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| BEFORE
I FORGET / AVANT QUE
J'OUBLIE (18)
Growing old gracefully is definitely not on anyone’s
gay agenda in Avant que j’oublie. It is a caustic memoir
told in the present tense, a cold-eyed appraisal of the indignities
faced by a near-death homosexual with no money, mostly dead
friends and only bitchy acquaintances to lend any comfort.
Sex is paid for or stolen from delivery boys, prostates flare
up, work dries up, HIV meds run out and the hot young gay
boys look at him with pity. So what’s a queen to do?
Get high, put on a dress and tell them all to go to hell.
Jacques Nolot”s films invariably have a jaw-dropping
honesty to them, eliciting serious cringes in fantasy-fed
gay men. The films which typically star Nolot himself are
always partly autobiographical. They are strewn with long
observational pauses devoted to the contemplation of his various
sordid messes and the boredom that he fears, but they are
never themselves boring. The sex is alarmingly graphic, the
dialogue vicious and the cinematography stunning. Nolot’s
films have developed a cult following in France for the rigour
of their contempt for bourgeois morality and their breathtaking
use of language. |
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Director Jacques Nolot
Cast:Jacques Nolot, Jean-Pol Dubois, Marc Rioufol,
Bastien d'Asnières, Bruno Moneglia
Running Time: 108 mins 2007. |
Cardiff Cineworld 7 March
1pm & 3pm & 7pm
Didsbury Cineworld
9 March 1pm & 3pm & 7pm
Birmingham Cineworld
11 March 1pm & 3pm & 7pm
Glasgow GFT
18 March 6pm
Edinbugh Filmhouse
19 March 6pm |
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CONVERSATION
WITH MY GARDENER / DIALOGUE
AVEC MON JARDINIER (12A)
Daniel Auteuil plays the country boy who went to Paris and became
a sophisticated artist. Now he decides to return to the country
estate of his late parents. Since the house has been deserted
for the last three years, he asks in a retired railway worker,
to fix up the garden and install a vegetable garden, just like
the one his parents had. When his gardener (Daroussin) arrives,
it turns out the two of them had the same bench and the same
pranks in elementary school, but parted ways when the son of
the pharmacist went to Paris and ended up at the Ecoles des
Beaux Arts, while his pal stayed in the village and went to
work for the state railway. Recently retired with a respectable,
if not quite sufficient pension, he discovered a yen to fulfil
his secret passion, gardening, which he had never had the time
to indulge before. Re-bonding on the spot, they discover the
differences between the worldly Parisian life and the simple
charm of country life and nature. |
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| Director Jean Becker
Cast Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Pierre Daroussin, Alexia Barlier,
Hiam Abbass, Elodie Navarre
Running Time: 109 mins
2007. |
Inverness Eden
Court
9 March 5pm
Edinburgh Filmhouse 12 March
2.30pm & 8.30pm+ Q&A
Glasgow GFT 13 March
3.15pm & 8pm+ Q&A
London Ciné Lumière
14 March 8.30pm+ Q&A
Warwick Art Centre 17 March 6.30pm |
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COULD
THIS BE LOVE? / JE CROIS
QUE JE L 'AIME (15)
A workaholic executive falls in love with a no-nonsense sculptress,
but is so scared of her being a spy planted by his competition
that he risks asking his security chief to put a surveillance
on her. This charming romantic comedy also possesses an unusual
dark undercurrent that never threatens itswitty, light tone.
It sparkles from start to finish thanks to a smart premise,
terrific performances and writer-director Pierre Jolivet’s
knack for depicting believable human behaviour in unanticipated
situations. Wealthy, and powerful, Lucas (Vincent Lindon) runs
a company with 700 employees and a joint venture with China
in the works. When he meets Elsa (Sandrine Bonnaire), who is
installing a ceramic floormosaic in the lobby of his French
HQ, they get off to a rotten start. Still, Lucas is smitten
with the headstrong Elsa, who speaks her mind under all circumstances.
But because his previous girlfriend turned out to be spying
for a business rival, he takes no chances this time. He assigns
his resourceful security honcho, Roland (Francois Berléand),
to use his spy gear to get the goods on Elsa – if, indeed,
there are goods to be got. Bonnaire, who has been acting onscreen
for nearly 25 years, shines in whatmarks her first real comedy.
This is Lindon’s fifth outing with Jolivet, and Berléand
has been in all but two of the director’s films, dating
back to 1985. |
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| Director Pierre Jolivet
Cast Vincent Lindon,Sandrine Bonnaire,Francois Berleand,Kad
Merad, Liane Foly,Helene deSaint-Pierre,
Running Time: 90 mins
2007. |
Didsbury Cineworld
8 March 1pm & 3pm & 7pm
London Ciné Lumière
11 March 8.45pm
Aberdeen The Belmont
14 March 8.45pm
Dundee DCA
15 March 6pm
Glasgow GFT
19 March 8.30pm
Edinburgh Filmhouse
20 March 2.30pm & 8.30pm |
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DON’T
WORRY, I’M FINE / JE
VAIS BIEN, NE T’EN FAIS PAS (12A)
Returning home from a vacation in Barcelona, 19-year-old Lili
(a wonderful performance by newcomer Melanie Laurent) discovers
that her twin brother has disappeared after a fight with their
father. When repeated messages to his cell phone go unanswered,
Lili cannot understand her parents’ reticence to get involved
in the search for their son.
The fears and pressure begin to take their toll, forcing Lili
to question herself and her relationship to her parents as she
sets out to track down her brother. Lioret perfectly calibrates
the growing sense of shock and awareness that begin to transform
Lili’s life. What begins as a seemingly normal suburban
family is gradually revealed to contain surprisingly dark secrets.
Lioret’s delicate direction makes this a film of pure
emotion as it subtly reveals some unexpected family dysfunction. |
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| Director Philippe Lioret
Cast Mélanie Laurent, Isabelle Renauld, Julien
Boisselier, Aïssa Maïga, Kad Merad, Simon
Buret
Running Time: 100 mins
2006. |
London Cineworld
9 March 1pm & 3pm & 7pm.
Warwick Art Centre
14 March 8.30pm
London CineLumiere
14 March 6.30pm
Glasgow GFT
16 March 4.30pm & 8.30pm
Aberdeen The Belmont
17 March 1.15pm & 6.15pm
Edinburgh Filmhouse
18 March 6.00pm
Inverness Eden Court
19 March 8.30pm
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LA
FRANCE (15)
Serge Bozon's remarkable La France, a First World War drama
that unexpectedly breaks into spirited song at four keymoments
during its otherwise spare, austere portrayal of combat and
camaraderie on the Western front. Audacious in concept but superbly
controlled in execution, what might easily have seemed a genre-bending
stunt instead registers as a highly sensitive, inspired approach
to the subject of men and one woman confronting the dehumanising
effects ofwar. Imagine if Robert Bresson hadmet the Beatles.
Set in the autumn of 1917, the filmbegins far fromthe front
lines, as a woman named Camille (Sylvie Testud) receives a disconcerting
letter from her soldier husband Francois stating, in effect,
that shewill never see or hear fromhimagain.With quiet resolve,
she disguises herself as a man or,more accurately, a slightly
androgynous teenage boy and sets off to rejoin her spouse at
the front. Making her way through a forest, Camille crosses
paths with a small group of soldiers led by a gruff but kindly
lieutenant (Pascal Greggory), whomshe implores to let her join
their ranks. He refuses and, when she persists in following
them anyway, fires a warning shot that hits Camille in the hand.
After her wounds are tended to, Camille is effectively welcomed
into the company, which, the lieutenant claims, has become separated
fromits regiment following an engagement with enemy combatants.
Only later do we discover the real reasonwhy themen have drifted
off course.
In a filmwhere nothing is overemphasised, the chameleon-like
Testud disappears completely into her role with the aid of very
littlemakeup or elaborate costuming, while Greggory conveys
a powerful sense of a profoundly decent man torn between his
sense of duty and his larger sense of humanity. |
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| Director Serge Bozon
Cast Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Guillaume Verdier,
Francois Negret, Laurent Talon, Pierre Leon, Guillaume
Depardieu
Running Time: 102 mins
2007. |
Edinburgh Filmhouse
10 March 2.30pm & 8.30pm
Glasgow GFT
11 March 3.30pm & 8.30pm
Cardiff Cineworld
13 March 1pm & 3pm & 7pm
Aberdeen The Belmont
15 March 3.45pm & 8.45pm
Dundee DCA
16 March 6pm
London Ciné Lumière
19 March 6.15pm, followed by
Carla Carlotti concert 9pm |
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HUNTING
AND GATHERING / ENSEMBLE,
C'EST TOUT (15)
Hunting and Gathering is a charming and romantic Gallic tale
entwined with comedy and drama. Its credentials are impeccable:
the director is Claude Berri, a prolific writer-director who
is best known for two of the most popular French films of the
1980s, Jean de Florette andManon des Sources.
Bringing together some of France's brightest young stars (among
them Audrey Tautou and Guillaume Canet), Hunting and Gathering
follows the lives of four people who will not only get to know
each other, but live with each other and ultimately, learn to
love each other. Camille (Tautou), a strange young woman, cleans
offices at night even though she is a very talented artist.
Franck (Canet) is a chef who is rough on the surface but tender
deep down, and who looks after his grandmother Paulette, a fragile
old woman with a great sense of humour whomhe has freed froma
nursing home. Then there is timid, intellectual Philibert (Laurent
Stocker), a fading young aristocrat who invites the three characters
to share his apartment. Together, they learn to ease their doubts
and sorrows.
Together, they move forward toward making their dreams come
true. Through their discovery of one another, they learn that
together we are stronger. Adapted from Anna Gavalda's bestseller.
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| Director Claude Berri
Cast Audrey Tautou, Guillaume Canet, Laurent Stocker,
Françoise Bertin, Hélène Surgère,
Alain Stern, Firmine Richard, Alain Sachs, Béatrice
Michel, Juliette Arnaud, Danièle Lebrun, Pierre
Gérald, Michel Dubois
Running Time: 97 mins
2006. |
Edinburgh Filmhouse
7 March 2.30pm & 8.45pm
Glasgow GFT
9 March 8.30pm
Didsbury Cineworld
11 March 1pm & 3pm & 7pm
Warwick Art Centre
15 March 6.30pm
London Ciné Lumière
20 March 6.30pm |
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IF
YOU LOVE ME, FOLLOW ME / QUI
M'AIME, ME SUIVE (15)
What happens when you decide to turn your life upside down forms
the basis of If You Love Me Follow Me.
Max who, at 34, has been named head of thoracic surgery at a
Paris hospital, abandons his medical career to revive the rock
and roll band he gave up 15 years prior. The impact on his entourage
is volcanic.
Max is a good doctor, but he's suffocating under the weight
of pleasing others. Afraid to tell his wife, Anna (Romane Bohringer),
whom he loves, Max swears his colleague Jojo (Mathias Mlekuz)
to secrecy, quits his job and commandeers as rehearsal space
the cellar of his best friend Praline (Julie Depardieu) - who's
married and pregnant but has loved Max for 19 years. Then he
rounds up his old bandmates Apache (Warren Zavatta) on bass
and Felipe (Fabio Zenoni) on drums and drafts a headstrong female
vocalist named Chine (co-scripter Eleonore Pourriat). Anna,
a lawyer, blows a gasket upon learning her partner ofmore than
a decade has chucked his scalpel for a guitar. But she decides
to support Max's lunacy rather than lose him. By stepping out
of his bourgeois destiny,Max shakes loosemore than anyone bargained
for.
If You Love Me Follow Me radiates conviction thanks in no small
measure to the enormously engaging performance by Mathieu Demy
(FFF UK guest 1994). |
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| Director Benoit Cohen
Cast Mathieu Demy, Romane Bohringer, Julie Depardieu,
Eleonore Pourriat, Mathias Mlekuz, Fabio Zenoni,
Warren Zavatta, Rufus, Thomas Chabrol
Running Time: 102 mins
2006. |
London Cineworld
8 March 1pm & 3pm & 7pm
London Ciné Lumière
11 March 6.30pm
Dundee DCA
14 March 6pm
Edinburgh Filmhouse
15 March 3.30pm & 8.30pm
Aberdeen The Belmont
16 March 1.15pm & 6.15pm
Glasgow GFT 17 March 2.30pm & 8.30pm |
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SECOND
WIND / LE DEUXIÈME
SOUFFLE (18)
Alain Corneau, subject of an FFF UK tribute in his presence
in 2003, has devised a thrilling, white-knuckle adaptation of
the José Giovanni story that spawned the classic 1966
film by the late, great gangster-movie director Jean-Pierre
Melville. As the iconic gangster Gustave “Gu” Minda,
Daniel Auteuil more than fills the considerable shoes of his
predecessor, the legendary Lino Ventura. Monica Bellucci, meanwhile,
sets the screen on fire as the glamourous and Sphinx-likeManouche,
the woman who will do anything for the criminal she loves. It
is the end of the fifties. Gu is a vicious, infamous gangster
who has just broken out of jail, where he was serving a life
sentence. He needs to pull one last job to secure enough money
to leave the country with his girl, Manouche, whom he wants
to protect from harm at all costs. Despite every police officer
in France working at full-throttle to recapture him, Gu has
the skills and the know-how of a hardened criminal: he carries
off the holdup perfectly (it doesn’t hurt that the couple’s
happy future depends on it). However, the police – led
by the steely Inspector Blot (Michel Blanc) – have played
dirty behind the scenes, arranging things so that Gu’s
gang believe him to be an informer. Labelled a traitor, Gu finds
his gang’s loyalty instantly evaporating. Luckily, Manouche
reveals her nerves of steel. She is willing to go to great lengths
to defend herman, and so she sets to work to save Gu and clear
his name, whatever the cost.
Bathed in deep, dark shadows that are reminiscent of but never
enslaved to Melville – the maestro of French noir froideur
– Corneau’smoody lighting and cinematography is
asmenacing and atmospheric as one would expect. No nostalgist,
Corneau brings unusual energy to the car chase and especially
the shootout. Beautifully filmed on location in Paris, Marseilles
and Bouches-du-Rhône the new Deuxième Souffle pushes
some of France’s greatest actors to their breathtaking
limits.
Unmissable. |
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| Director Alain Corneau
Cast Daniel Auteuil, Monica Bellucci, Michel Blanc,
Jacques Dutronc, Eric Cantona
Running Time: 156 mins
2007. |
Glasgow GFT
12 March 5.30pm
Edinburgh Filmhouse
14 March 8.30pm
London Ciné Lumière
18 March 7pm |
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THE
STORY OF RICHARD O /
L’HISTOIRE
DE RICHARD O (18)
Not for the easily embarrassed, The Story of Richard O is an
explicit take on sex as a way to connect with other people.
Richard feels cornered and takes some time off from his girlfriend
in order to come to terms with his relationship to women and
to find a better version of himself. During the last month of
summer, he goes on an erotic exploration through the streets
of Paris, where he has 13 encounters with 13 women. The sex-scenes
leave nothing to the imagination – there is no covering
up the act or the genitals. The film equally exposes the 13
women and Richard himself, played by Mathieu Amalric. Also starring
is director Damien Odoul, who takes a small role as a wrestling
coach. The Story of Richard O was shown at the 2007 Venice Film
Festival. |
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| Director Damien Odoul
Cast Mathieu Amalric, Rhizlaine El Cohen, Stéphane
Terpereau, Alexandra Sollogoub, Caroline Demangel, Ludmila
Ruoso, Marianne Costa, Lucie Borleteau, Valerie Bert,
Anissa Fériani, Maï Anh Le, Tiara Comte,
Sylvia Eland, Roger Decater, Thierry Poicin, Gwenaëlle
Vaultier, Damien Odoul, Larbi Gherbi, Jean-Louis Faure,
Bernard Payen, Jean-Paul Boiron, Michel Dupleix.
Running Time: 78 mins
2007. |
Glasgow GFT
14 March 9pm
Edinburgh Filmhouse
15 March 6pm
London Riverside
26 March + Q & A 8.40pm |
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SUMMER
OF '62 / CARTOUCHES GAULOISES
(15)
The eventful final weeks of French colonial rule in Algeria
are portrayed with a sensitivemix of youthful resilience and
workaday horror in Summer of ’62. Director and writer
Mehdi Charef, who was 11 during the summer of Algerian independence,
recounts his friendships with French boys and a range of kindly
French adults who considered Algeria their rightful home, often
at peril to their lives. A handsome, well-liked lad who's smart
and discreet, Ali delivers newspapers to the local French army
barracks and the brothel where Arab women service French soldiers,
and where his crush Zina (Assia Brahmi) works. Ali also enjoys
a special complicity with the French stationmaster (Bonnafet
Tarboureich) at the local railway station and elderly Jewish
neighbours Rachel (Betty Krestinsky) and Norbert (Jean Nehr),
who swear they’ll never decamp, although their fellow
French residents are fleeing at an ever-increasing pace. The
wrenching fate of the harkis – Algerians who served in
the military under French officers – is etched with memorable
strokes. The universal power of art in times of duress, and
this time specifically, is conveyed by Ali's love of visiting
the projection booth at the local cinema, where he's seen Bunuel’s
Los Olvidados somany times he has the dialoguememorised. This
is truly an engrossing and sweeping epic, an entertaining take
on the colonial era and its upheavals. A great cast and winning
cinematography make this fictionalised autobiography essential
viewing. The original title is a pun on the famed French cigarettes
that also refers to French bullets. |
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| Director Mehdi Charef
Cast Mamada, Thomas Millet, Zahia Said, Assia Brahmi,
Bonnafet Tarboureich, Mohammed Dine ElHannani, Betty
Krestinsky, Jean Nehr, Marc Robert,Nadia Samir, Marc
Robert, Tolga Cayir, Julien Amate
Running Time: 89 mins
2007. |
Inverness
Eden Court
8 March 1.30pm
Edinburgh Filmhouse
10 March 6.30pm
Glasgow GFT
11 March 1.30pm & 6.30pm
London Ciné Lumière
13 March 6.30pm
Dundee DCA 17 March 6pm
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TOWARDS
ZERO / L'HEURE ZERO (15)
Pascal Thomas returns to the literature of Agatha Christie following
his adaptation of Mon petit doigt m’a dit (FFF UK 2005)
for his latest, an interpretation of the queen of crime’s
Towards Zero. Guillaume, his ex-wife Aude, and his current wife
Caroline head to his Aunt Camilla’s rambling country home
in Brittany and right into an explosive mix ofmurder and twists
and turns of fate. When Camilla is found dead in her bed, Inspector
Bataille is left to determine what happened. Towards Zero is
a comedy-drama in the finest tradition of Christie, with clarity
only coming at the story’s conclusion. Thomas has proved
adept at translating Christie to France, and infuses the material
with his own subtle humour, perfectly relayed by a strong cast,
led by Danielle Darrieux and Melvil Poupaud. This glorious adaptation
of a legendary 1944 whodunit was filmed in one of the gothic
villas along the Emerald Coast, close to Dinard. |
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| Director Pascal Thomas
Cast Danielle Darrieux, François Morel, Laura
Smet, Melvil Poupaud, Chiara Mastroianni,
Alessandra Martines, Clément Thomas, Hervé
Pierre, Jacques Sereys, Paul Minthe, Xavier Thiam, Vania
Plemiannikov, Valeriane de Villeneuve, Carmen Durand,
Dominique Reymond, Marion Bartherotte
Running Time: 105 mins
2007. |
London Cineworld
11 March 1pm & 3pm & 7pm
Brimingham Cineworld
13 March 1pm & 3pm & 7pm
Glasgow GFT
15 March + Q & A 8.15pm
Edinburgh Filmhouse
16 March + Q & A 8.45pm
Aberdeen The Belmont
18 March 3.45pm & 8.45pm |
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