The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) came to a close this past week-end with 10 days of programming which included many notable Francophone films.

Listed below are the best 5 French-related films (alphabetical order) I viewed this year:-

A L’interieur (Inside)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

L’Ennemi Intime (Intimate Enemies)

Frontiere(s)

Ne Touchez pas le Hache

Below are capsule reviews of French related films screened during the festival.

LES AMOURS D’ASTREE ET DE CELADON (Fr/It/Sp 2007) **
Directed by Eric Rohmer

LES AMOURS returns nouvelle vague director Eric Rohmer to his stagey period costume pieces of PERCIVAL LE GALLOIS and THE LADY AND THE DUKE. But in spirit and narrative, LES AMOURS is more similar to his talky tales of the four seasons (TALE OF WINTER, TALE OF AUTUMN) series, in which young lovers Celadon (Andy Gillet) and Astrée (Stéphanie Crayencour) quarrel, argue and talk in and out of relationships. LES AMOURS is a story centred on shepherds that plays like Shakespeare’s romantic comedies involving switched identities like TAMING OF THE SHREW and MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Celadon pretends to go with another girl to please his parents during a party. Astree notices them making out beneath a tree and jealousy leads Celadon to drown himself. This is all romantic melodrama – 16^th century-style. But Rohmer seems to be in auto-pilot mode here. Though the story is interesting and the actors spew out prose with ease, LES AMOURS feels laboured and weighed down. The problem here is that the actors look uncomfortable in their costumes and heavy uttering the older French prose. It is difficult enough for older TIFF audiences to identify with teens and hardly still to identify with teens in the 16^th century.

ANGEL (France/UK/Belg 2007) ****
Directed by Francois Ozon

ANGEL is Francois Ozon’s (LES AMANTS CRIMINELS, SITCOM) adaptation of 50’s English novelist Elizabeth Taylor story of a grocer’s daughter (Romola Garai), Angel. Angel is a literary prodigy (if there is such a thing) and she rises to fame though she has never written a book or been anywhere. All in my imagination… she quips. But, Angel is a nasty little bitch, spoilt, arrogant and mouthy. Garai is quite good in the role, strutting around pretty much like Traci in HAIRSPRAY. It is difficult to like an unpleasant character like Angel. But who cares? In the hands of Ozon, the film works wonders. Ozon knows camp, melodrama and plays it to the hilt. Many surprises like the gay subtext introduced into the film 1/2 hour through in the form of her admirer, Nora (Lucy Russell). Sheer over-the-top delight with lots of quotable choice lines! The best scene has Angel and her publisher (Sam Neil) riding a carriage with London sights in the fake background.


LE CEDRE PENCHE (Canada 2007) *
Directed by Rafael Oullet

The fancy French title translates to the English one MONA’S DAUGHTERS. The film opens with the uniting of the sisters while rendering the song Ave Maria, Mere de Dieu. It is a melodious piece and director Oullet allows the audience the time to breathe in every moment of the song. The film traces the journey during which Brigitte (Marie Neige Chatelain) and Candide (Viviane Audet) Provencher finally complete a CD for a radio station while coming to terms with their loss. Unfortunately, all this is as boring as it sounds. With hand held camera and a cinema verite feel, Oullet’s film is worst than watching a neighbour’s home movie. At least your neighbour is a familiar character. Here, Oullet does not bother with background, character or the behaviour of the Provencher sisters.


CONTINENTAL, UN FILM SANS FUSIL (Canada 2007) **
Directed by Stephane Lafleur

The films begins with a man’s disappearance in the woods after leaving a bus. His wife is given solace through a get well card (only card they could find) from her colleagues and from there, director Lafleur weaves together the lives of four others. The stories are of ordinary fragile folk, which make them realistic and heartfelt. His films works when he turns up the humour a notch or two, most of it from smart observations from daily routines that somehow appear funnier on screen. But Lafleur’s film pacing is monotonous. Not building up to a climax, the film eventually turns to an everyday unimpressive yawn. The wife’s story is the most interesting pf the lot. Fragility need not be equated with weakness and hopelessness, which is the identical theme among the 4 stories.


CONTRE TOUTE ESPERANCE (Canada 2007) ***
Directed by Bernard Emond

CONTRE TOUTE ESPERANCE (English title, SUMMIT CIRCLE) is director Emond’s second film of a trilogy dealing with the virtues of faith, hope and charity. SUMMIT CIRCLE tells the story, in flashback of the events leading to a blood stained woman’s arrest. The woman turns out to be an ordinary, quietly attractive wife, (Guylaine Tremblay) forced by fate to see her current life get from bad to worse to unbearable. It all begins well when she and her husband (Guy Jodoin) purchase a beautiful home by a river in a Montreal suburb. Then she loses her job, her husband becomes an invalid, depression sets in and so on. Emond’s film like his first, LA NEUVAINE (THE NOVENA) moves at a snail’s pace giving the effect of the events unfolding in real time. Still, he manages to jolt the audience out of their seats occasionally. Emond is more interested here in the emotions, actions and behaviour of his protagonist rather than the storyline. Tremblay delivers a subdued yet moving performance that keeps the film interesting. Yes, and the audience does care for her character.

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (France 2007) ***** Top 10
Directed by Julian Schnabel

LE SCAPHANDRE ET LE PAPILLION, based on the memoir by Jean-Dominque Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) is a brilliantly shot (by Janusz Kaminski) incredibly moving film about Jean-Do’s life. Jean-Do is a successful fashion magazine editor who wakes up one day totally paralyzed from a stroke. He is only able to move one eyelid (the other sewn shut to prevent it getting septic), blinking once for yes and twice for no. The film tells of his rehab to the writing of his memoir. Writer/director Schnabel (BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, BASQUIAT) wisely films his story from Jean-Do’s (as he calls himself) point of view, the camera lens replacing the protagonist’s one eye. The screen often goes black once or twice as the protagonist communicates his answers whether affirmative or negative. DIVING BELL takes an hour to document the rehabilitation and the other hour to describe what happens after. What makes the film tick is Schnabel’s portrait of Jean-Do as a man full of human failings. He is a womanizer before his stroke and even after, he insists on seeing his mistress despite the fact that the wife (Emmanuelle Seigner) who he has left, selflessly attends to his needs. The agony, regrets, frustration and achievements are well documented cinematically. Director Schnabel deservedly won the best direction award at Cannes for this remarkable piece of humanity on film.


L’ENNEMI INTIMES (INTIMATE ENEMIES) (France 2007) *****Top 10
Directed by Florent –Emilio Siri

The beginning shot of a two scorpions fighting on the soldier’s corpse indicates the detail and craft of director Florent –Emilio Siri’s film. INTIMATE ENEMIES is set in 1959 Algeria. France sent troops to quell the Algerian rebels so that Algeria can remain a part of French. As everyone knows, this is a useless war with wasted casualties on both sides as Algeria would eventually become independent. The film begins with military operations stepped up in the mountains of Kalylia where a rookie lieutenant, Terrien (Benoit Magimel) takes command over a platoon run by the cynical and much more experienced sergeant Dougnac (Albert Dopontel). The INTIMATE ENEMIES of the title imply that the new lieutenant has more enemies in the platoon than the outside rebels, known as fellaghas or the FLNs. Through three battles/assignments, director Siri brings the audience to identify with the men in the platoon as well as the two leads (the sergeant and lieutenant), the folly of the war and men’s breaking point. The film takes no sides, offering mindless slaughter and torture performed by both the French and fellaghas sides. The film ends with one of the soldiers screening his home made film shot of the platoon during Christmas time. If the images of many of the young faces of the soldiers (then dead) in that film do not wring tears in your eyes, nothing will.

LA FILLE COUPEE EN DEUX (France 2007) ****
Directed by Claude Chabrol

TIFF boasts three French novella vague (new wave) directors. Claude Chabrol is one of my most admired film directors with Hitchcock like suspense murder mysteries as LE CRI DE HIBOU, POULET ET VINAIGRE and INSPECTEUR LAVARDIN. THE GIRL CUT IN TWO contains the classic Chabrol characters – the suave super efficient attorney, the over-protective wealthy mother, the rejected spoilt son, flirting sisters and the innocent heroine caught in between. Set in the countryside around Lyon, a pretty young fille, Gabrielle (Ludivine Sagnier) falls for a much older lover, the famous writer, Charles Saint-Denis (Francois Berléand) who happens to be married. Though a flirt, Charles ditches Gabrielle to return to his wife (Valeria Cavalli). Gabrielle ends up marrying a rich spoilt brat, Paul Geudens (Benoît Magimel also in L’ENNEMI INTIME screened at TIFF). Jealousy leading to murder (Chabrol is best at this) ultimately follows. LA FILLE is shot with all the elegant stylishness of Chabrol’s best works and is reminiscent mostly of LE CRI DE HIBOU and the CHAMPAGNE MURDERS. Wickedly entertaining!

FRONTIERE(S) (France 2007) ****
Directed by Xavier Gens

Yasmina (Karina Testa) wants to make a better life for herself. She and her gang of thieves escape the slums but encounter the savage neo-Nazi Von Geisler gang. A combination of SAW, MISERY, THE HILLS HAVE EYES, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and DEVIL’S REJECTS movies, the French prove once again that they know how to get this genre done right. Director Xavier Gens gets his audience rooting for his heroine, Yasmina even though she is no perfect lady. FRONTIERE(S) contains more blood and gore than any horror flick as far as I can remember but the film works. The best scene (at the end) has Yasmina all bloodied up after chopping her pursuer with an axe and pushing him on to a rotating circular saw. Gens got even us hard hearted critics cheering!

NE TOUCHEZ PAS LA HACHE (France 2007) ***
Directed by Jacques Rivette

Novelle Vague director Jacques Rivette’s NE TOCHEZ PAS LA HACHE (or Don’t touch the Axe), based on the Balzac short story LA DUCHESSE DE LANGEAIS is a subtle romance, part comedy part tragedy kept in its original form. The story evolves around the pair, the Duchess, Antoinette (Jeanne Balibar) and General Armand de Montriveau (Guillaume Depardieu) set in 1820’s Paris. Antoinette seduces the general in a series of mind games. When Montriveau finally seeks revenge, Antoinette relents, but it might be too late. Rivette’s film is solid on period details from the props, costumes and music. Though the film looks a bit dated in its setting, the game of love is still as relevant then as it is today. LA HACHE takes a while before getting a solid footing – it feels at times that Rivette is trying too hard to keep to Balzac’s original text - but the wait is well worth it. Rivette’s staple Michel Piccoli has a respectable cameo as Antoinette’s uncle who gives her advice.


SILK (Canada/It/Jap 2007) **
Directed by Francois Girard

Francois Girard’s (THE RED VIOLIN) SILK is a beautifully shot period epic that involves travel to different lands – the kind that made THE RED VIOLIN so captivating. In SILK, ex-military man, Hervé Joncour (Michael Pitt) is hired by a wealthy merchant (Alfred Molino) to save the French silk industry to travel to the far reaches of Japan to bring back disease-free silkworms. As whites are not allowed in feudal Japan, Herve disguises himself and is successful up to a point. Girard’s film is gorgeous to look at but that is it! SILK is as turgid as weaving silk into garments. The narrative takes off in different directions and issues (the wife’s sickness; Herve’s determination etc.) are never resolved satisfactorily. Director Girard is fond of quoting flowery dialogue into his characters’ voices, forgetting that the paying audience is not here to read a book. Pitt is also all wrong for the part, pouting from start to end. This is hardly how an enterprising young man who travels to an unknown land to succeed in a task would act. For a film set in France and made in the bilingual country of Canada, no one utters a word of French


THE SECRETS (France/Israel 2007) ***
Directed by Avi Nesher

The plural of the film title indicates that more than one issue is tackled in director Avi Nesher’s film about a young rebellious Jewish girl, Naomi (Ania Bukstein) coming-of age in a repressive orthodox culture of a seminary set in the picturesque town of Safed. Though multiple issues like sexual awakening, (gay in this case), male predominance, rebellion against school authority, female camaraderie, coming-of-age, religious practices might appear too many too handle, director Nesher swiftly touches each topic effectively. Bukstein is winning as the young Naomi, aided by a young talented cast. French veteran Fanny Ardant lends a hand in the role of a woman rejected by society aided by Noami and friend, but she looks rather lost in this piece. Though it is difficult to imagine who the filmmakers had in mind for their target audience, THE SECRET still emerges as an assured entertaining drama about life and personal loyalties.