Bringing the crème de la crème of French cinema to Ireland, and now bigger and better than ever, the IFI French Film Festival returns for its 16th edition from November 18th to 29th with a massive 35 screenings (including 16 Irish premieres), a national tour of key titles across Ireland and a stellar line-up of guests that include Palme d’Or winner and acclaimed director of Rust and Bone, A Prophet and The Beat that My Heart Skipped, Jacques Audiard.
Audiences can expect a superb programme of brand new French cinema at the IFI French Film Festival over 12 exciting days, including work from Emmanuelle Bercot, Arnaud Desplechin, Philippe Garrel, Guillaume Nicloux, Jérôme Bonnell and, Festival Guest of Honour, Jacques Audiard. There will be a focus on the 1970s with three remarkable films, and a retrospective on one of France’s most respected directors, Audiard, including a masterclass with the man himself. Those living outside of Dublin can experience the drama and thrill of the Festival also as a selection of films will tour nationally in collaboration with access>CINEMA.
Celebrating 16 years as the leader of French cinema in Ireland, the IFI French Film Festival continues to delve deep into this world-class film culture to bring new releases, classics and star guests to Ireland, growing year on year so that this Festival remains a vital part of the cultural scene both in Dublin and throughout Ireland.
[quote title=”Marie-Pierre Richard – IFI French Film Fest, Festival Director”]We are honoured to have Jacques Audiard as our guest; to screen the work of wonderfully talented filmmakers including Emmanuelle Bercot, Stéphane Brizé, Arnaud Desplechin, Joachim Lafosse, Philippe Garrel, Guillaume Nicloux; new works from emerging filmmakers Thomas Bidegain, Simon Rouby, Thomas Salvador; and thrilled to have the rare opportunity to present seminal classics from Maurice Pialat, Alain Corneau and Jean-Pierre Melville.[/quote]
Kicking off this year’s feast of French film is Standing Tall from actress, writer and director Emmanuelle Bercot (On My Way, 2013) who creates a sympathetic yet honest portrait of a young man, Malony (Rod Paradot), living on the margins of society in this drama featuring Benoît Magimel as his social worker and Catherine Deneuve as a juvenile judge. The film pays tribute to members of the justice system who work with troubled youths to reintegrate them into society.
Jacques Audiard brings his Palme d’Or winning Dheepan to the Festival for its Irish premiere. It tells the story of a former Tamil Tiger fighter who flees Sri Lanka for France with a woman and child posing as his family in the hope of claiming asylum, and is, at its heart, a breath-taking love story. Audiard will no doubt draw fans from all corners as his outstanding body of work has garnered critical acclaim steadily since his first feature, See How They Fall, in 1994. With each project Audiard meticulously pores over every element, from script, music, mise-en-scène, to editing, and despite, or perhaps because of his relatively low output, Audiard has become a cinematic master and one of the country’s most popular filmmakers. His highly visceral and emotional works have featured stunning performances from actors such as Marion Cotillard, Tahar Rahim, and Matthias Schoenaerts, and the Festival will screen his entire feature filmography, as part of the general November programme (Read My Lips, See How They Fall and A Self-Made Hero) and in a Retrospective Programme (A Prophet, Rust and Bone and The Beat that My Heart Skipped) including a masterclass where he will share his vast experience of filmmaking, and Q&As following Dheepan and A Prophet.
Louise Bourgoin, who has worked with acclaimed directors like Luc Besson, Nicole Garcia, Anne Fontaine, and Guillaume Nicloux, is the star of two new films: The White Knights and I Am a Soldier, and will take part in a Q&As following both screenings. Joachim Lafosse’s latest gripping work, The White Knights, brings to screen the story of the Zoe’s Ark controversy – a French NGO whose members were arrested for the trafficking of children they claimed were orphans from war-torn Darfur – in this morally complex feature. I Am a Soldier, a first feature by director Laurent Larivière, sees Bourgoin playing Sandrine, an unemployed 30-year-old who, with little options, agrees to work at her uncle’s dog kennels which, it transpire, is a front for dog trafficking.
Arnaud Desplechin’s My Golden Days stars Mathieu Amalric as travelling anthropologist Paul Dédalus who is returning from a posting in Tajikistan to take up a job for the French government in Paris. Facing interrogation, he recounts his life – from his teenage years and coming-of-age to his first love – in this latest extraordinary offering from Desplechin which is perhaps his best film yet.
A quirky and endearing urban drama-comedy of six characters who are linked by the desolate no-man’s-land of a housing project with one broken-down elevator, Macadam Stories is Samuel Benchetrit’s fifth feature and is both amusing and tender, with a superb cast.
Fatima tells the story of a Moroccan immigrant living in Lyon with her two daughters, both of whom are integrating into French society while she struggles to grasp the language and culture. Unable to express herself properly to her children, who equally struggle with Arabic, Philippe Faucon’s feature provides insight into the immigrant experience with a beautifully judged central performance from non-professional actress Soria Zeroual.
The great Fabrice Luchini (Potiche, In the House) plays Michel Racine, a feared but respected judge, in courtroom drama, Courted from Christían Vincent. A routine homicide case begins, only this time, former lover Ditte (Sidse Babett Knudsen, Borgen) is on the jury and old flames are rekindled as their romance parallels the trial in this classy, subtle film.
Some lighter fare in this year’s Festival includes All About Them from Jérôme Bonnell (Just a Sigh, which opened the Festival in 2013) in which he revisits his favourite themes of love and emotion. The central love triangle calls to mind Truffaut’s Jules et Jim where 20-somethings Charlotte (Sophie Verbeeck) and Micha (Félix Moati) are in love but Charlotte is cheating with Mélodie (Anaïs Demoustier)… and so too is Micha. It’s complicated! Thomas Salvador directs and stars in Vincent, a delightful low-budget superhero romance in which he plays Vincent, a quiet individual who is blessed with remarkable superpowers and who falls in love with the woman who discovers him experimenting with those powers in the countryside. Playful and very original, it’s not to be missed.
Audacious and innovative films from the 1970s, that were almost never afforded a theatrical screening, are given a profile at this year’s IFI French Film Festival. ‘The Spirit of the ‘70s’ brings these technically demanding and star-studded tales of cops, criminals and couples with films such as Jean-Pierre Melville’s The Red Circle, Maurice Pialat’s We Won’t Grow Old Together, and Alain Corneau’s Série Noire, all on sumptuous 35mm.
The IFI French Film Festival is continually expanding and, as evidence of the growing appetite for French cinema across Ireland and in partnership with access>CINEMA, this year’s Festival will go nationwide, bringing highlights of the programme to the Riverbank Arts Centre, Kildare (Nov 23rd); the Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick (Nov 26th – 28th); Town Hall Theatre, Galway (Nov 29th); Triskel Christchurch, Cork (Nov 30th – Dec 2nd); and The Model, Sligo (Dec 3rd – 5th), with the support of the Arts Council Touring and Dissemination of Work Scheme.
For the complete French experience, don’t forget to book a table in the IFI Café Bar where there will be a specially devised menu on offer throughout the Festival.
Tickets are available to buy at www.ifi.ie/frenchfest or at the IFI Box Office on 01 679 3477.
IFI FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE:
Wednesday 18th November
20.00 Standing Tall
Followed by a reception
Thursday 19th November
18.20 Memories
20.10 My Golden Days
Friday 20th November
18.15 Dheepan + Q&A with Jacques Audiard
20.50 Macadam Stories
Saturday 21st November
12.00 Masterclass with Jacques Audiard
13.30 The Red Circle + introduction by Dr. Douglas Smith
16.15 Fatima
18.00 The Cowboys
20.40 The White Knights
Sunday 22nd November
13.00 A Prophet + Q&A with Jacques Audiard
16.20 Memories
18.10 Courted
20.00 Standing Tall
Monday 23rd November
18.10 In the Shadow of Women
19.50 Macadam Stories
Tuesday 24th November
18.10 Valley of Love
20.00 All About Them
Wednesday 25th November
18.10 Vincent
19.45 Fatima
Thursday 26th November
17.15 Valley of Love
19.00 The Measure of a Man
20.45 Half Sister, Full Love
Friday 27th November
15.30 Standing Tall
18.10 The White Knights + Q&A with Louise Bourgoin
20.30 My Golden Days
Saturday 28th November
13.00 We Won’t Grow Old Together
15.00 Rust and Bone
17.20 I Am a Soldier + Q&A with Louise Bourgoin
19.10 Valley of Love
20.55 Courted
Sunday 29th November
11.00 IFI Family: Adama
13.20 The Beat that My Heart Skipped
15.30 Série Noir
17.45 Half Sister, Full Love
19.45 The Measure of a Man