OUR FRENCH SELECTION AT THE SF INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Cinema

The ''so-anticipated'' Festival with more than 100 movies and events to celebrate cinema in San Francisco opens April 21 for 2 weeks. We selected a bunch of films with a French accent. #welovecinema # SFIFF59

Held each spring for 15 days, the SFIFF is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation. The selection is outstanding... as usual! And we love the French one... as usual.

Movies will be showing at the Castro Theatre as usual and in other venues like the Roxie theater, the Victoria too... some other ones including the brand newcomer New Mission Theater, aka Alamo Drafthouse New Mission.

The selection of French movies, French-speaking movies, related to France and beyond movies is great. We picked a few of them you should definitely go and watch.

À PEINE J'OUVRE LES YEUX

AS I OPEN MY EYES

By Leyla Bouzid

First full length feature film for Leyla that describes the country's youth eagerness for freedom.

The story in brief...

Set in Tunisia the summer before that country's 2011 Jasmine Revolution, the drama follows 18-year-old Farah (Baya Medhaffer) as she chafes at her mother’s attempts to control her curfew, her academic future and the time she spends with her group. Read more and showtimes.

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP

By Whit Stillman

Festival Grand Opening at the Castro Theatre. With Chloë Sevigny and Xavier Samuel.

The story in brief...

Stillman infuses this sharp-witted, frisky tale—based on the Jane Austen novella Lady Susan—with a bubbly effervescence as the widowed Susan (Beckinsale) maneuvers her way through society and finagles her way out of scandal while trying to gain matrimonial advantage for herself and her daughter during a visit to her in-laws. But will anyone be a suitable match for the sly and coy Lady Susan. Read more and showtimes.

LES CHEVALIERS BLANCS

THE WHITE KNIGHTS

By Joachim Lafosse

With Vincent Lindon, Louise Bourgoin, Valerie Donzelli and Reda Kateb.

Awesome casting for an intense movie based on a true story.

The story in brief...

Inspired by the 2007 controversy in which members of Zoé’s Ark, a French charity organization, were accused of criminal activity in Chad, The White Knights spins the tale of French aid workers on a morally murky mission removing kids from war-torn rural villages. As the NGO crew and a journalist embedded with them establish themselves in a secured facility where they set about winning over locals and treating various ailments, it’s clear from some suspicious behavior and activity that their ultimate goals are not exactly as presented, and the unfolding of their plan adds suspense to the dramatic circumstances of the film. Read more and showtimes

LES COWBOYS

By Thomas Bidegain

With François Damien and Finnegan Oldfield (We discovered him in Spiral, the french series actually available on streaming on Netflix)

The story in brief...

Noted screenwriter Thomas Bidegain brings the tough, tense attitude of his earlier scripts for A Prophet and Rust and Boneto a contemporary adaptation of John Ford's The Searchers. When Alain's 16-year-old daughter Kelly disappears at a French cowboy fair in 1994, he begins an epic journey to find her. Discovering that she has left of her own accord and wants to be left alone does not deter him; if anything, it spurs him to even more desperate action. As the multi-year quest leads him to far-flung locales in the Middle East, and he begins to involve his son George, the story expands to encompass an impressive array of themes and milieus. Read more and showtimes.

MICROBE ET GASOIL

MICROBE AND GASOLINE

Latest movie by Michel Gondry with Audrey Tautou as Marie Thérèse Guéret.

The story in brief...

Here, the titular misfits are Daniel (Ange Dargent), a hopeless romantic artist nicknamed "Microbe" for his puny size, and Theo (Theophile Baquet), a Fonzie-type greaser and the new kid in school. The two escape from their respective dysfunctional families and bullying peers with a grand adventure. Out on the road, the boys grow in maturity, facing run-ins with locals and striving to avoid any roadblocks in their path. Not quite a coming-of-age comedy, Microbe and Gasoline delightfully tiptoes the line between reality and fantasy as Gondry utilizes the playful yet socially constrained nature of youth to craft a touching tale of friendship while delivering subtle commentary on universal themes of identity, self-confidence and love. Read more and showtimes

NO HOME MOVIE

Last movie by Chantal Akerman commited suicide last Fall and left behind a brilliant and sensitive carreer and work.

Chantal Akerman’s ultra-personal last film gives voice and form to her mother, Natalia (Nelly), whose life is marked by the trauma of Auschwitz, the experience of exile and a longtime, self-elected silence about the past. Edited from over 40 hours of footage, No Home Movie captures the quotidian interactions and extended conversations between mother and daughter as Nelly’s declining health confines her to her Brussels apartment. Read more and showtimes

The selection is even longer than that. Take a look at it, here

And definitely, the selection goes way beyond French movies only. MAke your choice and enjoy a great time in SF. #welovecinema