Tomorrow the New Orleans Film Society returns to the Prytania Theatre for their 20th annual French Film Festival. The lineup of new and repertory work is exceptional, and not too easy to see, which is why we only know films like Personal Shopper and The Death of Louis XIV by reputation. But here are some titles we’re particularly excited about.
First off, we’re proud to be community partners for Things To Come, Mia Hansen-Løve’s followup to her 2014 epic Eden. Travis heaped praise on Things To Come in his 2016 year-end list, after Angela heaped praise on Eden in 2015…you get the idea. Hansen-Løve works with Isabelle Huppert, whose performance as a late-career professor in the midst of a crumbling life is exquisite. The collaboration between these two is amazing to watch, both women deeply assured of their artistic voice.
Love In The Afternoon is a frequently delightful March-December romance pairing the winkingly suave Gary Cooper and the spritely Audrey Hepburn, both having tons of fun with the first script written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond. With wry social realism, impeccably tight plotting, and witty digressions – and Paris as a backdrop – the film offers tantalizing flashes of the brilliant Wilder-Diamond scripts that would follow, including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, and Kiss Me, Stupid.
Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a legendary film for its unique form – with completely sung dialogue – and its eye-popping beauty. See it in conjunction with Les Demoiselles de Rochefort for full immersion into Demy’s ravishingly beautiful 1960s world.
