French Connection

French movie lovers now have a reason to rejoice as Rendez-Vous With French Cinema In India, a French film festival comes to the city. The movies will be screened at Metro BIG Cinemas and Andheri’s Fun Cinema. The festival will begin on December 4 with the romantic comedy, Heartbreaker starring Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis and Julie Ferrier.

The other movies to be screened include Des Hommes et Des Dieux (Of Gods and Men) (2010) by Xavier Beauvois, Potiche (2009) by François Ozon, Oceans (2007) by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud, Sarah’s Key (2010) by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, Carlos (2010) by Olivier Assayas, and Crime d’amour (Love Crime) (2010) by Alain Corneau. All the films will have subtitles in English and the entry will be on first-come, first-serve basis, with two passes per person available at the theaters, one hour prior to the screening.

“We aim to showcase the diversity of French cinema and the movies selected are a good mix of genres,” states Déborah Benattar from the French Embassy.

Co-organised by The French Embassy in India and Unifrance, the festival will pay tribute to the late Alain Corneau, a French director and writer who passed away on August 30 this year, less than a fortnight after his film, Crime d’Amour (Love Crime) was released. “Corneau was one of the leading directors in French cinema. He loved India and even shot parts of his movie Nocturne Indien (1989) in different locations of the country. He returned to India many times after the film’s shoot and has been a jury member at many Indian film festivals,” adds Benattar.

The festival also aims to bring French films to theatres across the country. “We hope to develop relationships with Indian distributors and help them discover and release French films,” says Régine Hatchondo, general manager of Unifrance.