The Alliance Francaise French Film Festival is back with another huge lineup of French cinema, playing across Australia through March and April. Travis Johnson introduces you to the films you’ll want to say “bonjour” to (unless you go to an evening session, in which case it’s “bonsoir”).
The Alliance Francaise French Film Festival is always an important day on any film fiend’s calendar. The French love cinema, and they make a lot of it—340 feature films in 2021 alone! We get the crossover hits at the multiplex, of course, but the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival allows us to sample from a wider menu, with something sure to please the palate of every picture house patron.
This year—the festival’s 34th—is a particularly rich one, offering bold new dramas, winning romantic comedies, insightful documentaries, and the odd (well, one) zombie movie. Indeed, it can be tough taking a highlighter to the programme—this is an embarrassment of cinematic riches.
So, if you find yourself having to make some tough choices about this year’s programme, we are only too happy to help.
Starting with…
Masquerade (opening night film)
Aspiring dancer Adrien (Pierre Niney) sees his dreams shattered after suffering a debilitating injury, and soon finds himself using his good looks and charm to seduce wealthy older women. He’s content with his latest conquest/victim, Martha (the legendary Isabelle Adjani) when he finds himself entranced by the lovely Margot (Marine Vacth), herself a con artist who draws him into a scheme to fleece property mogul Simon (François Cluzet), From there unfolds a sexy, seductive and very French tale of love, lust, and lies, courtesy of director Nicolas Bedos—the perfect opening night film.
Freestyle (closing night film)
Director Didier Barcelo delivers a soulful, unusual, road trip comedy here. Overwrought by a string of bad luck and a bad break-up, Louise (Marina Foïs) finds herself in the unusual position of being unable to get out of her car due to her crippling anxieties. Things get worse when Paul (Benjamin Voisin) breaks into her car, intending to drive it to France’s southern coast. The two decide to make the trip together and, en route, develop a close, touching friendship amid the chaos of their cross-country.
The Big Blue
Luc Besson’s finest film gets a rare big-screen outing. Two world-class free divers (Jean-Marc Barr and Jean Reno) enjoy a friendly rivalry, competing to see who can dive deeper and longer on a single breath of air. However, as they push themselves further, the risk of injury and even death increases. A sincere love letter to the power of the ocean and our nigh-mystical attraction to it, The Big Blue features stunning underwater cinematography and an incredible turn from Patricia Arquette as Barr’s love interest.
Final Cut
A French remake of the acclaimed Japanese zombie movie, One Cut of the Dead, Final Cut doubles down on the metatextuality by being literally about a French remake of the original film. Romain Duris stars as a director trying to wrangle a low-budget zombie movie, only for an actual zombie apocalypse to upset the filmmaking process. A gory, smart, and hilarious genre piece, Final Cut comes to us from director Michel Hazanavicius, whose 2011 film The Artist scooped up that year’s Best Picture Oscar.
Country Cabaret
His dairy farm on the verge of financial collapse, recently separated David (Alban Ivanov) hits upon the idea of staging a one-off cabaret show in the barn. Gathering an enthusiastic team of supporters, including Sabrina Ouazani’s glamorous headline dancer, he sets about to do the seemingly impossible – bring some Parisian glitz to his bucolic village. Directed by Jean-Pierre Améris and based on an incredible true story, Country Cabaret is a quirky feel-good comedy for the ages.
Jack Mimoun and the Secrets of Val Verde
Billed as “Indiana Jones meets Monty Python”, this satirical gem sees Malik Bentalha as the titular adventurer, who has found fame making documentaries about his solitary life on a rugged tropical island. The twist is that it’s all a big lie—a carefully stage-managed reality show designed to make our hero look good. But when he falls for Aurélie (Joséphine Japy) he tries to impress her by taking on a real-life quest for a lost treasure, and it all works out about as well as you’d expect. Fans of Romancing the Stone and The Lost City will love this one—and if the title sounds familiar, you’re not wrong.
Playground
Writer/director Laura Wande explores the complexities of childhood through the eyes of a seven-year-old girl, Nora (Maya Vanderbeque), in this acclaimed drama. When she realises that her older brother, Abel (Günter Duret), is being mercilessly bullied by other kids, Nora is faced with an age-old dilemma: tell the adults or keep quiet. Building on this simple premise, Wande offers us a closely observed, naturalistic look at the rituals and social mores of childhood, painting a picture that is all too familiar to anyone who has navigated the often-treacherous path from innocence to maturity.
On the Wandering Paths
The second of acclaimed author Sylvain Tesson’s books to be brought to the screen following 2021’s nature documentary The Velvet Queen, On the Wandering Paths stars Jean Dujardin as Tesson who, recovering from a debilitating injury that threatens to rob him of his adventurous life, undertakes a solo hike through across the French countryside as an act of physical and psychological rehabilitation. Directed by Denis Imbert, this is a life-affirming meditation on the landscape and our relationship to it.
Notre Dame on Fire
Academy Award-winning director Jean-Jacques Annaud (The Name of the Rose) brings us this incredible recreation of the fire that tore through Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019 and the response to it. As the blaze rages out of control, rescue teams strive to safeguard the lives of civilians, and to save as many of the cathedral’s priceless art treasures as possible. Arnaud eschews documentary-style shooting in favour of a more cinematic approach, rendering the disaster as an epic battle to save the very soul of France.
Saint Omer
Acclaimed documentarian Alice Diop turns her hand to fiction and the result is one of the most critically lauded French films of the past year, winning the Grand Jury Prize at the 79th Venice International Film Festival. Kayije Kagame stars as Rama, a writer who journeys to the titular town to observe the trial of a Senegalese woman accused of leaving her baby to be swept away by the tide. As the case progresses, she finds parallels between the accused and her own experiences as a woman of colour in France and begins to question what kind of life her unborn child will have growing up there.
The Alliance Francaise French Film Festival runs March 7 – April 23 in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Canberra, Hobart, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Byron Bay, Adelaide, Bendigo, and regional South Australia.
For full details, session times, and tickets, head to the festival website.
