French Sidebar

The Midwife – France (2017)

Directed by:  Martin Provost

Two of French cinema’s biggest stars shine in this bittersweet drama about the unlikely friendship that develops between Claire (Catherine Frot), a talented but tightly wound midwife, and Beatrice (Catherine Deneuve), the estranged, free-spirited mistress of Claire’s late father. Though polar opposites in almost every way, the two come to rely on each other as they cope with the unusual circumstance that brought them together. An official selection at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival.

French with English subtitles

Print courtesy of Music Box Films

French Sidebar

Back to Burgundy – France (2017)

Directed by: Cedric Klapisch

Back to Burgundy tells the story of Jean, who left his family and his native Burgundy ten years ago to tour the world. When learning of his father’s imminent death he returns to his childhood home where he, his sister Juliette, and brother, Jeremie, inherit the family vineyard. As the seasons go by and they work to save the vineyard, they’ll have to learn to trust each other again and reinvent their relationships.

French with English subtitles

Print courtesy of Music Box Films

French Sidebar

Faces Places – France (2017)

Directed by:  JR, Agnes Varda

Film auteur Agnes Varda and street photographer JR are creators of images from different generations. Varda, the revered female filmmaker of the French New Wave, has long been associated with the art film and inner circles of film lore, including Jacques Demy, Alain Resnais, Jean-Luc Godard, Anna Karina, and Chris Marker. JR views the street as with murals of his works. Their mutual commitment to human stories creates a path for collaboration and an opportunity to visit the French countryside. These singular artists traveling together makes for an extraordinary journey. This is a brilliant film from one of the most iconic and visionary talents in cinema, whose openness in her conversations with another original – JR – brings us an extraordinarily layered portrait: of two artists, of two generations, of the people they encounter, of France – and the French.

Winner of L’Oeil d’Or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival

French Sidebar

Frantz – France (2016)

Directed by:  Francois Ozon

Set in Germany and France in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, (1914-1918), Frantz recalls the mourning period that follows great national tragedies as seen through the eyes of the war’s “lost generation.” Anna, a bereft young German woman whose fiance, Frantz, was killed during trench warfare, and Adrien, a French veteran of the war who shows up mysteriously in her town, placing flowers on Frantz’s grave. Adrien’s presence is met with resistance by the small community still reeling from Germany’s defeat, yet Anna gradually gets closer to the handsome and melancholy young man, as she learns of his deep friendship with Frantz, conjured up in evocative flashbacks. What follows is a surprising exploration of how Ozon’s characters’ wrestle with their conflicting feelings – survivor’s guilt, anger at one’s losses, the overriding desire for happiness despite everything that has come before, and the longing for sexual, romantic and familial attachments. Ozon drew his inspiration from a post WWI play that inspired the 1932 film adaptation of Broken Lullaby by Ernst Lubitsch.

Winner – Marcello Mastroianni Award – Best Young Actress – Venice Film Festival

French with English subtitles

Print courtesy of Music Box Films

French Sidebar

The Innocents – France (2016)

Directed by: Anne Fontaine

Warsaw, December 1945: the second World War is finally over and French Red Cross doctor Mathilde is treating the last of the French survivors of the German camps. When a panicked Benedictine nun appears at the clinic begging Mathilde to follow her back to the convent, what she finds is shocking: a holy sister about to give birth and several more in advanced stages of pregnancy. A non-believer, Mathilde enters the sisters’ fiercely private world, dictated by the rituals of their order and the strict Reverend Mother. Fearing the shame of exposure, the hostility of the occupying Soviet troops and local Polish communists and while facing an unprecedented crisis of faith, the nuns increasingly turn to Mathilde as their beliefs and traditions clash with harsh realities.

Winner – Andreas Award – Norwegian International Film Festival

Winner – Audience Award – Provincetown International Film Festival

French with English subtitles

Print courtesy of Music Box Films