“French Revolutions” in London

by Fabien Lemercier

15/10/2010 - Twenty-five French productions or co-productions are in the line-up at the London Film Festival, which opened on Wednesday and will run until October 28. While French films have garnered excellent results on UK screens since the start of 2010 (especially Heartbreaker [trailer] this summer), this impressive selection showcased in the British capital aims to reinforce this trend, notably with a section entitled "French Revolutions", which includes 13 titles.

Highlights include Guillaume Canet’s highly-anticipated Little White Lies [trailer], which will be released next Wednesday in French theatres; and films discovered this year at Cannes (Marc Fitoussi’s Copacabana [trailer], Katell Quillévéré’s Love Like Poison [trailer] and Jean-Paul Civeyrac’s Young Girls In Black [trailer]), Berlin (Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern’s Mammuth [trailer, film focus]), Venice (Antony Cordier’s Happy Few [trailer] and Catherine Breillat’s The Sleeping Beauty) and Locarno (Benoît Jacquot’s Deep in the Woods [trailer] and Mikhaël Hers’s Memory Lane – see news).

This broad cross-generational panorama will also present Isabelle Czajka’s Living On Love Alone [trailer], Romain Goupil’s Hands Up [trailer], Jeanne Labrune’s Special Treatment [trailer] and Lola Doillon’s In Your Hands [trailer].

The Gala screening of Xavier Beauvois’s Cannes Grand Prize-winner Of Gods and Men [trailer, film focus] (current French box office phenomenon) will create a splash; as will several titles unveiled on the Croisette and selected in the Film on the Square section: Olivier Assayas’s Carlos [trailer], Bertrand Tavernier’s The Princess of Montpensier [trailer], Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s A Screaming Man [trailer], Rachid Bouchareb’s Outside the Law [trailer], Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialism [trailer] and Benda Bilili! [trailer] by directorial duo Florent de la Tullaye and Renaud Barret.

Eleven directors will accompany their films to the London fest, which will also present five French co-productions: Palme d’Or-winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives [trailer], Miral [trailer], Neds [trailer], Puzzle [trailer] and Womb [trailer].

(Translated from French)