The San Francisco Film Society, in association with the French-American Cultural Society, the French Consulate of San Francisco and Unifrance USA, presents French Cinema Now (Thursday, October 29–Wednesday, November 4, Landmark’s Clay Theatre, 2261 Fillmore Street), a festival dedicated to celebrating the best in contemporary French cinema. For the second year, FCN joins the Film Society’s expanding slate of fall festivals and brings the most significant new work from one of the world’s most renown filmmaking countries to astute Bay Area cineastes. 

 “A festival focusing on French film was long overdue in San Francisco when the Film Society added French Cinema Now to our annual fall calendar last year,” said Rachel Rosen, Film Society director of programming. “French films play to packed houses at the San Francisco International Film Festival every year, demonstrating the wide range of quality work that deserves to be seen by local audiences. This year’s FCN selection showcases the broad-ranging thematic concerns and cinematic styles of directors working today from acknowledged master Claude Chabrol to Riad Sattouf, whose comedic debut feature The French Kissers, opens the festival.”

The visceral and cerebral extremes of Gallic cinema in French Cinema Now provide a snapshot of this moment in French filmmaking, culture and society, with a nod to the impactful New Wave movement that began in 1959, what might be considered a surprising number of comedies and, not surprisingly, more attention than usual to the ethnic tensions in a country coping with the strains of immigration. New and established talents share the spotlight to remind viewers of the transporting power of cinema from Sylvie Verheyde’s wonderfully observed portrait of a restless teenager in Stella to Isabelle Huppert’s commanding performance in Villa Amalia to the first-ever collaboration between Claude Chabrol and Gérard Depardieu in Bellamy.

Thursday, October 29   
7:00 pm The French Kissers    Opening Night     West Coast Premiere
Director Riad Sattouf and producer Anne-Dominique Toussaint in person
Riad Sattouf (Les beaux gosses, France 2009)
Hervé (Vincent Lacoste) and best friend Camel (Anthony Sonigo) are 14-year-old misfits out to slake their insatiable adolescent lust through endless talking, thinking and fantasizing about girls in their class. Copious onanism takes place, but not a single score—even verbal—with the opposite sex, until hopelessly average Hervé becomes the unlikely object of attention from the school’s sex symbol, Aurore (Alice Trémolières), provoking conspiracy theories, jealousies and recriminations among his classmates. Riad Sattouf’s sharp and very funny debut film is a completely refreshing and clear-eyed, though not clear-skinned, look at the world from inside the sweaty-palmed perspective of contemporary youth. It’s no surprise that the adults surrounding the kids—ungenerously scrutinized from the teens’ perspective—provoke some of the greatest laughs. Written by Riad Sattouf, Marc Syrigas. Photographed by Dominique Colin. With Vincent Lacoste, Anthony Sonigo, Alice Trémolières, Julie Scheibling, Robin Nizan-Duverger. 85 min. Distributed by Other Angle.
9:00 pm Opening Night VIP Reception with complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres at Restaurant Cassis, 2101 Sutter Street.
9:30 pm The King of Escape    North American Premiere
Director Alain Guiraudie in person
Alain Guiraudie (Le roi de l’évasion, France 2009)
This inspired comedy from decidedly offbeat writer/director Alain Guiraudie chronicles the midlife crisis of a pudgy, gay tractor salesman (Ludovic Berthillot, in a shrewdly and hilariously minimal performance) who, for a change of pace, runs away with a 16-year-old beauty (a charmingly earnest Hafsia Herzi). The young woman finds herself smitten with her unlikely knight after he defends her (with cash, not brawn) from a group of toughs. After a clumsy consummation of their ardor, the unexpected lovers find themselves pursued by the girl’s father (Luc Palun), a rival tractor salesman, his associates and the local police. But the pursuit narrative is arguably only an excuse for an exquisite assortment of lovingly drawn eccentric characters, who in this delightful film prove a fully justified raison d’être. Written by Alain Guiraudie. Photographed by Sabine Lancelin. With Pascal Aubert, Ludovic Berthillot, Hafsia Herzi, Luc Palun. 89 min. Distributed by Les Films du Losange

Friday, October 30
5:00 pm Yuki and Nina      North American Premiere
Hippolyte Girardot, Nobuhiro Suwa (France 2009)
Yuki (Noë Sampy) is a nine-year-old growing up in Paris with her French father (Hippolyte Girardot) and Japanese mother (Tsuyu Shimizu). When Yuki’s parents decide to separate, she learns she will be moving to Japan with her mother and leaving everything she knows behind, including best friend Nina (Arielle Moutel). Ultimately, the girls decide to run away into the forest and the realm of their imaginations. In this enchantingly understated collaboration between two acclaimed cinematic talents, Japanese director Nobuhiro Suwa (A Perfect Couple; Paris, Je T’Aime) and French actor Hippolyte Girardot, the audience follows the film’s young subjects out of the adult world and assumes, in a deceptively straightforward way, the perspective of a child dealing with the experience of cultural difference, separation and uprooting. Written by Hippolyte Girardot, Nobuhiro Suwa. Photographed by Josée Deshaies. With Marilyne Canto, Hippolyte Girardot, Arielle Moutel, Noe Sampy, Tsuyu Shimizu. 92 min. In French and Japanese. Distributed by Films Distribution.
7:00 pm The King of Escape see 10/29
9:30 pm The Wolberg Family      North American Premiere
Axelle Ropert (La famille Wolberg, France 2009)
Simon Wolberg, the proud Jewish mayor of a small provincial town in northern France, is a devoted but rigid paterfamilias who finds it difficult to accept the individualities of his family members. Played by a wonderfully vital and nuanced François Damiens, Wolberg leads a life characterized by structure and self-conscious devotion to his Jewish identity. He is at odds with his remote wife Marianne (Valérie Benguigui), his gregarious teenage daughter Delphine (Léopoldine Serre) and his oddball son Benjamin (Valentin Vigourt), who all lead very separate lives. As a comic narrative of forced intimacy unfolds, the family fractures along lines of irreconcilable differences. Debut director Axelle Ropert infuses a characteristically stylized, quasi-theatrical quality into the shrewdly heightened dialogue and intriguingly complex characters that comprise this deeply resonant family melodrama. Written by Axelle Ropert. Photographed by Céline Bozon. With Valérie Benguigui, Jean-Christophe Bouvet, Serge Bozon, François Damiens. 82 min. Distributed by Pyramide International.
 
Saturday, October 31
2:30 pm Stella
Sylvie Verheyde (France 2008)
Sylvie Verheyde’s precisely observed drama is a semiautobiographical story about a socially isolated 11-year-old girl attending her first year of secondary school in 1977. Raised in a working-class rooming house run by her affectionate but aloof parents, Stella (an astonishingly natural Léora Barbara) has grown up in a tough, violent world of adults, setting her aimlessly apart from the radically different world she enters at her new and affluent middle school. At first rebellious in the face of class arrogance, a new friendship with a gifted classmate coupled with a deteriorating home life inspire Stella to cling to the opportunities her school provides even as she struggles to adapt to its distinct culture and codes. Verheyde registers the subtle, but profound shift from Stella’s rudderless childhood toward budding adulthood. Written by Sylvie Verheyde. Photographed by Nicolas Gaurin. With Léora Barbara, Benjamin Biolay, Karole Rocher. 103 min. Distributes by Films Distribution.
4:45 pm The French Kissers see 10/29
7:15 pm Yuki and Nina see 10/30
9:30 pm OSS 117, Lost in Rio
Director Michel Hazanavicius in person
Michel Hazanavicius (OSS 117, Rio ne répond plus, France 2009)
Temperatures and laughs are up and cultural sensitivity at an all-time low in this send-up of super-spy Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, aka OSS 117, the Cold War hero of the popular de Gaulle–era novels by Jean Bruce. The bastard child of James Bond and Inspector Clouzot (played with mesmerizing scenery-chewing élan by French superstar Jean Dujardin) fumbles merrily through a Brazilian wonderland in hot pursuit of a Nazi blackmailer, and in collaboration with a rather-hot-herself Mossad agent (Louise Monot). To call this Frenchman a “fish out of water” would be to assume OSS 117 even realizes that the pool has a border beyond the island bar. In the follow-up to international hit OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, Hazanavicius delivers more international scandal, hijinks, outrageous chauvinism and global hilarity. Written by Jean-François Halin, Michel Hazanavicius. With Jean Dujardin, Alex Lutz, Louis Monot, Rüdiger Vogler. 101 min. Distributed by Music Box Films.

Sunday, November 1
2:00 pm The 400 Blows
François Truffaut (Les quatre cents coups, France 1959)
On the 50th anniversary of the rise of the French New Wave, here is a chance to revisit the film that started it all. In addition to being a landmark in cinema history, François Truffaut’s debut film remains a brilliant and soulful work by the renowned critic-turned-filmmaker, who crafted a startling snapshot of, and blueprint for, a new generation of cineastes, cinephiles and cultural rebels in the story of Antoine Doinel (the young Jean-Pierre Léaud), a restively intelligent 12-year-old living under the unmindful roof of his mother and stepfather. Antoine finds a passionate solace in—what else?— movies, but must flee the comforts of cinema and the indifference of home after being expelled from school. Needless to say, neither Antoine nor filmmaking would ever be the same again. Written by François Truffaut. Photographed by Henri Decaë. With Jean-Pierre Léaud, Guy Decomble, Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy. 99 min. Distributed by Janus Films.
4:15 pm Adhen
Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche (Dernier maquis, France/Algeria 2008)
Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, whose remarkable Bled Number One (2006) examined the tensions between overlapping French and Algerian identities, here turns to France’s industrial sprawl for a visually bold and atmospheric meditation on the clash of capitalism and religious tradition. The story is set in an outer ring of Paris, inside a bleak factory yard. The factory owner, Mao (Ameur-Zaïmeche), builds a mosque for his multicultural workforce, folding piety and the work ethic together with what one might call a Protestant assurance, but inadvertently sparks dissension by appointing his own choice for imam. Spiritually oriented disputes eventually give way to political and economic restiveness when Mao threatens to close down the factory. Ameur-Zaïmeche’s film balances the bareness of working lives with unexpected strands of violence, beauty and reflection. Written by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, Louise Thermes. Photographed by Irina Lubtchansky. With Salim Ameur-Zaïmeche, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, Abel Jafri, Christian Milia-Darmezin, Sylvain Roume. 93 min. Distributed by UMedia.
6:30 pm The Wolberg Family see 10/30
8:30 pm Welcome
Philippe Lioret (France 2008)
A swimming instructor decides to help a 17-year-old Iraqi Kurdish refugee cross the English Channel from France in this absorbing, exquisitely crafted drama from veteran director Philippe Lioret. One of the many displaced persons arriving in Calais, Bilal (bright newcomer Firat Ayverdi) lands on the idea of taking advanced swimming lessons at a local pool in preparation for a winter Channel crossing. His instructor, Simon (Vincent Lindon), is a depressed man more inundated by the past than brashly enamored by the future, unlike his young charge. Simon soon discerns Bilal’s plan and, unable to dissuade him from it, backs his attempt with increasing sympathy for the young man’s plight. Lioret’s masterful direction of his actors grounds a politically timely, astute tale in palpable relationships and memorable lives. Written by Olivier Adam, Emmanuel Courcol, Philippe Lioret. Photographed by Laurent Dailland. With Derya Ayverdi, Firat Ayverdi, Audrey Dana, Vincent Lindon. 110 min. In French, Kurdish and English. Distributed by Films Distribution.
 
Monday, November 2
7:00 pm The Thorn in the Heart    U.S. Premiere
Michel Gondry (L’épine dans le coeur, France 2009)
The ever-inventive and versatile Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) travels into new territory with his inimitable cinematic flair intact for this idiosyncratic family documentary. The elliptical, highly dynamic narrative focuses initially on his schoolteacher Aunt Suzette’s reminiscences at a Gondry family dinner about her time in various primary schools in rural France. The film searches out these schools, not all of which still exist, and Suzette’s former students, not all of whom remember her fondly. Eventually, the emphasis falls on Suzette’s troubled relationship with her son, the filmmaker’s cousin Jean-Yves, whom his aunt dubs “the thorn in my heart.” This strange and wild cut through family history is a distinctively personal film rife with imaginative flights and uncomfortable, but universal truths. Written by Michel Gondry. Photographed by Jean-Louis Bompoint. With Suzette Gondry, Jean-Yves Gondry, Tiffany Limos. 83 min. Distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories.
9:00 pm Welcome see 11/1, 8:30 pm
 
Tuesday, November 3
7:00 pm Stella see 10/31
9:15 pm Adhen see 11/1
 
Wednesday, November 4
7:00 pm Villa Amalia    Closing Night    U.S. Premiere
Benoît Jacquot (France/Switzerland 2008)
Benoît Jacquot’s splendid screen adaptation of a 2006 novel by Pascal Quignard (Tous les matins du monde) is a taut, beautifully assured existential drama starring the incomparable Isabelle Huppert—in her fifth collaboration with the director—as Ann, a middle-aged musician and composer who severs all ties to her staid life after she uncovers her husband’s affair with a younger woman. With her music and a friend from her distant past (Jean-Hugues Anglade) serving as catalysts, Ann sets out on an open-ended journey of renunciation and self-discovery that takes her, for a time, to a remote Italian island. Cold and inscrutable, Ann is like an iceberg set purposefully adrift in the warm waters of the Mediterranean, where the turmoil beneath the surface never completely thaws, but roils and transforms. Written by Julien Boivent, Benoît Jacquot. Photographed by Caroline Champetier. With Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Xavier Beauvois, Maya Sansa. 97 min. In French and Italian. Distributed by EuropaCorp.
9:00 pm Closing Night VIP Reception with complimentary wine and appetizers at Dosa, 1700 Fillmore Street.
9:15 pm Bellamy
Claude Chabrol (France 2009)
This latest work from the masterful Claude Chabrol (Le Beau Serge; A Girl Cut in Two, SFIFF 2008) is a droll detective tale revolving around a vacationing Paris police commissioner, the titular Paul Bellamy (a custom-made role for Gérard Depardieu). Bored with idle time and locals in the South of France, Bellamy can’t resist investigating a suspicious death brought to his attention by a man (Jacques Gamblin) with a wife, a mistress and involvement in an insurance scam, whom Bellamy thinks might also be a murderer. Meanwhile, Bellamy’s constant devotion to wife Françoise (an enchanting Marie Bunel) is matched only by his persistent sibling rivalry with his volatile brother Jacques (Clovis Cornillac). Bellamy is a dialogue-driven caper and character study riding high not on nostalgia as much as a classic esprit. Written by Odile Barski, Claude Chabrol. Photographed by Eduardo Serra. With Gérard Depardieu, Clovis Cornillac, Jacques Gamblin, Marie Bunel, Vahina Giocante, Adrienne Pauly. 106 min. Distributed by IFC Films.

Box office information: $12.50 general/$10.00 Film Society members/$11.00 seniors, students and persons with disabilities; Opening or Closing Night Film and Reception – $30.00 general/$22.00 members; Opening or Closing Night film only – $12.50 general/$10.00 members/$11.00 seniors; and Fall Season CineVoucher 10-Pack – $115.00 general/$90.00 members. Box office opens September 29 for members and October 6 for the general public: online at www.sffs.org, by calling 925-866-9559 or by faxing 925-866-9597.

Full schedule and information: www.sffs.org.

For screeners and interviews contact Hilary Hart at 415.561.5022 or publicity@sffs.org.
For photos and press materials visit: http://download.sffs.org/press/

French Cinema Now is sponsored by the French American Cultural Society, the French Consulate of San Francisco, Unifrance USA, Crystal Geyser, Bank of the West, TV5 Monde, Hewlett Packard, Landmark Theatres and the Fairmont San Francisco. Special support provided by William R. Hearst III. Support for the Opening Night reception is provided by Restaurant Cassis and support for the Closing Night reception is provided by Dosa.

SFFS FALL SEASON

October 22–25: Cinema by the Bay
Celebrating the passion, innovation and diversity of Bay Area filmmaking

October 29–November 4: French Cinema Now
The most significant new work from one of the world’s most renowned filmmaking countries

November 6–8: Taiwan Film Days
A multifaceted look into the vibrant Taiwanese film culture and industry

November 11–15: San Francisco International Animation Festival
The boldest and most exciting animated films from around the world

November 15–22: New Italian Cinema
Celebrating the rich cinematic tradition of Italy and its newest generation of filmmakers

December 12–13: KinoTek: Catherine Galasso
Presenting Lightning Never Strikes the Same Place Twice, a live multimedia performance

San Francisco Film Society is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to celebrating film and the moving image in all its glorious forms. SFFS year-round programs and events are concentrated in four core areas: Celebrating Internationalism, Inspiring Bay Area Youth, Showcasing Bay Area Film Culture and Exploring New Digital Media. The Film Society shows the best of world cinema year-round on its SFFS Screen at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas; presents the longest-running film festival in the Americas, the SF International (April 22–May 6, 2010); publishes a daily online magazine, SF360.org, featuring broad-ranging news and features on Bay Area film and media; annually reaches more than 8,000 students ages 6–18 with its acclaimed media literacy programs; and provides crucial support to the Bay Area filmmaking community through SFFS Filmmaker Services including FilmHouse Residencies, Fiscal Sponsorship, the SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants, the Herbert Family Filmmaking Grants, the Hearst Screening Grant, the Djerassi/SFFS Screenwriting Fellowship, SFFS Film Arts Forums and professional-level filmmaker classes.

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