Throughout June, Rialto Channel celebrates the French film industry by screening a collection of recent French dramas and comedies every Monday and Tuesday evening. As you’d expect, there’s something to make you laugh and cry, and many things in-between. Francophiles can enjoy everything from Chinese Puzzle, the final film in director Cedric Klapisch’s charming drama series, or French-Swiss filmmaker Ursula Meier bleak drama Sisterstaring Léa Seydoux. This week though, begins with a real crowd pleaser, The Finishers.
Throughout June, Rialto Channel celebrates the French film industry by screening a collection of recent French dramas and comedies every Monday and Tuesday evening. As you’d expect, there’s something to make you laugh and cry, and many things in-between. Francophiles can enjoy everything from Chinese Puzzle, the final film in director Cedric Klapisch’s charming drama series, or French-Swiss filmmaker Ursula Meier bleak drama Sister staring Léa Seydoux. This week though, begins with a real crowd pleaser, The Finishers.
Monday 8th June… The Finishers
For those who loved The Intouchables, this is another feel good drama that will have you reaching for tissues. Part sports film, part father and son drama, The Finishers tells the story of 17 year old cerebral palsy sufferer Julien, who reconnects with his distant father by convincing him they should complete an Ironman together. Co-written and directed by Nils Tavernier (son of French director Bertrand Tavernier, The Princess of Montpensier), you know exactly where this film is going from the start, but while it’s shamelessly sentimental, the performances, especially from newcomer Fabien Heraud as wheelchair bound Julien, and stunning footage of the race itself will have you willing this father and son team over the line.
Wednesday 5th June… Spinning Plates
In Spinning Plates, director Joseph Levy tells three very different stories about life in the restaurant trade. In the first half of this documentary we meet the intense Grant Achatz, the 3 star Michelin chef of world renown Chicago restaurant Alinea, the Breitbach family who run a comfort food restaurant in Ballton, Iowa and the Martinez family who have just opened a modest Mexican restaurant in Tucson, Arizona. What all three have in common is a passion for food and an aptitude for hard work. There’s an emphasis on the role of food and how it brings families and communities together or takes you on a journey. In the second half of this film personal dramas take over giving Levy’s documentary a more sentimental, dramatic narrative arc. Spinning Plates is not just a film about food and the restaurant business, but it’s a film about survival, and unfortunately some do better than others.
Saturday 13th June… Night Moves
From Kelly Reichardt, the director of Meek’s Cutoff, comes a film about eco-activism that questions how far environmentalists should go to get their point across. A naturalistically paced, intense thriller, Night Moves features excellent performances from Jessie Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard as three radical environmentalists who conspire to blow up a hydroelectric dam. Reichardt is known for her understated approach to telling a story and there’s a simmering tension throughout the build up to this destructive act. However, it’s after the deed is done this film fires up. Night Moves comments on the state of the planet and explores the nature of belief, but more so, it’s about living with the consequences of your actions. It’s one of those quiet little gems that lingers on the mind for days.