Every year the rising of post-Winter temperatures has become synonymous to me with France -- and why wouldn't it when France has brought us so much cinematic hotness a la Louis Garrel? But in this particular instance it's actually because FLC's annual fest
"Rendez-Vous with French Cinema" arrives in March, and so the association's become a subconscious one after all these years. (This year marks the fest's 30th, so it's been running the entire time I've lived in NYC.) I'm feeling hot, the air is hot, and the screens are hot with, yes, Louis Garrel & Co. The fest runs for the next 10 days and you can check the entire line-up at the link above -- Garrel is in Quentin Dupieux's new movie (he's the surrealist mastermind behind movies like
Deerskin and
Rubber)
The Second Act...
... which also stars Léa Seydoux and Vincent Lindon and is about a group of actors trying to make a movie they have no interest in making -- things apprently, as is Dupieux's wont, get meta and more meta from there. I haven't seen that one but I have seen a couple that I recommend -- I was taken aback by how lovely I thought Koya Kamura's film
Winter in Sokchu was, which is about a French artist (Roschdy Zem) staying at a small hotel in a seaside Korean village where a woman (Bella Kim) who's never met her French father works. A terrific film, sweet and sad and well worth seeking out. Kim is incredible in it.
I also saw François Ozon's latest called
When Fall is Coming, which is a typically twisty little thing about personal guilt and familial relationships that get blown up in ways you won't expect. It reunites the director with his
Swimming Pool actress Ludivine Sagnier for the first time since that big hit of theirs, but it's really more of a showcase for actress Hélène Vincent. Oh and of course there's a hunk on hand (played by Pierre Lottin) because Ozon never lets us down on that front.
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