The French Film Festival is back for its 35th edition!
Happening on 4 – 17 November 2019, do not miss this year’s exciting lineup of films for everyone. The 27 of these films comprises of the latest feature films, classics, comedies, dramas, and especially a new addition this year – the sexy section.
Every edition of the longest-running foreign film festival in Singapore explores matters close to heart and delves into topics that expose the vulnerabilities that make us human. From first love to love lost, personal identity to conforming to societal expectations, growing up pains to mid-life crises, the festival promises an emotional introspection for its attendees.
I am Here
Stephane leads a trouble-free existence. He has taken over his father’s restaurant. He has two adult sons, an ex-wife… and new love: Soo, a mysterious South Korean woman he met on Instagram. One day, one whim, Stephane decides to visit her in Seoul. He will spend 10 days looking for Soo. Full of adventures, his journey will open him up to the world… and to himself.
OF LOVE AND LIES
Twelve-year-old Theo plays for a local soccer club and has enough talent to eventually go pro. But his father has been on a self-destructive spiral ever and Theo feels powerless. When a recruiter for a prestigious British club takes notice of him, Theo sees an opportunity to rekindle his father’s hope, but despite all his efforts, he is not selected. So he decides to lie but the lies reach unforeseen proportions and completely spines out of control.
LA BELLE EPOQUE
Victor, a disillusioned man in his sixties, finds his life turned upside down the day that Antoine, a brilliant entrepreneur, offers him an experience of a new kind: mixing theatrical artifice and historical reconstruction, Antoine’s firm allows its clients to step back into any period of their choice. Victor chooses to return to the most important week of his life, when, forty years earlier, he met the love of his life…
LOVE AT SECOND SIGHT
When Raphael first met Olivia in high school, it was love at first sight. After 10 years of happy marriage and a thriving career as a bestselling author, Raphael has it all – or so he thinks. After a huge argument between the couple, Raphael wakes up in parallel life as an unmarried, ping pong playing, middle-school teacher who’s been glued to his childhood best friend for a little too long. Realizing Olivia was his everything, he must go above and beyond to win back the love of his life – who in this world has absolutely no idea who he is.
MADE IN CHINA
François, a young French-Chinese photographer, hasn’t set foot in Paris’ Chinatown or even talked to his father Meng since their violent dispute 10 years ago. He’s turned the page. He avoids all questions about his origins, and even pretends he was adopted… until the day he learns he is going to be a father! He realizes he has to get back in touch with his roots and come to terms with his past. Pushed by his wife Sophie, hefinally decides to go and see his dad and tell him the good news. It’s time to go back to Chinatown! His quest to reconnect with his roots is going to be tougher than he thought!
MARONA’S FANTASTIC TALE
Marona, at the end of her dog days, reflects on those that she has loved unconditionally throughout her life. From her puppy days, through to her last woof. Marona’s life is a lesson in love.
SOMEONE SOMEWHERE
Rémy and Mélanie, two 30-year-oldlive in the same neighbourhood in Paris. She goes on hopeless date after hopless date via social media accounts while he struggles to meet anyone at all. Both are victimes of big city isolation, at a super-connected time, when meeting people should be simpler… Two individuals, two journeys. Without knowing it, they take two roads that will lead them in the same direction… but will it all end in love?
THE SHINY SHRIMPS
Matthias, an Olympic champion at the end of his career, makes a homophobic statement on TV.
His punishment : coach the Shiny Shrimps, a flamboyant and amateur gay water polo team. They have only one thing in mind : to qualify for the Gay Games in Croatia where the hottest international LGBT athletes compete. It’s the start of a bumpy and joyful ride… Faster, Higher, Stronger.
THE SPECIALS
Festival de Cannes Out of Competition – By the Director of “The Untouchables” – The film acutely evokes social and contemporary issues, where the collective world is once again at the heart of everything : social workers, volunteers, health professionals all striving to take care of autistic teens. As usual, the two filmmakers go all out with their love of humanity, their belief in the life of the group, and humor as the first and ultimate defence in human relationships.
AN EASY GIRL
Naïma is 16 and lives in Cannes. She has given herself the summer to choose what she wants to do with her life. Then her cousin Sofia, with her alluring lifestyle, arrives to spend the holidays with her. Together, they will share an unforgettable summer.
PURE AS SNOW
Claire, a beautiful young woman, arouses the all-consuming jealousy of her stepmother Maud, who hires someone to kill her. Saved at the last minute by a mysterious man who takes her to his farm, Claire decides to stay in this small village, where she causes quite a stir: one, two, and soon seven men fall under her charm. For Claire this is the beginning of a radical emancipation, both charnel and romantic.
THE LOVER
Indochina, the late 1920s. The girl is fifteen-and-a-half. The holidays are over, so today she is returning to Saigon, to the boarding house where she lives while attending classes at the high school. A busload of Vietnamese has left Sadec where the girl’s mother runs the village school. During the crossing of the Mekong River, the girl gets out of the bus to lean over the rails of the ferry. She is wearing a dress of raw silk, a pair of lamé shoes with high heels and, surprisingly, a man’s felt hat the color of rosewood. Next to the bus on the ferry, there is a big black limousine, a Morris Léon-Bollée driven by a chauffeur. An elegant man in the back of the car gazes steadily at the girl….
AND GOD CREATED WOMAN
Antoine promises to take the orphaned Juliette away from St. Tropez after a party where she has wandered onto the yacht of the urbane Eric. But in the morning the bus and Antoine zip by Juliette’s stop and she runs into the field to capture the rabbit she set free moments before. About to be sent back to the orphanage by her foster mother, she identifies with the rabbit. Antoine’s younger brother Michel comes to Juliette’s rescue with a marriage proposal and she accepts. Eric wants the brothers’ shipyard as a casino site and brings Antoine back to St. Tropez. Life gets complicated.
ROADS
In Collaboration with the German Film Festival – Two lost teenage boys, from Congo and Britain, meet in Morocco and take a road trip in a stolen RV to France, encountering poverty and refugees on the way.
THINGS TO COME
A quietly profound observation on life, love, and the irrevocable passage of time coupled with a powerhouse performance from the inimitable Isabelle Huppert, THINGS TO COME examines the life of Nathalie at the point where she discovers a shocking revelation that her husband of 25 years is leaving her. Nathalie finds herself adrift, but also with a newfound sense of liberation. With nothing to hold her back, Nathalie sets out to define this new phase of her life and to rediscover herself. **Winner of the Best Director award at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival.
GOODBYE FIRST LOVE!
15 year-old Camille is a serious, intensely focused girl who has fallen in love with free-spirited Sullivan. But when he leaves her to travel through South America, she is devastated. But as 8 years pass, Camille grows into an independent, self-assured individual with her own life and relationships – that is until Sullivan parachutes right back into her life suddenly. Filled with scenes that showcase her extraordinary ability to evoke depths of emotive intimacy, Mia Hansen-Løve paints first romance into a singular experience, familiar in its broad strokes and yet so specific that it feels uniquely personal.
JEAN VANIER THE SACRAMENT OF TENDERNESS
The film depicts the life of L’Arche’s founder and humanist Jean Vanier. L’Arche is an international federation dedicated to the creation and growth of homes, programs and support networks for people with intellectual disabilities. L’Arche was founded in 1964. Today it is an international organization operating 147 communities in 35 countries.
EDMOND
1897, Paris in the ‘Belle Epoque’. Edmond Rostand is a playwright of potential genius. Unfortunately, all he has written until now has been a flop. He is paralyzed by the sight of a blank page and his inspiration has dried up. Thanks to his admirer Sarah Bernhardt, he is approached by the greatest actor of the day, Constant Coquelin, who absolutely insists on playing in his next play. And he wants to premiere it in three weeks! The only problem: Edmond has not yet written it, and has no idea what story he will tell. All he knows is its title: Cyrano de Bergerac.
DILILI IN PARIS
With the help of her delivery-boy friend, Dilili, a young Kanak, investigates a spate of mysterious kidnappings of young girls that is plaguing Belle Epoque Paris.In the course of her investigation she encounters a series of extraordinary characters, each of whom provides her with clues that will help her in her quest… After Kirikou and Azur & Asmar, Michel Ocelot returns with an enchanting new tale of brave young heroes, mysteries and discoveries, kidnappings and ordeals, extraordinary places and magical encounters, in which good must challenge dark forces and triumph.
WHO YOU THINK I AM
Claire, a 50-year-old divorced teacher, creates a fake Facebook profile of a 24-year-old woman. She finds a photo of a pretty young brunette and uses it. She has created an entirely fictional character, but why?
HIGH LIFE
Deep space. Monte and his daughter Willow live together aboard a spacecraft, in complete isolation. A man whose strict self-discipline is a shield against desire, Montefathered her against his will. His sperm was used to inseminate the young woman who gave birth to her. They were members of a crew of prisoners –death row inmates. Guinea pigs sent on a mission. Now only Monte and Willow remain. Through his daughter, he experiences the birth of an all-powerful love. Together, father and daughter approach their destination –the black hole in which time and space cease to exist.
SIBYL
Sibyl, a jaded psychotherapist, returns to her first passion: writing. But her newest patient Margot, a troubled up-and-coming actress, proves to be a source of inspiration that is far too tempting. Fascinated almost to the point of obsession, Sibyl becomes more and more involved in Margot’s tumultuous life, reviving volatile memories that bring her face to face with her past.
IN YOUR HANDS
Mathieu is a young man who has a passion for piano. He lives in the suburbs and will play in the subway. It is there that one day, Peter, an important personage of the Paris Conservatory, notices it. He allows Mathieu to escape from the detention center by having him do some work of general interest at the conservatory. The young pianist does not know that Pierre will push him to reveal his talents.
YELLOWBIRD
When about to set off on the great migration, Darius, the oldest member and leader of the flock, is injured.
He must confide all his secrets and the new itinerary to the first bird that comes along.
And this bird… is our hero, thrilled by the idea of at last discovering the world… but not all a migratory one!
BALLERINA
Félicie is a young orphan from Brittany who has onlyone passion: dance. With her best friend Victor, who wants to become a great inventor, they come up with a madcap scheme to escape their orphanage for Paris, the City of Lights, with its Eiffel Tower still underconstruction! Félicie has to fight like she has never fought before, she has to outdo herself and learn from her mistakes to make her craziest dream come true: becoming a prima ballerina at the Paris Opera…
MINUSCULE, VALLEY OF THE LOST ANTS
In a peaceful little clearing, the remains of a picnic hastily abandoned during a summer storm spark warfare between two tribes of ants. At stake is a box of sugar. A bold young ladybug finds himself caught in the middle of the battle. He befriends one of the black ants and helps him save the anthill from the assault of the terrible red ant warriors.
THE KING AND THE MOCKINGBIRD
This animated fantasy tale follows the romance between a lovely shepherdess and a handsome chimney sweep. The land’s imperious king falls for the beautiful woman and tries to thwart her relationship, but a kind mockingbird assists the lovers in evading the ruler. On the king’s command, the chimney sweep and his bird friend are imprisoned, and they must escape in order to rescue the young man’s true love.
