       Cinema Newsletter August 25, 2011 |
We are delighted to bring you a cinema e-newsletter with information on the best of French cinema available in New York. Twice a month, you will find in "French screens" a selection of films newly released in theaters, repertory revivals, festivals and films shown on TV and on VoD. You don't need to travel to France this end of summer, there are plenty of French films to go see instead! And theaters are the best places to stay cool or dry... ! Bonne lecture. The team of the Film, TV and New Media Department |
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Two Days in Paris Directed by Julie Delpy September 8 @ Columbia University – Outdoor / Low Library Steps (entrance at 116th St), 7:30 pm No alcohol allowed at this on-campus event – in case of rain, please checkwww.maisonfrancaise.org Marion (Delpy), a French photographer, lives in New York with Jack (Goldberg), an interior designer. After a brief stay in Venice, they decide to go to Paris to visit Marion's family. But the romantic getaway is cut short: between Marion’s bizarre parents, her numerous ex-boyfriends and Jack’s obsession for photography, their relationship is tense! |
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Special Treatment Opening August 26. French star Isabelle Huppert plays a high-class prostitute named Alice who serves up sexual fantasies for her clientele, from schoolgirl innocent to S&M dominatrix. Fed up with the seamy underbelly of French masculinity, Alice crosses paths with Xavier, a neurotic psychoanalyst facing a marriage crisis. The two quickly realize their professions share a thing or two in common as they navigate the overlapping worlds of psychotherapy and sexual therapy. |
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Colombiana Opening August 26. A woman becomes a professional killer in order to seek revenge against the ruthless gangster who murdered her parents in this action thriller writed and produced by Luc Besson. As a young girl, Cataleya (Zoe Saldana) saw her parents killed in cold blood. Now Cataleya is all grown up, and she's determined to settle the score. Going to work for her uncle, Cataleya methodically begins working her way up through the criminal underworld, taking out every criminal in her path on an obsessive quest to bury the man who single-handedly destroyed her life. |
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Gainsbourg : A Heroic Life Opening August 31. The film is based on Sfar’s best-selling graphic novel and follows the singer, born Lucien Ginsburg to Russian-Jewish parents, from his precocious childhood in Nazi-occupied Paris, to his transition from painter to jazz musician to pop superstar, and through his relationships with the many women in his life including Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta), Juliette Greco (Anna Mouglalis), and Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon). Gainsbourg was as famous for his decadent life, fin-de-siecle aesthetic, and cynical wit as for his clever lyrics and musical genius, which went through several reinventions. |
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Love Crime Opening September 2. Isabelle (Sagnier) is the young ingénue assistant, while Christine (Scott Thomas) is the older woman, a senior executive in a multinational company doing deals around the world. At first they are friendly. Christine, the able executive, is happy to pass the grunt work along to the up-and-coming Isabelle as she learns the ropes. But when Christine starts to take credit for Isabelle's ideas, and a fellow worker bee begins to fuel Isabelle's growing doubts about Christine's duplicitous "all-for-one" attitude, the ground is prepared for all out war. |
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I'm Glad My Mother Is Alive Opening September 2. Given up for adoption as a toddler, troubled teenager Thomas (César nominee for Best Male Newcomer Vincent Rottiers) becomes obsessed with tracking down his birth mother. After years of searching, Thomas finds her (Sophie Cattani) single, with a small child, living in a nearby suburb, and introduces himself. Traumatized by years of emptiness and longing for his mother, he starts an ambiguous relationship with her - part courtship, part obsession, which slowly drives him to an act of madness. |
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Mozart's Sister A speculative account of Maria Anna “Nannerl” Mozart (Marie Feret), five years older than Wolfgang (David Moreau) and a musical prodigy in her own right. Originally the featured performer, she has given way to Wolfgang as the main attraction, as their strict but loving father Leopold (Marc Barbe) tours his talented offspring in front of the royal courts of pre-French revolution Europe. Approaching marriageable age and now forbidden to play the violin or compose, Nannerl chafes at the limitations imposed on her gender. But a friendship with the son and daughter of Louis XV offers an alternative. |
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The Hedgehog Inspired by the beloved New York Times bestseller, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery, The Hedgehog is the timely story of Paloma (Garance Le Guillermic) a young girl bent on ending it all on her upcoming twelfth birthday. Using her father's old camcorder to chronicle the hypocrisy she sees in adults, Paloma begins to learn about life from the grumpy building concierge, Renee Michel (Josiane Balasko). When Paloma's camera reveals the extensive secret library in Renee's back room, and that the often gruff matron reads Tolstoy to her cat, Paloma begins to understand that there are allies to be found beneath the prickliest of exteriors. |
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Mysteries of Lisbon Spanning three decades, Mysteries of Lisbon plunges us into a whirlwind of adventures, coincidences, revelations, vengeance, betrayals and love affairs, wrapped in a rhapsodic voyage that takes us to Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and as far as Brazil. Evoking the complex intertwined narratives of Charles Dickens, the film’s central character is Joao, the illegitimate child of an ill-fated romance between two members of the aristocracy who are forbidden to marry, and follows Joao’s quest to discover the truth of his parentage. |
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Point Blank Samuel (Lellouche) is a happily married nurse working in a Paris hospital. When his very pregnant wife (Anaya) is kidnapped before his helpless eyes, everything falls apart. After being knocked unconscious, he comes to and his cell phone rings: he has three hours to get Sartet (Zem), a man under police surveillance, out of the hospital. A race through the subways and streets of Paris ensues, and the body count rises. Can Samuel evade the cops and the criminal underground and save the lives of his wife and unborn child ? |
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Sarah's Keys Based on the international best seller by Tatiana De Rosnay, SARAH'S KEY stars Oscar nominee Kristin Scott Thomas as Julia Jarmond, an American journalist married to a Frenchman, who is commissioned to write an article about the notorious Vel d’Hiv round up in 1942 Paris, when the French police went door-to-door arresting Jewish families. As Julia researches for her article, she stumbles upon a family secret which will links her to the destiny of a young Jewish girl, Sarah. |
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Cave of Forgotten Dreams Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams', a breathtaking new 3D documentary from the incomparable Werner Herzog ('Encounters at the End of the World,' 'Grizzly Man') follows an exclusive expedition into the nearly inaccessible Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient visual art known to have been created by man. |
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Jean Cocteau More than simply one of avant-garde's most successful and influential filmmakers, Jean Cocteau ranked among the century's most diversely talented artists, also enjoying success as an accomplished poet, novelist, and illustrator. Anthology Film Archives proposes four films directed by Jean Cocteau: Beauty and the Beast, August 26, 7pm and August 27, 6:30pm For further information : click here |
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Roman Polanski Roman Polanski (b. Paris, 1933) has, over the course of a half century, become recognized as one of the great modern masters of the cinema. Many of his films are infused with a mysterious, difficult-to-define sense of dread, which is understandable given much of his early life experience. In this series, MOMA presents French coproductions: The Pianist, Sept 7, 7pm, Theater 1, Introduced by Adrien Brody, and Sept 17 5pm Le Locataire, Sept 12, 4:30 pm, Theater 1, and Sept 25, 5pm, Theater 2 For further information : click here |
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On Sundance Channel
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On TV5 MONDE To find out about French programs shown on TV5 MONDE : click here |
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On Eurochannel To find out about French programs shown on Eurochannel : click here
L'Occitanienne, the last love of Chateaubriand (August 26th at 9 PM ET / 9 PM PT) |
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On Eurocinema L'ex femme de ma vie, de Josianne Balasko, 2004 |
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• The lineup of the 49th New York Film Festival includes one French film, the acclaimed The Artist, featuring Cannes festival's best actor Jean Dujardin, and 10 French coproductions: Corpo Celeste, by Alice Rohrwacher (Italy, Switzerland, France) Opening Night : Carnage, directed by Roman Polanski (France/Germany/Poland) |
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