Welcome to , the Festival du Film Français , in South Africa , For its very first national edition, the Festival du Film Français in South Africa offers a new programme of contemporary and award-winning French films selected by guest curator, Oliver Hermanus. The talented South African cinema director, who attended Cinéfondation in Cannes in 2009, has been given “carte blanche” for the selection of films which reflects the dynamism and variety of contemporary French Cinema. Born out of a desire to develop and share with the South African public the incredible wealth of French cinema, this festival is the perfect gathering for cinema enthusiasts and Francophiles. It will provide an opportunity to discover a type of cinema which is internationally acclaimed but rarely promoted in South Africa. The French Institute of South Africa, the Alliance française network and the Embassy of France in South Africa could not present such a remarkable festival without the support of: UniFrance, Culturesfrance, Accor Group, Crédit Agricole, Peugeot, Région Ile de France and Auberge Michel for the cocktail in Johannesburg.
Come and experience the diversity of French cinema!
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Oliver Hermanus , Carte blanche
Editorial «As a major fan and admirer of French cinema, the selection process for this festival was primarily focused on bringing to a South African audience a variety of French films that explore complicated emotional journeys and political tensions that challenge the viewers opinions and beliefs. Contemporary French cinema is now, as French cinema has always been, a leader in pushing the art of filmmaking forward in new and diverse ways. This selection of films offers you the chance to see the work of directors who are shaping the way we view and consider our relationships with others, whether they be our families, or friends, our neighbouring countries, or distant, foreign worlds. Commercial South African cinema culture has always miscategorised ‘Art’ films as ‘difficult’ or non-linear narratives, yet this is far from the truth. They are possibly and simply films that deal with the internal workings of human beings rather than the completion of a plot. I hope this collection of films will offer up a host of questions and debates that will inspire the audience, like any good piece of cinema should.» Biography | Oliver Hermanus Oliver Hermanus (27) was born in Cape Town, South Africa. He has a BA in Film, Media and Visual Studies from the University of Cape Town. He was awarded an exchange programme scholarship during this time and completed his undergraduate degree at the University of California in the United States. Upon his return to South Africa he secured a position as a press photographer working for a national news agency. 18 months into his photographic career, he received a private scholarship to attend The London Film School. His graduation film «Shirley Adams» premiered in Competition at the Locarno International Film Festival in August 2009. Subsequently it has been screened at the Toronto Film Festival and many other prominent global festivals. In 2009 Oliver was selected to attend the 19th session of the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinefondation in Paris where he wrote his second feature film titled «Skoonheid».
www.ifas.org.za/filmfestival
In the presence of the film festival curator Oliver Hermanus
On Tour
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TOURNEE France / Germany • 2010 • 1h51mn French with English subtitles Director: Mathieu Amalric Cast: Miranda Colclasure, Suzanne Ramsey, Linda Marraccini, Mathieu Amalric. © Nicolas Guérin
Best screenplay at the Cannes International Film Festival 2010 Joachim, a former Parisian television producer had left everything behind - children, friends, enemies, lovers and regrets - to start a new life in America. He returns to France with a team of New Burlesque striptease performers whom Joachim has fed fantasies of a 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 with their endless elevator music and the lack of money. The show gets an enthusiastic response from men and women alike. But their dream of a tour culminating in a last grand show 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...
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G NIGH OPENIN
• Cape Town 2 February • Durban 3 February • Johannesburg 4 February • Port Elizabeth 9 February • Pretoria 10 February •
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Lorna s , Silence
LE SILENCE DE LORNA France / Belgium • 2008 • 1h45mn French with English subtitles Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne Cast: Arta Dobroshi, Jérémie Rénier, Fabrizio Rongione, Alban Ukaj, Morgan Marrine. © Les Films du Fleuve
Best Screenplay at the Cannes International Film Festival 2008 Lorna, a young Albanian woman living in Belgium, has her sights set on opening a snack bar with her lover Sokol. In order to do so, she has become involved in a diabolical plan conducted by Fabio, a gangster. Fabio has set up a false marriage between Lorna and Claudy allowing Lorna to get her Belgian citizenship. After obtaining it, Lorna discovers that she must now marry a high-profile Russian mafioso who is ready to pay hard cash to get his hands on those vital Belgian identity papers. Fabio intends to kill Claudy so as to speed up the second marriage. Will Lorna be able to remain silent as Fabio’s deadly plot unfolds, and what will become of her if Fabio finds out that she has warned Claudy of the impending danger he faces?
• Cape Town 3 February • Durban 4 February • Johannesburg 5 February • Port Elizabeth 10 February • Pretoria 11 February •
White Material
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WHITE MATERIAL France • 2010 • 1h42mn French with English subtitles Director: Claire Denis Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Isaach de Bankolé, Christophe Lambert, Nicolas Duvauchelle.
During an uprising in an African farming region, home to one of the rebel chiefs, Maria, a staunch and brave white woman refuses to relinquish her coffee crop and to see the danger to her family that such an attitude provokes. For her, giving in is proof of weakness, cowardice. In this plantation, which has nourished three generations of whites, André, her ex-husband and father of their teenage son, is concerned about Maria’s blinkered outlook, her stubbornness and pride. He decides to organise, without her knowing the family’s escape and its repatriation in France. André no longer believes in the value of coffee. He has remarried with a young African woman with whom he has a son, and for whom he’s willing to do anything – even betraying Maria by putting his fate in the hands of the mayor of the neighbouring village.
• Cape Town 3 February • Durban 4 February • Johannesburg 5 February • Port Elizabeth 10 February • Pretoria 11 February •
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Of Gods , and Men
Pre-screening - courtesy of Videovision
DES HOMMES ET DES DIEUX France• 2010 • 2h00mn French with English subtitles Director: Xavier Beauvois Cast: Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale, Olivier Rabourdin, Philippe Laudenbach Grand Prix at the Cannes International Film Festival 2010 The film is set in a monastery in the middle of the Algerian mountains, during the 1990s. Eight French Cistercian monks live in harmony in the Algerian wild with the Muslim population. But outside the doors of their monastery other more sinister forces are at work. When a group of Croatian workers are murdered, the local mayor urges the brothers to close their doors and move away. Panic spreads among the inhabitants. The army offers to protect the monks, but they refuse assistance. Should they leave? Despite the menacing circumstances that increasingly surround them, the monks decide in unison to remain, whatever the cost. This film is based on the true story of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 up until their kidnapping in 1996.
• Cape Town 3 February • Durban 4 February • Johannesburg 5 February • Port Elizabeth 10 February • Pretoria 11 February •
The refuge, LE REFUGE France • 2009 • 1h30mn French with English subtitles Director: François Ozon Cast: Isabelle Carré, Louis-Ronan Choisy, Pierre Louis-Calixte, Melvil Poupaud, Claire Vernet Prix spécial du Jury at the San Sebastian International Film Festival 2009 The refuge begins in a chic Paris apartment, where Mousse and Louis have fallen into a spiral of drugs. Rich and beautiful, they are clearly in love, but perhaps also doomed. The next morning, Louis dies of an overdose and Mousse is unconscious. When his mother shows up shortly after, it is to show the apartment to a prospective tenant. She had no idea of the life her son was leading. Now that he is dead, she is left with his junkie girlfriend, who is pregnant with Louis’ baby. Mousse is no bourgeois matron’s idea of a daughter-in-law, and before long she leaves Paris behind for a house near the sea. Against all advice, she decides to keep the baby. Several months later, Louis’ brother joins her in her refuge.
• Cape Town 4 February • Durban 5 February • Johannesburg 6 February • Port Elizabeth 11 February • Pretoria 12 February •
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Love Like , Poison
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UN POISON VIOLENT France • 2010 • 1h32mn French with English subtitles Director: Katell Quillévéré Cast: Clara Augarde, Lio, Michel Galabru, Stefano Cassetti Showcased at the 42nd Directors’ Fortnight & Prix Jean Vigo Anna, a young teenager, comes home from her Catholic boarding school for the holidays and discovers her father has left. Her mother is devastated and confined in the company of the local priest, who is also a childhood friend. Anna clings to her beloved grandfather. She also grows close to Pierre, a free-spirited teenager who cares little about God. Anna is preparing for her confirmation, but her budding desire for Pierre shakes her faith. She longs to give herself over, body and soul...but doesn’t know if it is to God, or something else?
• Cape Town 4 February • Durban 5 February • Johannesburg 6 February • Port Elizabeth 11 February • Pretoria 12 February •
In the presence of actor Andre Jacobs
Black Venus, VENUS NOIRE France • 2010 • 2h39mn French with English subtitles Director: Abdellatif Kechiche Cast: Yahima Torres, Andre Jacobs, Olivier Gourmet, Elina Löwensöhn, François Marthouret, Jonathan Pienaar, Natania Van Heerden
© Mk2
The story of Saartjie Baartman, a Black domestic who, in 1808, left Southern Africa, then ruled by Dutch settlers, for Europe, following her boss Hendrick Caesar, hoping to find fame and fortune there. Once in London her master turned manager does nothing but exhibit her as a freak in a phony and humiliating carnival show. After a series of troubles caused by their act, Caesar, Saartjie and their new friend, bear-tamer Réaux, head for Paris where once again, and against her will, she has to mimic savagery and expose her body, first in carnivals, then in the aristocratic salons of Paris, later on among the libertines and finally in brothels where she ends up being a prostitute. In the meantime, French anatomists has taken an interest in her unusual anatomy.
G CLOSIN
NIGHT
• Cape Town 4 February • Durban 5 February • Johannesburg 6 February • Port Elizabeth 11 February • Pretoria 12 February •
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, MASTERCLASS Oliver Hermanus
MASTERCLASS Our cinema MASTERCLASS is above all a unique encounter with young South African film director Oliver Hermanus and the discovery of his universe through his first feature film, SHIRLEY ADAMS, highly acclaimed worldwide for its originality and ambition. The MASTERCLASS will be an opportunity for Oliver to share his vision of cinema in general and French contemporary cinema in particular.
SHIRLEY ADAMS South Africa • 2009 • 1h32mn Director: Oliver Hermanus Cast: Denise Newman, Keenan Arrison, Emily Child Synopsis: A woman is pushed to her emotional breaking point when an act of violence compromises the health of her son in this drama from South Africa.
• Cape Town 3 February • Durban 4 February • Johannesburg 8 February • Port Elizabeth 10 February • Pretoria 11 February •
WORKSHOP , Isabelle Servant, WORKSHOP Isabelle Servant is a French teacher who has created a unique method to teach French through cinema by focusing on various themes... For this Festival, she will be using «The 400 blows» by Truffaut to lead interactive workshops targeted to French teachers and advanced students. This innovative and playful way to learn French revolves around a system of questions and answers, quiz games and discussions on a movie.
THE 400 BLOWS France • 1959 • 1h39mn French Director: François Truffaut Cast: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, Claire Maurier Synopsis: The intensely touching story of an abandoned and misunderstood young adolescent who delves into a life of petty crime. • Cape Town 4 February • Durban 5 February • Johannesburg 7 February • Port Elizabeth 11 February • Pretoria 12 February •
Cape Town WED 2 FEBRUARY
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, Labia on Orange
ON TOUR by Mathieu Amalric
8.30pm In the presence of the film festival curator Oliver Hermanus
THU 3 FEBRUARY
Artscape
MASTERCLASS run by Oliver Hermanus
9.00am
Based on SHIRLEY ADAMS by Oliver Hermanus
Labia on Orange
LORNA’S SILENCE by Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne 6.15pm WHITE MATERIAL by Claire Denis 8.30pm Cinema Nouveau V&A
OF GODS AND MEN by Xavier Beauvois
FRI 4 FEBRUARY
8.00pm
Alliance Française of Cape Town
WORKSHOP run by Isabelle Servant
Teaching French through Cinema, based on THE 400 BLOWS by François Truffaut
9.00am
Labia on Orange
THE REFUGE by François Ozon LOVE LIKE POISON by Katell Quillévéré BLACK VENUS by Abdellatif Kechiche In the presence of the actor Andre Jacobs
Info & Bookings:
2.30pm 5.45pm 8.30pm
Labia On Orange: 021 424 5927 | www.labia.co.za Masterclass & Cinema Nouveau V&A: www.alliance.org.za Workshop: courses.cpt@alliance.org.za
Durban
THU 3 FEBRUARY
Suncoast Casino
ON TOUR by Mathieu Amalric
7pm In the presence of the film festival curator Oliver Hermanus
FRI 4 FEBRUARY
Alliance Française of Durban
MASTERCLASS run by Oliver Hermanus
9am
LORNA’S SILENCE
2pm
Based on SHIRLEY ADAMS by Oliver Hermanus
by Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne WHITE MATERIAL by Claire Denis
4.30pm Suncoast Casino
OF GODS AND MEN by Xavier Beauvois
SAT 5 FEBRUARY
7pm
Alliance française of Durban
WORKSHOP run by Isabelle Servant
9am Teaching French through Cinema, based on THE 400 BLOWS by François Truffaut THE REFUGE by François Ozon 2pm LOVE LIKE POISON by Katell Quillévéré 4pm Suncoast Casino
BLACK VENUS by Abdellatif Kechiche In the presence of the actor Andre Jacobs
Info & Bookings:
7pm
Alliance Française: culture.afdurban@alliance.org.za 031 312 9582 / Suncoast Casino: 0861 246 263. Credit card only! Free tickets for members and students of AF at the Alliance Française of Durban. Free R20 R30
Johannesburg FRI 4 FEBRUARY
, Alexander Theatre
ON TOUR by Mathieu Amalric
8pm In the presence of the film festival curator Oliver Hermanus
SAT 5 FEBRUARY
Cinema Nouveau Rosebank
LORNA’S SILENCE by Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne 2.30pm WHITE MATERIAL by Claire Denis 5.30pm OF GODS AND MEN by Xavier Beauvois 7.30pm
SUN 6 FEBRUARY
Cinema Nouveau Rosebank
THE REFUGE by François Ozon LOVE LIKE POISON by Katell Quillévéré BLACK VENUS by Abdellatif Kechiche In the presence of the actor Andre Jacobs
MON 7 FEBRUARY
2.30pm 5.30pm 7.30pm
Alliance française of JHB
WORKSHOP run by Isabelle Servant
1pm
Teaching French through Cinema, based on THE 400 BLOWS by François Truffaut
TUE 8 FEBRUARY
Port Elizabeth
WED 9 FEBRUARY ON TOUR by Mathieu Amalric
In the presence of the film festival curator Oliver Hermanus
THU 10 FEBRUARY MASTERCLASS run by Oliver Hermanus
Based on SHIRLEY ADAMS by Oliver Hermanus
LORNA’S SILENCE
by Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne WHITE MATERIAL by Claire Denis OF GODS AND MEN by Xavier Beauvois
FRI 11 FEBRUARY WORKSHOP run by Isabelle Servant
Teaching French through Cinema, based on THE 400 BLOWS by François Truffaut
THE REFUGE by François Ozon LOVE LIKE POISON by Katell Quillévéré BLACK VENUS by Abdellatif Kechiche In the presence of the actor Andre Jacobs
AFDA cinema school
MASTERCLASS run by Oliver Hermanus
Based on SHIRLEY ADAMS by Oliver Hermanus
Info & Bookings:
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Movies: damien.meyrignac@alliance.org.za | 011 646 1169 Masterclass: nicolas@ifas.org.za | 011 403 0458 Free R40 | Festival Pass for 2 movies R60
9am
Info & Bookings:
Alliance Française of Port Elizabeth | Aurélie Biewesch aurelie.biewesch@afvp-vp.org | 041 585 7889
Pretoria THU 10 FEBRUARY
, Cinema Nouveau Brooklyn
ON TOUR by Mathieu Amalric
8.00pm In the presence of the film festival curator Oliver Hermanus
FRI 11 FEBRUARY
Open Window School
MASTERCLASS run by Oliver Hermanus
Based on SHIRLEY ADAMS by Oliver Hermanus
9.00am
Cinema Nouveau Brooklyn
LORNA’S SILENCE by Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne 2.30pm WHITE MATERIAL by Claire Denis 5.30pm OF GODS AND MEN by Xavier Beauvois 7.30pm
SAT 12 FEBRUARY
Alliance Française of Pretoria
WORKSHOP run by Isabelle Servant
9.00am Teaching French through Cinema, based on THE 400 BLOWS by François Truffaut Cinema Nouveau Brooklyn
THE REFUGE by François Ozon LOVE LIKE POISON by Katell Quillévéré BLACK VENUS by Abdellatif Kechiche In the presence of the actor André Jacobs
Info & Bookings:
2.30pm 5.30pm 8.00pm
Alliance Française of Pretoria | Tickets & invitations at the AF of Pretoria | culture.pta@alliance.org.za | 012 343 6563 / 0263 | Festival Pass R60 | Individual Tickets R40 Free on invitation only
VENUES: Pretoria:
Alliance Française, 99 Rivier Street, Sunnyside Cinema Nouveau Brooklyn, Shop 12, Lower Level, Brooklyn Mall, Bronkhorst Str, New Muckleneuk
Johannesburg:
Alexander Theatre, 36 Stiemens St, Braamfontein Cinema Nouveau Rosebank, Rosebank Mall AFDA, 41 Frost Avenue, Auckland Park
Durban:
Alliance Française, 22 Sutton Crescent, Off Windermere Rd, Morningside Suncoast Entertainment World, Suncoast Boulevard, Snell Parade
Cape Town:
Alliance Française, 155 Loop Street, CBD Artscape, D F Malan Street, Foreshore Labia on Orange, 68 Orange Street, Gardens Cinema Nouveau, V&A Waterfront
www.ifas.org.za/filmfestival
Team Nicolas Doyard, Marie Didierlaurent, Emilie Demon, Capucine Laurent, Eleonore Godfroy-Briggs, Sarah Doignon, Maguelone Orliange, Ludmila Ommundsen, Graziella Laude, Aurélien de Chapotin, Aurélie Biewesch, Damien Meyrignac and Oliver Hermanus Acknowledgements HEM Jacques Lapouge French Ambassador to South Africa, Christian M.Robert, Antoine Michon, Guy de la Chevalerie, Georges Lory, Laurent Clavel, Colin Voison, Laurent Chauvet, Andre Jacobs, Pipasol, Werner Prinsloo, Jean Souvignet, Aurélie Voix, Yohan Cusmano, Thibault Hatton, Clara Métivier-Beukes, Bruce Prins, Guillaume Faÿ, Nashen Moodley, Ludi Kraus, Sanjeev Singh, Michel Morand, Jean Christophe Baubiat, Adrien Sarre, Isabelle Servant, Gina Bonmariage, Pluto Panoussis, Marlene Leroux, Bertrand Guillemot, Danyl Els, AB Moussa