A Preview of the 2025 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema | Festivals & Awards
Now marking its thirtieth 12 months, the annual “Rendez-Vous with French Cinema” competition returns to present American audiences a style of what’s occurring in modern French cinema. Working March 6-Sixteenth at New York’s Walter Reade Theatre, this system affords up 23 movies—quite a lot of that are making their U.S./North American premieres—that embody each the most recent efforts from quite a lot of France’s most notable names on either side of the digital camera to the early works of these quickly becoming a member of their ranks. As well as, quite a lot of the movies will likely be accompanied by introductions and post-screening Q&A’s with the filmmakers. There will even be a few on-stage discussions that will likely be open to the general public, together with one on March 11 with actress Judith Godreche, discussing her function as one of many main figures in France’s #MeToo motion and the impact that it has had on the movie business.
The competition kicks off with the New York premiere of “Three Buddies” (March 6), the most recent from Emmanuel Mouret, whose “Diary of a Fleeting Affair” was a part of the 2023 lineup. This one is a romantic drama that options allusions to such classics of the shape as “La Ronde” and “Hannah and her Sisters,” with out ever fairly rising to their degree. It facilities on three shut buddies and their varied romantic entanglements. Joan (India Hair, who will current the movie with Mouret) is a girl who has simply misplaced her husband (Vincent Macaigne) and is struggling to maneuver on due to the guilt she feels over the truth that she confessed her unhappiness with their marriage simply earlier than his demise. Alice (Camille Cottin) is changing into satisfied that her accomplice, Eric (Gregorio Ludig) is having an affair and contemplates having one with a famend artist she has met. They reside vicariously by means of the exploits of Rebecca (Sara Forestier), who they know is having an affair with a married man however who they don’t notice is Eric. Though it accommodates a couple of amusing bits of dialogue right here and there and a powerful and convincing efficiency from Hair, the movie quickly turns into a very talky and repetitive work that’s nowhere close to as deep or insightful because it pretends to be.
This 12 months’s competition stands as a form of unofficial tribute to one among France’s main actors, Vincent Lindon, who will likely be readily available to current at least three movies on this system during which he’s featured. In “The Quiet Son” (March 8, 11), the third function from Delphine and Muriel Coulin, he performs a widower whose loving relationship along with his two youngsters is rocked when he discovers that his older son (Benjamin Voisin) has lately fallen in with a bunch of violent right-wing nationalists in a efficiency that earned him the Greatest Actor award ultimately 12 months’s Venice Movie Pageant. In “Cross Away” (March 7, 10), he places on a literal one-man present in a remake of Steven Knight’s 2013 drama “Locke,” during which he performs a development foreman who immediately takes off on the eve of a significant job to drive in direction of an unsure vacation spot whereas juggling a number of cellphone calls that step by step reveal the precariousness of each his private {and professional} lives. Though the movie doesn’t veer too dramatically from its predecessor, Lindon finds a brand new and extra lived-in method to the function beforehand performed by Tom Hardy that permits it to really feel nonetheless comparatively recent.
The ultimate Lindon choice—and maybe my favourite of all of the movies on this 12 months’s lineup—is “The Second Act” (March 8, 13), the most recent little bit of weirdness from the prolific Quentin Dupieux, the thoughts behind such mind-benders as “Rubber,” “Mandibles” and “Smoking Causes Coughing.” This time round, he performs one among a quartet of actors (joined by Lea Seydoux, Louis Garrell and Raphael Quenard) who’ve little enthusiasm for both the venture they’re ensnared in (which seems to be directed completely by AI) or one another and who frequently discover themselves breaking the fourth wall (and extra) till it turns into unattainable to inform what we’re watching at any given level.
Though I confess to being blended on Dupieux as a complete, that is arguably his finest and positively his most constant. He playfully deconstructs the mysteries of the filmmaking course of whereas arising with impressed operating gags relating to every thing from a supremely nervous bit participant who retains messing up takes to none apart from Paul Thomas Anderson, which are delivered expertly by his more-than-game solid.
The competition additionally contains the native premiere of the most recent movie from maybe France’s most celebrated actress, the incomparable Isabelle Huppert. In “Visiting Hours” (March 8, 10), the most recent from Patricia Mazuy (whose earlier movie was the brutal thriller “Saturn Bowling”), she performs Alma, the well-to-do spouse of a person who’s at present serving time in jail for an auto mishap for which he obtained a scandalously mild sentence, presumably resulting from his wealth and status. Whereas on the jail in the future to go to him, she meets Mina (“The Secret of the Grain” Star Hafsia Herzi), who’s there to see her husband, who’s serving a far longer sentence than Alma’s husband for a a lot much less critical crime.
Alma impulsively decides to take Mina and her two youngsters in to reside along with her in her giant home, which is ostensibly nearer to the jail than the place Mina at present lives, and the 2 step by step start to bond, although the huge variations of their respective circumstances ultimately threaten to return between them. Though the narrative is considerably uneven, particularly with the introduction of a subplot during which Mina is threatened by the brother of one among her husband’s colleagues over some stolen watches that finally ends up dominating the ultimate stretch, the movie remains to be price waiting for each its quiet however unmistakable observations of the inequities of the French penal system and the impressed interaction between Huppert, working in a lighter mode than traditional, and Harzi.
Among the many notable filmmakers whose newest efforts are within the lineup is Francois Ozon, who returns to the competition with “When Fall is Coming” (March 7, 16), a unusual (shock) mix of quiet household drama and darkish comedy. Right here, retiree Michele (Helene Vincent) resides a peaceable life within the nation, spending time within the nation along with her longtime BFF Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko) and awaiting visits from her beloved grandchild, Lucas (Garlan Erlos). Alas, she and her daughter, Valerie (Ludivine Sagnier) have a rocky relationship and when a go to goes mistaken following a culinary catastrophe, there’s the chance that she could by no means be allowed to see Lucas once more.
On the identical time, Marie-Claude’s son, Vincent (Pierre Lottin), has simply been launched from jail and is seeking to make a recent begin and I might not dream of claiming something extra about what ensues. Though working in a much more naturalistic mode than in his earlier work, the super-stylized “The Crime is Mine,” Ozon conjures up an interesting and sometimes outrageous meditation on the notions of household and friendship that’s anchored by the robust efficiency by Vincent and given extra frisson by his reunion with Sagnier, who’re working collectively for the primary time because the nice “Swimming Pool” greater than 20 years in the past.
“Suspended Time” (March 14, 16) marks the most recent work from Olivier Assayas. Whereas he has made some extraordinary movies previously, corresponding to “Summer time Hours,” “Personal Shopper,” and each the movie and tv variations of “Irma Vep,” this isn’t one among his higher works. Set in April of 2020, throughout the early days of the worldwide COVID-19 shutdown, it tells the semi-autobiographical story of two brothers—celebrated filmmaker Paul (Vincent Macaigne) and music journalist Etienne (Micha Lescot)—who’ve holed up of their household dwelling within the provinces with their respective romantic companions to journey issues out and are slowly pushed to distraction by each the shut quarters and their basic isolation from the skin world. There have been quite a lot of movies which have used the pandemic lockdown as a dramatic springboard. Nonetheless, whereas Assayas definitely offers a extra picturesque take than most, he doesn’t have a lot to say about these unusual days or their impact on us. As a substitute, he goes for an auto-fiction method that grows much less attention-grabbing as issues go on.
“This Lifetime of Mine” (March 6, 10) marks the ultimate movie from writer-director Sophie Fillieres, who handed away shortly after finishing capturing, having handed on notes to her youngsters (who will likely be readily available to current the movie) as to how the modifying ought to go. In it, Agnes Joui performs a middle-aged lady with two grown youngsters who not want her and a boring company job that solely serves to remind her of the writing profession she deserted way back. Already struggling along with her psychological well being, an opportunity encounter with a long-forgotten good friend sends her off on a spiral that lands her in a residential hospital for a spell but additionally evokes her to take inventory of her life and what she desires to get out of it. Though the movie works for some time, shifting from a extra overtly comedic opening third into extra serious-minded areas within the center part, the ultimate section is just a little too mawkish and uneven to work, although how a lot of this is because of Fillieres’s absence from the modifying course of is unattainable to establish, Nonetheless, the efficiency from Joui is undeniably successful and proves to be greater than sufficient to carry one’s curiosity, even when the narrative begins to go off-track.
One other robust efficiency within the service of a so-so-film is the one which Anamaria Vartolomei, the breakthrough star of “Happening,” delivers in “Being Maria” (March 15), the sophomore function from Jessica Palud which fulfills the necessity for each movie competition of word to comprise a minimum of one work that offers partially with the filmmaking course of itself. This one presents the story of Maria Schneider, the French actress who was plucked from digital obscurity to look reverse famous person Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris,” an intense manufacturing that culminated with the notorious “get the butter” sequence that Brando (Matt Dillon) and Bertolucci (Giuseppe Maggio) deliberate with out her approval or consent to seize her genuine shocked response. Primarily based partially on the controversy surrounding this scene, the movie can be celebrated and vilified worldwide. Nonetheless, whereas Bertolucci and Brando went on to better triumphs, Schneider was left to face the fallout herself and, constrained from giving voice to her emotions in direction of what occurred, spiraled off right into a drug behavior, rocky relationships, and a profession that noticed filmmakers extra concerned about her physique and notoriety than her expertise.
When the main focus is on the “Tango” shoot and its quick aftermath, the movie is intriguing. Nonetheless, when it goes into Schneider’s later profession, it’s extra concerned about seeing her as a easy martyr than an individual and turns into one other middling showbiz biopic. That stated, Vartolomei (who will likely be readily available to current the movie with Dillion) is sort of good, making you would like she had been given the possibility to painting Schneider in a movie with extra curiosity and curiosity about her as a complete than this will muster.
One of many extra bold movies on this 12 months’s assortment is Aude Lea Rapin’s techno-thriller “Planet B” (March 12, 14). Set in 2039, the movie considerations a bunch of environmental activists, led by Julia (Adele Exarchopoulos), who’re arrested following an motion that goes sideways and get up to find that they’ve been sentenced to Planet B, the world’s first digital jail the place they’re continually being tempted to tell on one another by these in cost in trade for his or her freedom. In the meantime, Noiur (Souheila Yacoub), an Iraqi journalist whose documentation is about to run out, inadvertently stumbles upon proof of Planet B and tries to discover a means inside to disclose its existence to the world. By tapping into present fears relating to digital actuality, local weather change, and the therapy of prisoners whereas on the identical time providing a portrait of what is likely to be coming earlier than too lengthy, Rapin’s movie typically bites off greater than it could adequately chew. Nonetheless, it stays moderately watchable and compelling all through, aided in no small half by the spectacular driving rating from none apart from filmmaker Bertrand Bonello.
The struggles of migrants attempting to make their means by means of modern France are on the coronary heart of two of the competition’s extra gripping movies. In Jonathan Millet’s “Ghost Path” (March 9, 11), Adam Bessa stars as Hamid, a migrant who, two years after being launched from a Syrian jail, is struggling to make ends meet as a development employee in Strasbourg whereas on the identical time decided to trace down the person who tortured him throughout his interval of imprisonment. This transient description may make the movie sound like a easy revenge thriller. Nonetheless, Millet as a substitute presents us with a extra difficult and nuanced portrayal of the modern migrant expertise, each by way of attempting to rebuild their lives and in coming to phrases with what brought on them to flee within the first place.
In the meantime, Boris Lojkine’s “Souleymane’s Story” (March 9, 14) follows a Guinean immigrant (Abou Sangare, a non-professional actor who received the Greatest Actor prize within the Un Sure Regard part of Cannes final 12 months) over the course of two days as he struggles to maintain up along with his punishing work as a bicycle meals deliverer whereas attempting to arrange himself for an imminent and all-important interview relating to his asylum standing. Shot largely on the fly with hid cameras and edited for max depth, Lojkine’s movie has the type of a breakneck thriller however simply beneath is a considerate and highly effective drama inspecting life on the margins of society by means of the eyes of the kind for whom the system appears to be arrange nearly particularly to fail.
The significance of the press in instances of political upheaval is the main focus of two extra of the movies, although one proves to be way more profitable at it than the others. Primarily based on the novel by Jerome Ferrari, “In His Personal Picture” (March 12, 14), the most recent from filmmaker Thierry de Peretti, tells the story of Antonia (Clara-Maria Laredo), a younger photographer from Corsica who chronicles the upheaval in her nation from the ’80s to the start of the twenty first century whereas on the identical time being entwined in a long-standing affair with a radical activist (Louis Starace) whose actions find yourself forcing her to comprehend that separating the private from the political just isn’t as simple as some wish to make it sound. Though handsomely mounted, the movie is undone by a careless, flashback-heavy construction that saps many of the pressure out of every particular person scene and an method to Antonia that’s so decided to make her appear enigmatic that it forgets to make her attention-grabbing.
Way more intriguing is “Assembly with Pol Pot” (March 7, 13), during which Cambodian-born filmmaker Rithy Panh takes an progressive and eye-opening take a look at one of many darker moments in his nation’s historical past. Primarily based on the nonfiction e-book by journalist Elizabeth Becker (who will current the movie alongside Panh), the movie takes place in December, 1978 as a trio of French journalists—Lise (Irene Jacob), Paul (Cyril Guei) and Alain (Gregoire Colin)—are summoned to Cambodia with the potential for scoring a uncommon interview with Pol Pot, then attempting to achieve worldwide help for his genocidal Khmer Rouge regime earlier than a doable invasion by Vietnam. Whereas ready endlessly for the interview to occur, the three are taken to numerous setups designed to guarantee them that artists and intellectuals are, opposite to rumor, not being imprisoned, tortured, and killed. Though Alain, who claims to have studied with Pol Pot on the Sorbonne and is insistent of his goodness and equity, the others aren’t practically as satisfied and find yourself stumbling into more and more dangerous areas.
Along with the robust performances by the three leads and a sensible, inquisitive screenplay, the movie additionally advantages significantly from Panh’s recreation of this pivotal second in Cambodian historical past, one which makes intelligent and even handed use of each archival footage and clay figurine dioramas (a conceit he beforehand deployed in his 2013 movie “The Lacking Image”) to deliver the horrors to life whereas on the identical time confessing to the difficulties of replicating such monstrous acts, even within the type of drama, in provocative methods.
On the lighter facet of issues, there are a trio of movies which are so aggressively feel-good in nature that I might not be shocked if any of them had been picked as much as be remade by an American studio earlier than too lengthy. “Holy Cow” (March 8), the directorial debut of Louise Courvoisier, tells the story of Totone (Clement Faveau), an 18-year-old child pressured into maturity when his farmer father dies and he’s left to look after his cute moppet sister. After briefly taking a job at a close-by dairy farm, the place he falls for the farmer’s daughter however runs afoul of his sons, Totone hits upon a novel means of constructing a go of it—he plans, regardless of no expertise, to win a 30,000 Euro prize for making the perfect Comte cheese within the area. Whereas I like taking a look at monumental rounds of cheese as a lot as anybody else, that doesn’t take away from the truth that our hero is form of a jerk all through (whereas he’s within the farmer’s home having intercourse along with his daughter, he has his friends steal milk for the cheese) and that it’s in the end far too predictable for its personal good with a remaining bit that’s, frankly, form of gross.
In “Jim’s Story” (March 7, 15), the most recent from the fraternal filmmaking duo of Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, unhappy sack Aymeric (Karin Leklou) runs throughout Florence (Laetita Dosch), a former co-worker who’s six months pregnant with the kid of Christophe (Bertrand Belin), a person who has left her to return to his personal spouse and household. Aymeric finally ends up entering into Christophe’s footwear, not solely getting Florence by means of the being pregnant however serving to to lift the kid as his personal. Just a few years later, although, following a tragedy, Christophe returns with a need to develop into concerned with the lifetime of Jim (Eol Personne), the son he has by no means identified, a call that has heartbreaking implications as Aymeric is pressured to navigate his new standing in regard to his relationship with the kid. Finally, the movie is a tear-jerker and never a very refined one at that and is in the end just a little too sappy and contrived for its personal good—the form of movie that Garry Marshall might need made with out altering a single side.
Emmanuel Courcol’s “The Marching Band” (March 11, 16), can also be fairly melodramatic as effectively, although it does a considerably higher job of promoting its heart-tugging components. On this one, world-renowned orchestra conductor Thibault (Benjamin Lavernhe) finds out within the opening scenes that he has leukemia and is in imminent want of a bone marrow donor. Through the seek for a match, he discovers that he was really adopted and that he has an older brother, Jimmy (Pierre Lottin), who works within the canteen at a manufacturing unit in Northern France being threatened with closure. After preliminary misgivings, Jimmy agrees to donate his marrow and after recovering, Thibault tries to get nearer to his newfound brother, first by serving to out with the native marching band, for which Jimmy performs trombone, after their conductor strikes away after which by encouraging Jimmy to step up and lead the band into a neighborhood competitors.
Just like the earlier two movies I’ve talked about, there’s nothing notably shocking available right here however Courcol serves up the anticipated items in a fairly entertaining and crowd-pleasing method, aided in no small half by the partaking performances from the 2 leads.
Younger folks struggling to seek out their respective locations in modern society type the premise of one other quartet of movies within the lineup. In “Wild Diamond” (March 10, 15), the one debut function chosen for the primary competitors at Cannes final 12 months, writer-director Agatha Riedinger (who will likely be presenting the movie) focuses on Liane (nonprofessional actor Malou Khebizi), a 19-year-old lady dwelling in near-poverty along with her mom and youthful sister who yearns to interrupt out of her humdrum existence by being solid as a contestant on a actuality present entitled “Miracle Island.” Though the audition appears to go effectively and the producer assures her that she is in, Liane’s whole existence begins to spin uncontrolled when she doesn’t hear something afterwards.
Khebizi does a very good job of attempting to deliver nuance to the form of character that’s too usually dismissed as a joke however Riedinger’s insights in direction of actuality tv and those that look upon it as a shortcut to fame, fortune and self-realization are pretty banal and produce nothing new to the desk.
One other story of a teen tempted with the prospect of fame and wealth comes within the type of Camille Perton’s “Arenas” (March 16). Within the movie, which Perton will likely be introducing, a supremely gifted 18-year-old soccer participant named Brahim (Ilies Kadri) finds himself consumed with the will to show professional to offer for his household. Nonetheless, when his good friend/advisor Mehdi (Sofia’s Khammes) fails to land him a spot on his most popular crew, Brahim finds himself falling below the spell of Francis (Edgar Ramirez), a slick agent who is aware of all the angles required to get him signed up however who could also be extra concerned about making a deal than in following his shopper’s needs.
Though it might be just a little too brief for its personal good, Perton does a very good job of negotiating each Brahim’s makes an attempt to do proper by his household and the shadowy behind-the-details of the fashionable sports activities scene and provides a pleasant supporting function for Ramirez, who will get way more to do right here in only a few scenes than he did in that “Emilia Perez” nonsense.
Though it doesn’t comprise anybody search fame and fortune, the emotional stakes are simply as excessive for the characters in Claire Burger’s teen drama “Overseas Tongue” (March 12, 13). Because the movie opens, Fanny (Lilith Grasmug) is leaving Strasbourg to spend a month along with her German pen pal Lena (Josefa Heinsus) and whereas their preliminary assembly is a bit on the anxious facet for quite a lot of causes, the 2 quickly develop into buddies, spurred on partially by their mutual curiosity in political activism. Nonetheless, when Lena goes to go to Fanny and her household, issues start to take a darker flip for causes that I’ll go away so that you can uncover. Though the title could recommend one thing just a little extra on the salacious facet, this proves to be a largely fascinating statement on the slippery notion of minor friendship anchored by spectacular and convincing performances from the 2 leads in addition to from Nina Hoss and Chiara Mastroianni as their equally troubled moms.
One other one among my favorites from this 12 months’s competition is “Winter in Sokcho” (March 11, 12), a quietly shifting and intimate drama from Kona Kamura that tells the story of Son-ha (Bella Kim), a younger lady working in a small lodge within the Korean seaside city the place she grew up along with her mom, having by no means met her French father. When a famend French artist (Roschdy Zem) arrives on the town to do some work, she reveals him round city and whereas a friendship begins to develop between him, she finds herself more and more consumed with understanding who he actually is and the way it could or could not connect with the unanswered questions relating to her personal life.
Though the movie could appear to have a little bit of a “Misplaced in Translation” vibe on the floor at first, it quickly goes off into intriguing areas of its personal as Kamura avoids the anticipated melodramatic pitfalls whereas dealing with the important thing plot factors, together with Son-ha’s physique picture points and rocky relationship with a jerk boyfriend with grace and subtlety. On this, she is helped immeasurably by Kim, a newcomer who however navigates the narrative in a quietly compelling method in what was my favourite efficiency in all the movies on show right here.
Lastly, there are two titles that I used to be not in a position to absolutely watch at press time. I did see the primary installment of Thibault de Longville’s “DJ Mehdi: Made in France” (March 19), a six-part 240-minute-long documentary miniseries chronicling the life and work of DJ Mehdi, a musical prodigy who turned a number one identify in French hip-hop music earlier than his tragic demise in 2011 on the age of 33.
As well as, the fraternal directorial duo of Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma current “And Their Kids After Them” (March 13, 15) an adaptation of Nicolas Mathieu’s acclaimed 2018 novel set in 90s-era France a few battle at a celebration between two boys from wildly completely different backgrounds that proves to have long-lasting repercussions for each that stars Paul Kircher, and Sayyid El Alami because the boys and likewise contains Gille Lellouche and Ludivine Sagnier within the solid.
For extra info on screening instances, tickets and scheduled visitor appearances, click on here.
The Rendez-Vous with French Cinema program runs at New York’s Walter Reade Theater from March 6 by means of March 16.
