By Roger Costa
The 22nd Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, the annual festival dedicated to new, international and adventurous French Cinema, held at Film Society of Lincoln Center through March 12, will present exciting new visions and unexpected explorations. Most films are US Premieres, and they seem to be connected through one constant element throughout the narratives: the selection delves into the lives of people seeking a diversity of goals, setting off themselves to challenging explorations, running against time and obstacles to achieve. Here are some irresistible examples of that.
Magical, explosive and sensual, THE DANCER follows a young beautiful woman in pursuit of her dreams as an artist. Stéphanie Di Giusto’s richly crafted and sumptuous debut kicks off in a Western-style atmosphere, as she lives alone with her father in a farm, and turns into a fabulous piece of art. When he dies, she leaves to the big city where she stays with her mother, a religious nun. But it’s on the stage where she finds herself, as she joins a theater company. During a performance incident, she creates a character dancer, first developed as the audience’s requests, and improved into an artistic, intensely choreographed dancing set. She re-names herself “Loie” and becomes a star and a direct influence among women, also known for her complicated, stubborn and creative personality. The film also explores the intensity and complications of her love affairs, especially with a wealthy fading-ill bon vivant. The dazzling cinematography, set designs and costumes, precisely reproduce La Belle Époque Paris’ period with exquisitely gorgeous skills. A passionate and vigorous account on the construction of an artist and her bravery to improve and shock, it’s undoubtedly an edge-of-perfection directorial debut.
One of France’s finest young actors, Raphaël Personnaz continues to impress with his role choices. In director Safy Nebbou’s meditative IN THE FOREST OF SIBERIA he plays an overworked wealthy man who escapes to the icy, glorious and mysteriously beautiful landscape of Siberian taiga in search of rest and freedom. He buys a cabin in an isolated area, where he enjoys privacy and solitude until the appearances of an intimidating bear, and a Russian fugitive. Raphaël grabs the audience with delicacy and complexity, as his character decides to give himself another chance, using the place as a healer escapism. The enlightening cinematography serves to highlight the director’s messages of love and co-dependence for each other and for Nature.
The hilarious satire STRUGGLE FOR LIFE is a refreshing, frenetic comedy that makes fun of pretty much everyone, politicians, business men, artists, historical figures, a total unstoppable, laugh-out-loud debauchery. Directed by Antonin Peretjatko, the film follows an intern sent to a risky mission in the jungles of South America’s French Guyana. He must get the investors and the place set for the construction of a fake ski-snow station in the middle of the jungle. Using symbolism to satirize essentials of greed, capitalism, human rights negligence, corruption and individualism, the film makes observations on the inescapable consequences of irresponsibility, especially when the protagonist, and his female driver (named Tarzan) find themselves lost and must learn hard lessons of survival.
A fast paced, highly investigative and accurate true-story thriller, Emmanuelle Bercot’s 150 MILLIGRAMS tells the courageous dilemma of a doctor who discovers the contrary effects of a drug called Mediator, drastically affecting some of her patients, and fights hard to expose the truth. Actress Sidse Babett Knudsen gives a tour-de-force performance as Dr. Irène Frachon, a woman engaged in her dispute with big pharmaceutical companies, in search of fulfilling humanitarian rights and coherence. There’s an elegant sense of tension developed throughout the narrative, just to name one of the many attributes of this alarming factual. It also studies the strength and determination of an established feminine professional and exposes the battle between capitalism and health priorities.
Modern artists gather at the French Academy for a creative stay-in vacation/program in the deliriously provocative comedy DAYDREAMS directed by Caroline Deruas. The story centers in the creative crisis of a writer, accompanied by her arrogantly well-recognized husband and their daughter, and a radical photographer who’s having ghostly visions and revives sensational love stories from the past. Director Deruas conceived a poetic, sophisticated and good humored, smart and metaphorical study on the conflicts and obstacles of the artistic creation and their interrelations. Bravo!
Filled with philosophies about love, family and the essential rules of life, as well as electrifying hunting sequences, JOURNEY TO GREENLAND is a charming existential crisis comedy that follows two friends, both named Thomas, on a trip to the icy land where one of them is set to reunite with his father after many years of absence. A feel-good analysis on manhood, respect and cultural harmony, Sébastien Betbeder’s film is narrated by the protagonist as he observes the different reactions of hopeless people in the village, reflecting to his own condition and struggle to re-connect with his father. When the film invests in deeper issues such as contrasting between depicting a generation monitored by technology, and the limits of living in the isolated area, it finds a secure pace to deal with family topics, and the result is a fresh and convincingly wise overview on youth perspectives.
A sensual look at a financial firm and its greedy, competitive and mysteriously emotionally-wounded players, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW follows the determination of Nora, a young ambitious professional, who arrives at the company carrying risky connections to her bosses, her colleagues and the aggressive rival business woman played by France’s diva Isabelle Huppert. Filled with superb performances, director Pascal Bonitzer creates a highly mysterious atmosphere, with the structure of a dangerous game played by seductive gamblers seeking to score.
(All films will screen at Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2017. For schedule and tickets go to http://www.filmlinc.org/festivals/rendez-vous-with-french-cinema )
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