Forte présence française à Rotterdam

20 JANVIER 2008

Avec pas moins de 25 films et quelques coproductions, le cinéma français s’arroge une place d’honneur au 37e Festival international du film de Rotterdam

Du 23 janvier au 3 février la diversité de la cinématographie française récente sera représentée à travers les différentes sections du festival.

Ainsi les dernières oeuvres de réalisateurs confirmés tels qu’Éric Rohmer (Les Amours d'Astrée et de Céladon), Arnaud Desplechin (L'Aimée), Abdellatif Kechiche (La Graine et le mulet) ou encore Barbet Schroeder (L'Avocat de la terreur) cotoîeront les premiers ou seconds films d’Isild Le Besco (Charly), Céline Sciamma (Naissance des pieuvres), Cédric Anger (Le Tueur), Serge Bozon (La France) ou encore Mia Hansen-Løve (Tout est pardonné)

Mange, ceci est mon corps de Michelangelo Quay portera nos couleurs en compétition tandis qu’un coup de projecteur sera porté à deux films d’animation, Persépolis et Peur(s) du noir .

Le Festival rendra également hommage au réalisateur Jacques Nolot.

Maestros of French cinema will head the Kings and Aces section with successful productions such as critic's acclaimed Le Voyage du ballon rouge by Hsiao Hsien Hou, starring Juliette Binoche, Les Amours d'Astrée et de Céladon, by the ever productive and inspired Éric Rohmer, L'Aimée by Arnaud Desplechin, back to the documentary genre with an insight into his father's past, as well as Barbet Schroeder’s L'Avocat de la terreur, a fascinating documentary exploring the enigmatic personality of French lawyer Jacques Vergès, screened in the Time&Tide section.

Led by Abdellatif Kechiche's La Graine et le mulet, Special Jury Prize in last Venice Mostra, this year's Rotterdam selection offers a place of choice to confirmed French filmmakers: Capitaine Achab, a freely inspired by Moby Dick tale awarded in Locarno 07, by Philippe Ramos, Tonino Di Bernardi’s Medée Miracle, variation around Medea’s myth with Isabelle Huppert in the leading role, Philippe Faucon's new film Dans la vie, an everyday story about Arab-Jewish relations, La Maison jaune, by Amor Hakkar, first feature shot in Chaoui language (Berber of the Aurès region), as well as Un baiser s’il vous plaît, by Emmanuel Mouret, starring Virginie Ledoyen.

Rotterdam 2008 will also pay a tribute to Jacques Nolot, a remarkable figure of independent French cinema, screening, on the occasion of the release of his last feature Avant que j'oublie, the whole trilogy including L'Arrière-pays and La Chatte à deux têtes.

As each year, representatives of the new generation of French filmmakers will be out in force to uphold their first or second picture: Rotterdam’s regular and praised actress and director Isild Le Besco will introduce Charly, her roaming and initiatory second film. In the same vein of adolescence torments, Céline Sciamma will present her first feature, awarded the First film Louis Delluc price, Naissance des pieuvres. Le Tueur, a breathtaking thriller by the young Cédric Anger, Andalucia second feature by French Senegalese director Alain Gomis, La France by Serge Bozon, an original approach of First World War, as well as 57000 km entre nous by Delphine Kreuter, picturing the impact of modern communication technologies on family relations, will all testify of a flourishing take over in French filmmaking. Critic’s praised first opus - and also First film Louis Delluc price - Tout est pardonné, by Mia Hansen-Løve, a very sensible identity quest of a young women, will round up the French selection in the Sturm und Drang section.
The talent and the productivity of young French cinema will also reflect in the International Tiger competition with the film Mange, ceci est mon corps, a trip in the Haitian culture by the promising Michelange Quay, already awarded in several festivals with his short L'Evangile du cochon créole.

This year’s IFFR French selection lines up a variety of genres: besides fiction and documentary, French animation films will top the bill with the internationally successful Persépolis by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud as well as the promising Peur(s) du noir, six short films over dark’s fear, produced by a collective of young filmmakers under French designer Etienne Robial’s artistic leadership. More experimental French productions, at the crossroads between art and cinema will be screened in Rotterdam, such as 1952's Gil Joseph Walman' L'Anticoncept, a tribute to Oshima's Empire of the Senses by French Magnum photographer Antoine D'Agata.

Underlining the major role of France in international cinema, remarkable French co-productions are again selected in all IFFR sections, among them Le Papier ne peut pas envelopper la braise, an insight into the Cambodian prostitution world by the multi awarded director Rithy Panh, Izza Génini’s Nûba d'or et de lumière, a French-Moroccan documentary over Arabo-Andalusian music, Dans la ville de Sylvia, by José-Louis Gurin and the French-Lebanon Falling from Earth by Chadi Zeneddine.