The French Film Festival has firmly established itself as the largest French language event on New Zealand’s national cultural calendar. Running as a nationwide event, it is followed by more than 35,000 people every year and is one of the largest French film festivals outside France.
There is a fantastic line up for March 2019 with a variety of fantastic French cinema showing at this year’s Festival.
Here is our selection of the movies not tto be missed at Academy Cinemas in the city centre.
The Trouble With You
In a town on the French Riviera, detective Yvonne is the young widow of police chief Santi, a local hero. When she realizes her husband was not exactly the model of virtue so idolized by their young son, and that an innocent young man, Antoine, has spent 8 years in prison as Santi’s scapegoat, she is thrown into turmoil. Yvonne wants to do everything she can to help this very charming Antoine get back to his life and his wife. Everything that is, except telling the truth. But Antoine is having trouble adjusting to life on the other side, to say the least, and soon blows a fuse leading to a spectacular sequence of events.
Claire Darling
On this beautiful, bright first day of summer, Claire Darling has decided to get rid of all her estate. She’s laid down all her favourite objects on her front lawn for one splendid garage sale.
As a horde of curious bystanders and neighbours fights over the ridiculously under-priced antiques, each object resurrects flashes of Claire Darling’s tragic and flamboyant life. Alerted by her childhood friends, Marie Darling, Claire’s estranged daughter, is forced to come back to the family mansion to stop this sale and unveil the reasons behind her mother’s eccentric decision.
Memoir of War
It’s 1944, and Duras is an active Resistance member along with her husband, writer Robert Antelme, and a band of fellow subversives in Nazi-occupied Paris. When Antelme is deported to Dachau by the Gestapo, she becomes friendly with French collaborator Rabier (Benoît Magimel) to gain information at considerable risk to her underground cell. But as the months wear on without news of her husband, she must begin the process of confronting the unimaginable. Through subtly expressionistic images and voiceover passages of Duras’ writing, Finkiel evokes the inner world of one of the 20th century’s most revolutionary writers.
I Feel Good
He’s lived too long off his parents and it’s time for 40-year-old slacker Jacques to get by on his own. A one-time gigolo and a borderline bum, he knows what he wants — to become rich and famous. He even has a business plan: tourism combined with cheap plastic surgery.
Jacques moves in with his older sister, Monique, who manages an Emmaus village in the south west of France. And before long, the smooth-talking chancer has convinced a group of workers to pool their meager funds and set out on a trip to a clinic in Bulgaria, where all their dreams of a brighter and more beautiful future will all come true.
Girl (R16)
Girl tells the story of 15-year-old Lara who wants to become a ballerina, with a classical training for female dancers. Lara is accepted in a ballet school and her dream seems closer than ever.
But there is one problem: Lara was born into the body of a boy. A body that she will push to its limits in order for her to succeed.
Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion
The druid Getafix nimbly clambers up and down oak trees to gather mistletoe in the forests surrounding the Village of the Indomitable Gauls. But one day the expert climber has a bad fall. And my, does that get him worrying! What on earth would happen if he was incapacitated and couldn’t brew up his magic concoctions?
Following his fall, Druid Panoramix decides that it is time to secure the future of the village. Accompanied by Asterix and Obelix, he undertakes to travel the Gallic world in search of a talented young druid to transmit the Secret of the Magic Potion.
In Your Hands
One day, in the commotion of a Paris train station, a young man from a modest family begins to play a piano. When he plays, the world seems to stop. Especially for Music Academy Director Pierre Geithner, who recognizes Matthieu’s exceptional gift. But Matt brushes him aside.
Click here for the full programme and to book your tickets
$2 per hour to a max of $12 on weekends and a $12 flat rate for weekday evenings at The Civic car park. Find out more.