What to see at the Alliance Française French Film Festival based on your autumn mood
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Single? Loved up? Love French food? Want a night out with the gals? We’ve got you.
Because from next week, the 35th Alliance Française French Film Festival will be here to serve you the perfect cinematic experience on a silver platter (or should that be a velvet cinema chair?).
From epic (two-part!) cinematic masterpieces to sweet indie films, sweeping historical dramas and sharp political thrillers, the Festival is serving up the best of French cinema from the past 12 months, ready for Canberrans to dive in for full cultural immersion.
From 7 March until 2 April the sights, the sounds, the smells, the history, the people, the love, the dreams of France will be on our screens, ready to help us forget about real life, about summer ending, about that deadline and about our personal lack of plane tickets from Canberra to Paris.
Whatever your autumn cinema mood, there’s something to suit everyone. Keep an eye out for the wide range of Special Events the Festival puts on too – from films that come paired with a glass of wine (yes, really!) to our very special HerCanberra Ladies Night!
“I want something for me and the gals…”
If you’re looking for reason to get the gang together, look no further than our annual HerCanberra Ladies Night, where we partner with the Festival to eat lots of cheese, drink some wine and watch a spectacular film with a strong female lead.
This year, that film is The President’s Wife. I was lucky enough to see it at the media preview and let me tell you – it is sharp as a tack, with an unstoppable Catherine Deneuve (Catherine Deneuve!) playing Bernadette Chirac, the wife of sometimes embattled French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac.
Watch this true story unfold against the backdrop of 1980s and ‘90s France with all the drama, fashion and political scheming you’d expect. You’ll also receive wine and cheese on arrival because, why not?
You can purchase your tickets to our HerCanberra Ladies Night here.
“No one does romance like the French…”
Oh yes, don’t we know it. Lovers of this film festival will know too well the sensuality imbued into most French cinema and this year’s lineup doesn’t disappoint.
It seems that every festival we have a wonderful film about navigating love the French way, which usually means some sort of hilarious or sentimental narrative involving an affair.
This Festival, the brilliant Laure Calamy is giving is that role (and then some) in the hilarious looking Iris and The Men (feature image), about a dentist that decides to find love outside of her marriage (while also staying in her marriage).
Another sensual standout is The Nature of Love, a French-language film set in Canada. With references to romance films of the 1970s and shot with a dreamy palette of earth and sun tones, this is a film about an academic who falls head over heels for a handyman…who is helping fix up her and her husband’s weekend cabin. Saucy and spicy, this is not one to take your parents to.
“I want French cinema, the blockbuster edition…”
Do we have a film (actually two!) for you! This year, the festival is proudly showing the epic two-part The Three Musketeers adaptation, the cast of which reads like a who’s who of French cinema. You have Vincent Cassel, you have Romain Duris, you have Eva Green…the list goes on.
Based on Alexandre Dumas’ 19th-century epic, this is swashbuckling chivalry at its finest – and at its most lavish, with each film costing around 36 million euros each, making them the most expensive French productions of 2023. So you can only imagine the extensive nature of the sets, the costumes, the cinematography…
While the film has been split and will be shown in two parts (the first is called D’Artagnan and the second Milady), there will be one mega showing of both parts on the same day during the festival (on Sunday 17 March at 4pm) or you can catch them separately.
“The best part of France is the food…”
If you agree, you need to book tickets for The Taste of Things (La passion de Dodin Bouffant) – and we highly recommend you buy snacks and wine for the showing.
One of the most praised films of the Festival (it won director Tran Anh Hung the Best Director prize at Cannes 2023) this is Juliette Binoche at her finest, in a film that centres around matters of the heart and the heart of the home – the kitchen – set against the pastoral French countryside. Could we ask for more? I think not.
“I want a trip down memory lane…”
Each festival, there are a handful of retrospective slots that go to films from years gone by that have stood the test of time and this year there are two exceptional standouts that I recommend.
The first is a showing of everyone’s favourite French film (and yes, I don’t care if you disagree) – The Intouchables, which scooped Oscar nominations, Emmy nominations and a Cesar Award for Best Actor for Omar Sy when it was released in 2012.
The sweetest, funniest, most moving film, it’s a true treat to have this film on the big screen again throughout the festival. What an opportunity to revisit a recent classic.
The other classic film is Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis). First released in 1946, the film was recently voted ‘best film of all time’ by the Association of French Cinema Journalists, which is quite the gong. Unfamiliar with classic French cinema? This is the place to start.
THE ESSENTIALS
What: Alliance Française French Film Festival
When: 7 March – 2 April
Where: Palace Electric Cinema
Tickets + program: affrenchfilmfestival.org/canberra
HerCanberra is a proud media partner of the Alliance Française French Film Festival
