GAMES OF LOVE AND CHANCE Director: ABDELLATIF KECHICHE 117 minutes, France, 2003, Subtitled, Colour, 35mm Book cinema tickets With his second film, Abdellatif Kechiche proved his talent by winning the Best French Film César for this highly accomplished drama. Newly-single Krimo has set his sights on beautiful Lydia (Sara Forestier), leading lady in their school’s adaptation of Marivaux’s 18th-century comedy The Game of Love and Chance. Bribing a friend for his role, just so he can be close to Lydia, soon leads to all sorts of melodramas. In the play, the identity-swapping characters discover that they can’t escape their class-determined destinies. Games of Love and Chance poses a parallel predicament: can great literature lift these banlieue adolescents out of their dreary surroundings? (Notes by Kevin Coyne.) This film is screening as part of the Abdellatif Kechiche Programme which also continues during the Carte Noire IFI French Film Festival (November 20th – December 1st 2013). The programme coincides with the release of Abdellatif Kechiche’s latest work and fifth film, Blue is the Warmest Colour. The full season features all of Abdellatif Kechiche’s previous films: Blame it on Voltaire (2000); Couscous (2007); and Black Venus (2010). Director: ABDELLATIF KECHICHE 117 minutes, France, 2003, Subtitled, Colour, 35mm