Brisbane is quite a francophile town with a very vibrant French expatriate community. Every year the French take over the South Bank along the river and host a French Festival, replete with real champagne stalls and tastings, French outdoor restaurants, foods to be eaten alfresco and row after row of stalls offering advice on moving to France, owning a B&B etc, with real people to talk to. I'm going to miss it this year as I will actually BE IN FRANCE! But the one thing that many affectionardos look forward to the most is the French Film Festival.
And it's on again!
Starting on the 16 March - 3 April, the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival will be a real hoot. It is sponsored by the Alliance Francaise, that wonderful organisation whose teachers have taught me everything I don't know about speaking French (ha ha, hello Michel!). As Michel Filhol, the Ambassadeur de France en Australie says: 'It is focused on first encounters, discoveries and clashes.' The 'first encounters' are between two cultures, two peoples, two destinies, two ways of ife...The 'discoveries' are between men and women, young and old, reality and fiction...The 'clashes' are between political ideas, different desires, good and evil...
There is a great line up of 46 movies from major directors, actresses and actors which illustrate these words by Jean-Marie Le Clezio, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009: 'Perhaps we could speak of love instead of cinema, and speak of them as if they were one and the same: Love, movement, that which troubles and makes your heart beat, that which awakens you deep inside, that which changes you and makes you somebody else.'
As Michel Filhol says: 'The 22nd AFFFF is a window on contemporary France, an open door to our country for the Australian audience, an invitation for a journey 18,000 kilometres from here, but just next door for we are earth neighbours in this world made smaller thanks to communication.'
Je vous souhaite un excellent Festival 2011!
Opening night film: POTICHE - starring Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu...
In 1977 in the small northern town of Sainte-Gudule we meet Suzanne Pujol (Deneuve) an impossibly glamourous neglected housewife - a potiche (decorated object) whose husband cheats on her...she ends up running his company!
This film is based on a play by Barillet and Gredy. It is guaranteed to open the Festival with pizzazz...and will make you want to see the other 45 films!
And it's on again!
One of the hosts is Keanau Reeves, er, the Palace Cinemas, at the Barracks (where I hang out a lot!) It's a brand-new theatre complex selling food platters, wine etc that you take into the movie, tres grown up. Now instead of lemon soda to go with my maltesers, I can drink Prosecco, yum, and nibble on crackers and cheese and olives. And you don't get any teens pelting M&Ms at the back of your head. (Miss that drama don't I?) And while the French Film Festival is on I can dress up in red, white and black every night!
There is a great line up of 46 movies from major directors, actresses and actors which illustrate these words by Jean-Marie Le Clezio, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009: 'Perhaps we could speak of love instead of cinema, and speak of them as if they were one and the same: Love, movement, that which troubles and makes your heart beat, that which awakens you deep inside, that which changes you and makes you somebody else.'
As Michel Filhol says: 'The 22nd AFFFF is a window on contemporary France, an open door to our country for the Australian audience, an invitation for a journey 18,000 kilometres from here, but just next door for we are earth neighbours in this world made smaller thanks to communication.'
Je vous souhaite un excellent Festival 2011!
Opening night film: POTICHE - starring Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu...
In this film Catherine Deneuve is in a comic role, a housewife who discovers she's a natural born leader...
In 1977 in the small northern town of Sainte-Gudule we meet Suzanne Pujol (Deneuve) an impossibly glamourous neglected housewife - a potiche (decorated object) whose husband cheats on her...she ends up running his company!
This film is based on a play by Barillet and Gredy. It is guaranteed to open the Festival with pizzazz...and will make you want to see the other 45 films!
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46 films! Sounds awesome and I so wish I was there! The culture surrounding me is primarily hispanic and so often I feel so out of place. I don't necessarily belong in a land that doesn't speak French, so yeah, I 'm so jealous you have such a fantastic film festival. Un peu . . .
ReplyDeleteI went there last year and it was great fun! Too bad you're not going to be there this year; lucky you'll be experiencing the real France!!! One year we should go and organise un petit rendezvous haha so we can have coffee/speak French/talk about blogs.
ReplyDeleteMary Mary: Yep, 46 films. I won't necessarily want to see all as the French can be a bit noir with their films, but I will pick and choose what I like - I'm an Amelie girl!
ReplyDeleteBrittany- I hope you get there this year and have a great time. Yes, we must meet up for un petit rendezvous. Have you tried the French Twist cafe at the Barracks? Awesome - more French than Paris!
Seems like there are quite a few films to pick and choose your way through. Perhaps you should order in the buy bubbles by the case!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy.....
GaynorB: What a great idea! Why didn't think of that?
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great festival!
ReplyDeleteNiall...it is!
ReplyDelete