Film lovers who are looking for something more than popcorn fare will be keen to catch the Festival du Film Française, which showcases award-winning contemporary gems.
While we can see up to 10 French films released on the local cinema circuit in any given year, we still miss out on a plethora of really good films.
The recently signed co-produc-tion treaty between our two countries may increase the number of films we’ll see in future, but until then we are beholden to organisa-tions such as the Alliance Française and the French Institute of South Africa to give us a glimpse of French cinematic culture.
The festival takes place over the first two weeks of this month in five cities, kicking off in Cape Town and moving to Joburg from Friday to Sunday.
The festival curator is Capetonian filmmaker Oliver Hermanus, who will lead a masterclass in each of the cities.
His debut film, Shirley Adams, received rave reviews in France and he was also the first South African filmmaker selected to participate in the prestigious Cinéfondation in Cannes. This year he returns to Cannes as a guest of the French Embassy.
Hermanus was asked to choose the best contemporary French films and his primary objective was to find films South Africans would never normally get a chance to see.
“Hopefully, this will show a different kind of cinema. The French make a huge number of commercial films, but also a huge number of what they call human interest, which we call art films. I’m envious of that,” said Hermanus.
He describes his choices as challenging films which clearly display the preoccupation of many French filmmakers with pushing a specific opinion, which invariably elicits very strong responses.
Hermanus said Des Hommes et des Dieux (Of Gods and Men) and White Material drew polarising views wherever they had been screened and emphasised the importance of Venus Noire to South Africans.
Des Hommes et des Dieux was France’s submission to the Academy Award’s Foreign Film category and won the Grand Prix at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Based on a true story about Trappist monks stationed within an impoverished Algerian community in the mid-1990s, the film shows us what true humanity means.
The screening of this film is by invitation only, but it will have a limited cinematic release at the end of the month in South Africa.
White Material is directed by one of the few contemporary French female directors, Claire Denis.
Set in an African country beset by race and civil conflicts, she explores the blinkered outlook of a colonialist who firmly believes she has become fully integrated into the country she occupies (Saturday, 5.30pm at Rosebank Nouveau).
La Venus Noire (The Black Venus) tells the story of Sarah Baartman and the time she spent in Paris (Sunday, 7.30pm at Rosebank Nouveau).
“It’s good that we have the ending of the story in our minds. La Venus Noire is a powerful story and it’s important, because it’s about having a conversation.
“The French are being critical about themselves… in La Venus Noire, Des Hommes et des Dieux and White Material. We like to do the same thing, tell stories about our history, but not quite like the French,” said Hermanus.
Other films at the festival include:
l Le Silence de Lorna (The Silence of Lorna): Directed by the Dardenne brothers, this bleak thriller sees an Albanian woman living in Belgium enter into an arranged marriage to gain citizenship, but then the scam becomes complicated because she’s supposed to pass on the luck by getting married a second time (Saturday, 2.30pm at Rosebank Nouveau).
l Un Poison Violent (Love Like Poison): A young teenager home for the holidays from a Catholic boarding school finds herself grappling with her faith when she discovers her father has left her mother. She becomes close to a young boy who doesn’t believe in God (Sunday, at 5.30pm at Rosebank Nouveau).
l Le Refuge (The Refuge): Starts off as the story of junkies in love, Mousse and Louise. He dies of an overdose and alone and scared she decamps to a house far from Paris. But then his brother discovers her refuge (Sunday, at 2.30pm at Rosebank Nouveau).
l Tournée (On Tour): This tale of the misadventures of a US troop of burlesque dancers in France is by invitation only.
A screening of Shirley Adams will precede Hermanus’s masterclass at Afda, 41 Frost Avenue, Auckland Park, at 9am.
Isabelle Servent will present a workshop titled Teaching French Through Cinema at the Alliance Française (Lower Park Drive, cnr Kerry Road, Parkview) between 9am and noon on Monday. This includes a screening of François Truffaut’s Les 400 Coups, the intense story of a misunderstood and neglected adolescent who descends into a life of petty crime.
l The Festival du Film Française runs from February 4 to 6 in Joburg. All films in French with English subtitles. Get the full programme at www.alliance.org.za