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BOOKINGS / ENQUIRIES
PATRON OF THE 26 CORK FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL th
INFORMATION:
BALLYMALOE
FESTIVAL OFFICE Phone : 021 4310677 culture@alliancefrancaisecork.com www.corkfrenchfilmfestival.com Festival brochures and general information
Nora Callanan, President, the Board and Festival Team at Alliance Française de Cork are deeply honoured that
GATE CINEMA On North Main street Box Office: 021 4279595 www.corkcinemas.com Evening tickets (after 6pm) €9.50/€8.50 ‘conc’ Daytime screenings (before 6pm) €6.00/€5.50 ‘conc’ CORK ARTS Festival membership included in the ticket THEATRE
His Excellency, Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland
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THE RIVER LEE HOTEL Western Road Bookings: Paula Cogan 021 4937712 or paula_cogan@doylecollection.com
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All venues: telephone/credit card bookings will be subject to handling charge RIVER LEE Concessions available to senior citizens, HOTEL students and unwaged & UCC All venues have disabled access to all public areas SCHOOL SCREENINGS GATE CINEMA Intouchables (The Untouchables) Populaire Monday 2nd Thursday 5th at 11am For education packs see page 23 For all group bookings in the Gate e-mail: corkcinemas@eircom.net All bookings must be confirmed in writing by email, with contact details attached.
His Excellency Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland ST. FIN BARRE’S CATHEDRAL
EARLY BOOKING RECOMMENDED PAGE /
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LORD MAYOR’S WELCOME TO THE 26th CORK FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL Congratulations to Cork French Film Festival, 26 years in existence, continuing to bring to Cork the best in French Cinema each year. The Cork French Film Festival is well established part of the fabric of Cork Culture and indeed plays a major role as part of Cork’s Festival Calender.
Nora Callanan Festival President
A very warm welcome to Cork to all Film Festival guests both national and International, artists and film makers, I hope you enjoy your stay in Cork .
The 26th Cork French Film Festival lights up the silver screen with a programme bursting with creative vitality from a host of dynamic young French filmmakers.
Je tiens à ce que le Conseil Municipal de la Ville continue cette collaboration étroite avec le Cork French Film Festival auquel je souhaite un très grand succès. Cllr. Mary Shields Lord Mayor Of Cork.
GUEST OF HONOUR: MATHIEU AMALRIC Mathieu Amalric is a three-time César Award-winning French actor and film director, perhaps best known internationally for his lead role in the four-time Academy Award nominated 2007 film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. He won the Best Director award in Cannes Film Festival for On Tour in 2010. “Acting is about animality. It’s great to be allowed to be an animal. But I feel more alive as a director. Every morning, I have to write.” Mathieu Amalric
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Vytenė Laučytė Festival Manager
Susanna Fabris Festival Coordinator
Julien Planté Guest Curator
WELCOME TO THE 26TH CORK FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL Under the patronage of His Excellency Michael D Higgins, President of Ireland
Great credit is due to Nora Callanan, President Alliance Française de Cork, the Artistic Director , Paul Bloom, and CFFF Team, as well as the many volunteers who work hard to make this event the huge success it has become. It is a major achievement to bring to Cork Cinematic events of the highest standard as well as many prominent film personalities from France and other European Countries. Alliance Française de Cork must be congratulated for its commitment to the festival and for its promotion of good Franco - Irish Relations, French Language and Culture in our city.
Paul Bloom Festival Director
Festival Director, Paul Bloom, together with Guest Curator, Julien Planté, celebrate the vital force of the 7th Art with an exciting programme featuring the best in current French cinema including Abderrahmane Sissako’s Oscar nominated Timbuktu and Céline Sciamma’s indie hit Girlhood. Planté, a French film producer, has worked as film curator for Ciné Lumiere in London and French movie channel CinéMoi, and we are delighted to welcome him to the festival team. In addition to our screenings we have a host of wonderful events; Q&As with special guests, masterclasses, live ‘cine-concerts’ with silent film, sumptuous culinary events and natural wine tastings. Pop-up parties with our festival band featuring the amazingly encyclopedic raconteur Christophe Rohr on accordion and gyspsy jazz guru Zac Gvi on piano, clarinet and saxophone will ensure a lively festival atmosphere throughout the week. We are delighted to welcome internationally acclaimed director and actor Mathieu Amalric to open the festival with his stunning adaptation of Georges Simenon’s The Blue Room. Mathieu will present a series of special Q&A screenings as we highlight the eclectic range of his work with a retrospective that includes the 2007 hit The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which brought Amalric international acclaim, and On Tour for which he won the Best Director award in Cannes. Amalric will also conduct a filmmaking workshop focusing on the director/actor relationship and we
are very grateful for his generosity of time and spirit in presenting these events at the festival. We are honoured to have the legendary author and illustrator Tomi Ungerer with us to present the animated version of his classic children’s book Moonman. This beautifully animated film is a German, French and Irish co-production involving Ireland’s Oscar nominated animation studio Cartoon Saloon. It is a pleasure to welcome back the very gifted Cork composer Irene Buckley to perform her specially composed score for Jean Epstein’s 1928 silent classic The Fall of the House of Usher. CFFF commissioned the score in 2014 and it was recently a highlight of the Glasgow Film Festival and continues an international tour. Once again we are deeply honoured to have His Excellency Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland, as Patron of the Cork French Film Festival. The festival will be officially launched by Cork’s Lord Mayor, Cllr Mary Shields together with our guest of honour Mathieu Amalric. We express our deep gratitude to Cork City Council, our main funder, Le Cordon Blue, Barry’s Tea, and all our sponsors and venues. A special thanks to our outstanding and dedicated festival team and the many wonderful volunteers who have helped to make this Festival happen. Mille mercis, to our loyal audience, for the enormous support you have given the Cork French Film Festival in its 26 year-journey. Excellent Festival à tous! Nora Callanan, Festival President PAGE /
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FEATURES
OPENING FILM THE BLUE ROOM - Preview Screening La Chambre Bleue
Presented by director/actor
Love is a spiked cage in Mathieu Amalric’s latest film as a director-actor, following 2010’s friskily enjoyable burlesque drama On Tour. Adapting Georges Simenon’s 1964 mystery, Amalric takes the lead as Julien, a farm machinery rep drowning in lust for his inamorata, a pharmacist’s wife played by the coolly sexy Stéphanie Cléau (who co-wrote). On many a Thursday afternoon, they sneak off to a provincial hotel suite, leaving Julien’s wife (Léa Drucker) seemingly none the wiser. The timeframes are sliced and diced in jittery, docu-drama style – it’s a rapid-fire report on adultery and possible foul play, hopping forward to Julien’s interrogation in a cramped judicial office, and back to his many lies.
The cost of this liaison can only be guessed at first, but Amalric’s dishevelled, movingly desperate star turn keeps us perpetually on edge. Boxed into 4:3 and carrying barely an ounce of fat, it’s half-thriller, half-tragedy.
Mathieu Amalric
19.00 Sunday 1st March / Gate
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CLOSING FILM GIRLHOOD - Preview Screening Bande De Filles 21.00 Sunday 8th March / Gate
France 2014 76 min Director: Mathieu Amalric Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Léa Drucker, Stéphanie Cléau Language: French with English subtitles Plus Next to Last (Autumn 63) A short film by Mathieu Amalric focusing on Edward Hopper’s painting Sun In An Empty Room.
Excluded from school and in fear of her overbearing brother at home, Marieme (Karidja Touré) escapes into the shielding environment of a girl gang. She renames herself ‘Vic’ for ‘Victory’ and gives up on asking for the things she wants and learns to just take them. The film is divided into four distinct segments in which Marieme changes her physical appearance to suit the different worlds she must navigate (school, home, street). Each transformation magnificently captures the heavy burden that visibility and image play in Marieme’s life.
Stunning photography favours a distinctive blue palette that ensures Marieme remains a defiantly vital presence on screen even while it appears she is disappearing from society’s view. The jubilant soundtrack infuses the film with vigour and passion, from juddering electro-goth to a full length lip sync to Rhianna’s ‘Diamonds’. With Girlhood Sciamma flawlessly evokes the fragile resilience of youth. France 2014 112 min Director: Céline Sciamma Cast: Karidja Touré, Assa Sylla, Lindsay Karamoh Language: French with English subtitles
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ON TOUR Tournée 18.30 Monday 2nd March / Gate Mathieu Amalric made his directorial debut in Cannes with On Tour back in 2010 and left the festival with the best director award. Joachim a former Parisian producer had left everything behind - his children, friends, enemies, lovers and regrets - to start a new life in America. He returns with a troupe of burlesque performers whom he has fed fantasies of a grand tour of France, of Paris! Travelling from port to port, the curvaceous showgirls invent an extravagant fantasy world of warmth and hedonism, despite the constant round of impersonal hotels, endless elevator music and the lack of money. The show gets an enthusiastic response but their dream of a grand finale in Paris goes up in smoke when Joachim is betrayed by an old friend and loses the theatre where they were due to perform. A quick return journey to the capital violently reopens old wounds...
JIMMY P 21.00 Monday 2nd March / Gate At the end of World War II, Jimmy Picard (Benicio Del Toro), a Native American Blackfoot who fought in France, is admitted to Topeka Military Hospital in Kansas - an institution specializing in mental illness. Jimmy suffers from numerous symptoms: dizzy spells, temporary blindness, hearing loss... In the absence of any physiological causes, he is diagnosed as schizophrenic. Nevertheless, the hospital management decides to seek the opinion of Georges Devereux (Mathieu Amalric), a French anthropologist, psychoanalyst and specialist in Native American culture. Psychoanalysis is a recurring theme in the work of Arnaud Desplechin (Kings and Queen, A Christmas Tale, My Sex Life…) and he had been dreaming of adapting Georges Devereux’s book Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian, for over twenty years. Like the book, the film is a Franco-American odyssey of identity but ultimately it’s a friendship story with two brilliant performances from the lead actors. PAGE /
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Presented by
Mathieu Amalric
France 2010 111 min Director: Mathieu Amalric Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Miranda Coclasure, Suzanne Ramsey, Dirty Martini Language: French with English subtitles
Presented by
Mathieu Amalric
FEATURES
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon 18.30 Tuesday 3rd March / Gate
Director Julian Schnabel’s acclaimed film about the remarkable life of Jean-Dominique Bauby. Based on the best-selling memoir of the same name, the film tells the story of Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), editor of Elle Paris, who, after a stroke at the age of 45, was left paralysed and unable to speak or move a muscle. Trapped in what he saw as a ‘diving bell’, a prison from which he was unable to escape, Bauby’s only lifeline became the temporary release, or ‘butterfly’, of his memories and imagination. With his physical movements so restricted, Bauby’s only way of communicating with the outside world lay in the blinking of his eye, a tool he developed to such an extent that he was able to develop a code to represent letters of the alphabet, enabling him to, in turn, complete his memoirs.
France 2007 112 min Director: Julien Schnabel Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze, Anne Consigny , Niels Arestrup Language: French with English subtitles
LOVE IS THE PERFECT CRIME - Preview Screening L’amour est un crime parfait 21.00 Tuesday 3rd March / Gate
France 2013 117 min Director: Arnaud Desplechin Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Mathieu Amalric Language: English
Mathieu Amalric plays a befuddled, womanising young professor whose complicated life takes a turn for the worse following the disappearance of a student, in the Larrieu brothers’ wickedly fun comic thriller. When her stepmother arrives on campus determined to uncover her, life is about to become even more complicated. The film etches a portrait of a man unexpectedly losing control of virtually every situation in which he finds himself. This graceful psychological thriller may nod in the direction of Hitchcock and Chabrol, but only to acknowledge those masters, as Love is the Perfect Crime is, ultimately, very much the creation of the Larrieu brothers. Finely shot, and using the stunning wintry scenery of the Swiss Alps as counterpoint to its eerie tone, this chilling story also carries within it a wonderfully pointed sense of morbid humour that makes the concoction all the more memorable.
France 2013 110 min Directors: Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Karin Viard, Maiwenn Language: French with English subtitles PAGE /
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VENUS IN FUR La Vénus à La Fourrure
FEATURES
18.30 Wednesday 4th March / Gate
Le Goût de l’Excellence
The latest film from master director Roman Polanski is a rigorously intelligent and frequently hilarious investigation into the structures of power, the nature of desire and the importance of art.
Le Cordon Bleu soutient
21.00 Wednesday 4th March / Gate
Française de Cork.
Le réseau international du Cordon Bleu est constitué aujourd’hui de 50 écoles dans 20 pays, accueillant chaque année plus de 20 000 étudiants de 80 nationalités différentes. Le Cordon Bleu propose des formations variées dans les domaines des arts culinaires, de l’hôtellerie et du tourisme. La collaboration entre l’Alliance Française et Le Cordon Bleu s’inscrit dans la pérennité de la culture et de la gastronomie françaises. Le Cordon Bleu London 15 Bloomsbury Square London WC1A 2LS - United Kingdom london@cordonbleu.edu
www.cordonbleu.edu PARIS MEXICO
LONDON PERU
MADRID AUSTRALIA
AMSTERDAM
ISTANBUL
NEW ZEALAND
LIBAN
TAIWAN
France 2013 96 min Director: Roman Polanski Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner Language: French with English subtitles
CHICKEN WITH PLUMS Poulet aux Prunes
Le Festival du Film Français organisé par l’Alliance
Le Cordon Bleu Paris 8, rue Léon Delhomme 75015 Paris - France paris@cordonbleu.edu
Alone in a Parisian theatre after a day of auditions, director Thomas (Mathieu Amalric) is complaining over the phone to his fiancée about the poor quality of the actresses. As he prepares to leave, Vanda (Emmanuelle Seigner) suddenly appears: an unbridled and brazen whirlwind of energy who embodies everything Thomas hates. But when Thomas finds himself backed into a corner and lets her try her luck, he is amazed to see Vanda transformed. Not only has she found the right props and costumes, but she understands the character (whose name she shares) intimately, and knows all her lines by heart. The “audition” lengthens and intensifies, and Thomas’s attraction starts to develop into an obsession.
JAPAN MALAYSIA
KOREA
USA
THAILAND
OTTAWA SHANGHAI
The creators of Oscar nominated Persepolis follow their terrific debut with an inspired adaptation of another of Marjane Satrapi’s award-winning graphic novels. Temperamental musician Nasser Ali lives for his music, loftily negligent of his two young children and nagging wife. When the beloved violin bequeathed to him by his musical and spiritual master is damaged he can no longer find any pleasure in living and decides to retreat to his bed and await death. Satrapi and Paronnaud seamlessly weld the graphic novel’s striking visual aesthetic to live action and adroitly lace this melancholy tale with rich, dark comedy and wry digressions. Mathieu Amalric heads a super cast whose performances are perfectly attuned to the film’s heightened, expressive style.
France/Germany/Belgium 2011 93 min Directors: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Edouard Baer, Maria De Medeiros, Golshifteh Farahani Language: French with English Subtitles PAGE /
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LOVE LIKE POISON Un Poison Violent
EAT YOUR BONES - Preview Screening Mange Tes Morts
During school holidays 14-year-old Anna returns from boarding school to her village in Brittany, where she lives with her mother in the house of her elderly and ailing paternal grandfather. In her father’s absence, the young girl quickly understands that her parents are no longer together. Soon, things become complicated by the increasingly depressed mother’s attraction to an easy-going young village priest. Meanwhile, Anna is caught between her own religious convictions - she’s due for her confirmation - and her teenage sexual stirrings, which are awakened by choirboy Pierre. This naturalistic, coming-of-age film depicts the cycle of life from adolescence to adulthood, confirming the ongoing demands of the flesh and the way they frequently conflict with religious faith. Beautifully written, confident and subtle, Love Like Poison is the impressive feature debut of Katell Quillevere.
In the suburbs of Paris live the Dorkels, a nomadic family of Yeniche extraction. As they prepare for the baptism of 18-year-old Jason, their oldest son Fred returns home from prison, after serving fifteen years for killing a policeman during a robbery. The man seems anything but redeemed by his time in prison: after regaining possession of his beloved BMW Alpina, which he had kept hidden in a garage, he organizes an impromptu, high-speed raid in search of a load of copper to steal. He is accompanied by his cousin Moïse, his brother Mickaël, violent and insecure, and young Jason, who considers Fred a storehouse of ancient values and esoteric knowledge which he finds fascinating, but which will ultimately put him in conflict with his desire to be a good Christian.
18.30 Thursday 5th March / Gate
18.30 Friday 6th March / Gate
France 2010 92 min Director: Katell Quillévéré Cast: Clara Augarde, Lio, Michel Galabru Language: French with English subtitles
21.00 Friday 6th March / Gate
21.00 Thursday 5th March / Gate
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France 2014 94 min Director: Jean- Charles Hue Cast: Frédéric Dorkel, Jason François, Michael Dauber Language: French with English subtitles
NEXT TIME I’LL AIM FOR THE HEART - Irish Premiere La Prochaine Fois Je Viserai Le Coeur
TIMBUKTU - Preview Screening
Abderrahmane Sissako brings his lucid brilliance and unparalleled artistry to an account of the temporary occupation of northern Timbuktu by militant Islamic Jihadists in 2012. Shot in Mauritania and Mali, Timbuktu opens with a gang of Islamic extremists arriving in a town on motorbikes, toting AK47 rifles and announcing that they are imposing radical Sharia law. Such everyday activities as singing and playing football are now prohibited and we see the impact of the restrictions on a number of local characters. Like his magisterial Bamako (2006), Sissako’s new film balances the personal and political to stunning effect. By turns petrifying and funny, and beautifully shot by Sofiane El Fani (Blue Is the Warmest Colour), this is an important and soulful cinematic experience.
FEATURES
Between 1978 and 1979, the inhabitants of the Oise in France live in a state of terror and anxiety: a killer is on the prowl, and young women are his prey. The man is everywhere and nowhere, eluding the traps set up by investigators and avoiding roadblocks. The maniac is in fact a highly efficient and meticulous police officer who hides amongst his team while being responsible for investigating his own crimes. But then the maps of his murderous journey slip from his grasp. Guillaume Canet stars in this heart-pumping thriller based on the true story of Alain Lamare, which shocked public opinion in France and went down in the annals of crime history. France/Mauritania 2014 97 min Director: Abderrahmane Sissako Cast: Ibrahim Ahmed, Abel Jafri, Toulou Kiki Language: French and Arabic with English subtitles
France 1967 | 87 min Director: Pierre Koralnik Cast: Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Brialy, Marianne Faithfull, Serge Gainsbourg Language: French with English subtitles PAGE /
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WILD LIFE - Irish Premiere Vie Sauvage
FEATURES
18.30 Saturday 7th March / Gate Wild Life explodes into life. A dreadlocked mother escapes, panicked, dragging three long-haired, beautiful but distressed boys with her. Arriving at her parent’s suburban French home, they are washed and their hair is cut – ready for reintegration into the French mainstream. So starts Cédric Kahn’s expertly crafted true-life story of feuding traveller parents which led to the father, Philippe ‘Paco’ Fournier, absconding with them to live off grid for more than a decade. Mathieu Kassovitz is impressively unrecognisable as Paco, a father fiercely devoted to his ideal: the desire to raise children away from corruption and consumerism, in touch with land and nature. Kahn shows how beautifully he realised this for a time, creating a boys-own-adventure in the countryside. But as the boys become teens, their desire to blend in destabilises the idyll. A sublime, morally complex exploration of a parent’s flawed attempt to offer his children freedom.
France 2013 106 min Director: Cedric Kahn Cast: Mathieu Kassovitz, Celine Salette Language: French with English subtitles
MOMMY - Irish Premiere
21.00 Saturday 7th March / Gate
In his breakthrough film, I Killed My Mother, Xavier Dolan charted the fraught relationship between a rebellious adolescent and his long-suffering mother. Now with his fifth feature in as many years, the Canadian virtuoso comes full circle with another tale of tearaway teen versus matriarch, only this time it is the mother who proudly takes centre stage. Diane is a fun-loving single parent whose son Steve is an unruly troublemaker suffering from ADHD and attachment disorder. When Steve is expelled from his latest juvenile facility, Diane has to take him back into her home full time, forcing the sparring pair to re-establish a relationship and work out how to co-exist once more. As the duo make sense of each other, an introverted neighbour named Kyla enters their lives, with quietly profound consequences. Shot in a striking 1:1 aspect ratio, which seems to frame each character within their own personal prison, and with knockout performances from its uniformly excellent cast, this is a work of bracing visual dexterity and bold emotional resonance.
Canada 2013 139 min Director: Xavier Dolan Cast: Anne Dorval, Antoine Olivier-Pilon, Suzanne Clément Language: French & English with English subtitles
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Mathieu Amalric Mathieu Amalric is one of the best-known French actors working today, partly because he shows up everywhere. Amalric had never considered an acting career until his friend Arnaud Desplechin cast him in the 1996 hit film Ma Vie Sexuelle (My Sex Life). Amalric’s acclaimed role as a womanising professor won him that year’s César award for Best Young Actor. He has since become one of the finest actors in contemporary cinema and honed his craft in dozens of films with directors as varied as Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Arnaud Desplechin (My Sex Life, Kings and Queen, A Christmas Tale), Alain Resnais (Wild Grass), David Cronenberg (Cosmopolis) and Roman Polanski (Venus in Fur) - not to mention a stint as a Bond villain in Quantum of Solace and a cameo role in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel.
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At the same time, he has developed an equally impressive parallel career as a filmmaker and won the Best Director award at Cannes Film Festival for his burlesque sensation On Tour in 2010. He also stars in the film and co-wrote the script! His latest film as a writer, director and actor La Chambre Bleue (The Blue Room) was a critical hit at Cannes earlier this year and opens the festival with a gala screening introduced by Mathieu Amalric. Mathieu will be in Cork for the week of the festival and we are eager to sit down and talk with this brilliant and adventurous artist and feature a wonderfully eclectic retrospective of his work. The series includes Q&A screenings of the award winning On Tour and Arnaud Desplechin’s new English language film Jimmy P, about a native American World War II veteran suffering from posttaumatic stress. Amalric plays alongside Benicio Del Toro as a French anthropologist and psychoanalyst in an adaptation of the book Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian by Georges Devereux. This masterful adaptation features two brilliant performances from the lead actors. Another special preview is the Larrieu brothers latest film, the wickedly comic thriller Love is the Perfect Crime. Amalric plays a womanising young literature professor at the University of Lausanne whose complicated life takes a turn for the worse
following the disappearance of a student. We also feature some Amalric classics such as his international breakthrough film The Diving Bell and Butterfly for which he was Oscar nominated. From creators of Oscar nominated Persepolis, Chicken with Plums is the inspired adaptation of another of Marjane Satrapi’s award-winning graphic novels. Amalric, heads a super cast whose performances are perfectly attuned to the film’s heightened, expressive style. In veteran director Roman Polanski’s latest film Venus in Fur, Amalric plays an obsessive theatre director seeking an actress for his latest play. Polanski’s film is a rigorously intelligent and frequently hilarious investigation into the structures of power, the nature of desire and the importance of art. For the budding filmmakers and actors among you, Mathieu Amalric will conduct a very special filmmaking workshop that will examine the director-actor relationship to the script, the character, and the shooting process. Mathieu’s refreshingly pro-active approach to filmmaking using accessible cameras such as the Canon 5D is an inspiration to any independent filmmaker. We are very grateful to him for his generosity and support in presenting this education event. For further details please see page 21. Festival Director, Paul Bloom
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FAMILY SCREENING
MOON MAN Jean de La Lune
16:15 Wednesday 4th March & Saturday 7th / Gate The man on the Moon is bored. One day he hitches a ride to Earth on the tails of a passing comet, an attack from outer space that sets the alarm bells ringing in the President’s headquarters. The Moon Man starts to explore the fantastical creatures and sights of a new planet. But all is not well, the Moon Man’s absence from his post means that all the world’s children are unable to sleep. Before the megalomaniac President can capture him, they must join forces to return him to his rightful place in the sky. Based on the much loved children’s book by Tomi Ungerer, Moon Man is an unmissable experience for all ages, both young and old.
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This beautifully animated film is a German, French and Irish co-production involving Ireland’s Oscar nominated animation studio Cartoon Saloon with narration provided by Tomi Ungerer. France Germany Ireland 2012 95 min Directors: Stephan Schesch & Sarah Clara Weber Cast: Katharina Thalbach, Ulrich Tukur, Corinna Harfouch, Tomi Ungerer Language: English Certificate: U
PRESENTED BY AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR TOMI UNGERER 16:15 Wednesday 4th March
Tomi Ungerer has made a lifelong adventure of testing societal boundaries through his use of subversive art. The renegade children’s book author and illustrator armed with an acerbic wit and a razor sharp pencil, gave visual representation to the revolutionary voices of 1960’s America with his anti-war illustrations for magazines such as Village Voice and his books of satirical illustrations on consumer culture. The Alsatian artist left America in the 1970’s to settle in West Cork where he has lived and worked for the last 40 years. In 2003 he was chosen by the Council of Europe as their first Ambassador for Childhood and Education and in 2007 the Tomi Ungerer Museum in Strasbourg opened its doors to the public.
photo: © Gaëtan Bally/Keystone
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EDUCATION
FILMMAKING WORKSHOP
THE DIRECTOR/ACTOR RELATIONSHIP WITH MATHIEU AMALRIC 14:00 – 17:00 Monday 2nd March / Venue: Cork Arts Theatre / Price: €50 Mathieu Amalric is one of the finest actors in modern cinema and has honed his craft in dozens of films with directors as varied as Arnaud Desplechin, Olivier Assayas, Julian Schnabel, Alain Resnais, Steven Spielberg and Wes Anderson. He has developed an equally impressive parallel career as a filmmaker, winning the Best Director Award in Cannes Film Festival for his 2010 film On Tour. His latest film as director/actor is a stunning adaptation of Georges Simenon’s The Blue Room. This workshop will examine the director-actor relationship to the script, the character, and the shooting process. It will explore how the director can work with an actor to achieve a higher degree of characterization and immediacy.
A group of twelve directors and actors will experience Mathieu’s approach to acting and directing first hand, through a series of practical script-based exercises. Participants will alternately give and take direction; first working with each other, then with Mathieu sitting in as an actor. The workshop is aimed at young directors and actors with some professional experience. For an application form please contact the festival office via email at workshops@alliancefrancaisecork.com Application deadline: Mon 23rd February Successful candidates will be contacted on Wednesday 25th February. Places are strictly limited, early booking advised. PAGE /
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© Getty Images / Allan Baxter
EDUCATION
SCHOOL SCREENINGS
POPULAIRE (12A)
11.00 Monday 2nd to Thursday 5th March / Gate 1958. Rose is a terrible secretary but a demon typist. Her handsome boss resolves to turn her into the fastest girl in the world. France 1950’s, 21-year-old, Rose Pamphyle (Déborah François) is kept firmly in check by her father. He has arranged her engagement to a local mechanic and the girl seems destined to pass from the control of one man to another on her wedding day. However, when Rose travels to Lisieux in Normandy another opportunity presents itself. Though her interview for a secretarial job goes disastrously, she makes the acquaintance of a charismatic manager called Louis Echard (Romain Duris). Impressed by her natural abilities at the keyboard, Louis appoints himself her trainer for a speed typing competition. Can Rose type her way to the life she desires?
For the love of Films in French! THURSDAYS AND SUNDAYS AT 8PM - SKY 796 / UPC 825 TV5MONDE ist via Kabel, Satellit und DSL verfügbar.
All films are English-subtitled
www.tv5monde.com/eng
This screening is presented in association with IFI Education
For accompanying study guide please contact the festival office at culture@alliancefrancaisecork.com or download from www.ifi.ie/learn France 2012 111 minutes Director: Régis Roinsard Cast: Romain Duris, Féodor Atkine, Déborah François Language: French with English subtitles
THE UNTOUCHABLES (15A)
Intouchables
11.00 Monday 2nd to Thursday 5th March / Gate When Driss, an ex-con from the projects, is hired to take care of an eccentric French aristocrat named Philippe, his newfound job quickly becomes an unpredictable adventure. Speeding a Maserati through Paris, seducing women and paragliding over the Alps is just the beginning, as Driss turns the often humorous world of upper-class Parisian society upside-down. As this unlikely duo overcome adversity of every flavor in this true story, they also shatter their preconceptions of love, life and each other. For accompanying study guide please contact the festival office at culture@alliancefrancaisecork.com or download from www.ifi.ie/learn
Directors: Olivier Nakache & Eric Toledano France 2011 112 minutes Cast: François Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny, Audrey Fleurot Language: French with English subtitles
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EDUCATION
THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE
La Société Du Spectacle
France 1974 88 min B&W Windle Screen Room, Windle Building, UCC / 18.00 Thursday 5th March / Admission free Guy Debord’s cinematic analysis of consumer society based on his influential book La société du spectacle. The life of Guy Debord (1931-1994), cultural and political critic, radical theoretician, filmmaker, provocateur, is entwined with complex and farreaching changes in French and global culture. Embroiled in a bloody war with Algeria from 1954 to 1962, France was also experiencing a consumer boom, against a background of conservative, paternalist capitalism. Debord lived a permanent revolt against the creeping mediatisation of society, which he saw as akin to a weapon in capitalism’s drive to crush individual creativity through the illusion of freedom bought and sold in shiny packages and images. He saw that something had to give, as it did in the mass protests of May 1968 and the growth of new movements in their wake.
Society and individual alike were caught up in the smothering embrace of the spectacle. The spectacle is not the representation of consumer society; it is, he said, a social relation, a mode of alienation where individuals actually enjoy their own exploitation as reflected back at them. His razor-like dissection of the society of the spectacle, his ideas of dérive or drift, and of détournement showed how visual strategies and critique could participate in visual consumerism whilst undermining it. Experimental, sometimes shocking, always provocative, his films are rarely screened. This sceening is part of Guy Debord, Diagrams of Revolution, an exhibition on Guy Debord co-curated by UCC Library and the Department of French which runs from February 4 to March 31 in UCC Library.
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SHORT FILMS: JEAN EPSTEIN
SHORT FILMS JEAN EPSTEIN - BRETON POEMS The avant-garde director and film theoretician created the concept of paysage-acteur, which means that nature on screen has the same role as actors in dramatic films and is subject to the same detailed study. Nothing, not even the smallest object is passive: “there are no dead objects on the screen”. Epstein’s visionary series in Brittany his plunging dive into the “documentary” started almost immediately after his most famous avantgarde work La chute de la Maison Usher (1928) based on a tale by Edgar Allan Poe. He completely abandoned his fashionable life in Paris at the height of his fame and came to rest in Brittany, compelled by the raw beauty of the landscape and its people. His most astonishing sea image, a fragment of twenty minutes in Le Tempestaire captures the nature of silence with an almost religious tone. The viewer experiences the wind and the waves, sunset and sunrise as never experienced before.
This is the story of star-crossed lovers - a carefree, musical young man and the beautiful daughter of a wealthy gentleman who struggle to be together. Aside from its fondness for a restless, panning camera and some inventive wipes, the film is most remarkable for its lively depiction of the customs, costumes, superstitions, dances, and folk songs of the Breton people. DCP digitized in 2013 from the restoration of the 35 mm print in 2013.
“I would like to imprint in some pure corner of your memory the name of Jean Epstein, and not only as one of the greatest architects of images, but also, and particularly, as a great thinker and a misunderstood philosopher.” Abel Gance
MOR VRAN
“One of the most beautiful documentaries of the French cinema, a veritable poem on Brittany and the sea, which preceded by four years Robert Flaherty’s Man of Aran, some of whose most beautiful passages it inspired. In the film we feel at every moment...all Epstein’s knowledge, all his poetry of the transfiguration of things, and we can understand his having written, “The actor that has given me the most pleasure is the island of Ouessant with all the people on it and all the water.” Henri Langlois, Founder of the Cinémathèque Française
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France 1934 43 min B&W Director: Jean Epstein Language: Breton with English translation
LE TEMPESTAIRE
SUNDAY 8TH MARCH 18.30 / GATE CINEMA
DCP digitized in 2013 from the restoration of the 35 mm print in 2011.
CHANSON D’ARMOR
The last of Epstein’s Breton films, Le Tempestaire is steeped in mysticism and local folklore. With the majestic sea and howling wind dominating the film in both image and sound, Epstein captures the feverish state of mind of a woman who senses that something is destined to befall her boyfriend, a fisherman, when he sets sail before a big storm. As the seas rise and the wind howls, she eventually searches for help from the Tempestaire (The Tempest Tamer). DCP digitized in 2014 from the restoration of the 35 mm print in 2013. France 1930 25 min B&W Director: Jean Epstein Language: Intertitles in French with English translation
France 1947 22 min B&W Director: Jean Epstein Language: French with English subtitles PAGE /
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EVENTS
MAX LINDER SILENT SHORTS WITH LIVE BURLESQUE MUSIC
L’INVITATION AU VOYAGE WITH LIVE SCORE BY ZAC GVI AND CHRISTOPHE ROHR
A selection of silent slapstick comedies starring celebrated screen comedy pioneer Max Linder.
comedy, paving the way for screen comedians such as Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. This special presentation of short films includes some of Linder’s Hollywood-made productions, meticulously restored from archival materials.
Courted by a naval officer in a smoky dockside bar, a young woman, driven by her imagination, finds herself already sailing to distant lands. She expects an invitation that will not come, her companion thinks that she is married.
With live burlesque music by Christophe Rohr and Zac Gvi.
Germaine Dulac is the first grande dame of French cinema and played a key role in the development of French avant-garde cinema of the 1920’s. A versatile, daring filmmaker, she worked in the context of French Impressionism and Surrealism. Her goal was ‘pure-cinema’, free from the influence of literature and theatre.
Followed by Four Course Dinner with Wine at The River Lee Hotel 19.00 / Wednesday 4th March / The River Lee Hotel / Price: €25 / person for dinner, wine and screening
Cork French Film Festival and Lobster Films celebrate the legacy of Max Linder, a pioneer of comedy whom Charlie Chaplin referred to as “the great master.” Linder’s screen character of the elegant boulevardier with his trademark silk top hat and cane, combined slapstick with sophisticated situational humour centered around his misadventures. Following World War I, Linder came to Hollywood, where he continued creating his wonderful brand of
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Bookings: Paula Cogan, The River Lee Hotel, 0214937712 or email paula.cogan@doylecollection.com
Supper à la Parisienne at the Farmgate Cafe, followed by dessert and coffee after screening 18.30 / Thursday 6th March / English Market / Price: €35 1927 / 16 mm / b&w / Silent / 33min Dulac was fascinated by movement and attempted to create a style she dubbed ‘the integral film’, a visual symphony made of images. In precisely composed settings, transitions, and associative montages Dulac opens the subjective world of its protagonists devising sophisticated cinematic tricks that would later be adopted by the likes of Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel. Bookings: Online:www.corkfrenchfilmfestival.com Tickets: Festival Office 0214310677 Early booking advised PAGE /
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EVENTS
Ballymaloe proudly celebrating 50 years warmly congratulate Cork French Film Festival on its 26th edition NATURAL RESISTANCE
Followed by rustic supper with natural wines featured in the film. 19.00 Friday 6th March / Ballymaloe-Grainstore / Price: €45 or €10 for screening only
Shanagarry, County Cork, Ireland Ph: +353 21 4652531 Fax: +353 21 4652021 res@ballymaloe.ie www.ballymaloe.ie
A former sommelier, Nossiter’s Mondovino, a documentary about the globalization of the wine industry was nominated for the Palme D’Or in Cannes in 2004, one of only three documentaries ever nominated in the history of the festival. He didn’t foresee returning to the topic until last summer when he found himself in Tuscany, seated with Italian winemakers dedicated to resisting the prevalent use of chemicals. Nossiter instinctively turned on his camera and continued to follow these subjects against the sun-kissed backdrop of Italian vineyards. These protagonists of a rapidly spreading European natural wine revolution exemplify the movement’s ecological and cultural ideals, one winemaker says, “It’s about respect for everything” — not only nature, but also workers and customers.
This special screening is followed by an italian inspired rustic supper paired with wines from the growers featured in the film. Special thanks to independent wine merchants Pascal Rossignol from Les Caveau in Kilkenny and Doug Wregg from Les Caves de Pyrene in London. France/Italy 2013 Director: Jonathan Nossiter Duration: 86 minutes Language: Italian with English subtitles Bookings: Online: www.corkfrenchfilmfestival.com Tickets: Festival Office 021 4310677’ Early booking advised PAGE /
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EVENTS
paris
from passage west via cork airport From wherever you are in Ireland, see yourself in PARIS this spring, one of 50 routes served direct from Cork Airport. With flowering public gardens and boulevards made for strolling handin-hand, this is the perfect time of year to visit the romantic french capital. Book your flight to Paris on www.aerlingus.com
www.corkairport.com
Cork Airport Paris A6 ad.indd 1
facebook.com/FlyCork
@CorkAirport
29/01/2015 16:03
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER WITH LIVE SCORE BY IRENE BUCKLEY 20:00 Saturday 7th March | St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral | €16/14 (conc)
A visual masterpiece of the macabre, Epstein’s Gothic fantasy is a viscerally compelling and profoundly unsettling meditation on the relationship between life, art and death. As his beloved wife Madeleine succumbs to a mysterious illness, Sir Roderick Usher invites his old friend Allan to his castle for support. He arrives to find Roderick consumed with completing a painting of Madeline, something that seems to draw the life out of her with every brush stroke he makes. Once the picture is finished, Madeleine collapses, and her physician confirms she is dead. After a solemn funeral, a ghostly presence invades the house of Usher... Composer Irene Buckley has created an ethereal lament for voice, electronics and organ (James McVinnie) to accompany cinema’s first true Gothic horror. Buckley’s exquisite pieces traverse a dynamic region between classical and contemporary composition. Her acclaimed scores for silent film have astounded audiences at festivals internationally and
been described as “pure cinema magic, a once in a lifetime experience that sent shivers down the spine” (A. Hunter, director, Glasgow Film Festival). James McVinnie has performed with leading European ensembles and composers such as Philip Glass and is becoming increasingly known for his collaborations with musicians such as Nico Muhly, Beth Orton, Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire) and The National. His debut album Cycles was released by influential Icelandic label the Bedroom Community to widespread critical acclaim. Bookings: Online:www.corkfrenchfilmfestival.com Tickets:Festival Office 0214310677 Early booking advised. France | 1928 | 64 min | Director: Jean Epstein Cast: Jean Debucourt; Marguerite Gance; Charles Lamy PAGE /
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WE WISH TO THANK THE FOLLOWING VENUES: ENGLISH MARKET
GRANT AIDED BY:
SPONSORS AND PARTNERS:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS His Excellency, Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland, Cllr Mary Shields, Lord Mayor of Cork, Gillian Keating, President Cork Chamber of Commerce, Tony Barry (Barry’s Tea), André Cointreau (Le Cordon Bleu), Michael Barry (Michel Lynch Wines), Mark Whitaker (Johnson & Perrott), Kevin Cullinane (Cork Airport), Noel Canty (TV5MONDE), Maeve Dineen (Cork City Council), John Mullins and Brendon Keating (Port of Cork), Monique Faulhaber, Emilie Cauquy (Cinémathèque Française), Jean Lababie (le Pacte), James King (Curzon Artificial Eye) Olpha Ben Salah (Wildbunch), Aria Ungerer (Pictor Management), Patrick O’Neil (Wild Card Distribution), Maria Chiba (Lobster Films), Jeanne Vellard (Lightcone), Suzy Gillett (Capricci UK), Laurence Berbon (Tamasa), Tommy Delcher (StudioCanal), Ioana Dragomirescu (Le Pacte), Esther Devos (Wild Bunch) and Faustine Matheron (Alfama Films) Eddie Noonan (Frameworks), Michael Wilde (Entertainment Films), Dr Pat Crowley & Dr. Paul Hegarty (UCC), Orla Flynn (CIT - CSM), Failte Ireland, Eoin O’Connor (Carlton Screen Advertising), Lucia Helenka (Minky Productions), Michael Dowling (Reel Good Productions), Deirdre Quinlan (IFI), John Hayes (Consultant), Margaret Green and Theresa Murphy (Gate Cinema), Malcolm Wisener (St. Fin Barr’s Cathedral),
Gillian Culhane (Aerlingus), John X Miller and Michael Mulcahy (Cork Vision Centre), the Allen Family (Ballymaloe), Samuel Chantoiseau (Ballymaloe), Gillian Hegarty (Ballymaloe), Kay Harte (Farmagate), Peter Murray (Cork Crawford Art Gallery), Des O’Driscoll (Irish Examiner), Pat Collins (Collins Print), Niamh Sweeney (Alliance Française de Cork), Eimear O’Brien PR, 96FM, PJ Gibbons (Social and Personal), Toma Pople (Meltoma Design), Alexandra Bloom, Julia Fabry, Jonathan Broda, Brian McDomhnaill, Andrew Desmond (Whazzon), Marc O’Sullivan, Paula Cogan (The River Lee Hotel), Joe Kennedy (The Imperial Hotel), Des Donnelly (Gresham Metropole), Raymond Kelleher (The Clarion Hotel), Sara Dinan (The Kingsley Hotel), Michael and Eileen Flemming (Flemings Restaurant), Pascal Rossignol (Le Caveau), Doug Wregg (Les Caves de Pyrène), Benny McCabe (Arthur Mayne) Dee Delany (Electric), Claire Nash (Nash 19), Catherine Ryan (Isaacs Restaurant), Mags O’Connor (The Cornstore), Isabelle Sheridan (On the Pig’s Back), Miki Barlock Photography, Gerard McCarthy Photography, national and local media, our wonderful team of volunteers, and all who have helped us to make this Festival happen. Merci à toutes et à tous! PAGE /
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GATE
SUN 1ST
MON 2ND Populaire
11.00
TUE 3RD Populaire
Populaire
THURS 5TH
FRI 6TH
SAT 7TH
Populaire
Moon Man
The Blue Room (19.00)
21.00
On Tour
Jimmy P
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Moon Man
Venus in Fur
Love Like Poison
Eat Your Bones
Wild Life
Jean Epstein Breton Poems
Love is the Chicken with Plums Perfect Crime
Timbuktu
Next time I’ll Aim for the Heart
Mommy
Girlhood
CORK ARTS THEATRE
14.00
Filmmaking workshop with Mathieu Amalric
THE RIVER LEE HOTEL
19.00
Max Linder Shorts
ENGLISH MARKET
18.30
Invitation au Voyage
BALLYMALOE 19.00
Natural Resistance
ST FIN BARRE’S 20.00
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SUN 8TH
Intouchables Intouchables Intouchables Intouchables
16.15 18.30
WED 4TH
The Fall of the House of Usher