New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Greenwich celebrates French films virtually
Last year was a crushing one for the organizers of the Focus on French Cinema film festival. The event, presented by the Alliance Française of Greenwich, regularly brings an array of French-language films — many of them U.S. premieres — to local audiences.
But as the festival was about to launch last year, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, canceling events all over the state or forcing them online. With little time to mount an online festival, the organizers of Focus on French Cinema were forced to cancel.
It was devastating for all concerned, including Joe Meyers, the festival’s director of programming. A lifelong devotee of the movie-going experience, it was strange not only to see his beloved festival canceled, but to realize that going to the movies was no longer considered safe.
“I am the biggest advocate in the world of the theatrical screening of movies,” Meyers says. “There hasn’t been a week that’s gone by since I was a very small child that I haven’t gone to the movies.”
In the wake of the festival’s cancellation came confusion about what the next year’s event would look like. “We didn’t know whether we would be able to do it in the real world or if it would have to be virtual,” Meyers says.
When it became clear that the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t over, festival organizers — including Meyers and festival co-founder and chair Renée Ketcham — decided to make this year’s Focus on French Cinema an online event. Between April 21 and April 30, the festival will screen one film a day, for a total of 10 films. All of the offerings are in French with English subtitles.
Tickets are available through the festival website, focusonfrenchcinema.com. Ticket holders will be asked to create a login and password to purchase either a $75 VIP pass for 10 films or tickets for individual films at $10 each.
All ticket holders will also get access to question and answer sessions with many of the people involved in creating the films.
“We’re very fortunate to have interviews with people from every single film,” Meyers says. Of the 10 films, six will have their U.S. premiere as part of the festival. This year’s event is highlighting the films of Belgium, including the opening night film, “Une Vie Démente (Madly In Life),” an unconventional comedy directed by Raphaël Balboni and Ann Sirot about a man whose mother contracts a form of dementia.
“One of the things we always try to point out to our filmgoers is that French cinema isn’t just about films produced in France,” Meyers says.
He says great French language films are being made in many countries, including Belgium, Canada and Senegal. Ketcham agrees, adding that, during this year’s screening process “the films we saw coming out of Belgium were just fabulous.”
That’s important, as this year’s foray into virtual festival-going meant it might take some special films to hold people’s attention, Ketcham says. “In this fragile world that we live in, we wanted make sure we had films that popped.”
“Une Vie Démente” is a good example, Meyers says, as it isn’t a typical film about dementia. “It’s not done in a heavy-handed way,” he says. “This film — and I know it’s a cliché — but it is life affirming.”
Another of Meyers’s favorites among this year’s offerings is François Ozon’s “Summer of ’85,” produced in both France and Belgium, which has its Connecticut debut on April 29. It’s a coming-of-age tale about a young man coming to terms with being gay.
“It’s done with wit and style and a lot of suspense,” Meyers says.
Ketcham says her favorites include Nicole Garcia’s “Amants (Lovers),” a noir-ish romantic melodrama. “I’m a big fan of thrillers,” Ketcham says, adding the film has an “edge-of-yourseat ending.”
Meyers says he hopes taking the festival virtual will open it up to a wider audience. “I hope we’re able to get new festival goers,” he says. “We may very well develop a whole new audience because people can do this from home.”
He pointed out that the festival might be one of the few chances people have to see these films. “A lot of these films, sadly, will never find a U.S. distributor,” Meyers says. “We don’t have as many opportunities as we used to, even when theaters were open, to see French films.”