The French are coming to DVD
Every week there seems to be yet another new film festival popping up claiming
to be the most 'cutting edge', the most 'contemporary', the most 'culturally
enriching' and the most fun you can have in the dark.
Statistically they’re big claims to live up to - they can’t all be all that. It
takes time to grow a decent festival, planning and persistency of vision. One
Festival that has put in the hard yards – and gained a loyal audience as a
result – is the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival, now in its sixth year
in Australia. It has evolved from a modest two-city showcase of 17 films, to a
national touring film festival with 24 contemporary features on its marquis.
Many of the French Film Festival's titles have made their way to DVD met by an
enthusiastic and very supportive antipodean audience.
Time Out ("Emploi Du Temps") (2001) is a searing tale of male pride and
the effects of economic rationalism in the workforce. Vincent (Aurelien
Recoing) is fired from his white collar job but cannot face telling his
family. Instead he concocts an elaborate ruse, pretending to go off "to work"
each day in the hope his fortunes will change. They don't. Vincent spirals into
an emotional and financial abyss which makes for incredible movie drama. Time
Out is an intimate and realistic film about the fallout of 'big picture'
politics on the 'every man'.
The Dreamlife Of Angels ("La Vie Revee Des Anges") (1998) is another
powerful and superbly realised portrait of real life and how tough it can be.
The feature debut of young writer/director
Erick Zonca, it follows the fortunes – emotional and otherwise - of
twenty-something friends Marie (Natacha
Degnier) and Isabelle (Elodie
Bouchez). Neither have much money; they dream of better futures while
living itinerant lifestyles. A rift in their friendship grows when Marie falls
for a rich guy. Isa warns her that he will only crush her heart but Marie puts
her friend's antagonism down to jealously...
Dreamlife is intoxicating; superbly directed, acted and with huge
compassion for its lost characters it deservedly blitzed at the 1999 Cesar
Awards ("the French Oscars"), taking home the Best Film award.
The French are not only known for their intimate dramas... In 2001 France
fashioned its own fantasy epic to rival Lord Of The Rings (2001) with
Brotherhood Of The Wolf ("Le Pacte Des Loups"), one of the most
successful French films in history. Superstar couple
Monica Bellucci (Matrix Revolutions, The Passion) and
Vincent Cassel (La Haine, Ocean's 12) – Europe's answer to Brad and
Angelina – provide the sex and comedy respectively in this mythic, 18th century
tale about hunting a monster. The women and children of rural France are being
terrorised by a giant magical wolf-like Beast. The King despatches confident
Fronsac (Samuel
Le Bihan) to deal with this 'little problem'. The results are
breath-taking and action-packed, frightening and funny. A great costume epic
often over-shadowed by its Hobbit cousins...
Finally, what would French cinema be without 'the farce' - and a musical one at
that? Francois Ozon’s 8 Women ("8
Femmes") (2002) was a massive crowd pleaser in Australian cinemas, a
family murder romp with a musical twist – a musical Cluedo peut-etre? It
featured some of France's most beautiful, talented and revered actresses from
several generations, including
Catherine Deneuve (Repulsion),
Isabelle Huppert (The
Piano Teacher),
Emmanuelle Beart (Betty Blue),
Fanny Ardant (Elizabeth)
and
Ludvine Sagnier (Swimming
Pool). There hadn’t been this much estrogen on the screen since chick
flick
Steel Magnolias (1989).. Trust a Frenchman to make it work.
- Megan
Megan Spencer has spent way too much of her life in the dark, all for a good
cause though - watching movies as a professional film critic. For the last six
and a half years she has been serving the ever-increasing hunger for film and
DVD reviews as radio triple j's resident film critic, and a year ago joined the
new line up of long-running SBS-TV film review program, The Movie Show.
Every now and then she pops up into the light to make her own films,
documentaries (her latest is 'Fantastic Brutality', a documentary about an
obsessed wrestling fan, to be released next year). She has also written about
film for many publications including J-Mag, Limelight, Inside Film Magazine and
the Age Green Guide.
And the impossible question to ask a film critic: what's her favourite film?
"Blue Velvet would be at the top of the list, so would Fight Club... But then
again American In Paris makes me cry every time."
Megan has also been part of the Foxtel's Project Greenlight Australia as an
on-air panelist and judge.
