The Stranger, from multi-award-winning writer/director François Ozon, will be a highlight. Photos: Alliance Française French Film Festival.
Canberrans can continue their love affair with French culture next month when the 37th Alliance Française French Film Festival opens at the Palace Electric in New Acton.
Alliance Française de Canberra director Nabila Aliane said Canberrans love French culture, language, landscape and history.
Ms Aliane said this year’s line-up of films would have something for everyone and, in their distinctive way, get people talking.
“French movies push you to have to think differently, to talk, to discuss very serious subjects,” she said.
“The way they introduce subjects is very clever. Canberrans love the idea of talking or discussing or watching these movies.”
This year, there are films about disability and the hot-button topic of artificial intelligence.
Ms Aliane said the festival, Australia’s biggest, runs from 5 March to 8 April and would present an incredibly diverse selection of films.
These include French box-office smash-hits, star-studded adaptations of novels, Hollywood stars and Cannes masterpieces.
They travel across time and continents and range from romance and comedy to period pieces, drama, action, animation and searing satire.
Colours of Time travels to 19th Century Paris and the impressionists.
The festival will open with Colours of Time, a time-travel film that transports the audience to the art world of 19th-century Paris.
It follows the lives of cousins who inherit an old house in rural Normandy and trace their ancestors’ footsteps.
“It’s going to be a joyful and moving journey into the world of impressionism,” Ms Aliane said.
The centrepiece will be The Richest Woman in the World, a comedy starring Isabel Huppert as Liliane Bettencourt, the billionaire heiress to the L’Oréal fortune and doyenne of Parisian society who became embroiled in scandal.
Ms Aliane said a highlight would be the adaptation of Albert Camus’s novel The Stranger, directed by multi-award-winning writer/director François Ozon. Filmed in stunning black and white, it tells the story of a detached young expatriate on trial for murder in 1930s French-colonised Algeria.
The popular Marion Cotillard stars in a chilling coming-of-age story, The Ice Tower, a movie within a movie and a variation on Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen that explores obsession, power, and the fragile line between enchantment and sacrifice.
As usual, there is a Classic Movie. This time it’s A Man and a Woman, the 1966 French romantic drama film directed by Claude Lelouch, starring Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant.
Jodie Foster, in her first French-speaking role (A Private Life) and Angeline Jolie (Couture) bring Hollywood star power to the festival.
Women filmmakers are also well represented in the program, with films from 10 women directors.
Closing the festival will be Johann Dionnet’s Rodrigue In Love, a romantic comedy set in the heart of the country’s most famous theatre festival, Avignon.
The festival is not just about the films; it also features special events and experiences such as Ladies Night, Family Night, and Taste of France sessions.
Ms Aliane said Alliance Française de Canberra would also host workshops linked to the festival, where people can discuss specific films.
Festival CEO Frédéric Alliod said this year’s program reflected the extraordinary vitality and diversity of French cinema.
“The festival is a celebration of French storytelling in all its richness, openness and emotion, and a platform for intercultural exchange and dialogue with our loyal Australian audiences.”
Alliance Française French Film Festival Canberra runs from 5 March to 8 April at Palace Electric Cinema Canberra. To view the full program or to secure tickets, visit AF French Film Festival.
