March 28-30 - Sixteenth Annual French Film Festival at VCU
I went to the French film festival with two French friends -- Agnès and Pascale, and Agnès brought miniature Eiffel towers and jewelry findings, so we were able to make earrings and necklace pendants and make it a faux weekend in Paris :)
The Byrd Theatre was on Cary Street, a one-way strip in the commercial district (all restaurants and shops surprisingly French with their bakeries (Jean-Jacques) and restaurants catering to French tastes (escargot and oysters and kir royales at the Can-Can) -- there were French flags up and down the street surrounding the theater area, and there was a even an Air France stewardess uniform displayed on a mannequin outside one store. All of the movies all three days drew lines of people who hadn't bought passes for the whole event and were willing to queue up and buy $10 tickets to individual movies -- and pack themselves into the theater, which was full for almost every performance, including the balcony.
The Concession Area, seen from a couple of angles, including the balcony area -- but the good food was to found right across the street at Carytown Sushi, which only took ten minutes to put together a carryout order, and you and your California Roll ($3.99) and shrimp tempura roll ($8.95) and chopsticks and wasabi could then wrangle within your square of space at the end of the aisle back at the Byrd while everybody else lost control of their wafts of popcorn and M&Ms -- besides that, in the late afternoon between movies and battling the crowds across the street, ten minutes' wait meant no queue for the bathroom, because there wasn't any at the sushi bar's rest room, and it took a lot less than ten minutes for them to mix up a Tokyo Sunrise for you while you were waiting for your takeout order :)
Downtown Richmond was deserted -- not a soul was out, except for at the Byrd Theater. We weren't surprised that the Happy Faces melted off the sides of the buildings...where was the action? I think we must have hit VCU right in the middle of their spring break. But what a break for us -- no problems at all parking around the corner from Cary Street and walking no more than a block and a half to get to the Byrd Theater. After looking all around Richmond to see what was available, we ended up back on Cary Street at the Can-Can for dinner.
The movies:
Jacquou le Croquant - One of two period pieces in the festival. Injustices mount in 19th-century Périgord (great scenery) until the peasants finally revolt and storm the castle. Beautiful actors (great scenery) including one female lead who looked a lot like Liv Tyler. The young star from the movie was part of the delegation, and answered questions from the audience after the film.
La Vérité ou presque (True enough) - An adultury-o-rama that would have seemed like a cliché French story, but was based on a book written by the same guy who wrote a movie Jennifer Aniston was in, The Object of My Affection. The writer, also in the delegation, answered questions after the movie, and got a laugh from the audience by saying that every time Jennifer Aniston was in the news he sold six copies of his book, so while he was a fan of Jennifer's, he loved Angelina.
Michou d'Auber - The Big Star movie, with Gerard Depardieu and Nathalie Baye in it. They played country folk in the 1960s who take in an Algerian foster child. Everybody liked this movie; it was probably the highlight of the festival and occurred right in the middle of it (I wonder if that placement is significant...?)
Dialogue avec mon jardinier (Conversations with my gardener) - With Daniel Auteuil in it. The director had been introduced earlier, had said hello, said "Now I will take your picture") and taken a picture of the audience with his own digital camera, and said he'd be back later, so he'd gotten a laugh from the audience for being self-effacing (and for not getting up there and pontificating but getting on with the movie). The movie was funny and charming, even if you saw the setup coming a mile away from the movie title.
L'invité (The Invitation) - This is my favorite kind of French movie, so this is the one I liked the best. With Daniel Auteuil and Valerie Lemercier, who I think are great in this kind of movie, too. The boss is coming over for dinner, and the couple prepares for the event with predictably disastrous results. It was hilarious. Also, it had Thierry Lhermitte in it, who looks a little like Mark Harmon and played the Hugh Grant role in the movie.
On diriait que.... (Let's say....) - A documentary, where kids enacted what they thought their parents did at their jobs all day. Had its moments. Also, I learned something -- I didn't realize that the families of the gendarmes (the police) lived in barracks, and not among the general population.
Jean de La Fontaine, le défi (the challenge) - The other period piece, about poet Jean de La Fontaine (I did not know he wrote "The Grasshopper and the Ant") and the rise to power of Louis XIV. Not a lot of tension in the movie in spite of the subject, but the imagery stayed with me afterwards.
Un secret - The secret is based on a book about the Holocaust and introduces at the outset a missing or imagined older brother. I thought it took forever to get to what was obvious after the first five minutes, but what was interesting about the movie was that it had pop singer Patrick Bruel in one of the major roles, and like Johnny Hallyday in Man on a Train, it was very satisfying to see him do so well in it.
Ensemble, c'est tout (Together, that's everything) - The Audrey Tautou movie they threw in at the end, like a bonbon. She's a waif rescued by a boy scout who has a scruffy friend with an ailing grandmother. Of course you can figure out how that story is going to go, and it does, but it was fun fluff to end the festival with. And a clever title with a double entendré as well :)
