French Film Festival 2011

Next month the 5th French Film Festival will be showing a selection of recent French films. The festival features 23 films (20 features and three documentaries) screening in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch.

Over the last few years, the French Film Festival has become a much anticipated event - one that is not to be missed as it features films which would rarley make it to New Zealand.

The films range from historical costume dramas to comedies along with thrillers and dramas which reflect social, historical and political aspects of France.

“La Princesse de Montpensier” by Bertrand Tavenier is set during the religious wars of the 16th century while the gangster movie “Hors-la-Loi” (Outside the Law) is set in Algiers and France during the 1920’s

One of the other costume dramas, "Nannerl, Mozart’s Sister" tells the story of Mozart’s older talented sister who became part of the French court. The lush film was filmed partly at Versailles.

There is also a major documentary on the life of Yves Saint Laurent and his lifelong pursuit of art collecting along with his friend Pierre Berge.

One of the eccentric, comic dramas is “Tournee” (On Tour) which features Mathieu Alamric starring and directing in his first cinema feature since 2001.

The film gained international acclaim at the 2010 Festival of Cannes where it won Best Director and the International Federation of Film Critics Award, f

Alamric plays Joachim, a former television producer who has returned to France after a time in America to manage a troupe of burlesque dancers he assembled while in the States.

This road trip film takes in  some of France’s Atlantic coastal towns - Le Havre, Nantes and La Rochelle ending up at the river mouth of the Gironde. Along the way the women cope with being away from home, performing in slightly seedy venues, finding solace in their own company and the bottle.

At the same time Joachim who has two ex wives, a couple of children, a string of debtors and hardly any pulling power in the industry slowly starts to fall apart.

There is a taut quality to the film which occasionally seems like a documentary as the dancers create their own little environment in which they are sealed off from the rest of the world, including their audiences whom we seldom see.

The women who are not the most svelte or classically sexy, create shows which are only slightly voyeuristic. They use the tour to create clever and witty new routines which are expressions of their own sexuality and fantasies.

The Penthouse Cinema

Wellington

February 9 - 17

The Academy &

VictoriaPicture Palace

Auckland

February 16 - 24

Regent on Worcester

Christchurch

February 22 - 27