Month: April 2024

Women's Rights Now

Screening

FRA | 2023 | 118 mins | dir. Vanessa Filho, written by Vanessa Springora, François Pirot, Vanessa Filho, with Kim Higelin, Jean-Paul Rouve, Laetitia Casta | in French with EN subs | UK Premiere | Cert. 15

Paris, 1985. Vanessa is thirteen when she meets Gabriel Matzneff. A very smart and manipulative man, the fifty-year-old renowned writer seduces the young girl. The adolescent becomes the lover and muse of a man celebrated by the cultural and political establishment. Losing herself in the relationship, she gradually starts to realise how destructive and abnormal the situation is, until she finally sees Gabriel Matzneff for the predator he really is. Based on the autobiographical book by writer Vanessa Springora, Consent takes the public onto a long journey through trauma and healing as she attempts to free herself from a man’s powerful influence.

From Page to Screen

Screening

FRA | 2023 | 116 mins | dir. Cédric Kahn, with Arieh Worthalter, Arthur Harari, Stéphan Guérin-Tillié | In French with EN subs | Cert TBC

A tense, edge-of-the-seat courtroom drama powerfully recreating the trial of Pierre Goldman in 1976 France, which was widely acknowledged as the most divisive case since the Dreyfus Affair of 1894. Prosecuted for a triple murder during the armed robbery of a Parisian pharmacy, Goldman, the rebellious son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, whose father was also a decorated Resistance fighter, refused to call any witnesses to his character. Politically on the far left and defiantly Jewish in his identity, Goldman accused the police of institutional antisemitism and racism, and of conspiring to convict him of a crime of which he was innocent. Author of the groundbreaking Dim Memories of a Polish Jew born in France, Goldman was a fine speaker. Selected to open the Critics Week in Cannes, The Goldman Case earned Arieh Worthalter the 2024 César for Best Actor.

From Page to Screen

Screening

FRA | 1948 | 110 mins | dir. Jean Delannoy, with Pierre Blanchar, Michèle Morgan, Line Noro & Jean Desailly | 35 mm print | in French with EN subs

In this screen adaptation of André Gide’s novella, a Swiss pastor has sheltered and raised a little blind girl who speaks and walks with difficulty. Now Gertrude is a woman, courted by the pastor's son, Jacques. The pastor, jealous, refuses to allow their marriage. But then Gertrude has an operation and recovers her sight...

Screening introduced by Colin Roust, Professor in musicology (University of Kansas) and author of Georges Auric, A Life in Music and Politics (Oxford University Press, 2020)

From Marseille with Love

Screening

FRA | 2023 | 66 mins | doc | dir. David Yon | in French with EN subs | Cert. TBC | UK Premiere

In a mineral black and white that breaks with the usual blue sky of Marseille, I Will Never Heal summons three anonymous figures, two men and a woman, whose lives are exposed and intertwined through fragments of existences and stories. The film tells us about the way these three people ward off and overcome an unfavourable fate (blindness, imprisonment), or simply the throes of life (mourning). (Claire Lasolle, FID)

In partnership with FID Marseille

FRA /BEL | 2023 | 74 mins | dir. Benoit Chieux, with Loïse Charpentier, Maryne Bertieaux | in French with EN subs | 6+ | Cert.TBC

Audience Award at the Annecy Animation Festival, Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air Streams follows two sisters, 4-year-old Juliette and 8-year-old Carmen. Together they discover a passage to enter a book's world, The Kingdom of Air Streams. To come back they need to find Sirocco, a terrifying character who can control the wind.

Screening preceded by a pre-recorded introduction by director Benoît Chieux

Pagnol - The Marseille Trilogy

Screening

FRA |1932 | 140 mins| dir. Marc Allégret, with Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis, Fernand Charpin | in French with EN subs | 4K Restoration

Marius embarked on “La Malaisie”, yielding to the irrepressible call of the sea. He left behind his old father César and his fiancée Fanny, who was carrying his child. Fanny is a masterful continuation of the Marseille trilogy, filled with moments of tenderness, heartache, and hope. Director Marc Allégret skilfully captures the vivid and colourful atmosphere of Marseille, creating a poignant and sometimes amusing portrayal of heartbreak and its consequences.

Pagnol - The Hills of Provence Trilogy

Screening

FRA | 2022 | 104 mins | dir. Christophe Barratier, with Léo Campion, Mélanie Doutey | in French with EN subs | 11+ | Cert. TBC

Marcel Pagnol embarks on his last summer vacation before high school and returns to his beloved hills in Provence where nature is at its best: the smells, the views, the animals... His summer of boyhood adventures becomes one of first loves and secrets.

Historical Perspectives

Talk

January, 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents, and their children — all killed at Auschwitz.

Anne Berest’s The Postcard is among the most acclaimed and beloved French novels of recent years. Luminous and gripping to the very last page, it is an enthralling investigation into family secrets, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life. Anne Berest will discuss this multi-award-winning book with Professor Catriona Seth (Oxford University).

Vivi Valiamé will provide British Sign Language interpretation and translation for this discussion.

Pagnol - The Marseille Trilogy

Screening

FRA | 1936 | 160 mins | dir. Marcel Pagnol, with Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis, Fernand Charpin | in French with EN subs | 4K Restoration

César marks the culmination of the Marseille trilogy. It ties up the stories of the characters introduced in Marius and Fanny, showcasing their growth and evolution through time. It is the only movie within the trilogy specifically crafted for the cinema and directed by Marcel Pagnol himself. Fanny, abandoned by Marius, marries Panisse who adopts Césariot, the child of love, and raises him as his son. Today, Césariot is an adult and Panisse is dying. Fanny reveals the truth to her son, who then decides to go in search of Marius, his father.

From Marseille with Love

Screening

FRA | 2023 | 106 mins | dir. Robert Guédiguian, with Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gérard Meylan, Lola Naymark , Robinson Stévenin, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet | in French with EN subs | cert. TBC | UK Premiere

In the working-class district of old Marseille, Rosa is the heart and soul of her community, a nurse and the matriarch of a large and close-knit family. But approaching retirement and surrounded by political inertia, she is feeling disillusioned. Until she meets Henri and realises it is never too late to fulfill her own political and personal dreams.

Robert Guédiguian is back to his Marseille roots with this militant and hopeful portrait of a woman (Venice Best Actress winner Ariane Ascaride) in the midst of inspirational changes.