MyFrenchFilmFestival

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domino harvey
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Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: MyFrenchFilmFestival

#101 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jan 26, 2022 2:28 pm

Empty Places, which was part of last year's program, has been nominated for the best animated short film Cesar. I see I never wrote it up, but it's definitely worth seeking out if you can find it

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domino harvey
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Re: MyFrenchFilmFestival

#102 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jan 26, 2022 2:38 pm

And from this year's festival, Medecin de nuit has been nominated for Best Actor

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swo17
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Re: MyFrenchFilmFestival

#103 Post by swo17 » Wed Jan 26, 2022 2:46 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Wed Jan 26, 2022 2:28 pm
Empty Places, which was part of last year's program, has been nominated for the best animated short film Cesar. I see I never wrote it up, but it's definitely worth seeking out if you can find it
You can find it here

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Red Screamer
Joined: Tue Jul 16, 2013 12:34 pm
Location: Tativille, IA

Re: MyFrenchFilmFestival

#104 Post by Red Screamer » Thu Jan 05, 2023 4:33 pm

This year's lineup is now up on their website, and the jury will include Albert Serra and Sergei Loznitza. At first glance, I'm intrigued by the sound of The Crossing and The World After Us.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: MyFrenchFilmFestival

#105 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jan 31, 2023 2:59 am

Watched a couple of shorts. Anxious Body is cheap ASMR with a fetish for paper cuts, so no thanks. Cataracte attempts to mix gallows humor with the tragic fatalism of systemic benefits severed from humanism, and it's neither funny nor sad, and not investing in theme, character, or tone... so, what's the point? At least Please Don't Touch! gets credit for exhaustively attempting to squeeze a surplus of ideas into its brief eight minutes, but there are a slew of problems: I'm not sure it's even aware of what it's critiquing half the time, its batting average for gags landing is very low, and the animation (though intentionally shoddy) doesn't really gel in any compelling way. The film's greatest strength is its use of sound nodding -practically bowing- to Tati

Ronde de nuit (The Night Watch) is terrific though - a drunken night of conflict, vulnerability, and trauma morphs into an obfuscated Eyes Wide Shut odyssey of hallucinogenic horror. It's at once bleak and exhilarating; acutely vivid with hypervigilance to detail and yet snared in an inebriated state of confusion. There's a lot of insecurities externalized in the phantasmagoric animation, but above all this is a great depiction of a drunken nightmare -whether one is living or dreaming it

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domino harvey
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Re: MyFrenchFilmFestival

#106 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jan 17, 2025 11:14 am

Underway yet again, with Noemie Merlant and Viggo Mortensen among the jury members. Salvadori’s Les Apprentis, which I don’t think has an English friendly release apart from back channels, is among the selections of older films

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: MyFrenchFilmFestival

#107 Post by knives » Fri Jan 17, 2025 11:37 am

That’s good fun. Does anyone have a list of the free to watch films?

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Red Screamer
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Re: MyFrenchFilmFestival

#108 Post by Red Screamer » Fri Jan 17, 2025 12:34 pm

According to Letterboxd, I was recommended La fille de son père at one point, but I can’t remember how strongly (and I didn’t like Le Duc’s last film Perdrix that appeared in this festival a few years back). Also, Making Of is Cédric Kahn’s comic follow-up to his not-comic hit from last year, Le procès Goldman, & while Le temps d’aimer seems like a pretty typical Cannes-bait snooze, I might give it a shot given the actors involved.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: MyFrenchFilmFestival

#109 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Jan 17, 2025 5:04 pm

Red Screamer wrote:
Fri Jan 17, 2025 12:34 pm
According to Letterboxd, I was recommended La fille de son père at one point, but I can’t remember how strongly (and I didn’t like Le Duc’s last film Perdrix that appeared in this festival a few years back)d.
I liked it, but I also loved Perdrix, and this is very much apiece with that film's tonal energy. La fille de son père is more dramatic, but infuses its seriousness with a madcap formal propulsion right from the get-go that can be hypnotic and works for the destabilizing thematic tone of the film, whether that be to fall in love or cope with unexpected losses and re-emergences. Though while there's a charm to Le Duc's loose hold leading to unpredictable narrative quirks, he risks and falls into patterns of inconsistency and confounding choices that don't gel with the rest. There simply isn't enough of a structure around relationship dynamics for them to all work under the umbrella of his internal logic. The father-daughter relationship effectively drifts between accelerated eccentricity and pulsing stillness, but Maud Wyler doesn't fit in at all. She once again embodies a superfluous love interest, yet this time Le Duc isn't interested in subverting the role into rich characterization. Le Duc seems to want to draw Wes Anderson characters in his own style, and though I admire his wit and audacity on certain occasions (enough to give the film an edge towards recommendation), he's not entirely successful at crafting a cohesive whole, and unfortunately avoids engaging with a sense of emptiness in a lucid and deliberate way a la Anderson.

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