Tag Archives: Rendez-Vous with French Cinema

SUZANNE LINDON — SPRING BLOSSOM

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I think the desire to make films has always been in me… [But] more than making a film, it was to make an artistic gesture that was important to me. I wanted to create images, a story, and a tone that resembled myself…

I was 15 and it was the summer before starting high school. Even though I was happy at school, with my friends and my family, I felt a certain melancholy. I decided to write about it; about this certain age when you are not totally a child anymore, but not really an adult yet. I feel this feeling is universal and I was living it while writing the movie. To me, being sincere was the only thing that mattered. — Suzanne Lindon

SPRING BLOSSOM / SEIZE PRINTEMPS—Lindon’s directorial debut—is a Paris fantasia about a young, awkward, intelligent adolescent (played by the director) transitioning out of childhood. Bored with the vapid banalities of her peers, she prefers to get lost in books by Boris Vian and dream of musical interludes on the streets of Montmartre. She is struck in particular by the milieu surrounding the Théâtre de l’Atelier, and falls in love with a disengaged actor in his thirties (Arnaud Valois)—or at least in love with the idea of him.

The film is now streaming as part of the virtual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema program, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. See link below for details.

SPRING BLOSSOM

Written and directed by Suzanne Lindon

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema

Film at Lincoln Center

Streaming through March 13.

Suzanne Lindon, Spring Blossom / Seize printemps (2020), from top: Lindon; Lindon; Arnaud Valois and Lindon; North American poster; Lindon; Lindon and Valois. Images courtesy and © the filmmaker and Avenue B Productions.

RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA — FAITHFUL

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FAITHFUL—a swift, heartfelt procédurale based on Joseph Andras’ debut novel De nos frères blessés (Of Our Wounded Brothers, 2016)—tells the story of Fernand Iveton (played by Vincent Lacoste), a French national in 1950s Algeria. Atypical for Europeans of his time—he was a member of the local Communist Party and a supporter of the FLN—he numbered Arabs among his closest friends and abhorred the murderous racism of the occupying French forces.* Perhaps too much of a humanist to be a true revolutionary, Iveton participated in a 1956 plot to destroy a power station.

As filmed by Hélier Cisterne, FAITHFUL jumps between Iveton’s first Parisian encounters with his wife Hélène (Vicky Krieps), his life in Algiers with fellow activist and childhood friend Henri Maillot (Yoann Zimmer), and his trial for treason, subsequent imprisonment, and ultimate fate.

As part of this year’s virtual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema festival, FAITHFUL is streaming nationwide. See link below for details.

FAITHFUL

Directed by Hélier Cisterne.

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema

Film at Lincoln Center

Streaming through March 11.

*During the period of the Algerian Revolution (1954–1962), the FLN—Front de libération nationale—was the nationalist movement advocating for the removal of the French colonizers.

Hélier Cisterne, Faithful / Des nos frères blessés (2020), from top: Vincent Lacoste (center); Vicky Krieps and Lacoste; Lacoste and Krieps; Krieps Images courtesy and © Les Films du Bélier, photographs by Laurent Thurin-Nal.

DAMIEN MANIVEL — ISADORA’S CHILDREN

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A triptych of contemporary stories set among a group of people alternately researching, rehearsing, performing, or witnessing Mother—Isadora Duncan’s tribute to her dead daughter and son, drowned in the Seine—ISADORA’S CHILDREN won a Golden Leopard for Damien Manivel, its director, at Locarno last year.

The film’s cast includes Elsa Wolliaston, Agathe Bonitzer, Manon Carpentier, and Marika Rizzi.

A selection of the canceled Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2020 festival, ISADORA’S CHILDREN is screening free on Festival Scope.

See link below for details.

ISADORA’S CHILDREN

Free sign-in through April 16.

Damien Manival, Isadora’s Children (2019), from top: Elsa Wolliaston; Marika Rizzi (left) and Manon Carpentier; French poster, Jeonju Cinema Project; Agathe Bonitzer; Carpentier and Rizzi. Images courtesy and © the filmmaker, the dancers and actors, the photographers, and Jeonju Cinema Project.

PASCAL BONITZER — LES ENVOÛTÉS

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A contemporary update of the Henry James ghost story “The Way it Came,” LES ENVOÛTÉS / SPELLBOUND)—directed by Pascal Bonitzer and written by Agnès de Sacy and Bonitzer—follows a chain of friends, lovers, and apparitions through Paris and the Pyrennes.

The cast includes Sara Giraudeau, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Anabel Lopez, and Nicolas Maury.

A selection of the canceled Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2020 festival, LES ENVOÛTÉS is screening free on Festival Scope.

See link below for details.

LES ENVOÛTÈS / SPELLBOUND

Free sign-in through April 16.

Pascal Bonitzer, Les envoûtés / Spellbound (2019): Sara Giraudeau and Nicolas Duvauchelle; Anabel Lopez, and Nicolas Maury (with Giraudeau) below French poster, SBS. Images courtesy and © the filmmaker, the actors, the photographers, and SBS.