Institut Français du Royaume-Uni

Propelled into stardom as a young ‘Sissi’, Romy Schneider totally reinvented herself when she made the move from Austria/Germany to France. Longing to cast off her teenage image and be accepted as a serious actor, she seized the chance to work with directors such as Luchino Visconti, Orson Welles, Henri-Georges Clouzot..., and later on Claude Sautet, with whom she made five films. The public often paid more attention to the turmoil in her private life, blurring the line between who she was and the characters she played: strong, resilient women, who were also vulnerable, affectionate and joyful, or sometimes despairing and weary. Her iconic smooth face expressed it all with just the subtlest change. Romy Schneider’s striking reappearance on screen in Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno as well as a major exhibition at the Film Museum Berlin opening on 4 December, provide the occasion for this season at Ciné lumière that continues on into the 12th Festival of German Films at the Curzon Soho from 27 November to 3 December.

A collaboration of Ciné lumière/Institut français, Goethe-Institut London, German Films and Club des Femmes.

www.germanfilmfestival.co.uk
www.goethe.de/london


Death Watch
La Mort en direct
France/Germany/GB | 1980 | col | 128 mins | dir. Bertrand Tavernier, with Romy Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton | cert. 15
Diagnosed with a terminal disease, Katherine sells the TV rights to her death, but then hides, just to be unwittingly filmed by the one person she trusts. Tavernier considered Schneider, whose privacy had constantly been invaded by the media, as ideal for the role. Set in the near future, the film is surprisingly prophetic in the way it foreshadows reality TV and CCTV, also reflecting on film as voyeurism and simulacrum. Harvey Keitel co-stars, his camera-eyes fixed on his target, en route between a dystopian Glasgow and Land’s End.

fri 20 nov 8.40pm

Ludwig
Ludwig …ou le Crépuscule des Dieux
Italy/France/Germany | 1972 | b&w | 245 mins with one interval | dir. Luchino Visconti, with Helmut Berger, Romy Schneider, Trevor Howard, Silvana Mangano, Gert Fröbe
Visconti, who had given Schneider decisive roles in theatre and film upon her arrival in France, casts her once more as Elisabeth of Austria, Ludwig’s cousin, as if to finally bring the 'Sissi' chapter to a close. In this operatic and luxurious portrait of the ‘Mad’ King, shot on location in Bavaria and Austria, she plays the mature Empress, who has gained relative freedom in spite of marriage and office. Ludwig adores her but knowing that he must and cannot love her, she is empress enough to steer him towards her sister.

sat 21 nov 6.15pm

Le Train
France | 1972 | col | 95 mins | dir. Pierre Granier-Deferre, with Jean-Louis Trintignant, Romy Schneider | cert. 15 | in English only
May 1940. Julien Maroyeur, a modest radio-mast repairman in a village in the north of France decides one day to flee with his pregnant wife Monique and their little girl. On a packed train they are separated. The men are cooped up in the animal wagons. Separated from his wife, Julien meets Anna, a young German girl who is running away from her home town because she is Jewish.

sun 22 nov 2.00pm

Les Choses de la vie
France | 1970 | col | 89 mins | dir. Claude Sautet, with Michel Piccoli, Romy Schneider, Lea Massari | cert. 15
From its classic opening sequence, in which a successful architect crashes his car at an intersection, Sautet's breakthrough feature is thoroughly gripping with Piccoli in top form as a successful architect who reviews the recent events in his life at the moment of his death.

Winner Prix Louis-Delluc 1969

thu 26 nov 3.00pm

La Piscine
The Swimming Pool
France | 1968 | col | 120 mins | dir. Jacques Deray, with Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet, Jane Birkin | cert. 15
While on holiday near St Tropez the couple Marianne and Jean-Paul enjoy lazing and making love around the pool. Things take a chillier turn when Marianne’s former lover appears with his teenage daughter. Delon suggested Schneider for the part of Marianne. The on-screen re-union of the former dream couple stirred many rumours and adds to the tension of this taught psychological drama, which also stars Delon’s Plein Soleil partner Maurice Ronet and a very young Jane Birkin. Lavishly photographed and here shown from a new print, it is pure indulgence.

mon 23 nov 8.40pm

L'Important c'est d'aimer
France | 1974 | col | 109 mins | dir. Andrzej Zulawski, with Romy Schneider, Fabio Testi, Jacques Dutronc, Klaus Kinski | cert. 15
In a César-winning role that shows Schneider at her most vulnerable and fragile, but also at her most angry and cynical, she plays a world-weary actress amidst a crowd of desperate artists, freaks, and gangsters. Bound to her escapist husband, she resists the love of a melancholy photographer who secretly pays a large sum of money to get her into a proper, yet ill-fated stage play. Zulawski’s first film outside Poland is a fierce, cacophonous, but also tender melodrama, which also stars Klaus Kinski in one of his best performances.

tue 24 nov 8.40pmRead More

Le Chant des mariées
Tunisia/France | 2008 | col | 100 mins | dir. Karin Albou, with Lizzie Brocheré, Olympe Borval | cert. 15
Tunis, 1942. Nour and Myriam, both 16, have been friends since childhood. They share the same house in a modest neighbourhood where Jews and Muslims live in harmony. Each one secretly desires th...e other girl's life: while Nour regrets that she doesn't go to school like her friend, Myriam dreams of love.
In November 1942, the German army enters Tunis. Pursuing the policies of the Vichy regime, the Nazis impose a heavy fine on the Jewish community.

thu 12 nov 6.30pm


La Fille du RER
France | 2009 | col | 105 mins | dir. André Téchiné, with Catherine Deneuve, Emilie Dequenne and Ronit Elkabetz | cert. 15 | UK premiere
Taking his lead from a real-life media furore, André Téchiné‘s latest film presents a fascinating enigma. Pretty, restless young Parisienne Jeanne lives with her widowed mother Louise (Catherine Deneuve) in the suburbs. Drawn to Holocaust documentaries and reports of anti-Semitic violence, Jeanne initiates an elaborate lie that a gang of youths subjected her to a vicious assault, mistaking her for a Jew. An initial trauma gives way to something more sinister...
The Girl on the Train is classic Téchiné, offering no easy answers and blurring the boundaries between a brittle urban bourgeoisie and those on the periphery of French society.

sat 14 nov 8.30pm

Followed by Q&A with actress Ronit Elkabetz


Being Jewish in France
France | 2007 | col | 185 mins | 2 parts with one interval | doc | dir. Yves Jeuland | comments by Mathieu Amalric | cert. 12A
The Jews and the land of 'Liberty, equality, and fraternity' began their love affair in 1791, when France became the first modern country to proclaim Jewish emancipation. But as Yves Jeuland’s definitive documentary reveals, the reality has often failed to match the ideals of the enlightenment.
This complex story is told by a rich variety of archive footage, entertaining clips from French films with Jewish themes – from Renoir to Marcel Ophuls, and a formidable line-up of interviews with leading Jewish intellectuals, politicians and artists.

mon 16 nov 6.30pm | £7, conc. £5 Read More

Celebrating le cinéma français for the 17th year, the festival offers an exciting opportunity to discover the latest in French filmmaking, from blockbusters to micro-budget films d'auteur, and includes an impressive array of UK premieres and preview screenings.

For more information, visit:
www.institut-francais.org.uk
ww...w.frenchfilmfestival.org.uk

Bad Company
Du côté de Robinson
France | 1963 | b&w | 42 mins | dir. Jean Eustache, with Aristide, Daniel Bart, Dominique Jayr | cert. 15 | French No subtitles
Anchored in the French New Wave, admired by Godard and Rohmer, picaresque and desperate, luminous and somber at the same time, the first short feature by Eustache proves that, as it has been said, "[his] greatness was evident right from the start." A character that prefigures, in his absurd arrogance, La Mamam et la putain's Alexandre, walks the streets of the Parisian suburb of Robinson with his best friend, in search of fun and trouble. Which is to say: women. Establishing the rigorous distance in the portrayal of youth and life on the streets that would be a constant in Eustache's subsequent films, his bad companies impress, in the words of Jean Douchet, "[by having] the best of connections: those of the masters of cinema."
Showing with:

Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes
Le Père Nöel a les yeux bleus
France | 1966 | b&w | 47 mins | dir. Jean Eustache | cert. 15
Eustache made his second film with 35mm black-and-white stock left over from Godard’s Masculine-Feminine (1966) and also used that film’s star Jean-Pierre Léaud. Set in the provinces of Eustache’s youth, the film focuses on the character Daniel, an unemployed young man who spends most of his time unsuccessfully trying to meet girls and dream up money-making scams. One day, needing a new coat, he takes a job as a street-corner Santa Claus and in this role suddenly finds himself able to cope with the opposite sex. This fresh, introspective study of French youth won the International Critics’ Week Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
sun 8 nov | 2.00pm | £7, conc. £5

A Prophet
Un Prophète
France | 2009 | col | 149 mins | dir. Jacques Audiard, with Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup | cert. TBC | preview screening
Condemned to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena cannot read nor write. Arriving at the jail entirely alone, he appears younger and more fragile than the others convicts. He is 19 years old. Cornered by the leader of the Corsican gang who rules the prison, he is given a number of 'missions' to carry out, toughening him up and gaining the gang leader's confidence in the process. But Malik is brave and a fast learner, daring to secretly develop his own plans...
wed 11 nov | 8.30pm | £9, conc. £7

Versailles
France | 2008 | col | 113 mins | dir. Pierre Schoeller, with Guillaume Depardieu, Max Baissette de Malglaive, Judith Chemla | cert. 15
The late Guillaume Depardieu gives one of his best performances in this plaintive drama focusing of the people who struggle for survival on the margins of mainstream society. Homeless Nina showers her son Enzo with affection and is wary that social services will take him into care. After the briefest of encounters, she leaves Enzo with Damien (Depardieu) who lives in a makeshift hut in the grounds of the Chateau of Versailles. The responsibility for Enzo forces Damien to re-engage with his family and conventional society in a compelling, deeply felt tale rooted in the reality of French life.
thu 12 nov | 8.40pm | £9, conc. £7

Sagan
France | 2008 | col | 120 mins | dir. Diane Kurys, with Sylvie Testud, Pierre Palmade, Jeanne Balibar, Arielle Dombasle | cert. 15
Novelist Françoise Sagan, incarnated in a feisty performance by Sylvie Testud, had an angst-driven, jet-setter lifestyle. When she published Bonjour Tristesse - an existentialist-inspired treatise of Parisian teenage immorality - at the age of 18, she became an overnight cultural sensation, garnering a slew of prizes and catapulting to the top of the bestseller list. Her life afterward, which the film follows from the stardom year of 1954 to her death in 2004, is depicted as one long, intoxicated downhill ride, marked by scandals, arrests and the occasional drug overdose. Testud gives an energetic yet understated performance, reveling in the writer's legendary witty straight talk, which she delivers with excellent timing and finesse.
sat 14 nov | 6.00pm | £9, conc. £7

The Pig
Le Cochon
France | 1970 | col | 50 mins | dir. Jean Eustache, Jean-Michel Barjol | cert. 18 | no subtitles but minimal dialogue
Often considered the most beautiful film by Eustache, Le Cochon turns its back on the hopelessness of his fictions to be left with just the light. And it does that while recording the death and dismemberment of a pig, and the process through which the dead animal turns into different food products. In just one day, Eustache and Barjol shot separately and then edited together. A curious, somewhat playful, experience, that becomes (and reflects on) an amiable ethnographical documentary, filled with respect and generosity towards the farmers of the Massif Central who are the protagonists, towards their way of life, their work, and their voices: the broad dialect of the region makes up for a captivating soundtrack, and is the reason why Le Cochon has never been subtitled.
sun 15 nov | 2.00pm | £7, conc. £5

Special Correspondents
Envoyés très spéciaux
France | 2009 | col | 93 mins | dir. Frédéric Auburtin, with Gérard Lanvin, Gérard Jugnot, Omar Sy | cert. 15
Special Correspondents retraces the incredible misadventures of a leading radio journalist and his technician. Sent to Iraq where the conflict is intensifying, they lose their plane tickets and money for the trip. This leads them to pull off a major bluff: the duo hide in the Barbès area of Paris, where they pretend to report live from Baghdad. Lying low in a friend's Parisian apartment, they manage to broadcast 'live' from Basrah and Baghdad via a satellite phone and lots of cleverly inserted sound effects. The routine gets out of hand when Franck's so-called war stories begin affecting the actual conflict.
sun 15 nov | 3.30pm | £9, conc. £7

Séraphine
France/Belgium | 2007 | col | 121 mins | dir. Martin Provost, with Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur, Anne Bennent | cert. 15 | preview screening
1912, in a little town North of Paris. Séraphine Louis works as a maid for Madame Duphot, who rents an apartment to a German art critic and dealer, Wilhelm Uhde, an enthusiastic advocate of modern and 'primitive' artists. In her spare time, Séraphine paints with everything that comes to hand. When Wilhelm comes across a small painting that she brought over a few days previously, he’s mesmerized, snaps it up and insists that Séraphine shows him the rest of her work. It is the beginning of a nurturing relationship which will eventually give Séraphine’s work an international profile. But as Séraphine paints her most inspired canvas, the grace of her work leads her into the realms of madness. Winning 7 César awards this year, Séraphine is a film not to be missed.
thu 19 nov | 8.30pm | £9, conc. £7

Tabarly
France | 2008 | col | 90 mins | doc | dir. Pierre Marcel | score by Yann Tiersen | cert. 12A
Festival-goers with a love of the outdoors and stories of man vs. nature are bound to be awe-struck by this compelling new documentary. As its eponymous title suggests, it’s the inspiring and moving story of the renowned adventurer Éric Tabarly. A Gallic naval officer born in 1931, Tabarly set a remarkable string of speed and distance records in his sailboats. He was twice champion of the OSTAR and tragically went missing in the Irish Sea in June 1998, en route to Scotland's Fife Regatta. Director Pierre Marcel and producer Jacques Perrin chart the sailor's incredible life journey and his mysterious disappearance.
sun 22 nov | 6.15pm | £9, conc. £7
Followed by Q&A with director Pierre Marcel

Mr Hulot's Holiday
Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot - restored version 2009
France | 1953 | b&w | 114 mins | dir. Jacques Tati, with Jacques Tati, Nathalie Pascaud, Michelle Rolla | restored version 2009 | digital print
On holiday at a French seaside resort, Monsieur Hulot creates unintentional havoc among the hotel guests with his well-meaning but terribly clumsy antics. Tati expertly crafts the visual bombast of traditional slapstick into a beautiful and intricate sequence of incidents, accompanied by an equally elegant and intriguing seaside soundtrack of lapping waves, laughing children and transistor radios, all merging into an absurd symphony of cinematic delight. Rediscover Tati's masterpiece on a newly restored version.
wed 25 nov | 8.40pm | £9, conc. £7

Parade
Sweden/France | 1974 | col | 85 mins | dir. Jacques Tati, with Jacques Tati, Michèle Brabo, Karl Kossmayer
Parade is the delightful story of a big circus in which Jacques Tati directs audiences, artists, clowns, children and himself. Throughout the film, adults and children come together as one enthusiastic crowd, united by the show. A spectacular troupe of acrobats, clowns and singers appear to entertain one and all.
fri 27 nov | 6.30pm | £9, conc. £7

Trafic + shorts
France | 1971 | col | 105 mins | dir. Jacques Tati, with Jacques Tati, Maria Kimberly, Marcel Fraval | cert. 12A
In Jacques Tati’s Trafic, the bumbling Monsieur Hulot, outfitted as always with tan raincoat, beaten brown hat, and umbrella, takes to Paris’ highways and byways. For his final outing, Hulot is employed as an auto company’s director of design, and accompanies his new vehicle (a camper fitted out with absurd gadgetry) to an auto show in Amsterdam. Naturally, the road is paved with modern-day mishaps.
sun 29 nov | 2pm | £7, conc. £5

Jour de fête
France | 1949 | col | 76 mins | dir. Jacques Tati, with Jacques Tati, Paul Frankeur, Guy Decomble | cert. U
Jacques Tati reprises his roles as the eccentric Mr Hulot, who this time creates chaos in the gadget-filled, state-of-the-art home of his brother-in-law – all to the delight of his adoring nephew. Hysterically funny and very perceptive, fans rate this the best of all eight Tati films.
tue 1 dec | 3pm | £7, conc. £5

Playtime + shorts
France | 1967 | col | 126 mins | dir. Jacques Tati, with Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek
Ten years in the making, Jacques Tati's unique widescreen comedy features a stunning set that reinvents Paris as an imagined world of glass and steel, dwarfing the individuals who move through it. A comic masterpiece reaching an unparalleled level of inventiveness and scope.
wed 2 dec | 1pm | £7, conc. £5

Louise-Michel
France | 2008 | col | 90 mins | dir.s Gustave Kervern, Benoît Delépine, with Yolande Moreau, Bouli Lanners, Benoît Poelvoorde | cert. TBC
After the sudden shutdown of their company, the factory workers, led by Louise (played by the iconic Yolande Moreau, 2009 César for Best Actress in Séraphine), are determined to get their revenge on the boss responsible for the relocation. They hire Michel (Bouli Lanners), an incompetent hit man who proves unable to do the job. Louise decides to take matters in her own hands and teams up with Michel to hunt down the "boss." Along the way, the eccentric duo encounter a mad scientist (Benoît Poelvoorde), a singer (French pop artist Philippe Katerine) and a farmer played by writer-director-actor Mathieu Kassovitz who also co-produced the film.
wed 2 dec | 6.15pm | £9, conc. £7

My Uncle
France | 1958 | b&w | 110 mins | dir. Jacques Tati, with Jacques Tati, Jean-Pierre Zola, Adrienne Servantie | cert. U
The comic adventures of an accident prone uncle trying to guide his 7-year-old nephew around the 20th century's technical complexities.
fri 4 dec | 3pm | £7, conc. £5

Bellamy
France | 2009 | col | 110 mins | dir. Claude Chabrol, with Gérard Depardieu, Clovis Cornillac, Jacques Gamblin, Marie Bunel | cert. 15
As has become his custom, police commissioner Paul Bellamy takes his annual summer break in the south of France, staying with wife Françoise’s family in Nimes. Bellamy, a workaholic, would rather be back in Paris fighting crime and certainly has no enthusiasm for his wife’s holiday plans. Fortunately, he is rescued by the unexpected arrival of two men - his good-for-nothing brother Jacques and a 40-something-year-old stranger, Noël Gentil, who is in desperate need of his help. The former takes a perverse delight in raking over old family grievances whilst the latter intrigues Paul with a bizarre tale involving a murder and faked insurance claim. This is the kind of holiday Paul Bellamy prefers...
sat 5 dec | 8.40pm | £9, conc. £7Read More

Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno
L'Enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot
France | 1964 / 2009 | B&W | 94 mins | dir.s Henri-Georges Clouzot, Serge Bromberg, Ruxandra Medrea, with Romy Schneider, Serge Reggiani, Bérénice Bejo, Jacques Gamblin

In 1964 Henri-Georges Clouzot cast Schneider for his highly experimental film L’Enfer abou...t a man’s obsessive jealousy. New visual effects were tested for months and Schneider, at times locked away for days with Clouzot and the camera team, would be covered in blue paint, olive oil or sequins. But the project had to be abandoned; the images, said to be amazing, were forgotten until brought back to life for this new film. A mixture of original, reconstruction and ‘making-of’, it is also a visual ode to the young and daring Schneider.

fri 6 nov 3.00pm | 8.40pm
sat 7 nov 6.10pm
sun 8 nov 4.00pm | 6.10pm
tue 10 nov 6.10pm
wed 11 nov 3.00pm | 6.10pm
thu 12 nov 3.00pm
sat 14 nov 3.00pm
wed 25 nov 3.00pmRead More

Memory, A Season of European Documentaries
at Ciné lumière, the Hungarian Cultural Centre & the Italian Cultural Institute

15 – 21 November 2009

To celebrate the wealth and diversity of contemporary documentary films in Europe, selected cultural institutes and embassies in London and the European Commission Representati...on in the UK have collaborated on 'Memory', a six day festival from the 15 to 21 November. The festival, now in its third year, will showcase the work of new and established directors from across the continent.


For full programme: http://www.institut-francais.org.uk/memorydoc

Communism and its fall is a strong theme in the festival (PRL De Luxe, Life Stories, Children of the Decree, Borderline Case). Children of the Decree is a chilling look at the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his enforcement of the infamous Decree 770, which banned birth control and abortion.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, there will be three shorts forming a screening entitled Close Up! November 1989, followed by a panel discussion which brings together the key representatives of the November revolutionary forces. The speakers will recall their memories as well as reflect on events from today's perspectives.

Certain directors offer a more personal singular take on this year's theme, by basing their work on family members (Grandpa and Grandma; Bucarest, Memory Lost).

For those seeking a look at the history of feminism the documentary Et ELLE créa la femme offers a fascinating insight through the French magazine ELLE.

The season extends beyond Ciné lumière with The Soviet Story (Latvia) and Borderline Case (Hungary) at the Hungarian Cultural Centre; and Primo Levi's Journey (Italy) at the Italian Cultural Institute.

Through visiting the past and revealing often unseen archives, these remarkable works offer a unique opportunity to Londoners to rediscover history that is common to all of us, through various viewpoints.

Memory is the third joint project of the EUNIC London cluster (European Union National Institutes for Culture in London), supported by the European Commission Representation in the UK, which aims to improve and promote cultural diversity and understanding between European societies.

Venues:
Ciné lumière at the Institut français
17 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2DT
T. 020 7073 1350
www.institut-francais.org.uk

Hungarian Cultural Centre
10, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden
London
WC2E 7NA
020 7240 8448
www.hungary.org.uk

Italian Cultural Institute
39 Belgrave Square
London
SW1X 8NX
020 7235 1461
www.icilondon.esteri.itRead More

Tales from the Golden Age
Romania | 2009 | col | 155 mins | dir.s Cristian Mungiu, Ioana Uricaru & Hanno Höfer, with Tania Popa, Liliana Mocanu, Alexandru Potocean | cert. TBC

Conceived and scripted by Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu (4 months, 3 weeks & 2 days), Tales from the Golden Age is a funny, poignant and surre...al portrait of life in 1980’s Romania, where humour and spirit kept people going through the much feared Communist dictatorship of the period. Mungiu brilliantly re-captures the mood of that era as he comically unseats the propagandist myth that Ceausescu’s Romania was the 'golden age' of communism. To warm and often hilarious effect he combines several urban legends to portray a time during which food was more important than money, freedom more important than love and survival more important than principles.

sun 1 nov 8.45pm
mon 2 nov 8.40pm
wed 4 nov 6.00pm | 8.40pm
thu 5 nov 8.40pm
fri 6 nov 6.00pm
sat 7 nov 8.40pm
sun 8 nov 8.40pmRead More