Nostalgia aplenty but little oomph at Cinéfranco
Gore, death and sex are replaced by discreet affairs and the French countryside
We’re in Nice, France at the end of the decadent ’70s in the film In the Name of My Daughter ( L’Homme qu’on aimait trop). We have highstakes gambling, decadent aristocrats, the mob, a casino owner who disappears and her ruthlessly cool business affairs manager. Add to this Catherine Deneuve, as Renée Le Roux, the dowager gambling boss with hair as spectacular as Pamela Wallin’s.
The result? Blah. For all its classic boffo ingredients — the story is based on real incidents all the better — we have a thriller that’s not. Here’s an underworld about as vicious as a parent-teacher’s association meeting. As for revenge, Agnes (Adele Haenel), Le Roux’s dour, bitter daughter, wants to open a bookstore as a way to spite mom. And to think it’s directed by the great André Téchiné, still remembered for his Les Voleurs ( Thieves), the epically tense 1996 thriller. What we have describes the easy-as-it-goes norm running through Cinéfranco 2015, the 18th edition of Toronto’s annual Francophone International Film Festival, for the first time with the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema mostly as home base, Friday to April 19.
This is the François Hollande of film festivals, charming in the peculiarly quirky, down-home and reassuring ways associated with the French president himself. Like him, it lacks noticeable oomph, though. And in recent years, Le Grand Oomph has been big in French cinema — danger, death, gore, graphic sex and lots of what film historian Tim Palmer calls Brutal Intimacy, the title of his survey of French cinemas since 2000 or what TIFF’s James Quandt termed “the new French extremity” in Artforum in 2004.
Recent excessive Gallic edge might be credited with the modest rebound of France’s film industry that often outperforms Hollywood product in France, with the international popularity of provocative films such as Abdellatif Kechiche’s recent Blue is the Warmest Colour. Nevertheless, for now it’s bring on the nostalgie for this Cinéfranco, with all those leisurely meals, discreet affairs and hikes through jaw-dropping gorgeous countryside. France and the worldwide Francophonie want fewer extremes these days according to Marcelle Lean.
“There is a mood in the French viewership that is asking for less brutality,” says Cinéfranco’s director. “France, in recent years, has gone through a lot of tough times.”
Cinéfranco itself has its own austerity measures. Translated this means that Lean — “with my limited means,” as she indicates — is pretty much on her own when it comes to assembling her lineup. “I hit a few festivals and when I go to Paris I try to watch what’s playing in the little local repertory theatres. In good years, my budget is around $300,000. In less good years, the budget more likely starts around $190,000. I am in one of those meagre years of about a $200,000 budget.”
As a result, “The lineup of guests to the festival is not as rich as in other years,” she adds. Nonetheless the lineup does include the uniquely talented Micheline Lanctôt, the Montréal actress — best known in English Canada for Ted Kotcheff’s The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz — turned director with Autrui, ( Others) which just opened in Québec.
The Altruist, its English title, comes close to describing the relationship of Lucie, (Brigitte Pogonat), an aimless young woman unhappy at work and Éloi, (Robin Aubert), a homeless bum who shambles into her life like a sack of garbage with something alive inside. What’s shown and not said — although Éloi has a breathtaking repertoire of bodily noises — give Autrui its eloquence and substance. Other picks: Party Girl. Co-director Samuel Theis’s mother, Angélique Litzenburger, plays herself or who she imagines she might have become as a 60-something bar girl. The ins and outs of “is-this-true or not?” rivals Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s great 1990 film Close-Up with its intertwined threads of fiction and autobiography.
Tokyo Fiancée. Amélie, a compassionate, guileless young woman finds adventure and love in all the right places. Sound familiar? No, this is not a remake of Amélie of 2001 starring Audrey Tautou, but it comes close. Tokyo — looking beguiling in the summer — replaces Paris. Pauline Étienne is this Amélie, a Belgian French-language tutor who finds entirely new fun things to do with cheese fondue.
Geronimo. Lovers from different backgrounds rush into each others’ arms. A neighbourhood’s emotions brought close to the boiling point. Cue the music as Geronimo (Céline Sallette), the area social worker, tries to calm things down.
The Easy Way Out ( L’Art De Fugue). The closing film of the series with director Brice Chauvin in attendance is a drama hidden in a comedy, which means it’s about a typical French family — although the story is from Stephen McCauley’s novel — sorting it all out for themselves.
Cinéfranco 2015, the 18th annual Francophone International Film Festival runs April 10-19 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, 506 Bloor St. W. A free screening April 16 of shorts is at Alliance Française de Toronto, 24 Spadina Rd. starting at 8 p.m. Peter Goddard is a freelance writer and former Star movie critic. He can be reached at peter_g1@sympatico.ca.