Vive La France

Best of Césars 2021

We are delighted once again to partner with the Institute Français and platform some exciting new UK unreleased French films. This broad selection of films nominated and awarded at this year’s French César Awards represent emerging as well as established directors: a unique opportunity to discover newcomers and see films with your favourite actors. Do not miss exciting titles such as ‘De Gaulle’ with Lambert Wilson.

Booking Ref

Sun 15 Aug 18:00 (Auditorium)

Bye Bye Morons

Adieu les Cons – New Release A French comedy-drama that morphs into an unexpected romance-drama, where an unlikely trio set off on a hilarious and poignant helter-skelter journey through Paris in search of a long-lost child. A seriously ill woman tries to find her long-lost child with the help of a man in the middle of a burnout, and a blind archivist. The film follows Suze Trappet (Virginie Efira), a 45-yearold hairdresser diagnosed with an auto-immune disease that leaves her little time to live. Her longing (and now dying) wish is to meet the child she gave up for adoption when she was merely 15-years-old. On her madcap bureaucratic quest she crosses paths with JB (Albert Dupontel), a 50-year-old man in the middle of a burnout, and Mr Blin (Nicolas Marié), a blind archivist prone to over-enthusiasm. With its autumn-coloured grading, cleverly linked dialogue and successful running jokes, writer-director Albert Dupontel creates a heartwarming film that touches on themes of life, death, and love. (Subtitles) France 2021 Albert Dupontel 87m

Our thanks to Curzon for this screening.

Booking Ref

De Gaulle

Mixing the historic and the Romanesque, the film charts a military debacle as well as the revelation of a destiny. May 1940. France is facing a disastrous military situation against the German army. De Gaulle (Lambert Wilson), newly appointed General, joins the Government in Paris while Yvonne (Isabelle Carré), his wife, and their three children remain in the East. Faced with the defeatist attitude of Marshal Pétain who wants to negotiate with Hitler. De Gaulle has one intention only: to continue fighting. Alongside thousands of French families, Yvonne and the children are soon forced to flee the advancing German troops. Without any contact, doubt arises: will the de Gaulle family be sacrificed for the sake of France? (Subtitles) France 2019 Gabriel Le Bomin 105m

Mon 16 Aug 15:45 (Studio) Tue 17 Aug 12:30 (Studio)

Tue 17 Aug 18:00 (Auditorium) Wed 18 Aug 14:45 (Auditorium)

Booking Ref

Gagarine

English Premiere A boy, a building, and a looming big bang: from these elements, French directors Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh create a wondrous debut feature. It derives such a crackle of authenticity from the physical reality of its setting that its starryeyed metaphysics seem uncannily plausible too. A fiction set and shot around a real event – the August 2019 demolition of the huge Cité Gagarine, a 370-apartment housing project in Ivry-sur-Seine on the outskirts of Paris. Gagarine is a dream built from debris, a rocket ship made from rubble, and a touching tribute to stratospheric aspirations thriving against the odds in even the most maligned and marginalized communities. We may be in the suburbs, but some of us are looking at the stars. (Subtitles) France 2021 Fanny Liatard/Jérémy Trouilh 98m

Our thanks to Curzon for this screening.

Booking Ref

Fri 20 Aug 17:30 – £12.50 (inc. Jazz Guitar Duo) Sat 21 Aug 21:00 – £9.50 (Auditorium)

Django

UK Premiere Jazz musician Django Reinhardt and his family escape from Germanoccupied Paris in 1943. The year is 1943 in Nazi-occupied Paris and Django Reinhardt is at the pinnacle of his art. The brilliant and carefree jazz guitarist, king of ethereal swing, plays to standing-room-only crowds in the capital’s greatest venues. Meanwhile his gypsy brethren are being persecuted throughout Europe. His life takes a turn for the worse when the Nazi propaganda machine wants to send him on tour in Germany. Based on the 2013 novel Folles De Django by Alexis Salatko, this is a partly fictionalized account about Django’s wartime experiences as a Belgian-born Romani in occupied France; The film has some serious things to say about the Nazis’ assault on Romani peoples and Reinhardt’s frontline position in this war. A tremendous bonus is the authentic music with extended musical numbers by Reinhardt’s Quintette du Hot Club de France wonderfully re-created. Although world premiered at the Berlinale of 2017, this is its UK premiere. (Subtitled) France 2017 Etienne Comar 117m

Our thanks to Gaumont for this screening.

We are pleased to welcome Gypsy Jazz duo 'Balcon Manouche' to play a short gig before Friday's screening. Balcon Manouche is a swing/jazz guitar duo formed in early 2020 by guitarists Charlie Jackson and Charlie Gordon. Drawing from both Charlies’ experience of playing a variety of different styles, Balcon Manouche combines swing, jazz and other flavours to create a sound that will get your feet tapping.

Booking Ref

Booking Ref Sat 21 Aug 18:00 (Auditorium) Sun 22 Aug 14:45 (Auditorium)

Délicieux

UK Premiere France, 1789, just before the Revolution. With the help of a mysterious young woman, a chef who has been sacked by his master finds the strength to free himself from his position as a servant and opens the first-ever restaurant in France. France 1789 and revolution is brewing. The aristocrats remain oblivious and complacent. One such is the Duke of Chamfort (Benjamin Lavernhe), who dismisses his talented cook, Pierre Manceron (Grégory Gadebois), when he refuses to apologize for presenting a dish whose ingredients displease one of the Duke’s guests. Manceron leaves his culinary life behind for a life as keeper of a small wayfarers’ inn with his son, Benjamin (Lorenzo Lefèbvre). Into this backwater comes the mysterious Louise (Isabelle Carré), determined to become Manceron’s apprentice. Louise suggests that Manceron should take revenge on the duke. ‘Delicious’ is as good as its title’s promise: leaving aside the exquisite cinematography of haute cuisine, the movie is filled with dangers overt and covert, tensions sexual and political, swift turns of events, and humour. Between keeping secrets, creating serious mishaps, and cooking up marvellous gastronomic schemes of vengeance, the film never has a dull moment. (Subtitles) France 2021 Éric Besnard 112m

Mon 16 Aug 18:45 (Studio) Tue 24 Aug 16:00 (Studio)

Night Ride

La Nuit Venue

Paris, 2018. Jin (Guang Huo), a young undocumented immigrant, drives at night in a fraudulent taxi scheme for the Chinese mafia in order to pay his ‘debt’. His rides are punctuated by sophisticated electro music, a vestige of his past as a DJ in Beijing. One night, the bewitching Noémie (Camélia Jordana) hails his taxi. Intrigued by Jin’s silence and aura and transported by his music, she decides to make him her appointed driver for her night activities. The love story that develops between them pushes Jin to break the rules and attempt to set himself free. Using classic ingredients of film noir (the criminal gang, the femme fatale, the twists of fate, the dead end, the risky choices taken to find a way out, etc), Frédéric Farrucci unveils a cruel society of man’s exploitation by man, to a Césarawarded score composed by Rone. (Subtitles) France 2020 Frédéric Farrucci 95m

Booking Ref

Booking Ref Tue 17 Aug 15:00 (Studio) Tue 24 Aug 18:15 (Studio)

Fri 27 Aug 18:00 (Auditorium) Sun 29 Aug 13:30 (Auditorium)

Simply Black

Tout simplement Noir

In this politically incorrect comedy for which Jean-Pascal Zadi was awarded the Most Promising Actor César, JP, a wannabe actor, decides to organise the first large ‘Black Lives Matter’-style protest in France to fight what he perceives as bigotry and racism. As he comically struggles to put together his march, which is set to take place in Paris’ Place de la République, he has various encounters, often burlesque, sometimes tragic, with members of the community, activists, the police. ‘Simply Black’ is funny throughout; the mockumentary angle works, but every laugh gained comes with a pinch of salt because there is an element of truth behind each calamity that Jean-Pascal Zadi experiences. (Subtitles) France 2020 John Wax and Jean-Pascal Zadi 90m

The Rose Maker

La Fine Fleur – UK Premiere Eve (Catherine Frot) used to be one of the most famous rose cultivators in the world. Today, her company is on the verge of bankruptcy. The magnificent Catherine Frot (‘Marguerite’) takes centre stage as Eve, a world-renowned rose farmer dealing with hard times. In this easy-going and good-natured comedy, Eve reluctantly accepts help from an unlikely source and, by doing so, discovers new aspects of life that are worth nurturing. Eve used to be content living in complete isolation to focus on her passion for growing roses. When financial ruin threatens her business and livelihood, desperate measures are required. The solution comes in the form of three new workers hired from a back-towork programme. There is just one small problem: they know absolutely nothing about growing roses. Though they have nothing in common, they come up with a crazy plan that could change their lives forever. ‘The Rose Maker’ makes full use of veteran actor Frot alongside a great ensemble of emerging actors playing the hapless farmhands. Funny and warm, the film shows how underneath all of our differences, there is a shared humanity and the potential for friendship. (Subtitles) France 2021 Pierre Pinaud 95m

Fires in the Dark

A 17th-century French drama, based on a Japanese novel and set in a shoreline village beneath towering rockfaces. See Indies for full details of this French film on pg40. Mon 23 Aug 11:00

Also

Also

Bertrand Tavernier Tribute

For full details of these five classic French films see pg79. From 13 Aug