French invasion

>> First-time and veteran directors are
showcased at Cinemania, the festival
of English-subtitled French films

by MALCOLM FRASER

Are you one of those anglos who’s interested in French cinema, but just can’t be bothered to learn the local tongue? Or perhaps your ear is accustomed to the Québécois accent, but it’s a different story with that strangely mannered, fast-talking French from the other side of the pond. Either way, your annual cinematic salvation is here with the Cinemania festival, that compendium of French films helpfully subtitled in English, hitting Montreal for its lucky 13th edition.

The fest opens with the latest from conceptual-art bad boy turned filmmaker Julian Schnabel, Le Scaphandre et le papillon, with a cast including local heroine Marie-Josée Croze and screen legend Max von Sydow. It’s the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, an editor at France’s Elle magazine who was paralyzed by a stroke, incapacitating him but for one eyelid, which he used to blink out a memoir and description of his inner world. The folks at Cannes liked it enough to award Schnabel a Best Director prize.

Speaking of Cannes, Cinemania is presenting one of the famous fest’s notable selections from the Un Certain Regard program this year: first-time director Céline Sciamma’s Naissance des pieuvres. Its plot involves high school girls’ lesbian sexual awakening, a subject everyone enjoys. And while we’re on the topic of high-profile festivals, Cinemania has scooped up L’Héritage, the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance. Géla Babluani, who brought us the acclaimed 13 Tzameti, co-directed this darkly comic drama with his father, Temur.

A full third of the films showcased are by first-time directors. This includes a number of works by moonlighting actors, including Anne Le Ny’s Ceux qui restent, a drama about a middle-aged man and woman who meet at a hospital where they’re both visiting their terminally ill spouses; actress/singer/erstwhile Luc Besson muse Maïwenn Le Besco’s Pardonnez-moi, an improv-driven, semi-autobiographical film in which she plays an actress who confronts her dysfunctional family on camera; and the fest’s closing film, Le Candidat, a drama about a young politican thrown unprepared into a televised debate, directed by noted actor Niels Arestrup (De battre mon coeur s’est arrêté), who will be on hand for the screening.

If cinematic veterans are more your speed, legendary French director Bertrand Tavernier will be in town, gracing us with a filmmaking master class and a retrospective of the five films he made with iconic actor Philippe Noiret, who passed on last year. A presence on the French film scene since the ’80s, director Catherine Corsini’s latest, the romantic comedy Les Ambitieux, will have its Canadian premiere at the fest.

Other interesting picks include Cannes official selection Cartouches gauloises from director Mehdi Charef; Valérie Guignabodet’s French box-office sensation Danse avec lui; Belgian director Alain Berliner’s musical J’aurais voulu être un danseur; comedy Demandez la permission aux enfants! with the charming Sandrine Bonnaire and a gaggle of rugrat thespians; Joachim Lafosse’s drama Nue propriété with the always fabulous Isabelle Huppert; Antoine de Caunes’s Désaccord parfait with the great Charlotte Rampling; and Si le vent soulève les sables, Marion Hänsel’s Belgian drama shot in Africa.

Even in our franco-friendly city, a number of these films may never see these shores again, so it’s a great chance to get caught up on contemporary Gallic cinema—and with those handy subtitles, you won’t miss a bon mot.

Cinemania runs from Nov. 1–11. for more info
and showtimes, see cinemaniafilmfestival.com