Lincoln Center's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema: Full Lineup

The 18th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's annual showcase of contemporary French film, hits New York screens February 28 - March 10. The fest's opening night sees the U.S. premiere of "Populaire," starring Romain Duris. Full lineup below.

Other highlights from the program include Alice Winocour's Cesar nominee "Augustine," Francois Ozon's "In the House" and the late Claude Miller's "Therese Desqueyroux," starring Audrey Tautou. The Georges Franju 1962 original of "Therese Desqueyroux," which stars Oscar nominee Emmanuelle Riva, is also screening, as well as a mini-retrospective of Jean Renoir, boasting "Boudu Saved From Drowning," "The River" and "Rules of the Game."

The series spans three theaters -- the Film Society's Lincoln Center location, IFC Center and BAMcinematek. Newly appointed Film Society director of programming Robert Koehler states: "This year’s edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema offers another entertaining and informative look at the current state of cinema by the French, with a celebration of fresh and upcoming talent behind the camera and today's prominent directors as well as a healthy nod to the film artists of the past."

Films, Descriptions & Schedule:

Main Venues: BAMcinématek (BAM)/Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (EBM)/IFC Center

(IFC)/Walter Reade Theater (WRT)

Opening Night: The Paris Theater (PARIS)

OPENING NIGHT!

US PREMIERE

Populaire

Régis Roinsard, 2012, France, 111m

Stuck in the provinces of 1950s France, Rose (Deborah François) is taken under the wing of her handsome boss (Romain Duris) and develops astonishing skills as a high-speed typist, leading to unexpected fame. In the grand tradition of French social comedy, Régis Roinsard has concocted a scintillating entertainment lovingly looking back on an idealized and innocent decade. Starring Deborah François, Romain Duris. The Weinstein Company will release the movie in July 2013.

Thurs., Feb. 28, 7:30pm – PARIS; Fri. Mar. 1, 7:00pm - BAM; Sat., Mar. 2, 7:00pm - IFC

In person: Romain Duris, Régis Roinsard, Deborah François

NEW YORK PREMIERE

The Atomic Age/L’age atomique

Héléna Klotz, 2012, France, DCP; 68m

Arriving from the Paris outskirts for a round of weekend clubbing, good-looking Victor (Eliott Paquet) and his Central European friend Rainer (Dominik Wojcik) are full of self-confidence and a youthfully self-conscious hipness. But across the span of one night, their impulsive adventure tests emotional and physical limits the lads never before knew in Klotz’s impressively mesmerizing feature debut. Winner of the 2012 Prix Jean Vigo. A TLA Releasing film.

Wed. Mar. 6, 9:30pm – IFC; Thurs. Mar. 7, 4pm – WRT; Fri. Mar. 8, 9:00pm - WRT

NEW YORK PREMIERE

AUGUSTINE

Alice Winocour, 2012, France, 102m

Based on a true case, writer-director Winocour has adapted the story of a progressive 19th century doctor/therapist and his unusual patient into a study of personal wills, hidden desires and reversals of fate. A maid who suffers from seizures is sent to a mental hospital, where it seems she’ll be condemned for life until Professor Charcot finds in her the possibilities of testing his advanced notions of the sources of so-called “hysteria.” Soko as Augustine and Vincent Lindon as Charcot deliver astonishing performances. A Music Box Films release.

Sun. Mar. 3, 6pm – WRT (no talent); Tues. Mar. 5, 9:00pm – WRT; Wed. Mar. 6, 7:00pm – BAM; Thurs. Mar. 7, 7:00pm – IFC

In person: Alice Winocour

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

Bad Girl/Mauvaise fille

Patrick Mille, 2012, France, 108m

25-year-old Louise is suddenly hit with a double dose of life-altering reality: She learns that she’s pregnant and that her mother has had a relapse of advanced cancer. Justine Lévy has adapted her own novel with spiky humor and brilliance, and director Mille mines the complex family material for an amazingly wide range of tones from poignant to irreverent. Izïa Higelin, Carole Bouquet, Bob Geldof and Arthur Dupont co-star.

Tues. Mar. 5, 7:00pm – IFC; Wed. Mar. 6, 9:00PM – WRT; Thur. Mar. 7, 6pm – WRT;

In person: Patrick Mille  

BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING/BOUDU SAUVÉ DES EAUX

Jean Renoir, 1932, France, 84 min.

Boudu (the irrepressible and unforgettable Michel Simon), a Parisian tramp, tries to end it all with a plunge into the river, only to be saved by a well-meaning bookseller. But when his rescuer offers him shelter, Boudu’s anarchic charms rock the household to its foundations. Shot largely on location along the quays of the Seine, Renoir’s freewheeling satire of bourgeois respectability is one of the master’s most innovative early works; it remains, in the words of critic Dave Kehr, “as informal, beguiling, and subversive as its eponymous hero.” Screening in a digital restoration.

Sat. Mar. 2, 1:00pm – IFC

The Day of THE Crows / Le jour des corneilles

Jean-Christophe Dessaint, 2012, France, 96m

Raised like a wild child in the woods by his bitter and fearsome father, a boy finds himself discovering the world beyond the forest in director Dessaint’s enchanting visualization of Jean-Francois Beauchemin’s novel. The sensitively rendered hand-drawn animation and depth of characterization seem like a tribute to the films of Hayao Miyazaki, and yet, this movie for all ages stands very much on its own. Featuring the voices of Jean Reno, Lorànt Deutsch, Isabelle Carré and the late Claude Chabrol in his final film credit.

Sat., Mar. 9, 1:00pm – WRT

In person: Jean-Christophe Dessaint

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

The Girl From Nowhere/La fille dE nulle part

Jean-Claude Brisseau, 2012, France, 91m

Lost in a maze of his philosophizing while trying to write a book, a retired math teacher is forced to deal with the real world when he must rescue a young woman from the clutches of a thug outside his Paris apartment. What the teacher doesn’t know is that this woman may be his muse, a mystical agent or an angel of death. Stars director Brisseau and Virginie Legeay. Winner of the Golden Leopard, Locarno Film Festival 2012.

Sat. Mar. 2, 2:45pm – IFC; Sun. Mar. 10, 2:30pm - WRT

NEW YORK PREMIERE

Granny’s Funeral/Adieu Berthe: L’enterrement de mÉmÉ

Bruno Podalydès, 2012, France, 100m

Although he made no effort to see his grandmother in her waning years, pharmacist Armand (director Podalydès’ brother and co-writer Denis) must now deal with her funeral arrangements. This is awkward enough, but nothing like his emotional swings between a wife he can’t quite part from and a lover he can’t quite commit to, in a comedy stamped with the Podalydès brand of caustic, Gallic wit. With Valérie Lemercier, Isabelle Candelier, Catherine Hiegel and Benoît Hamon.

Fri. Mar. 1, 9:45pm – IFC; Sun. Mar. 3, 8:15pm – WRT; Mon. Mar. 4, 3:45pm – WRT

NEW YORK PREMIERE

In the House/Dans la maison

François Ozon, 2012, France, 105m

Swept up in the increasingly dazzling and inventive fiction writing of a precocious student, a high school literature teacher and frustrated author (Fabrice Luchini) married to a gallerist (Kristin Scott Thomas) sees real life overtake the fiction. Ozon is at the height of his powers in this ironic, cautionary tale on the dangers of mentoring gone too far. With Emmanuelle Seigner and Ernst Umhauer. A Cohen Media Group release.

Fri. Mar. 1, 9:00pm – WRT; Sat. Mar. 2, 9:00pm - BAM; Sun. Mar. 3, 6:15pm – IFC

In person: François Ozon

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

Jappeloup

Christian Duguay, 2013, France, 130m

A true sports story that utterly defies the odds, Duguay’s film captures the wild ups and downs of the Olympics-bound career of legendary equine star Jappeloup and his troubled rider, locked in a tense relationship with his horseman father and forever uncertain of his own skills as an equestrian. Stars Guillaume Canet, Daniel Auteuil, Marina Hands and Tchéky Karyo.

Sat. Mar. 2, 9:40pm – IFC; Wed. Mar. 6, 3:30pm – WRT; Sat. Mar. 9, 5:30pm - WRT

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

Journal de France

Raymond Depardon & Claudine Nougaret, 2012, France, 100m

Depardon’s brilliant self-portrait (co-directed by his longtime collaborator and sound engineer Claudine Nougaret) takes a surprising point of view on the great documentarian’s life—not only as a filmmaker, but as a photographer of expressive precision, capturing the entirety of French society over the decades. The patience of this imagemaker’s practice is testament to an alternative to the hyper-fast, instant delivery of digital images that now dominates the culture.

Mon. Mar. 4, 8:30pm – IFC; Fri. Mar. 8, 4:15pm – WRT; Sun. Mar. 10, 12:15pm - WRT

North american premiere

A Lady in Paris/Une Estonienne À Paris

Ilmar Raag, 2012, France/Belgium/Estonia, 94m

Offered a job in Paris to look after a fellow Estonian-born woman, Anne leaves her homeland and finds herself in an emotional hornet’s nest. Frida, the elderly Estonian, gives new meaning to the word prickly and won’t be tended to, even though that’s exactly what Frida’s younger ex-lover wants. Stars a stunning, flinty and memorable Jeanne Moreau, Laine Magi and Patrick Pineau.

Sat. Mar. 2, 4:30PM – IFC; Sun. Mar. 3, 3:15pm – WRT; Mon. Mar. 4, 9:15pm – WRT

In person: Ilmar Raag

North american premiere

La maison de la radio

Nicolas Philibert, 2013, France, 103m

Radio France is a massive 24/7 operation, a national network which explores every aspect of life from breaking news to live cultural events. Applying his attuned senses to the mega-complex that is Radio France, non-fiction film master Philibert reveals the vast, rich and unexpected world of radio production and the imaginative power of sound.

Fri. Mar. 1, 3:30pm – WRT; Sat. Mar. 2, 3:15pm – WRT; Sun. Mar. 3, 1:00pm - IFC

In person:  Nicolas Philibert

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

My Blue-Eyed Girl/Ma belle gosse

Shalimar Preuss, 2012, France, 80m

Preuss’ uncommonly sensitive and nuanced debut follows the eldest daughter of a family on holiday as she navigates her growing desires for a prison inmate with her heartfelt but fraying familial love. Under the film’s placid surface is a teenage, and very human, restlessness that suggests impulsive curiosity, yet also wisdom. Stars Lou Aziosmanoff, Jocelyn Lagarrigue, Victor Laforge.

Mon. Mar. 4, 10:20pm – IFC; Tues. Mar. 5, 4pm – WRT; Sun. Mar. 10, 4:40pm - WRT

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

The Nun/La religieuse

Guillaume Nicloux, 2013, France/Germany/Belgium, 114m

Drawing on the same Denis Diderot classic as Jacques Rivette’s 1966 film, Nicloux’s version provides a fresh take on the 18th-century story of a young woman’s (a stunning Pauline Etienne) harrowing experiences in nunneries, one run by a too-loving Mother Superior (Isabelle Huppert). Young Suzanne’s discovery that she’s an illegitimate child compels her to a life in the convent, where inhumanity rules and battles of wills ensue. With Louise Bourgoin, Martina Gedeck, Françoise Lebrun.