09/03/2010

Kicking off on Thursday is the 15th Rendez-Vous With French Cinema, organised in New York by Unifrance (see video interview with managing director Régine Hatchondo) and the Lincoln Center Film Society.

The event, which will open with Christian Carion’s Farewell [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and close with François Ozon’s The Refuge [+see also:
trailer
film profile], will last until March 21. It will screen 18 features (including seven that already have US distributors) in avant-premiere at the Walter Reade Theater, the IFC Center and BAM.

The line-up includes several films unveiled at Cannes: Xavier Giannoli’s In the Beginning [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Robert Guédiguian’s The Army of Crime [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Riad Sattouf’s The French Kissers [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Alain Guiraudie’s The King of Escape [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Axelle Ropert’s The Wolberg Family [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Michel Gondry’s documentary The Thorn in the Heart [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Also on the programme are Philippe Lioret’s Welcome [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Philippe Lioret
film profile] (winner of the LUX Prize 2009), Stéphane Brizé’s Mademoiselle Chambon [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Christophe Honoré’s Making Plans for Lena [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Lucas Belvaux’s Rapt [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lucas Belvaux
film profile], Cédric Kahn’s Regrets [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Claude and Nathan Miller’s I’m Glad that My Mother Is Alive [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Michel Hazanavicius’s OSS 117: Lost in Rio [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Three debut features complete the line-up: Restless [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Laurent Perreau, The Hedgehog [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Mona Achache and Eight Times Up [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Xabi Molia.

Almost all the directors will be in attendance to present their films in New York, as well as actors Yvan Attal, Guillaume Canet, Jean Dujardin, Julie Gayet, Virginie Ledoyen, Chiara Mastroianni and Vincent Lindon. Around ten French international sellers will be among the delegation, to continue developing French cinema on US territory, which brought 24m admissions in 2009 for 19 film releases.

(Translated from French)