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Festival coverage

French Film Festival

8 November – 2 December 2012

Astérix and Obélix: God Save Britannia opened the festival
Astérix and Obélix: God Save Britannia opened the festival

It's party time for the French Film Festival as it celebrates 20 years of the bringing the best of Gallic film to the UK in 2012.

Featuring films from France, Belgium and Canada, the festival will run from November 8 to December 2, opening with gala screenings of Astérix and Obélix In Britain. The festival will also host a career retrospective of Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman.

The festival will screen films across the country, with venues in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, Bo'ness, Kirkcaldy, Bristol, Manchester and Warwick.

Other years (19)

Box office and information

Latest reviews

  • Paris-Manhattan
    Review preview for Paris-Manhattan

    A fun, lighthearted and above all confident film that lovers of the rom-com are likely to adore.

    Max Crawford · 3.5 out of 5
    Comedy about a Woody Allen-obsessed pharmacist.
  • Renoir
    Review preview for Renoir

    It might not be a Renoir, in either of the two historic senses, but it is an elegant and enjoyable drama filled with beauty, passion and a near sublime gentleness of spirit.

    Sophie Monks Kaufman · 3.5 out of 5
    The old age of the artist, exploring his relationship with a model and his son.
  • Step Up To The Plate
    Review preview for Step Up To The Plate

    The pace of the film, like the turning of the seasons, country life and the shift in control of the Bras empire, is slow, but no less enthralling for that.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    The story of Michelin starred chef Michel and his son Sébastien, as father prepares to hand over the running of the restaurant to his son after a 15-year apprenticeship.
  • The Suicide Shop
    Review preview for The Suicide Shop

    This is a film of two halves, with the half involving sweetness and light muddled and limp in comparison to its tougher, more sinister flipside, while the ending is almost unforgivably trite.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
    In a town of depressives, one family has found a suicidal niche.
  • Asterix And Obelix In Britain
    Review preview for Asterix And Obelix In Britain

    With enjoyable performances, particularly from Lacoste and Gallienne and a decent stab at an 'importance of friendship' message underlying the laughs, Asterix is pleasant company, even if this isn't quite as magic as his potion.

    Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
    The heroes from Gaul head to Britain to repel the Romans
  • Mobile Home
    Review preview for Mobile Home

    Pirot has crafted a sweet, if slight debut, that suggests more and better to come.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    A pair of old friends embark on adventure in a camper van.
  • Laurence Anyways
    Review preview for Laurence Anyways

    Poupaud and Clement subtly delineate their character’s changes while maintaining an intensity that keeps the audience involved amid all the flashy distractions.

    Jeff Robson · 3 out of 5
    A teacher and aspiring writer in Nineties Montreal tells his girlfriend he wants to live as a woman.
  • Ernest And Celestine
    Review preview for Ernest And Celestine

    Small-town prejudice and the fear of otherness are roundly exposed for their absurdity, but the sensitivity of the artistic disposition and even the importance of good dental care are also sensibly celebrated.

    Anton Bitel · 4 out of 5
    The unlikely friendship between a gruff bear and an orphaned mouse worries authorities who believe the species shouldn't mix.
  • Our Children
    Review preview for Our Children

    Joachim LaFosse's film builds, inexorably, to an ending that we know from the start is coming.

    Anton Bitel · 3.5 out of 5
    A couple's relationship becomes strained under pressure from one of their adoptive parents.
  • Camille Rewinds
    Review preview for Camille Rewinds

    Self indulgent, nonsensical and soulless scenes are woven together into a sentimental fog that hovers above the surface of a faux world, past and present.

    Anne-Katrin Titze · 1.5 out of 5
    French remake of Peggy Sue Got Married.

A–Z of French Film Festival 2012 reviews

Features

  • Painting a life
    Gilles Bourdos on Christa Theret in conversation about Renoir.

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