From November 22nd through the 29th, hits from the the world of contemporary French films re coming to Prague cinemas Kino Lucerna, Kino Světozor and the French Institute’s Kino 35 courtesy of the annual French Film Festival, now in its 20th year.
The festivities officially kick off tonight at all three cinemas with screenings that include Le Redoutable, a drama about famed French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard from The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius at Kino 35 and Lucerna, and Rodin, a new biopic on the famed French sculptor at Světozor.
Note that many, but not all (including the aforementioned) of the films screening at this year’s festival will contain English subtitles. Check the French Film Festival website or pages of Kino Lucerna, Kino Světozor or Kino 35 to confirm.
Some of the other highlights at this year’s festival screening with English subtitles include Django, a biopic about famed Romani-French jazz great Django Reinhardt, Madame, a comedy about an American couple in Paris starring Toni Collette and Harvey Keitel (who was recently in the Czech Republic filming a new movie), and Barbara, the latest from French actor & director Mathieu Amalric.
Also screening will be eclectic filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier’s My Journey Through French Cinema, an epic Scorsese-like three-hour documentary charting the history of French cinema from the 1930s through the 1960s.
A special retrospective at this year’s festival honors one of my very favorite French filmmakers: Jean-Pierre Melville. The director’s Army of Shadows, Le Cercle rouge, Bob le Flambeur, Léon Morin, Priest, Le Doulos, and Le Silence de la mer will all be screened with both Czech and English subtitles.
Some of the festival’s highlights screening without English subtitles include Happy End, the latest from director Michael Haneke starring Isabelle Huppert and Mathieu Kassovitz, and Claire Denis’ Let the Sunshine In, starring Juliette Binoche and Gérard Depardieu.
Special guests at this year’s festival include directors Jacques Doillon (Rodin), Martin Provost (The Midwife), Laurence Cantet (The Workshop), and Edouard Deluc (Gaugin), and actress Catherine Frot (The Midwife), who will all be on hand to introduce their films.
After Prague, the French Film Festival will continue throughout the Czech Republic in Brno, České Budějovice, Hradec Králové, and Ostrava.
More info (in French and Czech) can be found at the official French Film Festival website.
One Response