stay-at-home version (here)
available free through April 27
NOW extended to May 25!
Good news, the STAY HOME edition of MyFrenchFilmFestival is extended until May 25, 2020! We are delighted to announce that a selection of 20 feature-length films from the past 10 editions of the festival will be added to this special edition. We hope that these films provide solace, distraction, and entertainment during this period and in the weeks to come.
I binged as many as I could last weekend and now am pleasantly surprised the viewing date has extended. Yay!
Below are the ones I watched so far. Plan on adding more throughout May.
FEATURE FILMS:
Director/Screenwriter: Éric Gravel
Starring: India Hair, Julie Depardieu, Yolande Moreau Frédérique Bel
My rating: 5
Aglaé, a young factory worker, has only one reference point in her life: her job at a car crash test site. When she learns that the factory is going to be relocated abroad, she surprises everyone by accepting to go to India in order to hold on to her job. Accompanied by two colleagues, she sets out on a perilous journey by car to the other side of the world.
Tristesse Club
Director/Screenwriter: Vincent Mariette
Screenwriter: Vincent Poymiro
Starring: Ludivine Sagnier, Laurent Lafitte, Vincent Macaigne, Noémie Lvovsky
My rating: 5
If you like treasure hunts, old Porsches, sisters who aren't sister, fathers who aren't really dead, lakes and their secrets: welcome to the circle.
Coup de chaud
Director/Screenwriter: Raphaël Jacoulot
Screenwriter: Lise Macheboeuf
Starring: Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Grégory Gadebois, Karim Leklou, Carole Franck
My rating: 5
At the height of a summer heatwave, in a small, apparently peaceful village, the inhabitants' daily lives are disturbed by Josef Bousou. The son of scrap merchants and a troublemaker, the villagers decide he is the main reason for all their woes, until the day that he's found dead in the courtyard of his family's home.
Sport de filles
Director: Patricia Mazuy
Screenwriter: Simon Reggiani
Starring: Marina Hands, Bruno Ganz, Josiane Balasko, Amanda Harlech
My rating: 4
Enraged by the sale of the vaulting horse that she'd been promised as hers to ride, Gracieuse, a talented rider, dumps her job at a stable.
She starts again from zero by accepting work as a groom at a dressage stud farm adjacent to her father's property. The owner, Joséphine de Silène, exploits with an iron fist the international renown of a German trainer, Franz Mann. This former champion, now cynical and worn out, is sought out by female riders the world over, who fight each other for his knowledge - and for his attention.
This microcosm of power and money has no time for Gracieuse, whose only assets are her talent, her fiercely stubborn character, and, most particularly, her determination to succeed. A high tension wire who's ready to stand up to Franz Mann and to face any obstacle, even if it means stepping outside the law, she pursues her sole obsession: to have horse to call her own that she will take to the top.
SHORT ANIMATION FILMS:
Le Tigre sans rayures
Director/Screenwriter: Raùl Robin Morales Reyes
My rating: 4
A little tiger decides to take a long journey in search of his stripes.
Mademoiselle Kiki et les Montparnos
Director: Amélie Harrault
My rating: 5
Kiki de Montparnasse was a model for major avant-garde painters of the early 20th century who went on to become a painter, a press cartoonist, a writer and a cabaret singer.
H recherche F
Director: Marina Moshkova
My rating: 5
The love story in the world of revived paintings. The artist is suffering from a creative crisis and the absence of the muse. The main reason is that he is lonely and wants to find his other half. He sees an advert in a newspaper about a Dating Service and he decides that it is his last chance to find love.
SHORT FILMS:
La Virée à Paname
Directors: Carine May, Hakim Zouhani
Screenwriter: Carine May
Starring: Vessale Lezouache, Smaïl Chaalane, Hamid Berkouz, Elvis Galé
My rating: 5
Mourad, twenty, gets along between drama classes, and going out with his buddies and girlfriend. Today, he decides to leave his district to go to a writing workshop in Paris. But the initiative will turn out to be more complicated than planned.
Directors/Screenwriters: Romane Gueret, Lise Akoka
Starring: Angélique Gernez, Eddhy Dupont, Éléonore Gurrey
My rating: 5
Angélique, 13, is the eldest child of a large family living in the suburbs of Valenciennes. One day at school, she is asked to audition for a film.
Belle à croquer
Director/Screenwriter: Axel Courtière
Screenwriter: Magali Pouzol
Starring: Sylvain Dieuaide, Lou de Laâge, Ophélia Kolb, Catherine Deneuve
My rating: 5
Oscar Mongoût, a gourmet cannibal, burns with love for a neighbor in his building, the very vegetal Miss Carrot. But this passion seems destined to fail: she is vegetarian, while he has a severe case of vegetable phobia. Things take a drastic turn the evening she invites him to dinner.
Director: Stéphane Demoustier
Starring: Denis Eyriey, Antoine Mathieu
My rating: 4
Jérôme fell in love with a young woman whom he tries to seduce. Day after day, he tells the evolution of the operations to his friend Patrick who gives his advice and lives by proxy the adventures of his younger friend.
Ce n'est pas un film de cow-boys
Director: Benjamin Parent
Screenwriter: Benjamin Parent, Joris Morio
Starring: Finnegan Oldfield, Malivaï Yakou, Leïla Choukri, Garance Marillier
My rating: 5
Brokeback Mountain was aired on TV last night. Vincent watched it and has been completely shattered. He takes advantage of the recess to describe the film in a touching and naïve way to his classmate, Moussa. In the girls bathroom, Jessica also deeply moved by the film, bombards her best friend Nadia with awkward questions about her gay father.
Judith Hôtel
Director/Screenwriter: Charlotte Le Bon
Screenwriter: Timothée Hochet
Starring: Sarah Calcine, Guillaume Kerbusch, Suzanne Rault-Balet, Jean-Baptiste Sagory
My rating: 5
To sleep forever is what Rémi dreams of. An insomniac for the past eight years, his life has become an unbearable nightmare. By booking a room in the highly sought-after Judith Hotel, he's offering himself the chance to start anew.
Les Lézards
Director: Vincent Mariette
Starring: Vincent Macaigne, Benoît Forgeard, Ginger Roman, Estéban
My rating: 5
Accompanied by his buddy Bruno, Leon waits in this hammam where he made an appointment with a girl met on Internet. From strange meetings to vaporous revelations, our two heroes wait restlessly for the hypothetical coming of the mysterious stranger.
Noyade interdite
Director: Mélanie Laleu
Starring: Diana Fontannaz, Estéban, Chloé Guillossou, Zakaria Benyahya
My rating: 5
Humanity follows the Voice's orders. Inserting coins into slots provides the beat. Solitude settles in for good and reigns over the world. But suddenly, two dreamers cross paths and the battle begins. When a striptease mermaid from a peep-show encounters a diver and wish thief, the world around them had better watch out.
La Caresse
Director/Screenwriter: Morgane Polanski
Screenwriter: Serena Jennings
Starring: Edvin Endre
My rating: 5
Cleanliness. Routine. Isolation. These are a few of our protagonist's favorite things. When an unwelcome furry visitor violates the rules of his ritualistic world, things take an unexpected turn...
