The French Film Festival will showcase a selection of contemporary French films, some recent releases alongside a retrospective of the actress Sandrine Bonnaire and Filipino films that have been featured in prestigious festivals in France.

Schedule:
June 6, 2011 - Opening Night at Shangri-la Plaza Mall
June 8-19, 2011 - Shangri-la Plaza Mall
June 23-25, 2011 - Ayala Center Cebu
June 28-July 2, 2011 - UP Film Institute, Diliman  

FEATURED FILMS:

L'AUTRE (The Other One, 2008))

Directors: Patrick Mario Bernard, Pierre Trividic

Actors: Dominique Blanc; Cyril Gueï; Peter Bonke; Christèle Tual; Anne Benoît; Charlotte Clamens Christian Chaussex; Paula Keiller

Synopsis:
Anne-Marie has a peaceful break-up with her boyfriend Alex, who she doesn't love anymore. However, upon learning that another woman has come into his life, she becomes insanely jealous...

LA TETE DE MAMAN (Mother's Smile, 2005)

Director:  Carine Tardieu

Actors:  Karin Viard; Kad Merad; Pascal Elbé; Chloé Coulloud; Jane Birkin; Jérôme Kircher; Sarah Cohen-Hadria; Arthur Ligerot; Suzy Falk; Nanou Garcia; Danièle Hugues; Abbès Zahmani ; Christophe Rossignon; Alexandre Fogelmann; Marilia Lorgeril (de); Lise Lamétrie

Synopsis:
Twenty years ago, a few years before I was born, mom loved a guy. Twenty years ago, they were forced apart and when the silly fool left, he took my mom’s smile with him. I’ve gotta find him, gotta bring him back for mom. Otherwise, I’ll die. – Lulu, 15 years old.

UN POISON VIOLENT (Love Like Poison, 2010)

Director:  Katell Quillévéré

Actors:  Clara Augarde; Lio ; Michel Galabru; Stefano Cassetti; Thierry Neuvic; Youen Leboulanger-Gourvil

Synopsis:
Anna, a young teenager, comes home from her Catholic boarding school for the holidays and discovers her father has left. Her mother is devastated and is confined in the company of the local priest, who is also a childhood friend. Anna clings to her beloved grandfather. She also grows close to Pierre, a free-spirited teenager who cares little about God. Anna is preparing for her confirmation, but her budding desire for Pierre shakes her faith. She longs to give herself over, body and soul... but doesn’t know if it is to God, or something else.

LE DERNIER DES FOUS (The Last Among the Crazy Ones, 2006)

Director:  Laurent Achard

Actors:  Julien Cochelin; Pascal Cervo; Annie Cordy; Fettouma Bouamari; Dominique Reymond;  Jean-Yves Chatelais Florence Giorgetti; Dorine Bouteiller; Thomas Laroppe; Nicolas Leclere; Nicolas Pignon; Chamsedine Miri Théo Puiseux;

Synopsis:
It’s summer and the beginning of the long vacation period for eleven-year-old Martin, who lives on a farm, and, at a loss, observes his family’s disintegration: his mother lives locked up in her room; his older brother, who he adores, drowns himself in drink; and his father, dominated by Martin’s grandmother, is a helpless onlooker to the family’s collapse. Although Mistigri, his cat, and Malika, the Moroccan maid, afford him some comfort, Martin is determined to put an end to this
                                                        confusion.

LES ENFANTS DE TIMPELBACH (Trouble at Timpeltill, 2008)

Director:  Nicolas Bary

Actors:  Raphaël Katz; Adèle Exarchopoulos; Léo Legrand; Gérard Depardieu; Carole Bouquet; Armelle Tilly Mandelbrot  (Erna) ; Lola Créton; Baptiste Betoulaud; Martin Jobert; Lola Créton; Léo Paget Ilona Bachelier; Joël Demarty; Éric  Naggar; Eric Godon; Philippe Mercier; Odile Matthieu Stéphane  Bissot; Thierry Desroses; Olivier Leborgne; Laure Roldan; François Damiens; Valentine Bouly Vanille Ougen; Manon Chevallier; Maxime Riquier; David Cognaux; Julien DUBOIS;

Synopsis:
In the village of Timpeltill, the children pass their time playing pranks on others and resisting every kind of authority. At the end of their rope, the parents decide to leave the village... for what they think will be a day. A village with no parents! It's not bad news for everyone. Two gangs of children then confront
                                                        each other, each determined to be the sole
                                                        gang to control the village.

DANS LES CORDES (Inside the Ring, 2006)

Director:  Magaly Richard-Serrano

Actors:  Richard Anconina; Maria De Medeiros; Louise Szpindel; Stéphanie Sokolinski; Bruno Putzulu; Jean-Pierre Kalfon Diouc Koma; Chems Dahmani; Ninon Brétécher

Synopsis:
Angie and Sandra are 18 years old. They've been raised as sisters by Joseph, Angie's father and Sandra's uncle. He's also been their trainer, programming them to win the national French boxing championship finals.
But Angie loses and Sandra wins… Angie wants a rematch at any cost, but Joseph has decided otherwise.

7 ANS (7 Years, 2006)

Director:  Jean-Pascal Hattu

Actors:  Valérie  Donzelli; Bruno Todeschini; Cyril Troley; Pablo De la Torre; Nadia Kaci

Synopsis:
While Vincent is in prison for 7 years, his wife Maité takes a lover. This lover happens to be a guard in the prison. She is caught in a game of guilt, pleasure, and obligation.

LE MARQUIS, 2010

Director:  Dominique Farrugia

Actors:  Franck Dubosc; Richard Berry; Jean-Hugues Anglade; Luisa Ranieri; Sara Martins; Pascale Louange Joël Torre; Fred Scotlande; Alain Zef

Synopsis:
Thomas Gardesse, a traveling alarm systems salesman, is arrested for a minor offense and sentenced to six months imprisonment. To win the respect of his fellow inmates, he claims he is "The Marquis," a brilliant robber whose identity has remained a mystery. Two weeks before his release, an armed robber named Quentin Tasseau helps him escape and takes him to Manila so he can take part in a robbery whose mastermind requires the talents of the Marquis...

LES ADVENTURES EXTRAORDINAIRES D'ADELE BLANC-SEC (Adele: Rise of the Mummy, 2010)

Synopsis:
As the tale opens, Adele is on a mission in Egypt, attempting to retrieve a sarcophagus and tote it back to Western Europe, but simultaneously attempting to fend off complications wrought by her nemesis, the archaeologist Dieuleveult. She succeeds on both fronts, but upon returning runs headfirst into another problem: a Parisian scientist (Jacky Nercessian) with the power to heal Adele's comatose sister (Laure de Clermont-Tonnere) has accidentally let loose an ancient Pterodactyl above the Parisian skies. While a zany detective (Gilles Lellouche) and a hunter (Jean-Paul Rouve) attempt to eliminate the creature, the villains turn up yet again and try to thwart Adele's long-term plans.

ARTHUR ET LA VENGEANCE DE MALTAZARD (Arthur 2: The Revenge of Maltazard, 2009)

Synopsis:
Arthur (Freddie Highmore) is reunited with his beloved Princess Selenia in the latest adventure adapted from Luc Besson's bestselling children's books, but danger lurks on the horizon…

A spider deposits a grain of rice in Arthur's hand, with a message carved into it. It's an S.O.S. from the Minimoys. Arthur doesn't think twice about flying to the rescue. But not thinking twice could land him in the trap set by the abominable Maltazard, who has resolved to take his revenge...

SANDRINE BONNAIRE RETROSPECTIVE

A NOS AMOURS (To Our Loves, 1983)
a film by Maurice Pialat

Synopsis:
At a vacation resort where she is rehearsing “No Trifling with Love”, 15-year-old Suzanne rejects her boyfriend Luc and gives herself, without any real pleasure, to a visiting young American. Back to Paris, she has other love affairs. Clashing with her parents, she comes up against a neurotic mother, a father who suddenly decides to leave the family nest, and her falsely protective brother. Suzanne seeks herself while going from one guy to another. Her marriage ends in failure. In a plane taking her to California to her new lover, Suzanne seems to question herself about fleeing towards an uncertain future. Will she be able to love one day?

SANS TOIT NI LOI (Vagabond, 1985)
a film by Agnes Varda

Synopsis:
In the middle of winter in southern France, a girl is found frozen to death in a ditch. Who was she? “A drug addict, a mental patient,” some say… People who came across her try to draw a portrait of this young wanderer. As she wanders aimlessly, you may see her bathing nude at a beach, being picked up by a planetologist as she hitchhikes, spending time squatting in abandoned property, being hosted by a couple of goat-raising hippies, sympathizing with a farm worker from the Maghreb, setting up her tent in a cemetery, being lusted after by garage mechanics, sleeping with one but not the other…. Her name was Mona; some rejected her, others tried in vain to help her. No one was able to hold her back.

LA CEREMONIE (A Judgment in Stone, 1995)
a film by Claude Chabrol

Synopsis:
Catherine and her husband Georges Lelièvre think they’ve found a real gem when they hire as their maid a discreet, quiet and illiterate girl named Sophie. Sophie has hidden her handicap from her new employers, and she finds herself facing the problem of performing simple, everyday tasks like interpreting a shopping list. Sophie becomes a friend of Jeanne, a very strange young woman torn between her job as a postal worker and an imaginary life of dreams and fantasies. Jeanne, whose past is equally dramatic, encourages Sophie to rebel against her employers. A macabre dance begins for these two cast offs, blending good and evil.

MADEMOISELLE, 2000
a film by Philippe Lioret
 
Synopsis:
The life of Claire, a young woman with no history, a medical representative and mother of two children, brightens up when, at a cocktail party for a pharmaceutical convention, she runs into a dreamy actor turned into a sad clown from having continuously hosted wedding events and banquets. During these 24 hours of getting to know each other through a series of failed acts, these two discover one another, like one another, and have a one-night stand. Claire starts dreaming …

Will she give herself the right to enjoy the fleeting happiness of a simple love story? Will this brief encounter change her life?

ELLE S’APPELLE SABINE (Her Name is Sabine, 2007)
a film by Sandrine Bonnaire
 
Synopsis:
A sensitive portrait of Sabine Bonnaire, a 38-year-old autistic woman, made by Sandrine, her closest sister. It tells her story through personal archives, filmed by the actress over a period of 25 years, and shows her life today in a special facility. The documentary evokes an engaging personality whose development and multiple talents have been crushed by a failing care system. After the tragic five long years spent in a psychiatric hospital, Sabine regains her taste for life – even though her abilities remain altered – in a group home in Charente. A demonstration with a example of the shortage of specialized facilities and its dramatic consequences. Beyond the subject matter, Her Name Is Sabine is a true cinematographic film.

JOUEUSE (Queen To Play, 2009)
a film by Caroline Bottaro

Synopsis:
In a small village in Corsica, Hélène’s life, quiet and discreet, is but a day after another, all the same... A chamber maid in a hotel, she seems happy with Ange and Lisa, her husband and 15-year-old daughter. Her life seemed already written…

Her modest fate changes one day when, as she makes up a hotel room, her attention is grabbed by a young American couple, in love and attractive, who are playing chess on the terrace. Suddenly fascinated with the free and sensual communication that their relationship evokes, she takes a keen interest in chess. Hélène will do everything, obstinately, to master the rules of this game until she becomes excellent at it. She can count on the help from Mr. Kröger, a mysterious village resident, to support her in this metamorphosis, to find her freedom and her identity
                                                        as a woman.