The IFI’s French Film Festival will be celebrating its 20th anniversary by screening a total of 28 movies, when it returns from November 13th to 24th. This year, the festival features strong female representation – depicting subjects like Joan of Arc, exploring 18th century dramas and delving into more modern stories of urban homelessness. Many big names will feature, from Lucie Borteleau to Justine Triet. There will also be a retrospective on pioneering filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché (1873-1968) included, whose shorts will screen throughout the festival. Furthermore, Pamela B. Green’s new documentary about Guy-Blaché, Be Natural, narrated by Jodie Foster, will receive its Irish premiere on Sunday 24th.
The inaugural piece of the festival is Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which won the Best Screenplay and Queer Palm awards at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film stars Noémie Merchant and Adèle Haenel and focuses on the burgeoning love affair between an artist and the woman whose portrait she has been commissioned to paint.
Other highlights of the festival are Arnaud Despachin’s crime drama Oh Mercy! which follows the brutal murder of an elderly woman in Northern France and the detective trying to solve the case. The long-awaited documentary Yves Saint Laurent: The Last Collections, directed by Olivier Meyrou, promises to be a fascinating journey into the life of the legendary fashion designer, while Andre Techine’s Farewell to the Night follows a family fighting against Islamic fundamentalism to showcase the religious tensions of modern France. Xavier Dolan’s Matthias and Maxime, nominated for the Palme d’Or, will also appear, showing how a lifetime relationship of two men can change after acting in a movie where the script requires them to engage in a kiss.
As always, there will be a number of high profile guests in attendance, including actor Vincent Macaigne, most recently seen in Olivier Assayas’s Non-fiction, who will take part in two Q&As following the screenings of Cédric Kahn’s Happy Birthday and Pure As Snow on November 16th and 17th respectively. Journalist and writer Bayon, former Arts Editor for French newspaper Libération and co-scriptwriter of music documentary Oh, les filles!, will visit the festival on November 21st.
Last but not least, the festival’s annual retrospective strand returns with a focus on the work of Claude Sautet, whose meticulously-crafted dramas have been greeted by critical acclaim both nationally and internationally. The films chosen this year are The Things of Life, a melodrama that sees an architect honestly reflecting on his existence, Danger Ahead, which centres on a gangster trying to reunite with his family and evade the law at the same time, A Heart in Winter which revolves around a moving love triangle and Vincent, Francois, Paul and the Other. The latter, the biggest public success of Sautet’s career, was filmed during the 1974 French presidential elections and reflects upon a new era of female emancipation and male turmoil.
Tickets for the festival can be purchased from the IFI Box Office and from their website. The cost of an individual screening is €11.50 (excluding the opening night, which costs €15), but multi-ticket packages are also available, exclusively at the Box Office, for 5 and 10 screenings at €50 and €90 respectively.
