IFI French Film Festival in full swing as two more filmmakers confirm their attendance as festival guests.
The IFI French Film Festival continues to go from strength to strength with many of the screenings sold out over the opening weekend – fear not, with five days of the best in French cinema still to go there is plenty of time to book a seat. Two more featured film directors have confirmed their attendance, giving the festival that extra bit of dare I say it… “va va voom”.
Michael House director of the brand new documentary The Magnificent Tati will join Jacques Tati’s former assistant (and filmmaker in her own right) Marie France Siegler for a post-screening panel discussion on Saturday 28th November at 1.45pm. The Magnificent Tati is the climax of a major retrospective of the beloved comic actor-director and features interviews with many of those who knew Tati best and stunning footage from all his work.
Julie Lopes-Curval writer director of Hidden Diary (Mères et filles) will introduce her film on Friday 27th Nov (6.15pm) and Saturday 28th Nov (7.45pm). This fine portrait of a dysfunctional family gets an added dash of red carpet glamour from a starry cast that includes up-and-coming Marina Hands (Lady Chatterly) and Marue Josée Croze (The Diving Bell and Butterfly) as well as Catherine Deneuve in a nuanced performance in one of her best roles in recent times.
Additional highlights include Round Da Way (Les Lascars) with special guests IZM and Lucien Revolucien (a major figure in French Hip-Hop) followed by a French Hip-Hop night in the IFI Bar on Friday 27th Nov and the Closing Night Gala Film Around a Small Mountain the latest offering from Jacques Rivette on the 50th anniversary of the film movement he helped found and which changed cinema forever – the Nouvelle vague or the French New Wave.
