The word is out. This year’s French Film Festival will kick off in Sydney on March 6, coming to Melbourne the following day. Opening the 2012 ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL is DECLARATION OF WAR (La Guerre est déclarée). The film serves as France’s official Academy Award submission for Foreign Language Film at the 2012 awards. Closing night sees the Truffaut classic THE LAST METRO with Catherine Deveuve, Gérard Depardieu and Jean Poiret.
The 2012 Festival includes the following selections:
A HAPPY EVENT (Un heureux événement)
Director: Rémi Bezançon (Cast: Louise Bourgoin, Pio Marmaï & Josiane Balasko)
This stylish, contemporary drama with a comedic tone, takes an intimate look at a woman’s most joyful, painful, terrifying and life-changing experience: first-time motherhood.
ALL OUR DESIRES (Toutes nos envies)
Director: Philippe Lioret (Cast: Vincent Lindon & Marie Gillain)
Claire, a 30-year-old judge at Lyon magistrates’ court, becomes locked in a fight for justice, on behalf of citizens impacted by the unscrupulous practices of the financial services industry. Her plight piques the interest of disenchanted colleague Stéphane, who becomes drawn into the case. Something emerges between them: a mixture of rebellion, outrage, and above all an urgent need to live life to the fullest.
AND IF WE ALL LIVED TOGETHER (Et si on vivait tous ensemble)
Director: Stéphane Robelin (Cast: Guy Bedos, Daniel Brühl, Geraldine Chaplin & Jane Fonda)
Annie, Jean, Claude, and Jeanne have been friends for more than 40 years. So when the possibility of being consigned to an old-age home rears its ugly head, they rebel and decide to cohabit.
BELOVED (Les bien-aimés)
Director: Christophe Honoré (Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni & Ludivine Sagnier)
Starring Catherine Deneuve and her real-life daughter Chiara Mastroianni, this sly and exquisitely romantic musical-drama spans four decades as it follows a mother and daughter’s twin misadventures in love.
POINT BLANK (A bout portant)
Director: Fred Cayavé (Cast: Gilles Lellouche, Roschdy Zem, Gérard Lanvin & Elena Anaya)
In this classic wrong-man scenario, an innocent nurse-in-training whose career is on the rise, finds himself entangled in a web of violent chaos when his wife is kidnapped, before his very eyes, from their apartment one evening.
PRESUMED GUILTY (Présumé coupable)
Director: Vincent Garenq (Cast: Philippe Torreton, Noémie Lvosky & Wladimir Yordanoff)
This chillingly raw account of one of France’s most famous miscarriages of justice, tells the true story of Alain Marécaux, an average family man from a small village in the north of France who, along with 17 other people, was wrongly accused and jailed for paedophilia in 2001.
OMAR KILLED ME (Omar m’a tuer)
Director: Roschdy Zem (Cast: Sami Bouajila, Denis Podalydès & Maurice Bénichou)
Based on a true story, this compelling drama revists a famous murder case in which a poorly educated Moroccan immigrant was imprisoned for a crime that he may not have committed.
ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS (Les émotifs anonymes)
Director: Jean-Pierre Améris (Cast: Benoît Poelvoorde & Isabelle Carré)
Two shy chocolate makers find the perfect recipe for love in this moving comedy.
THE ART OF LOVE (L’art d’aimer)
Director: Emmanuel Mouret (Cast: Emmanuel Mouret, Pascale Arbillot, Ariane Ascaride, François Cluzet, Julie Depardieu & Gaspard Ulliel)
In this charming comedy, we follow the romantic and sexual misadventures of four Parisian couples.
THE CONQUEST (La conquête)
Director: Xavier Durringer (Cast: Denis Podalydès, Florence Pernel & Bernard Le Coq)
This part fictional, part factual biopic gives an account of the rise of President Nicolas Sarkozy to power. The film opens on the night of Mr Sarkozy’s election victory, 6 May 2007.
THE WELL-DIGGER’S DAUGHTER (La fille du puisatier)
Director: Daniel Auteuil (Cast: Daniel Auteuil, Kad Merad, & Jean-Pierre Darroussin)
At the onset of WWII, a young and beautiful country girl has a chance encounter with a seductive and handsome pilot from a bourgeois family that leads to a fleeting romance and future heartbreak.
The ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL screens nationally in:
- SYDNEY: 6 – 25 March– Palace Verona, Palace Norton Street, Chauvel Cinema & Hayden Orpheum Cremorne
- MELBOURNE: 7 – 25 March– Palace Cinema Como, Palace Balwyn, Palace Westgarth, Palace Brighton Bay & Kino Cinemas
- BRISBANE: 14 March – 1 April– Palace Centro & Palace Barracks Cinema
- CANBERRA: 14 March – 1 April – Greater Union Manuka & Arc Cinema, National Film & Sound Archive
- ADELAIDE: 20 March – 8 April– Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas
- PERTH: 21 March – 9 April– Cinema Paradiso, Luna on SX & Windsor Cinema
For more details, head over to: http://www.affrenchfilmfestival.org/default.aspx
