MOVIES: Feeling a Little French at NYFF

A number of notable selections at this year’s New York Film Festival were of the français persuasion with the Film Society favoring directors Olivier Assayas, Agnès Jaoui and Arnaud Desplechin’s new work and choosing Laurent Cantet’s Cannes-winning The Class to open the festival. All four films were distinctly contemporary depicting modern day France in all of it’s beautiful, and at time infuriatingly disconnected, glory.

Like Hou Hsiao Hsien's The Flight of the Red Balloon which played at last year's festival, Assayas’s new movie Summer Hours initially began as a commission by the Musée d’Orsay to commemorate their 20th anniversary. While it does include some scenes shot inside the gorgeous Parisian museum and featured some artwork lent to the production, Assayas veared off of track from lauding the institution to questioning whether artwork belongs behind a glass case at all. A family story of mourning and negotiation, legacy and memory, it includes a knock-out performance by Juliet Binoche and will be getting a theatrical release next spring.  

Desplechin and his star, French cinema icon Catherine Deneuve visited the Film Society to discuss their film after a screening to the press. The drama titled A Christmas Tale follows the long holiday weekend spent by an extended family coping with the mother’s cancer diagnosis. The all-star cast includes Mathieu Amalric, Melvil Poupaud, Emmanuelle Devos and Chiara Mastroianni (Deneuve’s daughter) who play some of the grown children returning to the nest. Deneuve, still stunning after all of these years on screen, had nothing but praise for her director remarking to the audience, “I was amazed by the energy and the cheerful atmosphere on the set. He’s like a child in a playroom.” The movie gets a regular theatrical release in mid November.

—Karen Wilson

Catherine Deneuve and Arnaud Desplechin speaking at Walter Reade theater. Photo by Karen Wilson.