IFI FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL 2010

The 2010 IFI French Film Festival ran from November 18th to 28th 2010. Special guests included director John Boorman, film critic Michel Ciment, and actress Lolita Chammah.

THE NAMES OF LOVE

Gala Opening In this entertainingly ribald and very funny comedy, Sara Forestier (Gainsbourg, Les Herbes folles) is Bahia, a free-spirited liberal who aims to convert right-wing men by sleeping with…

Thursday 18th Nov 2010 18.30

MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE

Jean Becker's new film is the story of an unlikely friendship between Germain (Gerard Depardieu) and Margueritte (96-year-old Gisele Casadesus). Germain left school barely literate, and his mother often reminded…

Friday 19th Nov 2010 17.15

The hectic social lives of a group of female college students revolve around 'the Ranch', the apartment where the girls' nights out always begin and usually end, with copious amounts…

Friday 19th Nov 2010 19.15

MAKING PLANS FOR LÉNA

This collaboration between Christophe Honoré and Chiara Mastroianni was written specifically for the actress. She breathes complex life into Lena, a mother of two adrift and flailing somewhat after the…

Friday 19th Nov 2010 21.00

MICHEL CIMENT: THE ART OF SHARING MOVIES

The indefatigable Michel Ciment has been at the forefront of film criticism for almost fifty years. Starting with Positif at the height of its battle with Cahiers du cinema, he…

Saturday 20th Nov 2010 14.30

MOMENTS CHOISIS DES HISTOIRE(S) DU CINEMA

Originally a series of eight video essays on the history and concept of cinema, and its interaction with the greater world and the magnum opus of Godard's career …

Saturday 20th Nov 2010 16.00

The excellent Mammuth retains the dark humour of the filmmakers' earlier work (Aaltra, 2004) and invests it with poignancy. On retiring, Serge (Depardieu) is encouraged by his wife (Yolande Moreau)…

Saturday 20th Nov 2010 18.00

OF GODS AND MEN

This film was released 3rd December 2010, and is no longer screening. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes this year, Xavier Beauvois' powerful and moving film is a fictionalised…

Saturday 20th Nov 2010 20.00

Illegal is a remarkable film, both a cry of rage at the injustice of a bureaucratic system and a heartfelt plea for compassion for those caught in its machinations. Tania,…

Sunday 21st Nov 2010 14.15

The late Claude Chabrol was the most prolific filmmaker to emerge from the French New Wave of the late 1950s. He was also the first of that group of critics-turned-directors…

Sunday 21st Nov 2010 16.15

JOHN BOORMAN: A PORTRAIT

Less a formal examination of John Boorman's work (Point Blank, Deliverance, The General) than a loose collection of entertaining anecdotes about his formative experiences and encounters elicited by interviewer and…

Sunday 21st Nov 2010 18.00

Although it takes a more subtle approach to the contentious issue of immigration than Illegal (also showing in this year's programme), Hands Up is no less certain in its condemnation…

Sunday 21st Nov 2010 20.15

While seventeen-year-old Claire (Pauline Etienne) tussles with teen ennui and first love, grandfather Maurice (Michel Piccoli) must accept his mortality. A coming-of-age tale set at different ends of the spectrum,…

Monday 22nd Nov 2010 18.15

OUTSIDE THE LAW

The subject of controversy and demonstrations when screened in competition at Cannes this year, Rachid Bouchareb's supposedly 'anti-French' film (possibly due to audacious comparisons between the FLN and the French…

Monday 22nd Nov 2010 20.15

A group of seven childhood friends reconvenes in the sunny suburbs of Paris in the month of August, when the inhabitants are usually on holiday and the city is quiet.…

Tuesday 23rd Nov 2010 18.30

One of the greatest pleasures of Marc Fitoussi's enjoyable comedy is the relish with which Isabelle Huppert attacks her part, delighting in letting loose and having the welcome opportunity to…

Wednesday 24th Nov 2010 18.30

MADEMOISELLE CHAMBON

This delicate and exquisitely elegant tale of yearning sees construction worker and family man Jean (Vincent Lindon) shaken out of his torpor and vague dissatisfaction with his life when he…

Wednesday 24th Nov 2010 20.30

IN THE BEGINNING

Based on a true story, In the Beginning, shown in competition at Cannes in 2009, is an engrossing and complex character study of a small-time conman caught in a precarious…

Thursday 25th Nov 2010 20.15

Following his debut last year with J'ai tue ma mere, writer-director-actor Xavier Dolan returns with another impressive display of his many talents. The friendship between Francis (Dolan) and Marie (the…

Friday 26th Nov 2010 20.30

THE SILENT WORLD

The legendary self-described 'oceanographic technician' Jacques Cousteau was already famed for his underwater explorations before his collaboration with the young Louis Malle on The Silent World, winner of both the…

Saturday 27th Nov 2010 13.00

Antony Cordier's second film expands on the familiar menage-à-trois scenario to explore the effects of partner swapping on two married couples, and whether it is truly possible to love two…

Saturday 27th Nov 2010 14.45

Can the legendary Jean-Luc Godard, who personifies cinema more than anyone else today, whose obsession with the form has been one of the preoccupations of his later work, equally baffling…

Saturday 27th Nov 2010 14.45

THE WORLD WITHOUT SUN

Cousteau's follow-up to The Silent World was also a worthy Oscar winner, and this time submerges us further into the aquatic unknown. Living up to its title, we never rise…

Sunday 28th Nov 2010 13.30

Highly regarded in France but hardly a household name in the English-speaking world, Marcel L'Herbier made some of the most innovative and spectacular of silent films. His masterpiece is this…

Sunday 28th Nov 2010 15.15

Following four newborns in Japan, Mongolia, Namibia and the U.S. over their first year, Thomas Balmes' 'wildlife film on human babies', told without narration or subtitles, is a heart-warming depiction…

Sunday 28th Nov 2010 18.30

THE PRINCESS OF MONTPENSIER

Set in the early years of the sixteenth-century Wars of Religion, Bertrand Tavernier's lavish literary epic is the story of a young noblewoman torn between love and duty. The titular…

Sunday 28th Nov 2010 20.00