Andrew Worsdale
The French, arguably, invented cinema, although there is some contention that Thomas Edison was the founder. Either way, thanks to brothers Auguste andLouis Lumire, cinema became part of daily life with screenings at Paris’s Grand Caf in 1895.
Frenchman George Mlis, probably the first cinema artist, developed special effects to create a pantomime fantasy world on film.
During the 1930s and 1940s, the French film industry thrived with directors like Jean Renoir and Marcel Carn.
With the 1960s new wave and the use of lighter cameras, directors Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Alain Resnais and Jacques Demy made their mark.
More recently, with the establishment of the Centre du Cinematographie, the introduction of avance sur recettes – whereby film-makers can get financial advances based on ticket sales – and the rise of cable station Canal Plus, a major supporter of local films, the industry is booming.
This week the French Film Festival opens at Cinema Nouveau in Rosebank and moves to Cape Town next week. It is the oldest French film festival in the world and celebrates its 21st anniversary this year. It was started by film distribution entrepreneur Len Davis and first staged at the Jewish Board of Deputies, where he was employed.
This year’s line-up includes a retrospective of Catherine Deneuve and a roster of award-winning films from the past two years.
The festival opens with Alain Resnais’s Same Old Song. The story revolves around sisters Odile and Camille. A radio playwright is crazy about Camille, but she falls for his boss, a real estate agent from whom Odile, co-incidentally, is buying a flat. The triangular shenanigans play out like a regular French farce, but Resnais has the characters bursting into song at emotional moments. The film is a masterpiece of technique, with the actors mouthing lyrics to contemporary songs. The voices range from Charles Aznavour to Josephine Baker (sung by a Nazi general at the film’s opening). The film won seven Cesar awards and makes for dazzling entertainment.
As for the rest of films on show, here are some recommendations.
Artemisia (Agnes Merlet). This is a beautifully mounted period film about Artemisia Gentileschi, acknowledged as the first female artist in history. At a time when female artists were forbidden to attend art lessons or paint nude male models, Artemisia breaks all the rules. A Florentine painter agrees to be her tutor and they have a sexual affair. This leads to a court case prompted by Artemisia’s father. Valentina Cervi is perfectly cast as the obsessive artist. The film is handsome and touching, and its sense of the 17th century is immaculate.
My Life As Jesus (Bruno Damont). The winner of numerous awards, this fascinating film follows the fortunes of Freddy, a teenager who lives in a small town with his mother. Life is tedious for the youth and his friends. When Freddy’s girlfriend is seen talking to an Arab boy, all hell breaks loose. Featuring a cast of unknowns from rural areas in France, it’s slow moving but exquisitely shot – an elliptical masterpiece about youth and boredom.
Will It Snow for Christmas? This stunning debut feature by Sandrine Veysset is a compassionate story about a woman and her seven illegitimate children who work under enslaved conditions on a farm. It balances the children’s blissful take on life with the inhumanity of the farmer who uses the woman as a sex object and a source of cheap labour.
Western (Manuel Poirier). This offbeat, bittersweet comedy was awarded a Jury prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. A Spanish shoe salesman loses his car to Nino, a drifter. When the salesman catches up with the thief, they form an unlikely alliance – one a womaniser, the other a hopeless seducer. But then the tables turn. It is long, slow and not everyone’s cup of tea, but it is strangely beguiling.
Belle de Jour (Luis Bunuel). This elegant version of Joseph Kessel’s book has Catherine Deneuve as a bored bourgeois wife who decides to work as a high-class prostitute in the afternoons. The more addicted she becomes to the vice, the more luminous her face. Beautifully shot, this is a timeless masterpiece.
Port of Shadows (Marcel Carn). This is a perfectly staged French film noir with Jean Gabin as an army deserter who tries to protect Michele Morgan from the criminal intent of Michel Simon and Claude Brasseur. It is a perfectly downbeat thriller with sparkling dialogue by Jacques Prevert.
The Other Shore (Dominique Cabera). This is a sombre drama with Claude Brasseur playing a Frenchman living in Algeria where powerful business interests are trying to force him to sell his olive-oil plantation. Suffering from an eye disorder he returns to France and strikes up a friendship with his Moroccan doctor. This is a thought- provoking and subtly detailed drama.
Le Sauvage/The Wild One (Jean-Paul Rappeneau). This is a well-staged tragifarce with Yves Montand as the eponymous sauvage, on the run from his wife’s cosmetic empire, who ends up growing vegetables on a tropical island. His come- uppance comes in the form of Catherine Deneuve. A slapstick opera, it has a dazzling array of locations and is fun from start to finish.
How I Got into an Argument … My Sexual Life (Arnaud Desplechin). This is a typically Gallic tale of modern romance about an intellectual professor, with an eye for women, who wants to live a full life. He has dated the same woman for several years but the relationship is rapidly deteriorating and so he starts eyeing his friend’s girlfriend. Long and rather slow, this is a witty and carefully wrought film.
There are 19 films on offer at the festival, so you are spoilt for choice. For more information contact Computicket or Cinema Nouveau.