 6:45 pm & Friday, October 29, 9:30 pm 

Copacabana
Marc Fitoussi (France 2010)
Sharing the screen with her real-life daughter, Isabelle Huppert reaffirms her status as one of cinema’s most indispensable actresses in this charming and honest comedy by Marc Fitoussi.

Thursday, October 28, 9:30 pm & Monday, November 1, 9:15 pm

Rapt
Lucas Belvaux (France 2009)
Based on the real-life 1978 kidnapping of a wealthy playboy, Rapt offers genre entertainment with brains and style about a family that decides not to pay a ransom.

Saturday, October 30, 3:45 pm & Sunday, October 31, 6:45 pm

Sisters
Éléonore Faucher (Gamines, France 2009)
Based on Sylvie Testud’s autobiographical novel, this elegiac film tells the story of three sisters and their overwhelming longing for their absent father.

Friday, October 29, 5:00 pm & Saturday, October 30, 1:45 pm

Irene
Alain Cavalier (France 2009)
This intimate, resolutely small-scale film revisits director Alain Cavalier’s first marriage, abruptly ended by his wife’s fatal car accident in 1972. The result is a sublime thought piece on memory and marriage.

Friday, October 29, 7:00 pm & Sunday, October 31, 9:15 pm 

Love Like Poison
Katell Quillévéré (Un poison violent, France 2010)
In one of the more remarkable coming-of-age tales of recent years, a young girl’s confirmation provides the staging ground for issues of faith and sexuality.

Saturday, October 30, 6:30 pm & Sunday, October 31, 3:45 pm

The Princess of Montpensier
Bertrand Tavernier (La Princesse de Montpensier, France 2010)
With realistically bloody battle scenes, a handsome cast and a keen understanding of the intermingling of personal and political, Bertrand Tavernier’s take on the costume romance feels at once true to its time and freshly original.

Saturday, October 30, 9:30 pm & Tuesday, November 2, 6:30 pm

A Real Life
Sarah Leonor (Au voleur, France 2009)
In this assured and visually compelling film, Guillaume Depardieu plays a small-time criminal who finds love just as the cops are closing in. A retreat to the woods poses tantalizing questions.

Sunday, October 31, 1:30 pm

Two in the Wave
Emmanuel Laurent (Deux de la vague, France 2009)
With witty narration and in-depth knowledge of its subject, this informative and entertaining documentary examines the early careers of Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut.

Monday, November 1, 6:30 pm & Tuesday, November 2, 9:15 pm

Hidden Diary
Julie Lopes-Curval (Mères et filles, France 2009)
Past secrets irrevocably impact present relationships in this moving and graceful drama about three generations of complex and conflicted women. Catherine Deneuve complements a terrific cast.

Wednesday, November 3, 7:00 & 9:15 pm

Certified Copy
Abbas Kiarostami (Copie conforme, France 2010)
Brimming with ideas and observations, Abbas Kiarostami’s gorgeous puzzle of a film features a wonderfully humane, award-winning performance by Juliette Binoche.

Wednesday, November 3, reception 9:00 pm

Closing Night

Celebrate Closing Night with Abbas Kiarostami’s new film Certified Copy. A limited number of VIP tickets are available to a post-screening reception with complimentary wine and appetizers, 9:00–11:00 pm at a nearby restaurant.

For more information visit: http://www.sffs.org/Screenings-and-Events/Fall-Season/French-Cinema-Now.aspx

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