The ColCoa French Film Festival, now in its 19th year, gives the City of Angels a glimpse into the film work of the City of Lights. The festival represents a cultural exchange between Paris and Los Angeles and aims to promote cross-cultural communication while also giving talent recognition in Hollywood. The 2015 series featured Academy Award-winning director Michel Hazanavicius as its headline act, with the L.A. premiere of his new oeuvre “The Search” the most keenly awaited of the 68 films on offer.
The Daily Bruin’s William Thorne attended the festival this week, highlighting his top-five films that will make American audiences laugh, cry and fall in love with cinema from the country where it all began.
“The Last Hammer Blow”
Directed by Alix Delaporte
Pyramide International
4 paws
“The Last Hammer Blow” is a beautiful and moving hour and a half spent following Victor, a 14-year-old boy thrust too soon into adulthood by poverty and his mother’s illness. When he learns that his estranged father, the celebrated conductor Samuel Rovinski, is coming to conduct Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony in nearby Montpellier, Victor is determined to meet and convince him to reconnect with the struggling family he left behind. Victor is played by screen newcomer Romain Paul who captivates with a performance well-judged in its restraint, and coupled with Alix Delaporte’s stripped back directorial style, “The Last Hammer Blow” manages to take a family’s very specific problems and make them universal. One particular beach scene in which Victor’s teenage sweetheart shaves his head while the sun sets behind them is exquisite and extremely poignant.
“Gemma Bovery”
Directed by Anne Fontaine
Gaumont
3.5 paws
With the image in mind of classic French actor Fabrice Luchini kneeling to suck bee venom from the sting precipitously far down Gemma Arteton’s back, one might be fooled into thinking that “Gemma Bovery” is a gimmicky farce. However, this could not be further from the truth. The film is a charming twist on Gustave Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary,” bringing the novel firmly into the 21st century. Luchini plays Martin Joubert, a daydreaming village baker whose fantasies all seem to fall into place. The audience is left to wonder whether the fiction of “Madame Bovary” is truly becoming a reality, or whether Joubert is manipulating the life of Gemma Bovery to match that of her fictional counterpart.
“Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait”
Directed by Ossama Mohammed and Wiam Simav Bedirxan
Proaction Film
4 paws
“Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait” is an extremely difficult film to describe, partly because the content is so distressing and partly because it is unlike any normal documentary. It is all at once a wail of despair, a cry for attention and a plea for justice. The film is composed in the first half of camera phone footage from 1,001 Syrians caught up in the midst of a civil war. The second is a cut of director Wiam Simav Bedirxan’s experience during the siege of Homs as her life and her city crumble around her. Horrific scenes of protests are turned into bloodbaths and parents risk their lives to recover their children’s bodies from the sniper-infested streets. “Silvered Water” is a tough watch, but the message left behind is powerful and deeply disturbing.
“The Search”
Directed by Michel Hazanavicius
Wild Bunch
3.5 paws
After his previous exploits in the genres of romantic comedy and drama, Michel Hazanavicius’ new film is a far cry from “The Artist.” It’s out with the charming black-and-white features and the adorable dog, and in with the violent Russian invasion of Chechnya, with tanks rolling through a post-apocalyptic landscape. The film’s greatest strength is that it depicts the horror of life on both sides of the war. On the one hand the film follows the tribulations of Hadji, a 10-year-old boy whose parents have been cruelly slaughtered on camera by the invading forces, as he negotiates a war-torn country while cradling his baby brother in his arms. On the other the film depicts average teenager Kolia converted into an unwitting pawn of the Russian war machine by force, propaganda and homophobia. Overall Hazanavicius effectively imparts the wisdom that in war, neither side is spared the devastation.
“Blind Date”
Directed by Clovis Cornillac
Other Angle Pictures
3 paws
There have been some pretty ridiculous premises for romantic comedies in recent years, but surely “Blind Date” takes the biscuit. The brain child of French comedic heavyweight Clovis Cornillac, the film is the story of two loners who fall in love through a dividing wall between their apartments. Yes, that is correct, they become infatuated without ever seeing each other and by communicating solely due to a twist of fate in the form of inadequate sound-proofing. About half an hour in, the film further pushes the boundaries of credibility as Cornillac’s character undresses his neighbor across the wall by passionately complementing her piano skills. First her hair loosens into cascading locks, then the buttons of her blouse violently pop off one by one. Finally, as her rendition of Chopin reaches its climax, the audience is doubled over in shrieks of laughter, and somehow, belief is well and truly suspended. Although corny and cheesy in the extreme, “Blind Date” is consistently funny enough to redeem its preposterous plot.
– William Thorne