AF French Film Festival
The Alliance Française French Film Festival is here and it’s currently screening at Palace Nova Cinemas.
That means it’s time to bring out your inner French, put on your cravat and don a beret and let’s get up to speed with the French movie scene.
To make your life easier, we’ve picked a few gems out of the 45 odd films showing.
And you can also check out the full program on the Palace Nova website.
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Opening Night Selection
Based on real-life events experienced by filmmaker Valérie Donzelli and co-star/writer Jérémie Elkaïm, Declaration of War tells the powerful story of a young Parisian couple suddenly dragged from their carefree existence by an unexpected twist of fate when they found their child was critically ill.
IMDb – 7.1 | Rotten Tomatoes – 86% | Wikipedia
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqoiUENoxys&w=520″]
He is a Parisian and author of a series of best selling crime novels. She is a blonde bombshell, convinced that she is the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe. When they meet at Mouthe, the coldest town in France, he is suffering from a bad case of writer’s block and she is dead, believed by the police to have taken an overdose of sleeping tablets. David Rousseau is unconvinced and begins his own investigation into the mysterious past of Candice Lecoeur, certain that this will provide him with the inspiration for his next novel…
IMDb – 6.7 | Rotten Tomatoes – N/A | Wikipedia (fr)
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPtZOUr0Ctc&w=520″]
Set in Algeria in the 1920s, a rabbi’s cat who learns how to speak after swallowing the family parrot expresses his desire to convert to Judaism.
IMDb – 6.6 | Rotten Tomatoes – N/A | Wikipedia
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dndv0cWz8MU&w=520″]
Monday morning. Paul Wertret, 50, heads off to his job as a manager at the International Credit and Trade Bank. He arrives at 8 o’clock on the dot, as usual. He enters a meeting room, takes out a gun and kills two of his bosses. Then he locks himself in his office. As he waits for the inevitable police assault, this ordinary man looks back over his life and the events that led him to commit such an act.
IMDb – 6.8 | Rotten Tomatoes – N/A | Wikipedia
The trailer is in French!
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sARSuhigDlk&w=520″]
Family is a complicated business… Especially when Eli, the father about to turn 60, is expecting a baby with his new wife. When they hear the news, his two adult daughters, Dom, who is trying to adopt, and Justine, who goes from one boyfriend to the next, are totally shaken. To get closer to Justine, with whom he’s never gotten along, Eli has the great idea of becoming pals with all her ex-boyfriends… without her knowing what he’s up to. But when Justine falls in love once again and Eli nearly ruins everything, the family is about to explode. Will this little gang manage to kiss and make up before it’s too late?
IMDb – 6 | Rotten Tomatoes – N/A | Wikipedia
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2_4STZ895g&w=520″]
In German-occupied Paris, a young unemployed Algerian named Younes (played by break-out star, Tahar Rahim) earns his living as a black marketeer. Arrested by the French police but given a chance to avoid jail, Younes agrees to spy on the Paris Mosque. The police suspect the Mosque authorities, including its rector Ben Ghabrit, of aiding Muslim Resistance agents and helping North African Jews by giving them false certificates. At the Mosque, Younes meets the Algerian singer Salim Halali, and is moved by Salim’s beautiful voice and strong personality. When Younes discovers that Salim is Jewish, he stops collaborating with the police and gradually transforms from a politically ignorant immigrant into a fully-fledged freedom fighter.
IMDb – 6.6 | Rotten Tomatoes – 64% | Wikipedia
We’ll be reviewing a few of the films showing over the next week or so. If you see something you like, or even better – dislike, feel free to shoot us a review and we’ll put it up!
