Le cinéma selon French filmmakers

By Pablo Suárez

For the Herald

Organized by the Complejo Teatral de Buenos Aires and the Fundación Cinemateca Argentina, and with the support of the French Embassy, the Sala Lugones auditorium of the Teatro San Martín (Ave. Corrientes 1530) has organized a film series entitled “Cine francés inédito,” featuring nine productions never-seen before in Argentina.

This programme not only offers viewers the chance to see films that were never commercially released in this country. Some of them were screened at international film festivals. This is a reunion with the leading stars of French cinema, such as Nathalie Baye, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Charlotte Gainsbourg and André Dussollier. The series runs through Sunday 10.

— Wednesday 30: Uno empieza, otros te siguen / Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront (Léa Fehner, 2009). An award-winning feature which narrates three separate stories that share common themes: a Moroccan widow travels to Marseilles to investigate why her son was killed. A cute seventeen-year-old girl falls in love with a street punk. An unlucky immigrant considers getting involved in a money scheme.

— Friday 1: Juntos es demasiado / Ensemble, c’est trop (Léa Fazer, 2010): the scenario is far from happy: a somewhat satisfied married woman finds out about her husband’s infidelity during the celebration of a birthday party. Intending to use a handkerchief, her husband reaches into his pocket and pulls out, instead... pantyhose.

— Saturday 2: Manos arriba / Les mains en l’air (Romain Goupil, 2010): An unusual tale concerning a Chechen immigrant who recalls her childhood years in Paris, when her parents had to leave the country and she had to move in with a new family.

— Sunday 3 and Monday 4: Persecución / Persécution (Patrice Chéreau, 2009): An exploration of a young man’s soul and what makes him the living contradiction he seems while he searches for meaning in his own life. He is a remodelling contractor in a long distance relationship with his girlfriend, a thirty-something woman who talks to him more on the phone than in real time.

— Tuesday 5: Una ejecución ordinaria / Une exécution ordinaire (Marc Dugain, 2010): A young female urologist working in 1950s Moscow has a precious gift: healing with her hands. Stalin, who has banished all Jewish doctors, is dying from a mysterious ailment. He has no choice but to summon Anna.

— Wednesday 6: Bella espina / Belle Épine (Rebecca Zlotowski, 2010): An impressionistic portrait of sadness and loneliness, focusing on a teen girl who begins to lose her bearings as a result of her inability to grieve the death of her mother.

— Thursday 7: La familia Wolberg / La famille Wolberg (Axelle Ropert, 2009): The Jewish mayor of a French town is good at giving celebratory speeches, but gets into dark waters as husband, father, and son, as he has several very serious issues he’s not quite ready to face.

— Friday 8 and Saturday 9: Un poison violent / Un veneno violento (Katell Quillévéré, 2010): A young teenager comes home from her Catholic boarding school for the holidays and discovers her father has left.

— Sunday 10: Un hombre que grita / Un homme qui crie (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, 2010): A 55-year-old former swimming champion now works as a pool attendant at a fashionable hotel. When the hotel gets taken over by new Chinese owners, he is forced to give up his job to his son.

All screenings at 2.30pm, 5pm, 7.30pm, 10pm.