French Cinema Lovers Alert!
The Hong Kong French Film Festival will return from 24 November to 14 December with more than hundred screenings across five cinemas. Organised by the Alliance Française de Hong Kong, the festival will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year, making it the oldest film festival in the city, with more than 1,600 French films presented in the last five decades.
Despite the ongoing global pandemic and its impact on the film industry, the Festival organisers have managed to gather a diverse selection of more than fifty French films for this milestone edition. The highlights of the festival will feature twenty-six new releases including a curation of four documentaries for “Cinema for the Climate”, in collaboration with Greenpeace East Asia, and twenty-seven timeless classics showcasing fifty years of French cinema.
Challenges and films selection
Like in 2020, the Festival organisers have faced several challenges for this special edition, due to the pandemic and the resulting delay in movie releases, as explained by Jean-Sébastien Attié, Executive Director of the Alliance Française de Hong Kong. “Since cinemas were closed for half a year in France, our preparation works had to be put on hold until the films were screened at other festivals first or had a date of release set. Not to mention the fact that some of the films were finally not released at all in 2021”.
It was only after the Cannes Film Festival in July this year that the Hong Kong French Film Festival organisers were able to confirm and secure the highly requested films like Titane by Julia Ducournau, winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or prize at Cannes, Eiffel by Martin Bourboulon, Lost Illusions by Xavier Giannoli, Haute Couture by Sylvie Ohayon, Aline (The Voice of Love) by Valérie Lemercier, Love Song for Tough Guys by Samuel Benchetrit, Rose by Aurélie Saada, Tralala by Arnaud and Marie Larrieu or Hold Me Tight by Mathieu Amalric, to name a few.
To select movies for the fifty years retrospective, the festival had to consider a few factors: whether the movies were available digitally (35 mm films, like Jean Eustache’s masterpiece The Mother and the Whore (La Maman et la Putain) are completely distinct from the Blu-ray ones like Goodbye Children and La Vie en Rose); whether English and/or Chinese subtitles were ready to use; whether the Festival would have the rights, etc. As mentioned by Jean-Sébastien Attié, the initial plan was to present twenty films, but they soon realised that more classics could not be omitted, thus the final list includes twenty-seven all time blockbusters, featuring the most exhilarating films for the Hong Kong audience.
Highlights of the Festival
Despite the fact that the films have not been selected based on the gender of their producers, the Festival will pay this year a special tribute to female directors, highlighting the major evolution in the Western film industry in the past decade, with a selection of ten films directed by award winning and promising female directors.
In addition to Titane by Julia Ducournau and Aline by Valérie Lemercier, both released in 2021, the selection includes Above Water (Marcher sur l’eau) by Aïssa Maïga, Bigger than us by Flore Vasseur, A Radiant Girl (Une Jeune Fille Qui Va Bien) by Sandrine Kiberlain, Haute Couture by Sylvie Ohayon, Peaceful (De Son Vivant) by Emmanuelle Bercot, Rose by Aurélie Saada, Simple Passion by Danielle Arbid, Zero Fucks Given (Rien A Foutre) by Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre.
On the retrospective side, Jean-Sébastien Attié would recommend Delusions of Grandeur (La Folie des Grandeurs) by Gérard Oury, celebrating the inimitable French actors Louis de Funès and Yves Montand; the smashing Going Places (Les Valseuses) by Bertrand Blier; Maurice Pialat’s timeless pieces of art like We Won’t Grow Old Together (Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble) and Loulou with iconic French actors Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert; cult movies like Fear City (La Cité de la Peur) and Astérix and Obélix.
Cinema for the Climate
Combining the 50th Anniversary of Greenpeace and the 50th Edition of the Hong Kong French Film Festival, both organisations have joined hands together to present the programme Cinema for the Climate. They have co-curated a selection of four documentaries, Above Water (Marcher sur l’eau) by Aïssa Maiga, Animal by Cyril Dion, Bigger than Us by Flore Vasseur, and Legacy (Legacy, notre Héritage) by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. These documentaries feature voices and stories of young climate campaigners and shine a light on issues such as climate change and threats to biodiversity.
Whether you are French, Francophone, Francophile or Cinema Lover, there will be movies for every taste!
You can find all the movies, schedule and ticketing information here: https://www.hkfrenchfilmfestival.com
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.