CINEFRANCO 2008

2008 marks directrice, Marcelle Lean's eleventh year of organizing Cinéfranco, a celebration of French language film in Toronto.  It is no easy feat for film festivals to survive the crucial 10 years.  It takes perseverance, extremely hard work, steady sponsorship but mainly good films and a good loyal audience.  Fortunately, Cinéfranco has them all.

Attendance has increased elevenfold and the screenings have taken its home at the trendy Royal Cinema, which incidentally screens the best films in the city of Toronto.  Every year, in appropriate springtime, Ms. Lean delivers the best of French films from around the globe, from neighbouring Quebec to the far reaches of Africa.  But France remains the heart of Cinéfranco. 2008 sees many of the films screened at Cannes last year and includes new films from directors Jean Becker, Claude Lelouch, Claude Berri and Claude Miller.

Cinéfranco opens Friday 28th March with the opening Quebec film TOI (YOU).  Director Francois Delisle will be present for an exciting Q & A session.

Cinéfranco offers a wide range of films from the critically acclaimed to the youth oriented to typical commercial fare.  Listed below are a few films pre-screened by me, which will help you in your film selection.  For more information on films, schedule and show times, please visit the Cinéfranco web-site at:

www.cinefranco.com

Bon cinema!

ANNA M (France 2007) ***1/2
Directed by Michel Spinosa

Writer/director Michel Spinosa sure knows how to spin a tale. What initially begins as a routine tale of an innocent youth evolves into a nasty study into obsession, hate and madness.  Anna M. (Isabelle Carre) rehabilitates under the care or Dr. Zanevsky (Gilbert Melki also to be seen in Cinefranco's TRES BIEN, MERCI, COWBOY and MR. AVERAGE) only to believe mistakenly that he is in love with her.  She dates him, follows him, bears him gifts, stalks him, and harasses him thus making his life a living nightmare.  Spinosa grabs the viewer from the first 15 minutes and never lets go till the last reel where the innocent victim Dr. Zanevsky finally escapes the clutches of the crazed femme fatale.  What is most harrowing is that this case could happen to anyone and has in the lesser form of stalking.  This is a psychological FATAL ATTRACTION but much scarier and effective.  Carre and Melki are great.  And the neat thing of it all is that no sex ever transpired between them.  But the most amazing thing about this movie is that despite all the evil deeds that ANNA M commits, Minosa still offers the rare sympathy for his poor predator.

DIALOGUE AVEC MON JARDINIERE (CONVERSATIONS WITH MY GARDENER) (France 2007) **
Directed by Jean Becker

From acclaimed director Jean Becker (whom I first noticed from his 1983 dramatic thriller L'ETE MEURTRIER with Isabelle Adjani) comes this slight conversational piece featuring two of France's best actors, Daniel Auteuil (MANON DES SOURCES, CACHE) as a painter and Jean-Pierre Darroussin (FEUX ROUGES) as his hired gardener.  They discover that they were childhood pals and share their different lives each had led as the film unfolds.  It takes a while for Becker's film to get a footing.  Almost an hour into the film, it becomes apparent that Becker wishes each character to learn from each other in order to experience life while exposing each characters strengths but mostly shortcomings.  All this makes rather boring fare - and worse since Becker delves into clichéd territory down even to white shirt and straw hat attire the painter dons (Van Gogh?) when painting outside.  It might be argued that it will be worth the price of admission to watch Auteuil and Darroussin on screen together but they have performed better in other films.  Long and when eventful, unengaging!

ENSEMBLE C'EST TOUT (HUNTING AND GATHERING) (France 2007) **
Directed by Claude Berri

HUNTING AND GATHERING is actually two love stories in one but centered around one of each of the two couples.  Camille (Audrey Tautou) is a cleaning lady but an artist by heart.  She connects with a stuttering actor Philibert (Laurent Stocker) in the same building before falling in love with his roommate Franck (Guillaume Canet).  All this is done in high French production values, typical of films by Claude Berri (JEAN DE FLORETTE and MANON DES SOURCES).  But the main flaw of this romantic comedy is the sudden shift in narrative as the womanizing Franck takes a change of heart for the film's Hollywood ending.  What is more interesting is how each of Berri's characters deals with their ailments.  Berri's film is at least handsome to look at and the actors perform admirably despite the material. Just forget the romantic comedy bit!

MICHOU D'AUBER (France 2007) ****
Directed by Thomas Gilou

Set in France during the days of De Gaulle and the Algerian struggle for independence, MICHOU D'AUBER is a moving epic of tolerance littered with occasional bouts of necessary violence but filled with all the fine intentions of a feel-good movie.  Arab boy Messaoud is taken in as a foster child by a childless woman, Gisele (Nathalie Baye) who conceals his Arab origins.  He is renamed Michel or Michou, said to be from Aubervilles (hence the film title).  But Michou wins the heart of both his foster parents, Gisele and her hot headed ex-army sergeant, Georges (Gerard Depardieu).  Director Gilou captures the atmosphere - both the beauty of the countryside as well as the harsh political climate - though the film juggles sweetness and violence ever so often.  Both Baye and especially Depardieu are in their elements, complemented by the fresh performance of Semir Seghir as the boy.  The film takes an unexpected turn with a violent quarrel between Georges and Gisele but Gilou probably finds that necessary in order to attain an uplifting ending.  The politics needed to be understood for the film is basic (if one has seen other films on the Algerian war) and kept to a minimum.  Gilou's film soars often enough, aided by the comical songs of French actor/comedian Bourvil.  MICHOU D'AUBER is French fare as its most charmante.  The best French film so far I have seen this year!

UN SECRET (France/Germany 2007) ***
Directed by Claude Miller

Claude Miller's (best known for being mentored by Francois Truffaut) latest film is a stunningly shot tale of family history told from the point of view from Francois (played by different actors at several stages in life).  When sickly Francois invents an athletic brother to his parents, a neighbour reveals to him the secret of his family.  UN SECRET is set during the WWII in occupied France where the Jews (Francois' parents played by Cecil de France and Patrick Bruel) were being persecuted.  Miller uses a tremendous amount of cross-cutting between stories and time, which surprisingly still allows his film to get the story across without much confusion.  Miller allows the message to slowly sink deep into the viewers' minds without being judgemental or forceful.  A tender film about a controversial subject!

TRES BIEN, MERCI (THANK YOU VERY MUCH) (Belgium 2007) ****
Directed by Emmauelle Cuau

The French do present day Kafka.  In TRES BIEN, MERCI, Alex (Gilbert Melki) is arrested and committed to a psychiatric ward for asserting his individual rights.  As a result, he loses his job and almost his mind.  Fortunately he has a loving tolerant cab driver wife, Beatrice (Sandrine Kiberlain) and a laid-off best friend, Landier (Olivier Cruveiller) to help.  Slightly absurdist, occasionally hilarious and at times disturbing for what the system can do to an individual, Cuau's gem of a  film is intriguing from start to finish primarily because the viewer has no idea where the film is leading to (perhaps until the last 15 minutes or so).  Beatrice vents beautifully at her cab riders and Alex lets it out with the help of a bottle of wine.  Cuau allows his actors to do their thing. Melki and Kiberlain are superb balancing the fine line between tragedy and comedy.  This film will probably never be seen outside Cinéfranco and therefore gets my highest recommendation.