Le Festival du Cinéma Français 2014
Another year, another French cinema festival. And this year's cinema is probably one of the weirdest ever.
Weirdness No. 1: I watched an English-dubbed French movie at the opening night (Christophe Gans' La belle et la bête, starring Lea Seydoux and Vincent Cassel, whose original voices could not be heard because of the dubbing).
In fact, 4 of the 8 movies screened at the festival are spoken in English. At a French cinema festival? Really?
Weirdness No. 2: The cinema the festival was held at was XXI Metropole. Only 1 studio. And it was a very small studio with a capacity of around 120-130 seats. Very limited screenings (and limited French spaking) made it hard for me to be enthusiastic to come and watch the films.
Also: the closing film (Philippe de Chauveron's Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au Bon Dieu?, or - in English - Serial (Bad) Weddings) was free of charge. There were about 200+ people lining up to get the free tickets, but obviously not all could get in because they only had tickets for 100 people.
Merveilleux.
I watched only those two films, plus Elle l'adore (a mystery featuring fangirling gone wrong) and Attila Marcel (a beautiful, whimsical music-themed drama), and then suddenly the festival is over. It's like nothing even happened. Or maybe I'm whinging because I've been too busy to focus on the festival... Whatever.
I can only hope next year is better.
Weirdness No. 1: I watched an English-dubbed French movie at the opening night (Christophe Gans' La belle et la bête, starring Lea Seydoux and Vincent Cassel, whose original voices could not be heard because of the dubbing).
In fact, 4 of the 8 movies screened at the festival are spoken in English. At a French cinema festival? Really?
Weirdness No. 2: The cinema the festival was held at was XXI Metropole. Only 1 studio. And it was a very small studio with a capacity of around 120-130 seats. Very limited screenings (and limited French spaking) made it hard for me to be enthusiastic to come and watch the films.
Also: the closing film (Philippe de Chauveron's Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au Bon Dieu?, or - in English - Serial (Bad) Weddings) was free of charge. There were about 200+ people lining up to get the free tickets, but obviously not all could get in because they only had tickets for 100 people.
Merveilleux.
I watched only those two films, plus Elle l'adore (a mystery featuring fangirling gone wrong) and Attila Marcel (a beautiful, whimsical music-themed drama), and then suddenly the festival is over. It's like nothing even happened. Or maybe I'm whinging because I've been too busy to focus on the festival... Whatever.
I can only hope next year is better.