Sunday, March 12, 2017
Review: FRANTZ in RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA 2017
FRANTZ
Thursday, March 2, 9:15pm (Q&A with François Ozon)
Saturday, March 11, 1:00pm
Saturday, March 11, 1:00pm
THE 22nd RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA
MARCH 1-12, 2017
Tickets & more at
Preview at
Frantz
François Ozon, France/Germany, 2016, 113m
French and German with English subtitles
The new film from acclaimed director François Ozon is a sublime, heartrending saga of guilt, forgiveness, and forbidden love in post–World War I Europe. Based on Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 antiwar drama Broken Lullaby, it charts the complex bond that forms between two strangers: Anna (Paula Beer), a young German woman grieving the loss of her fiancé, Frantz, in the war, and Adrien (Pierre Niney), a former French soldier. What plays out between them is a haunting investigation of postwar trauma and healing rendered in gorgeous black-and-white that occasionally gives way—gloriously—to psychologically charged bursts of color. A Music Box Films release.
Thursday, March 2, 9:15pm (Q&A with François Ozon)
Saturday, March 11, 1:00pm
TRAILER
REVIEW:
I don’t know what the director intended, but for me this film is a meditation on lying.
The characters lie to each other, sometimes to comfort them; sometimes they lie to themselves, to assuage their grief, or imagine love, or dodge their own guilt and stoke their hate. The acting is styled, and the film is shot in highly stylized black & white, rather than natural behavior and color. Even the plot has some “contrivances” that I think are unlikely to occur in life: either the plot itself is a “lie” or the happiness it suggests is a lie, because this film takes place in the aftermath of WW I, and the story suggests the smoke that will turn into the inferno of WW II.
CAST AND CREW
Director – Francois
Ozon
Writers – Francois
Ozon, Phillippe Piazzo; adapted from an Ernst Lubitsch film & a Maurice
Rostand play.
Pierre Niney - Adrien Rivoire
Paula Beer - Anna
Ernst Stötzner - Doktor Hans Hoffmeister
Marie Gruber - Magda Hoffmeister
Johann von Bülow - Kreutz
Anton von Lucke - Frantz Hoffmeister
Cyrielle Clair - La mère d'Adrien
Alice de
Lencquesaing - Fanny
LINKS
FRANTZ – IMDB
FRANCOIS OZON – WIKIPEDIA
Labels: Francois Ozon, FRANTZ, Paula Beer, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, The Film Society of Lincoln Center
Saturday, March 11, 2017
Review: IN BED WITH VICTORIA in RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA 2017
IN BED WITH VICTORIA
Saturday, March 4, 9:30
Sunday, March 12, 3:30pm
THE 22nd RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA
MARCH 1-12, 2017
Tickets & more at
Preview at
In Bed With Victoria / Victoria
Justine Triet, France, 2016, 97m
English and French with English subtitles
English and French with English subtitles
Victoria (Virginie Efira) is a hotshot lawyer with a disastrous personal life. Between juggling a demanding job, raising two kids, and fending off an ex-husband who’s slandering her on the Internet, she can barely be bothered with the hit-or-miss (mostly miss) online hookups she sets up. Around the time Victoria agrees to help her old friend Vincent (Melvil Poupaud) with a decidedly bizarre legal matter, she runs into a charming former client Sam (Vincent Lacoste). Now that a shot at real romance comes along, will the perpetually harried Victoria even recognize it? This refreshingly offbeat (how else to describe a film that features a trial in which the star witness is a Dalmatian?) farce is propelled by Efira’s irresistible performance as a heroine who’s raw, real, and complicated in ways that transcend the rom-com formula.
Saturday, March 4, 9:30pm (Q&A with Justine Triet)
Sunday, March 12, 3:30pm
Sunday, March 12, 3:30pm
REVIEW:
This is a slightly loopy movie, but fun. It does raise some major questions about the rules of procedure in French courts.
Both Vincent Lacoste and Melvil Poupaud were seen in films last year at the RENDEZ-VOUS 2016. Vincent Lacoste was featured in Julie Delpy’s LOLO, and Melvil Poupaud was in THE GREAT GAME. We interviewed Melvil last year – the links are below.
CAST AND CREW
Director – Justine Triet
Writers – Justine Triet, Thomas Levy-Lasne
Virginie Efira - Victoria Spick
Vincent Lacoste - Samuel Mallet
Melvil Poupaud - Vincent Kossarski
Laurent Poitrenaux – David
Neither the dog nor the chimp are credited in IMDB.
LINKS
IN BED WITH VICTORIA – IMDB
JUSTINE TRIET – IMDB
VIRGENIE EFIRA – IMDB
VINCENT LACOSTE – IMDB
JULIE DELPY’S LOLO (WITH VINCENT LACOSTE) – QPORIT
MELVIL POUPAUD – IMDB
Labels: IN BED WITH VICTORIA, Justine Triet, Laurent Poitrenaux, Melvil Poupaud, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Thomas Levy-Lasne, Vincent Lacoste, Virginie Efira
Review: THE PARIS OPERA in RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA 2017
THE PARIS OPERA
L’OPERA DE PARIS
Thursday, March 2, 4:00pm
Saturday, March 11, 3:30pm
THE 22nd RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA
MARCH 1-12, 2017
Tickets & more at
Full Preview at
The Paris Opera / L'Opèra de Paris
Jean-Stéphane
Bron, France, 2017, 110m
French with
English subtitles
This
all-access documentary goes behind the scenes of the Paris Opera, following the
array of personnel—management, performers, costumers, cleaning crew—who work to
bring breathtaking spectacle to audiences night after night. Over the course of
a season, director Jean-Stéphane Bron nimbly juggles a dizzying number of
storylines, from labor disputes to procuring a live bull for Schoenberg’s Moses
und Aron to a PR crisis involving the head of the company’s ballet. Sweeping in
scope yet full of intimate human moments, The Paris Opera offers a candid look
at everything that goes into operating one of the world’s foremost performing
arts institutions. U.S. Premiere.
Thursday,
March 2, 4:00pm
Saturday,
March 11, 3:30pm
REVIEW
This is a
terrific film that celebrates opera, music, and dance. It provides a backstage
look at their preparations, management, celebrations and crises that are part
of a year at the opera.
This documentary
follows in the style of Frederick Wiseman (but with more love for the
institution and its cultural products than Wiseman, with his often ascetic aesthetic
often reveals). There is no narration, or external information provided, beyond
what is said and shown in the film. While this provides a unity of experience,
it also leaves many questions about who is who, and what their role is.
It has
long been my belief that every documentary should have a companion
(transmedia!) informational website that adds (for example) the full text of
interviews excerpted in the film, the names and dates and bios of people who
appear in the film, links to relevant information, and other important
information that does not fit in a single 2 hour film.
(In fact, In
2009, Frederick Wiseman, himself, made a documentary about dance at the Paris
Opera -- the link is below).
The film has
a loose structure. It is roughly
chronological, and it follows two people in particular: Stéphane Lissner, a new
Director of the Opera, and Mikhail Timosheko, a young singer with a beautiful
bass-baritone voice, through a season of opera. (And they chose well: Timoshenko now, a few
years after the film was shot, seems to have a blossoming career.)
This film is
a gift for all music, opera, and dance lovers… and an invitation to everyone
else!
CAST AND CREW
Director:
Jean-Stéphane Bron
Appearances
include:
Stéphane Lissner - Director of the
Paris Opera.
Mikhail Timosheko - a young
Bass-Baritone
LINKS
THE PARIS
OPERA - IMDB
JEAN-STEPHANE
BRON - IMDB
STEPHANE
LISSNER
MIKHAIL
TIMOSHENKO
THE PARIS
OPERA - WIKIPEDIA
THE PARIS
OPERA BALLET - WIKIPEDIA
WISEMAN’S LA DANSE - IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1500496
FREDERICK
WISEMAN - WIKIPEDIA
Labels: Jean-Stéphane Bron, L'Opèra de Paris, Mikhail Timosheko, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, Stéphane Lissner, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, The Paris Opera
Wednesday, March 01, 2017
Preview: DJANGO in RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH FILMS 2017
DJANGO
Wednesday, March 1, 6:00pm and 8:30pm
Wednesday, March 1, 6:00pm and 8:30pm
(Étienne Comar, Reda Kateb, and Cécile de France in person)
THE 22nd RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA
MARCH 1-12, 2017
Tickets & more at
filmlinc.org
Preview at
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2017/02/preview-rendez-vous-with-french-cinema.html
Tickets & more at
filmlinc.org
Preview at
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2017/02/preview-rendez-vous-with-french-cinema.html
Opening Night:
Django
Étienne Comar, France, 2017, 115m
French with English subtitles
The world of legendary Romani jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt is brought to vivid life in this riveting saga of survival, resistance, and artistic courage. Reinhardt (Reda Kateb) is the toast of 1943 Paris, thrilling audiences with his distinctive brand of “hot jazz” and charming his admirers (including an intrepid friend and muse played by Cécile de France). But even as the rise of Nazism and anti-Romani sentiment force Reinhardt—whose music is considered degenerate under the Third Reich—to make a daring escape from the city, he refuses to be silenced, his music becoming his form of protest. The feature debut from acclaimed screenwriter Étienne Comar (Of Gods and Men) immerses viewers in a tumultuous chapter in the life of one of the 20th century’s greatest musical geniuses. North American Premiere
Wednesday, March 1, 6:00pm and 8:30pm (Étienne Comar, Reda Kateb, and Cécile de France in person)
DIRECTOR: Etienne Comar
CAST – CHARACTER:
Reda Kateb - Django Reinhardt
Cécile De France - Louise de Klerk
Ulrich Brandhoff - Hammerstein
DJANGO PRESS CONFERENCE FROM BERLINALE
LINKS
DJANGO 2017 – IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6247936/
DJANGO REINHARDT – IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0718099/
DJANGO REINHARDT – WIKIPEDIA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt
ETIENNE COMAR – IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0173541/
REDA KATEB – IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3024530
CECILE DE FRANCE – IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0208426
ULRICH BRANDHOFF – IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5157580/
Labels: Cécile de France, DJANGO, Django Reinhardt, Étienne Comar, Reda Kateb, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema
Review: THE DANCER in RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA 2017
THE DANCER / LA DANSEUSE
Thursday, March 2, 1:45pm
Monday, March 6, 9:30pm (Q&A with Stéphanie Di Giusto)
Monday, March 6, 9:30pm (Q&A with Stéphanie Di Giusto)
THE 22nd RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA
MARCH 1-12, 2017
Tickets & more at
Preview at
Soko as Loie Fuller (l) and Lily-Rose Depp as Isadora Duncan (r)
THE DANCER / LA DANSEUSE
RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA 2017
The Dancer / La danseuse
Stéphanie Di Giusto, France/Belgium/Czech Republic, 2016, 108m
English and French with English subtitles
This visually sumptuous drama set amidst the opulence of La Belle Époque Paris charts the real-life saga of modern dance icon Loïe Fuller (Soko). Raised on the plains of the American Midwest, Fuller became the unlikely toast of turn-of-the-century France with her legendary performances, in which swirling swaths of silk fabric and dazzlingly colored lights created a kaleidoscopic spectacle of color and movement. Boasting lavish period detail, breathtaking dance sequences, and fiercely committed performances by Gaspard Ulliel, Mélanie Thierry, and Lily-Rose Depp as Fuller’s rival Isadora Duncan, The Dancer is an arresting chronicle of an artist’s struggle to realize her vision.
Thursday, March 2, 1:45pm
Monday, March 6, 9:30pm (Q&A with Stéphanie Di Giusto)
Monday, March 6, 9:30pm (Q&A with Stéphanie Di Giusto)
REVIEW:
This film presents a
fascinating account of the origins of the modern dance of the late 1800's and early 1900's,
focusing first on Loie Fuller, and then on her relationship with Isadora
Duncan (about 15 years younger than Fuller). The first part, including a beautiful reconstruction of Fuller's dances
is terrific.
This second part does
try to compress too many years of history into too few minutes.
To understand the
full story, it is probably necessary to look at much more information over a
much longer period. A mini-series might
have been appropriate. Indeed, the early 1900's were a spectacular time of
innovation in science, music, art, and in classical ballet as well as free-form
dance. A larger canvas for the story would be enlightening. (In the links, I've
included Wikipedia articles about the principals, and a link to Fuller's
autobiography.)
One note... I was a
little puzzled in the film when Fuller talks about patents for her dance,
rather than copyrights. It turns out that
she was trying to patent her inventions relative to the stage lighting!
Soko, who does great
work in this film, is an experienced French actress, although not well known
here, previously. Lily-Rose Depp,
the daughter of Johnny Depp and French model and singer Vanessa Paradis, is a young
newcomer, also terrific; Lily-Rose also appears in another film this year,
PLANETARIUM, opposite Natalie Portman).
CAST AND CREATORS
Director - Stéphanie Di Giusto
Writers
Thomas Bidegain
Stéphanie Di Giusto
Giovanni Lista (novel)
Sarah Thibau
Soko - Marie-Louise Fuller - dite Loïe Fuller
Gaspard Ulliel - Le comte Louis d'Orsay
Mélanie Thierry - Gabrielle Bloch
Lily-Rose Depp - Isadora Duncan
François Damiens - Edouard Marchand - le directeur artistique des Folies-Bergère
Louis-Do de Lencquesaing - Armand Duponchel - le directeur de l'Opéra
Amanda Plummer - Lili - la mère de Loïe
LINKS
THE DANCER / LA DANSEUSE –
IMDB
LOIE FULLER – WIKIPEDIA
FIFTEEN YEARS OF A DANCER;’S LIFE – BY LOIE FULLER
ISADORA DUNCAN – WIKIPEDIA
STEPHANIE DI GIUSTO – IMDB
SOKO – IMDB
LILY-ROSE DEPP – IMDB
Labels: Isadora Duncan, la danseuse, Lily-Rose Depp, Loie Fuller, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, Soko, Stephanie Di Giusto, THE DANCER, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Unifrance
