Rendez-vous with French Cinema is Back at Film Society

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 26 February 2015 10:16

Written by Jack Angstreich

This year’s Rendezvous with French Cinema series at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which runs from March 6th through the 15th, will surely prove as inordinately popular as it has in previous years. The notable directors featured this time around include Benoit Jacquot, André Téchiné, Jean-Paul Civeyrac and Cédric Kahn — certainly an impressive collection of cineastes.

Jacquot’s moving 3 Hearts, the opening night selection, about an unusual romantic triangle involving a tax inspector who falls in love with two sisters, will undoubtedly prove to be one of the most remarkable films in the series. The director displays an enviable confidence in his highly cinematic unfolding of this eccentric, suspenseful narrative, which surprises with a texture of almost novelistic density. Jacquot is invaluably assisted here by the superbly accomplished control over lighting, framing and camera-movement achieved by his cinematographer, Julien Hirsch, as well as with a memorably portentous, original score by Bruno Coulais, but the seamless — and, at times, invigoratingly original — editing and scene-construction seem to be all the director’s own. Equally assured are the characteristically nuanced performances the filmmaker has elicited from his inestimable ensemble of actors, each of whom can be seen at their rare best here: Benoit Poelvoorde, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Chiara Mastroianni, and the eternally glamorous Catherine Deneuve. If the expectations generated by this ambitious work prove perhaps slightly too outsized by the time the narration attains its conclusion, 3 Hearts is nonetheless a consistently absorbing experience (I should add that the use of the digital format here is almost uniformly exquisite).

Also remarkable is the chilling Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart, a dramatization of the events concerning the crimes of Frenchserial killer Franck Neuhart, directed by Cedric Auger, a former writer for Cahiers du Cinéma. The filmmaker displays a striking command of the medium, mesmerizingly evoking, through formal means, the phenomenology of a psychopathic murderer, while resisting any reductive explanation of his acts. Here, too, the cast is superb, featuring Guillaume Canet in the enigmatic lead role, and the lovely Ana Girardot as the protagonist's touchingly hapless young housekeeper and girlfriend. As has become gratifyingly common in commercial features very recently, the adaptation by the cinematographer to the digital format here is perfectly assured.

Fifth Annual Athena Film Fest Celebrates Women in Cinema

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Published on Thursday, 05 February 2015 22:39

Written by Brad Balfour

#ChicagoGirl

As both a patron goddess of cities and of heroes, it is only fitting that Barnard, New York City’s women’s liberal arts college, holds a film festival carrying the name Athena. The Fifth Annual Athena Film Festival (February 5 - 8, 2015) at Barnard College (3009 Broadway, New York, NY) honors extraordinary women in the film industry along with feature length films, documentaries, shorts, and workshops focusing on women and leadership.

Part of the festival’s roundup of cinema is the Athena List, a collection of three to five completed scripts that have yet to be turned into films which have strong roles for women. Basically acting as a “gender conscious cousin” to the Black List, the Athena List aims to create change in the film making landscape, along with the Athena Film Festival Awards, which honors past achievements by women in cinema.

Features and documentaries include:

• #ChicagoGirl – The Social Network Takes on a Dictator
  Armed only with a laptop, a smartphone, and her determination, 19-year-old Ala’a Basatneh is contributing to the Syrian revolution from her Chicago bedroom.

• In the Game
  In the Game follows the ups and downs of an Hispanic girls soccer team to reveal the impact that race, class, and gender has on life opportunities.

• Sepideh — Reaching for the Stars
  In a rural village far from Tehran, the night sky glows brilliantly, unimpeded by light pollution, and a teenage girl named Sepideh dreams of becoming an astronomer.

• Vessel
  Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts brings much-needed abortion and contraceptive services to those with no other options.

• Beyond the Lights
  The pressures of fame have superstar singer Noni on the edge, until she meets Kaz, a young cop who works to help her find the courage to develop her own voice and break free to become the artist she was meant to be.

• Difret Hirut
  A 14-year-old girl is abducted on her way home from school for marriage. She bravely grabs a rifle and tries to escape, but ends up shooting her would-be husband. Afterward, a tenacious young lawyer argues that Hirut acted in self-defense.

• Dukhtar
  Dukhtar is a dramatic story of a mother who kidnaps her ten-year-old daughter to save her from the fate of a child bride.

• We Are The Best!
  Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band — despite not having any instruments and being told by everyone that punk is dead.

Athena Film Fest's panels and workshops also look to aim women and aspriing film makers with know how in everything from crowdfunding management to film and television production.

Panels and workshops include:

• Below the Line
  A conversation with several established cinematographers who will talk about the lack of women in their field, and how they broke into the “private club” and became some of the most in-demand names in the game.
  
  
• Master Class on Directing with Gina Prince-Bythewood
  This master class on directing for film features Gina Prince-Bythewood, writer, director, and producer.
  
  
• Master Class on Producing Film — with Cathy Schulman
  Join Academy Award winning producer, Cathy Schulman, President of Mandalay Pictures, for a conversation on producing in Hollywood.
  
  
• Master Class on Producing Television — with Stephanie Laing
  This master class on producing for television features Stephanie Liang, Emmy-award winning producer.

“This year’s awardees epitomize the leadership and ingenuity that women bring to the entertainment industry everyday,” said Kathryn Kolbert, co-founder of the Athena Film Festival and Constance Hess Williams Director for the Athena Center.  “We are excited for the festival to once again bring the Barnard community and campus to life with film and entertainment fans embracing all the festival has to offer.”

To learn more, go to: http://athenafilmfestival.com/

The Fifth Annual Athena Film Festival
February 5 - 8, 2015

Barnard College
3009 Broadway
New York, NY 10027

Miami Jewish Film Fest & the Liberation of Auschwitz

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Published on Monday, 12 January 2015 17:24

Written by Renzo Adler

Anita B.

Marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Miami Jewish Film Festival (January 15 - 29, 2015) at the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center (3385 Northeast 188th Street Aventura, FL 33180) examines a dark and painful chapter of history, but also “celebrates the unexpected,” as its tagline touts, in Jewish history and life.

• Anita B., directed by Roberto Faenza, is a story of healing and change as a woman liberated from Auschwitz starts a new life in Prague.

• The Last Mentsch, directed by Pierre-Henry Salfati, shows a man denying his Jewish identity since escaping Auschwitz. But now that he’s aware of his own mortality he wishes to be burried in a Jewish cemetary and must prove something that he has spent most of his life denying.

• The Decent One, directed by Vanessa Lapa, examines the life of SS chief Heincrich Himler through personal photographs, documents, and journals, and how he became one of the top designers of murder and genocide for the Third Reich.

• Colette, directed by Milan Cieslar, is based on the novel by Arnost Lustig, a concentration camp survivor. The film is a tale of escape and survival that draws from Lustig’s own experiences.

Along with its films set around Auschwitz, the festival also has works focuses on Jewish life today. In it’s North American premiere, Bible Kings, a documentary directed by Antoine Arditti, examines a world of Talmudic scholars (of sorts) that are competitors in The World Bible Quiz, a global competition testing knowledge of who said what, where, and when in the Old Testament. Director Arditti will be in attendance to introduce the film and give a Q&A when it is over.

The Miami Jewish Film Festival touches on Jewish life, past and present, with a wide array of films.

To learn more, go to: http://miamijewishfilmfestival.net/

Miami Jewish Film Festival
January 15 - 29, 2015

Aventura Arts & Cultural Center
3385 Northeast 188th Street
Aventura, FL 33180

Various other locations.