Rendez-Vous with French Cinema
March 5 - 15, 2009
Presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance
Click here for complete program information (film descriptions and schedule) for all Walter Reade Theater screenings as well as the opening night premiere of Paris 36 at Alice Tully Hall.
Opening Night features the U.S. premiere of Christophe Barratier’s Paris 36, a period charmer starring veteran comedian Gérard Jugnot as a high-strung theater manager leading a movement to bring his music hall back into prominence. The screening has the double honor of marking The Film Society’s return to the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall, home of the New York Film Festival, Thursday, March 5, at 8:00 p.m. Barratier, lauded newcomer Nora Arnezeder, and producer (and sometimes actor) Jacques Perrin will attend the screening.
Other filmmakers and guests who will attend screenings during the series include directors Claire Denis, Samuel Collardey, Patrick Mario Bernard, Pierre Trividic, Danièle Thompson, Costa-Gavras, Anne Fontaine, Jean-François Richet, Ilan Duran Cohen, Agnès Varda, Sylvie Verheyde, Martin Provost, Pierre Schoeller, Benoît Jacquot, and prizewinning actress Félicité Wouassi.
Since its inception, Rendez-Vous’s goal has been to provide as broad a panorama as possible of contemporary French cinema, presenting works by well-established masters alongside debut features; intimate, personal stories alongside finely crafted forays into genre filmmaking. This year, the aesthetic and stylistic spread of the program is perhaps more impressive than ever, anchored by two of the most active and creative octogenarians anywhere, Agnès Varda and Claude Chabrol. Impressive debuts by Samuel Collardey and Pierre Schoeller mingle with the shadow of master criminal Jacques Mesrine, long an enigmatic figure in French cinema and now brilliantly revived in a definitive, two-part epic by Jean-François Richet.
Several old friends return to Rendez-Vous — André Téchiné, Claire Denis, Benoît Jacquot, Anne Fontaine, Sylvie Verheyde, François Dupeyron, Danièle Thompson—while we welcome Martin Provost, Ilan Duran Cohen, Patrick Mario Bernard, and Pierre Trividic to the program for the first time. We’re also delighted that Costa-Gavras will introduce his new film Eden Is West, direct from its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. (Watch for the re-release of his masterpiece, Z, coming soon to Film Forum.)
Click on Program Overview for a listing of the films in the series.
Click on
Calendar to view the daily schedule and, to purchase tickets online for all Walter Reade Theater screenings as well as the opening night premiere of Paris 36 at Alice Tully Hall.
The IFC Center is located at 323 Sixth Ave. at West 3rd Street. Visit www.ifccenter.com for more information about their Rendez-Vous screenings.
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2009 is sponsored by Ubifrance, Maison de la France, agnès b., and LVT Laser Subtitling.
