The 14th Carte Noire IFI French Film Festival opens this Wednesday and will be the start of what promises to be an excellent 12 days and nights of the best French cinema. With tickets selling fast and numerous guests about to arrive, including Emmanuelle Devos and Arnaud Desplechin, the time is nearly upon us to immerse ourselves in French style, glamour and cinematic sophistication…
‘But I don’t speak French!’ we hear you saying. Worry not, we have this sorted. And nine other reasons why you should be attending this year’s Festival:
1. “I didn’t know her. I think that helped. It was two people meeting. And it was kind of a crush – a friendship-crush. We became really close and we had this complicity. She was like my sister on the shoot, and she always will be, I think” – Adele Exarchopoulos on Lea Seydoux and how they found their chemistry.
Blue is the Warmest Colour has caused considerable controversy since it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes earlier this year. Now it’s coming to the Festival, and going on a general release from Friday, November 22nd. You’d better not bring your granny to this one though.
Photo: interviewmagazine.com
2. Gain some serious culture vulture points by casually dropping Abdellatif Kechiche, Nicolas Philibert and Emmanuelle Devos into your conversations with friends. ‘Plans for the weekend? Oh just heading to this public interview with Desplechin. I find his films deeply obsessional’ should do the trick. (Double points for having your DVD copy of A Christmas Tale signed).
3. Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris must be the hottest film couple in the universe (sorry Brangelina!)
4. All films are subtitled, or actually shot in English – like Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian), Arnaud Desplechin’s first feature film on American soil, starring Benicio Del Toro as Jimmy Picard, a Blackfoot Indian hospitalised in Kansas, suffering from trauma as a result of war-time injuries.
5. Xavier Dolan is only 24 years old and he’s made yet another film. Tom at the Farm is a powerful thriller with a homoerotic power-play between the two leads. Winner at Venice, Dolan’s manipulative visual style provides climatic sequences in this volatile psychological thriller.
6. Special guest at last year’s Festival, Juliette Binoche is captivating as sculptor Camille Claudel in Bruno Dumont’s raw, challenging, even painful, yet beautiful new movie.
7. We’re showing Les Apaches because @juliebienvenu told us so. And we trust her.
Proud to see “Les Apaches” is in the French Film Fest after I recommended it to the IFI for the programme back during the Cannes Film Fest!
— Julie Bienvenu (@juliebienvenu) November 19, 2013
8. Soundtrack For Francois Ozon’s Jeune Et Jolie features M83, Vitalic, Crystal Castles & more.
9. To celebrate the opening of Carte Noire IFI French Film Festival, one of our partners, Air France, are giving YOU a chance to win a flight for two to Paris! You’re welcome.
The IFI is supported
by The Arts Council