Lineup Announced For Film Society Of Lincoln Center’s 22nd Rendez-Vous With French Cinema Series

For many cinephiles, or at least those located in New York, one of the year’s great film-related highlights is set to commence its 22nd program.

Running March 1-12, Film Society of Lincoln Center and UniFrance are once again teaming up to bring to New York screens 23 of the latest and greatest films from the world of French cinema. The annual Rendez-Vous With French Cinema series is one of Lincoln Center’s many celebrated yearly film series, and with a lineup including films from directors like Bertrand Bonello, Bruno Dumont and Rebecca Zlotowski, this year is set to be one of the best lineups yet.

The opening night film is Etienne Comar’s Django Reinhardt biopic Django, a look at the legendary jazz guitarist’s life, particularly his time during the second World War. Comar’s debut directorial outing after a career as a screenwriter, Django is opposite the festival’s closing picture, Jerome Salle’s The Odyssey. Starring Audrey Tautou, Salle’s film takes a different approach to the biopic, with Lambert Wilson taking on the role of legendary explorer-filmmaker Jacques Cousteau.

Other highlights include the latest film from Emmanuelle Bercot entitled 150 Milliigrams, Francois Ozon’s Frantz (Scott has a review of the film here), Sebastien Betbeder’s Journey To Greenland, and Cannes-approved films from Bertrand Bonello, Bruno Dumont and Julia Ducournau.

The festival begins on March 1, and we will have a lengthy preview of the series in the days leading up. Here’s the full lineup:

MAIN SLATE

Opening Night:

Django

Étienne Comar, France, 2017, 115m

French with English subtitles

The world of legendary Romani jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt is brought to vivid life in this riveting saga of survival, resistance, and artistic courage. Reinhardt (Reda Kateb) is the toast of 1943 Paris, thrilling audiences with his distinctive brand of “hot jazz” and charming his admirers (including an intrepid friend and muse played by Cécile de France). But even as the rise of Nazism and anti-Romani sentiment force Reinhardt-whose music is considered degenerate under the Third Reich-to make a daring escape from the city, he refuses to be silenced, his music becoming his form of protest. The feature debut from acclaimed screenwriter Étienne Comar (Of Gods and Men) immerses viewers in a tumultuous chapter in the life of one of the 20th century’s greatest musical geniuses. North American Premiere

Wednesday, March 1, 6:00pm and 8:30pm (Étienne Comar, Reda Kateb, and Cécile de France in person)

Closing Night:

The Odyssey / L’odyssée

Jérôme Salle, France, 2016, 122m

French with English subtitles

Lambert Wilson is magnetic in this grandly lyrical dramatization of legendary explorer-turned-filmmaker Jacques Cousteau. Spanning half a century and criss-crossing oceans, the film charts Cousteau’s professional triumphs and personal failures as he achieves renown for the underwater documentaries he produced on his oceanographic expeditions, amid the constant struggle to secure financial backing for increasingly ambitious scientific (and cinematic) objectives. Set against the backdrop of cross-generational family drama-centered on his long-suffering wife Simone (Audrey Tautou) and his talented, deeply conflicted son Philippe (Pierre Niney)-The Odyssey is an epic ode to scientific exploration and documentary filmmaking, and a celebration of the human drive to seek out new realms of discovery. U.S. Premiere

Saturday, March 11, 6:00pm (Q&A with Jérôme Salle)

Sunday, March 12, 8:00pm

150 Milligrams / La fille de Brest

Emmanuelle Bercot, France, 2016, 128m

French with English subtitles

A fearless everywoman stands up to a drug company in this gripping David vs. Goliath story, based on a real-life medical scandal. Irène Frachon (Sidse Babett Knudsen) is a pulmonologist at a hospital in Brest who begins digging into the connection between a widely prescribed diabetes drug and a spate of fatal valve disorders, with help from a research scientist (Benoît Magimel). Soon enough, Irène sets off a media firestorm, making powerful enemies in the pharmaceutical industry who will stop at nothing to suppress her story. Knudsen and writer-director Emmanuelle Bercot have created a memorably eccentric heroine, at once a tireless crusader and compelling human. U.S. Premiere

Saturday, March 4, 3:15pm (Q&A with Emmanuelle Bercot)

Monday, March 6, 4:15pm

The Dancer / La danseuse

Stéphanie Di Giusto, France/Belgium/Czech Republic, 2016, 108m

English and French with English subtitles

This visually sumptuous drama set amidst the opulence of La Belle Époque Paris charts the real-life saga of modern dance icon Loïe Fuller (Soko). Raised on the plains of the American Midwest, Fuller became the unlikely toast of turn-of-the-century France with her legendary performances, in which swirling swaths of silk fabric and dazzlingly colored lights created a kaleidoscopic spectacle of color and movement. Boasting lavish period detail, breathtaking dance sequences, and fiercely committed performances by Gaspard Ulliel, Mélanie Thierry, and Lily-Rose Depp as Fuller’s rival Isadora Duncan, The Dancer is an arresting chronicle of an artist’s struggle to realize her vision.

Thursday, March 2, 1:45pm

Monday, March 6, 9:30pm (Q&A with Stéphanie Di Giusto)

Daydreams / L’indomptée

Caroline Deruas, France, 2016, 98m

French and Italian with English subtitles

Past and present, fantasy and reality collide in the boldly original feature debut from Caroline Deruas. A group of young French artists converge at Rome’s sun-dappled Villa Medicis for a one-year residency. Among them are Camille (Clotilde Hesme), a writer whose marriage to a famous novelist (Tchéky Karyo) is disintegrating, and Axèle (Jenna Thiam), an erratic photographer haunted by spectral visions of the villa’s past. Deruas conjures a subtly surreal atmosphere through striking stylistic flourishes-iris shots, color effects, dream sequences-in this beguiling tale of creative struggle, romantic rivalry, and ghosts. U.S. Premiere

Wednesday, March 8, 4:30pm

Friday, March 10, 6:45pm(Q&A with Caroline Deruas)

Faultless / Irréprochable

Sébastien Marnier, France, 2016, 103m

French with English subtitles

Out of money and options, 40-year-old Constance (Marina Foïs) abandons her life in Paris and returns to her suburban hometown in hopes of picking up where she left off. After she finds no real romance from her occasional lover (Benjamin Biolay), something finally snaps when she discovers that her old job as a real-estate agent has been given to a younger woman (Joséphine Japy). It soon becomes clear: Constance is dangerous, and will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Both a wild-ride thriller and a chilling character study,Faultless is driven by a riveting central performance: almost always onscreen, Foïs brings unexpected depth and poignant humanity to her portrayal of a coldly calculating sociopath.

Sunday, March 5, 6:15pm (Q&A with Sébastien Marnier and Marina Foïs)

Monday, March 6, 2:00pm

Frantz

François Ozon, France/Germany, 2016, 113m

French and German with English subtitles

The new film from acclaimed director François Ozon is a sublime, heartrending saga of guilt, forgiveness, and forbidden love in post-World War I Europe. Based on Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 antiwar drama Broken Lullaby, it charts the complex bond that forms between two strangers: Anna (Paula Beer), a young German woman grieving the loss of her fiancé, Frantz, in the war, and Adrien (Pierre Niney), a former French soldier. What plays out between them is a haunting investigation of postwar trauma and healing rendered in gorgeous black-and-white that occasionally gives way-gloriously-to psychologically charged bursts of color. A Music Box Films release.

Thursday, March 2, 9:15pm (Q&A with François Ozon)

Saturday, March 11, 1:00pm

From the Land of the Moon / Mal de pierres

Nicole Garcia, France/Belgium/Canada, 2016, 116m

French and Spanish with English subtitles

Marion Cotillard delivers a performance of searing emotional intensity in this psychologically charged, 1950s-set saga of amour fou. She stars as Gabrielle, a troubled young woman-sick in both body and mind-who is stuck in a loveless marriage. When she travels to Switzerland for a rest cure, she meets the handsome, terminally ill lieutenant André (Louis Garrel), beginning a decades-long romantic obsession that will shape the course of her life. Beautifully photographed in the sunny south of France and the snow-capped Swiss mountains, From the Land of the Moon is an exquisite showcase for one of the finest actresses working today. A Sundance Selects release.

Friday, March 3, 6:30pm (Q&A with Nicole Garcia)

Sunday, March 12, 1:00pm

Heal the Living / Réparer les vivants

Katell Quillévéré, France/Belgium, 2016, 103m

French with English subtitles

A medical drama of unusual depth and sensitivity, Heal the Living charts the disparate lives touched by a tragedy. Following a car accident, 17-year-old Simon (Gabin Verdet) is left brain-dead, setting into motion a chain of events that affects everyone from his family to the hospital staff to a mother of two (Anne Dorval) in need of a heart transplant. Director Katell Quillévéré weaves together the multistrand narrative with consummate grace, abetted by a remarkable ensemble cast (including Emmanuelle Seigner and Tahar Rahim), elegant camerawork, and a striking score by Alexandre Desplat. The result is an enormously affecting study of human interconnectedness that finds a silver lining of hope in a wrenching situation. A Cohen Media Group release.

Thursday, March 2, 6:30pm (Q&A with Katell Quillévéré)

Friday, March 3, 1:45pm

In Bed With Victoria / Victoria

Justine Triet, France, 2016, 97m

English and French with English subtitles

Victoria (Virginie Efira) is a hotshot lawyer with a disastrous personal life. Between juggling a demanding job, raising two kids, and fending off an ex-husband who’s slandering her on the Internet, she can barely be bothered with the hit-or-miss (mostly miss) online hookups she sets up. Around the time Victoria agrees to help her old friend Vincent (Melvil Poupaud) with a decidedly bizarre legal matter, she runs into a charming former client Sam (Vincent Lacoste). Now thata shot at real romance comes along, will the perpetually harried Victoria even recognize it? This refreshingly offbeat (how else to describe a film that features a trial in which the star witness is a Dalmatian?) farce is propelled by Efira’s irresistible performance as a heroine who’s raw, real, and complicated in ways that transcend the rom-com formula.

Saturday, March 4, 9:30pm (Q&A with Justine Triet)

Sunday, March 12, 3:30pm

In the Forest of Siberia / Dans les forêts de Sibérie

Safy Nebbou, France, 2016, 105m

English, French, and Russian with English subtitles

Based on the award-winning memoir by adventurer Sylvain Tesson, thistale of survival follows Teddy (Raphaël Personnaz), a young Frenchman who leaves everything behind to live in isolation in the icy Siberian taiga. But initial exhilaration soon gives way to the harsh reality of staying alive in a frozen wilderness miles from civilization with roaming bears, life-threatening blizzards, and no electricity. The filmcaptures majestic footage of the unspoiled Siberian landscape, its bleak beauty underscored by jazz trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf’s plaintive soundtrack.

Sunday, March 5, 1:00pm

Thursday, March 9, 4:00pm

Journey to Greenland / Le Voyage au Groënland

Sébastien Betbeder, France, 2016, 98m

English, Inuktitut, and French with English subtitles

Scruffy, thirtysomething best friends both named Thomas (Thomas Blanchard and Thomas Scimeca) leave behind their struggling acting careers in Paris for an extended sojourn in a remote, snowbound stretch of Greenland. One is there to reconnect with his off-the-grid father, the other for adventure. What ensues is a perceptive, warm-spirited study of cross-cultural misunderstanding and connection, as the two men learn to survivein a place without alcohol, indoor plumbing, or a reliable Internetconnection. Director Sébastien Betbeder balances wry, unforced comedy with casual insight into human relationships: between friends, family members, and the strangers who touch your life. A Netflix release.

Tuesday, March 7, 4:30pm

Wednesday, March 8, 6:45pm

Mum’s Wrong / Maman a tort

Marc Fitoussi, France/Belgium, 2016, 110m

French with English subtitles

When idealistic 14-year-old Anouk (Jeanne Jestin) embarks on a weeklong internship at her mom’s insurance company, she gets a crash course in the less-than-rosy reality of the corporate world, discovering some unsavory truths about her own mother along the way. An emotionally complex look at parents, children, and the moral compromises we make,Mum’s Wrong adroitly blends workplace satire with a compassionate social-issue message, while its leads Jestin and Émilie Dequenne (Rosetta, Our Children) create a nuanced, wholly believable portrait of a mother-daughter relationship undergoing a crisis.

Sunday, March 5, 3:30pm (Q&A with Marc Fitoussi)

Friday, March 10, 2:00pm

Nocturama

Bertrand Bonello, France/Germany/Belgium, 2016, 130m

French with English subtitles

The audacious new film from Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent)unfolds in two mesmerizing segments. The first is a precision-crafted thriller, following a multi-ethnic group of millennial radicals as they carry out a mass-scale terrorist attack on Paris. The second-in which the perpetrators hide out in the consumerist mecca of a luxury department store-is the director’s coup, raising provocative questions about everything that came before. Bonello stages his apocalyptic vision with stylishly roving camerawork, blasts of hip-hop, and a lip-synced performance to Shirley Bassey’s “My Way.” This is edgy, risk-taking filmmaking that is sure to ignite debate. A Netflix release.

Saturday, March 4, 6:15pm (Q&A with Bertrand Bonello)

Sunday, March 5, 9:00pm (Introduction by Bertrand Bonello)

The Paris Opera / L’Opèra de Paris

Jean-Stéphane Bron, France, 2017, 110m

French with English subtitles

This all-access documentary goes behind the scenes of the Paris Opera, following the array of personnel-management, performers, costumers, cleaning crew-who work to bring breathtaking spectacle to audiences night after night. Over the course of a season, director Jean-Stéphane Bron nimbly juggles a dizzying number of storylines, from labor disputes to procuring a live bull for Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron to a PR crisis involving the head of the company’s ballet. Sweeping in scope yet full of intimate human moments, The Paris Opera offers a candid look at everything that goes into operating one of the world’s foremost performing arts institutions. U.S. Premiere

Thursday, March 2, 4:00pm

Saturday, March 11, 3:30pm

Planetarium

Rebecca Zlotowski, France/Belgium, 2016, 105m

English and French with English subtitles

Natalie Portman lends her star power to this dreamy, visually ravishing tale of magic and movies set in a glamorous vision of 1930s Paris. She and her sister (Lily-Rose Depp) form a psychic duo, touring the stages of Europe performing séances. When they catch the eye of a movie producer (Emmanuel Salinger), he resolves to make them stars and to capture an act of spiritualism on film. Forgoing traditional narrative structure in favor of swooning atmosphere, director Rebecca Zlotowksi revels in the Art Deco architecture, sumptuous period couture, and doomed decadence of prewar Paris. A Swen Group release.

Friday, March 3, 9:30pm (Q&A with Rebecca Zlotowski)

Tuesday, March 7, 2:00pm

Film Comment Presents:

Raw / Grave

Julia Ducournau, France/Belgium, 2016, 99m

French with English subtitles

When incoming freshman-and lifelong vegetarian-Justine (Garance Marillier) joins her older sister (Ella Rumpf) at a strangely decrepit veterinary college, she seems poised to be the school’s new star pupil. But a hazing ritual in which she’s forced to eat raw meat awakens something primal in Justine: a newfound-and highly disturbing-taste for flesh. The feature debut from Julia Ducournau marks the arrival of a bold new directorial voice, blending blood-spattered body horror, pitch-black comedy, and one of the most dysfunctional sisterly relationships ever depicted on screen into a potent, emotionally resonant coming-of-age nightmare. A Focus Features release.

Tuesday, March 7, 6:45pm (Q&A with Julia Ducournau)

Wednesday, March 8, 9:15pm (Introduction by Julia Ducournau)

Right Here Right Now/ Tout de suite maintenant

Pascal Bonitzer, France/Belgium/Luxembourg, 2016, 98m

French with English subtitles

Workplace drama doesn’t get any messier than in this intriguingly knotty tale of corporate backbiting and buried secrets. Nora (Agathe Bonitzer) is a bright young professional whose new job at a financial firm turns out to be a trial by fire when she learns that her bosses (Lambert Wilson and Pascal Greggory) share a tumultuous history with her prickly mathematician father (Jean-Pierre Bacri). Meanwhile, an interoffice romance with a competitive colleague (Vincent Lacoste) leads to even more complications, leaving Nora to navigate a minefield of delicate relationships as she climbs the corporate ladder. Isabelle Huppert costars and delivers a typically multilayered performance as one of many sharply etched characters populating this complex moral tale.

Friday, March 10, 9:30pm

Sunday, March 12, 5:45pm

Slack Bay / Ma Loute

Bruno Dumont, France/Germany, 2016, 122m

English and French with English subtitles

In a postcard-perfect seaside village in 1910, an eccentric (to put it mildly) leisure-class family whiles away the summer. But something troubling is afoot: what’s behind the string of tourists gone mysteriously missing? Former enfant terrible Bruno Dumont continues his surprising foray into farce-which began with 2014’s acclaimed Li’l Quinquin-with this surreal, oddball mix of slapstick and detective story. The director and his cast (which includes Fabrice Luchini, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, and a very game Juliette Binoche) stretch each joke to its breaking point, resulting in a winking, weirdly captivating comedy that’s in on its own absurdity. A Kino Lorber release.

Thursday, March 9, 6:30pm

Saturday, March 11, 9:00pm

Sophie’s Misfortunes / Les malheurs de Sophie

Christophe Honoré, France, 2016, 106m

French with English subtitles

Based on the French children’s classic by the Countess of Ségur, the latest from Christophe Honoré is an enchanting fable for adults and kids alike, set in a light-filled 19th-century chateau. The film captures the imaginative freedom of childhood through the eyes of the irrepressible Sophie (Caroline Grant), a mischievous young girl whose life changes drastically after she’s left in the care of a severe stepmother (Muriel Robin)-a far cry from the life she had with her loving mother (Golshifteh Farahani). With the help of her two friends and their mother (Anaïs Demoustier), Sophie works to escape her stepmother’s wicked grasp. Throughout, Honoré combines gorgeous period detail with playful modern touches: a bouncy electronic score by Alex Beaupain, expressive handheld camerawork, and a menagerie of animated animals. U.S. Premiere

Saturday, March 4, 12:30pm (Q&A with Christophe Honoré)

Wednesday, March 8, 2:00pm (Intro with Christophe Honoré)

The Stopover / Voir du pays

Delphine & Muriel Coulin, France/Greece, 2016, 102m

French and Greek with English subtitles

On their way home from Afghanistan, a band of French soldiers stop in Cyprus for decompression: three-days at a sun-splashed resort, where they will undergo intense psychological debriefing. There, amidst the crystal-blue waters and hordes of vacationing tourists, Marine (Soko) and Aurore (Ariane Labed)-two of only three women in their male-dominated unit-confront rage, trauma, and army sexism as they struggle to readjust to “normal” life. This riveting drama-winner of the Best Screenplay award in the Un Certain Regard competition at Cannes-is an all-too-rare exploration of war’s psychological wounds on female soldiers. A First Run Features release.

Thursday, March 9, 9:00pm

Friday, March 10, 4:15pm

Struggle for Life / La Loi de la jungle

Antonin Peretjatko, France, 2016, 99m

French with English subtitles

In this wild, joke-a-minute slapstick satire, a middle-aged intern (Vincent Macaigne) is sent from France to French Guiana to oversee the creation of a South American ski resort led by Galgaric (Mathieu Amalric). There, he meets a beautiful intern at the National Forestry Office named Tarzan (Vimala Pons) and what ensues is a surreal journey through the Amazon jungle, with absurdist bureaucratic disasters, an aphrodisiac mishap, and a cannibal encounter. Playing something like a Jerry Lewis gag-fest meets Survivor, Struggle for Life combines anarchic black comedy with a scathing critique of colonialism.

Monday, March 6, 7:00pm (Q&A with Antonin Peretjatko)

Tuesday, March 7, 9:15pm (Introduction by Antonin Peretjatko)

The Together Project / L’effet aquatique

Sólveig Anspach, France/Iceland, 2016, 83m

English, French, and Icelandic with English subtitles

The final film from the late French-Icelandic director Sólveig Anspach is an irresistibly offbeat aquatic comedy. When gawky construction worker Samir (Samir Guesmi) encounters prickly swim instructor Agathe (Florence Loiret Caille), he’s immediately smitten. But his unconventional plan to win her over-pretending he can’t swim in order to take lessons from her-proves more than a little problematic. Sweet without being cloying, quirky without being grating, this romantic charmer succeeds thanks to the interplay between the two leads and Anspach’s breezy sincerity.

Friday, March 3, 4:00pm (Q&A with composer Martin Wheeler)

Thursday, March 9, 2:00pm

SPECIAL EVENTS

Live Talk with Agnès Varda

French New Wave pioneer Agnès Varda has been a major voice in world cinema for more than sixty iyears, ever since her 1955 debut feature La Pointe Courte. Her distinguished and varied career includes photography, nonfiction and fiction shorts and features, and, more recently, multimedia installations at museums and galleries around the world. Join Varda in this special live event as she reflects on her voluminous body of work, influences, and approach to filmmaking.

Presented in conjunction with the French Institute Alliance Française’s upcoming series Agnès Varda: Life as Art and Varda’s first exhibition in NYC at Blum & Poe gallery.

Friday, March 10, 6:00pm

*Venue: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Amphitheater, 144 West 65th Street

Panel: International Co-Productions

Producers from the U.S. and France will sit down to discuss the strategies and challenges of international co-productions-from the creative to the technical, and everything in between. Scheduled panelists include Killer Films‘ Head of Production & Development David Hinojosa (Wiener-Dog, Frank & Lola), Parts & Labor co-founder Jay Van Hoy (Beginners, Frank & Lola, The Witch),and Les films du bélier’s Justin Taurand (Heal the Living, 2016 IFCIC Award for Best Young Producer). Moderated by Eugene Hernandez.Presented in partnership with IFP and French in Motion.

Thursday, March 2, 5:30pm

*Venue: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Amphitheater, 144 West 65th Street

Panel: Cinema as a Political Tool or Weapon

In response to the disillusionment and frustration currently felt worldwide, directors from this year’s edition will discuss how films can address political turmoil or social unrest and operate as whistle-blowers.

Friday, March 3, 5:00pm

*Venue: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Amphitheater, 144 West 65th Street

Panel: Julian Starke’s French Waves with French Touch DJs Pedro Winter, Para One and Jacques

French touch (aka French house) musicians Pedro Winter, Para One, and Jacques will discuss their perspectives on and experiences with French electronic music following a free screening of Julian Starke’s French Waves, an immersive documentary that pinpoints key moments of French Touch since the 1990s.

Saturday, March 4, 5:00pm

*Venue: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Amphitheater, 144 West 65th Street

Free Screening: Call My Agent! / Dix pour cent

Episode 1 (“Cécile”), France, 2015, 60m

French with English subtitles

At a top-tier talent firm in Paris, a group of agents juggle their personal and hyper-competitive work lives after experiencing an unexpected crisis. Watch the first episode of the hit French miniseries, created by Dominique Besnehard and Fanny Herrero and featuring Cécile de France (who also appears in this year’s Opening Night film, Django), at this special free screening during Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. A Netflix original series.

Saturday, March 11, 4:30pm

*Venue: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Amphitheater, 144 West 65th Street

EXHIBITION

Fellini, 8 ½ in Color

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAUL RONALD

Curated by Sam Stourdzé

8 ½ was Federico Fellini’s last black-and-white film after more than a decade of directing. Although the film‘s images were never intended to be seen in color, Piero Servo-a frequent camera operator for Fellini-recently found the late photographer Paul Ronald’s long-forgotten box of color negatives. These rediscoveries are the focus of this year’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema exhibition, curated by Sam Stourdzé, the director of the esteemed Les Rencontres d’Arles, and accompanied by recollections from one of the film‘s stars, Anouk Aimée.

Special thanks to Anouk Aimée, Piero Servo, Antonio Moraldi, and Stéphane Marti.

On view in the Furman Gallery in the Walter Reade Theater, March 1-12