When the Rialto Channel boss - AKA the wonderful Rog - asked me to think about “French kissing, French food, French beauty, French style….” as inspiration for this week’s blog, I realised that all four are found in the average French film. Try and think of one that doesn’t involve at least three of the above… I dare you!
"Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world" Jean-Luc Godard
When the Rialto Channel boss - AKA the wonderful Rog - asked me to think about “French kissing, French food, French beauty, French style….” as inspiration for this week’s blog, I realised that all four are found in the average French film. Try and think of one that doesn’t involve at least three of the above… I dare you!
And on top of all that, of all the cinemas of the world, French cinema has to rank as not only one of the most iconic, but also simply one of the most enjoyable and intellectually engaging out there. And although it has been parodied at times for being pretentious and self-indulgent, French cinema has delivered some of film’s most provocative - and aesthetically pleasing - works, challenging our assumptions about what cinema should be, and celebrating diversity like no other. Think about the diversity of genres for starters: from black comedies like ‘La Discrète Charme de la bourgeoisie’ to intimate dramas like ‘35 Rhums’ and insights into the romance of madness, like ‘Betty Blue’.
Then there is the diversity of auteurs: directors who have made a film every two years for the last 50 years like Claude Chabrol and directors who made one jewel of a film in their career that is so spectacular it has never been possible to repeat. Then there’s the diversity of actors, from Jean Paul Belmondo to Jean Gabin and Marion Cotillard, the beauty of Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve. The glamour and good looks never stop, even when they are downtrodden, emotionally tortured and quite frankly, ought to be looking like utter crap.
For inspiration I also watched a selection of French flicks, a series of which will be appearing on the Rialto Channel every Monday evening in June. One I fell pretty hard for - and had many of the elements that I mentioned in my intro - is Le Chef, a sweet comedy starring Jean Reno and Michael Youn. It is fantastic to see silver fox Reno really having fun with a role after a lifetime of some pretty serious star turns (Victor the Cleaner, anyone?), and the whole shebang was about as unashamedly funny and romantic as it gets. It didn’t need the psychopath or alcoholic elderly relative so necessary to the genre in the UK, nor the prosthetic penis so necessary to similar films in the US. There was kissing, food, style and a selection of absolutely beautiful women, and Reno demonstrated that while his rugged features may not make him the object of affection for those of us who appreciate your typical pretty boy, for those who find rough and scruffy-looking men of the world attractive, dear Jean fits the bill perfectly.
Another French foodie film fave in the lineup is ‘Haute Cuisine’, the story of Danièle Delpeuch and how she was appointed as the private chef for François Mitterrand, but I’m really looking forward to the delicious in a different sense ‘Farewell, My Queen’, screening on June 23. The absolute feast for the senses marked the return of acclaimed director Benoît Jacquot and brilliantly captures the passions, debauchery, grace, nobility and ultimately the chaos that engulfed the court of Marie Antoinette in the final days before the outbreak of the French Revolution proper. Based on the best-selling novel by the amazing Chantal Thomas, the film stars a lineup of international beauties that includes Léa Seydou, Diane Kruger and Virginie Ledoyen, and is packed with passion, stolen moments and lashings of sexy time. That certain ‘je ne sais quoi’? This lots has it in spades.
Rialto world premieres Monday nights at 8:30pm