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New York's Rendez-Vous With French Cinema · 2018

New York's Rendez-Vous With French Cinema 2018

Full line-up

Programme

24 films · 7 reviews

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12 Days

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Raymond Depardon)

New York premiere

Ava

Ava, 13, is spending the summer on the Atlantic coast when she learns that she will lose her sight sooner than expected. She confronts the problem in her own way.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Léa Mysius; Stars: Laure Calamy, Noée Abita, Juan Cano)

New York premiere

Barbara

Review preview for Barbara

The best way to get the most out of the film is to succumb completely to the singer’s breathless voice, sultry eyes and her volatile genius.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
Filmmaking and real life start to blur for a director making a biopic about female singer Barbara.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Mathieu Amalric; Writer: Mathieu Amalric; Stars: Mathieu Amalric, Jeanne Balibar, Lisa Ray-Jacobs)

Full review See: Mathieu Amalric and Jeanne Balibar in conversation on Barbara and Balibar's Merveilles À Montfermeil , Mathieu Amalric in conversation on Jeanne Balibar, Pierre Léon and the sounds and colours of Barbara , Jeanne Balibar on Barbara , Mathieu Amalric and Jeanne Balibar honour André S. Labarthe

Opening night

Before Summer Ends (Avant La Fin De L'été)

Even after studying in France for five years, Arash hasn’t completely gotten used to the place, so he decides to return home to Iran. But friends Hossein and Ashkan are determined not to accept the loss of their closest pal.

(Country: Switzerland, France; Year: 2017; Director: Maryam Goormaghtigh)

New York premiere

Bloody Milk (Petit Paysan)

A man lives for his cattle herd, so when one of them becomes ill he will do anything to save the rest of his animals.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Hubert Charuel; Stars: Swann Arlaud, Isabelle Candelier, Sara Giraudeau, Bouli Lanners, Valentin Lespinasse)

New York premiere

C'est La Vie! (Le sens de la fête)

Review preview for C'est La Vie!

So much is going on that Nakache and Toledano are able to slyly set-up jokes in such a way that we barely notice them, so that when they pay off their impact is greater.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
A night of surprises unfolds at a wedding party in a chateau.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano; Writer: Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano; Stars: Jean-Pierre Bacri, Eye Haidara, Gilles Lellouche, Suzanne Clément, Jean-Paul Rouve, Judith Chemla, Kévin Azaïs, Vincent Macaigne, Yves Heck, Hélène Vincent, Jackee Toto, Louis Quinn, Anthony Darche)

Full review See: Eye Haïdara on C'est La Vie, comedy, the #MeToo movement and fighting racial stereotypes

US premiere

Comfort And Consolation In France (Pour le réconfort)

After squandering their inheritance to siblings return to their ancestral estate and their childhood friends in the Loire Valley. Awaiting them is a tidal wave of pent-up resentment.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Vincent Macaigne; Writer: Vincent Macaigne; Stars: Pauline Lorillard, Pascal Rénéric, Emmanuel Matte, Laurent Papot, Joséphine de Meaux, Laure Calamy, Pauline Lorillard, Pascal Rénéric, Emmanuel Matte, Laurent Papot, Joséphine de Meaux, Laure Calamy)

North American premiere

Custody (Jusqu'à la garde)

Review preview for Custody

Though a short film, even one of half-an-hour as Legrand’s was, can be carried almost solely on this sort of tension, a feature needs something more.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
A couple embark on a bitter custody battle for their son.

(Year: 2017; Director: Xavier Legrand; Writer: Xavier Legrand; Stars: Léa Drucker, Denis Ménochet, Thomas Gioria, Mathilde Auneveux, Mathieu Saikaly, Florence Janas, Saadia Bentaïeb, Coralie Russier, Sophie Pincemaille, Emilie Incerti-Formentini, Jérome Care-Aulanier, Jenny Bellay, Martine Vandeville, Jean-Marie Winling, Martine Schambacher)

Full review See: Interview with Xavier Legrand about Custody (Jusqu’à La Garde)

New York premiere

Endangered Species (Espèces Menacées)

The stories of three families are interwoven.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2017; Director: Gilles Bourdos; Writer: Michel Spinosa, Gilles Bourdos, Richard Bausch; Stars: Alice Isaaz, Vincent Rottiers, Suzanne Clément, Pauline Etienne, Alice de Lencquesaing, Eric Elmosnino, Frédéric Pierrot, Damien Chapelle, Grégory Gadebois, Brigitte Catillon, Agathe Dronne, Carlo Brandt)

US premiere

The Guardians (Les Gardiennes)

A matriach left to care for the family farm during World War One takes on a hardworking orphan as an assistant, but when her son returns, he struggles to fit in with the new order of things.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Xavier Beauvois; Stars: Iris Bry, Nathalie Baye, Cyril Descours)

US premiere

Jeune Femme (Montparnasse Bienvenüe)

Broke, Paula is back in Paris and determined to make a new start.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Léonor Séraille; Writer: Clémence Carré, Bastien Daret, Léonor Serraille, Léonor Serraille; Stars: Laetitia Dosch, Souleymane Seye Ndiaye, Grégoire Monsaingeon, Jean-Christophe Folly, Nathalie Richard, Arnaud de Cazes, Ahmed Zirek, Philippe Lasry, Marie Rémond, Jean-René Lemoine, Bélinda Saligot, Philippe Vincent, Agathe Desche, Philippe Ferreira Gonçalo, Lou Valentini)

New York premiere

Jeannette: The Childhood Of Joan Of Arc (Jeannette L'Enfance De Jeanne D'Arc)

Review preview for Jeannette: The Childhood Of Joan Of Arc

Eternal greatness encounters sacrifice and the film dares to musically tackle questions of complicity in evil. Péguy's socialism, patriotism, and Catholicism mix well with the eager young actors. This is unlike any film you have ever seen.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
Musical about the French heroine.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Bruno Dumont; Writer: Bruno Dumont, based on the play by Charles Péguy; Stars: Lise Leplat Prudhomme, Jeanne Voisin, Lucile Gauthier, Victoria Lefebvre, Aline Charles, Elise Charles, Anaïs Rivière, Gery De Poorter, Régine Delalin, Nicolas Leclaire)

Full review

New York premiere

July Tales (Contes de juillet)

Review preview for July Tales

The result is a slight but sweet evocation of a hazy day of summer when potential hangs like pollen in the air.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Two languorous summer days, two thorny tales of romantic misunderstanding.

(Year: 2017; Director: Guillaume Brac; Writer: Guillaume Brac; Stars: Hanne Mathisen Haga, Andrea Romano, Sipan Mouradian, Salomé Diénis Meulien, Roman Jean-Elie, Milena Csergo, Lucie Grunstein, Jean Joudé, Théo Chedeville, Kenza Lagnaoui, Hanne Mathisen Haga, Andrea Romano, Sipan Mouradian, Salomé Diénis Meulien, Roman Jean-Elie)

Full review

North American premiere

Just To Be Sure (Ôtez-moi d'un doute)

A widowed father discovers that his own dad may not be his biological one, while learning that his budding love interest may actually be his sister.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2017; Director: Carine Tardieu; Writer: Baya Kasmi, Michel Leclerc, Raphaële Moussafir, Carine Tardieu; Stars: François Damiens, Cécile De France, Guy Marchand, André Wilms, Alice de Lencquesaing, Estéban, Lyès Salem, Sam Karmann, Brigitte Roüan, Julie Debazac, Loïc Baylacq, Nadège Beausson-Diagne, Heiko Dethier, Hervé Pierre, Emmanuelle Michelet)

New York premiere

The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Le lion est mort ce soir)

Jean, an ageing actor caught by the past, settles himself secretly in an abandoned house where Juliette, the great love of his life, once lived. A group of young friends discover the same house, the perfect set to shoot their next horror movie... and an encounter ensues.

(Country: Japan, France; Year: 2017; Director: Nobuhiro Suwa; Stars: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Pauline Etienne, Jules Langlade, Adrien Cuccureddu, Adrien Bianchi, Louis Bianchi, Romain Mathey, Mathis Nicolle, Coline Pichon-Le Maître, Emmanuelle Pichon-Le Maître, Rafaèle Gelblat, Lou-Ann Mazeau-Guéguen, Arthur Harari, Maud Wyler, Noë Sampy)

North American premiere

Memoir Of War (La Douleur, Memoir Of Pain)

When she finds two old notebooks in a forgotten box, Marguerite Duras remembers her past and the unbearable pain of waiting.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Emmanuel Finkiel; Stars: Mélanie Thierry, Benoît Magimel, Elsa Amiel, Brett Gillen, Grégoire Gros, Christine Riviere-Anissa, Myriam Riviere-Anissa)

North American premiere

Orchestra Class (La Mélodie)

A jaded violinist begins to reconnect with the world when he starts to teach a class of youngsters.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Rachid Hami; Writer: Rachid Hami, Guy Laurent, Valérie Zenatti; Stars: Kad Merad, Samir Guesmi, Alfred Renely, Jean-Luc Vincent, Tatiana Rojo, Slimane Dazi, Mathieu Spinosi, Zakaria-Tayeb Lazab, Youssouf Gueye, Mouctar Diawara, Shirel Nataf, Anaïs Meiringer, Amine Chir, Claudine Vinasithamby, Idaya Haddouche)

US premiere

A Paris Education

A farmer’s desperately tries to save his cows from a deadly epidemic.

(Country: France; Year: 2018; Director: Jean-Paul Civeyrac; Writer: Jean-Paul Civeyrac; Stars: Swann Arlaud, Andranic Manet, Diane Rouxel, Jenna Thiam)

North American premiere

See You Up There (Au revoir là-haut)

November 1919. Two survivors of the trenches set up a scam based on war memorials.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Albert Dupontel; Writer: Albert Dupontel, based on the novel by Pierre Lemaitre; Stars: Albert Dupontel, Laurent Lafitte, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Niels Arestrup, Émilie Dequenne, Mélanie Thierry, Michel Vuillermoz, Frans Boyer, Nicolas de Lavergne, Philippe Duquesne, Grégoire Foessel, Carole Franck, Gilles Gaston-Dreyfus, Travis Kerschen, Kyan Khojandi)

New York premiere

The Sower (Le Semeur)

Love story set against the backdrop of a village, in 1852, where the men have been rounded up and removed by Bonaparte's soldiers

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Marine Franssen; Writer: Jacques Fieschi, Marine Francen, Jacqueline Surchat; Stars: Géraldine Pailhas, Pauline Burlet, Raphaëlle Agogué, Anamaria Vartolomei, Iliana Zabeth, Alban Lenoir, Françoise Lebrun, Théo Costa-Marini, Barbara Probst)

US premiere

Tomorrow And Thereafter (Demain et tous les autres jours)

A fantastical tale of an eccentric mother, her precocious nine-year-old daughter and a pet owl.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Noémie Lvovsky; Writer: Annette Dutertre, Noémie Lvovsky, Florence Seyvos; Stars: Luce Rodriguez, Noémie Lvovsky, Mathieu Amalric, Micha Lescot, Anaïs Demoustier, Elsa Amiel, India Hair, Julie-Marie Parmentier, Francis Leplay, Lydie Ledoeuff, Camille Rousselet, Rym Hachmi, Maxence Tual, Roxane Lebel-Davion, Axelle Philippot)

US premiere

Waiting For The Barbarians (En attendant les barbares)

Six strangers - fleeing hordes of much-feared, but never-glimpsed barbarians - seek refuge in the ancient home of a sorcerer and sorceress.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Eugène Green)

North American premiere

Woman Up! (Numéro une, Number One)

Review preview for Woman Up!

There's a certain degree of decompression in its storytelling, and a willingness to jump in time and space, and though the two are strong there's a weird sense that these are the highlights and story beats of a much longer television drama.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
An ambitious woman treads a dangerous path as she attempts to crash the corporate boys’ club.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Tonie Marshall; Writer: Raphaëlle Bacqué, Marion Doussot, Tonie Marshall; Stars: Emmanuelle Devos, Suzanne Clément, Richard Berry)

Full review

US premiere

The Workshop (L'Atelier)

Review preview for The Workshop

There's a potency to this film, largely thanks to a carefully judged performance by Marina Foïs as novelist and tutor Olivia, and a charismatic one by Matthieu Lucci as her most difficult student, Antoine.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
An exploration of group dynamics in a young people’s writing workshop.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Laurent Cantet; Writer: Robin Campillo, Laurent Cantet; Stars: Marina Foïs, Matthieu Lucci)

Full review

New York premiere