If you love French cinema I hope you’ve been enjoying Rialto World on Monday and Tuesday evenings showcasing some of the best drama and comedy to come out of France recently. This week catch one of France’s most beloved actors Fabrice Luchini in the dramedy Gemma Bovary. In the film, Luchini plays a small town baker who becomes obsessed with the fate of his new neighbours’ relationship. He also whips up mouth-watering breads and pastries that will have you salivating. Don’t watch this film hungry – you’ll eat a loaf.
Here are my highlights for the week.
If you love French cinema I hope you’ve been enjoying Rialto World on Monday and Tuesday evenings showcasing some of the best drama and comedy to come out of France recently. This week catch one of France’s most beloved actors Fabrice Luchini in the dramedy Gemma Bovary. In the film, Luchini plays a small town baker who becomes obsessed with the fate of his new neighbours’ relationship. He also whips up mouth-watering breads and pastries that will have you salivating. Don’t watch this film hungry – you’ll eat a loaf.
Here are my highlights for the week.
Tangerine…Friday 26th February, 8.30pm
One of the most talked about indie films of 2015, Tangerine is a film about a couple of transgender prostitutes in Los Angeles who spend Christmas Eve trying to track down a cheating boyfriend. It’s an extraordinary film that manages to be many things; gritty, genuine, warm and funny. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and has gone on to become a hit at Festivals around the world. Amazingly it’s filled with mostly non-actors, including colourful leads Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, both of whom were instrumental in helping director Sean Baker form his story. Initially Baker knew he wanted to make a film about two people coming together, and have his characters converge at Donut Time at the end of the film. After watching Mya and Kiki interact, he knew this was a film about friendship between two people on the social margins struggling to make a living. It was Kiki’s idea to throw the infidelity angle in to the mix. The film was entirely shot on an iPhone 5 (purely due to lack of budget) allowing Baker to get closer to his subjects than normal. The film is saturated in colour – reflecting the personality of the characters and the vibrancy of Los Angeles, and the result is quite fantastic. As far as experiments go, this funny and compassionate slice of hyperactive social realism is a success.
Iris …Wednesday 24th February, 8.30pm
Iris Apfel has been part of the New York fashion scene for decades, and is well known for her work as an interior decorator and textile designer. In 2005, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City premiered an exhibition called Rara Avis (Rare Bird): The Irreverent Iris Apfel displaying the incredible collection of clothing and costume jewellery she’s accumulated over the years. This exhibition turned Iris, a hard working, and vibrant woman originally from Queens, into a “geriatric starlet”. Regardless of whether you like her style, it’s impossible not to love Iris captured here by the late, great filmmaker Albert Maysles.
Gemma Bovary… Monday 22nd February, at 8:30pm
From writer director Anne Fontaine (Coco Before Chanel) comes this lighthearted and lusty modern day interpretation of Posy Simmonds’ graphic novel based on Gustave Flaubert’s 19th century novel, Madame Bovary. The film begins with the break up of English couple Gemma (Gemma Arterton) and her furniture restorer husband Charles Bovery’s (Jason Flemyng) marriage. As Charles is throwing out his ex-wife’s possessions, their nosy neighbour Martin Joubert (Fabrice Luchini), grabs Gemma’s diaries, and in reading them, takes us back through the events that lead up to this moment. Martin is an ex-Parisian who ten years ago returned home to run his father’s bakery in this sleepy provincial Norman village. The arrival of Gemma and Charles is of great interest to Martin who craves some excitement in his life. Life imitates art as the romance of living in a leaking old farmhouse begins to wear off and a restless Gemma seeks comfort in the arms of a wealthy, young neighbour. Much to the amusement of his family, Martin becomes convinced Gemma will suffer the same fate as Madame Bovary, and does everything possible to prevent this from happening. Luchini is charming and keeps us engaged in this film that is part drama, part comedy. It’s a modern day feminist tale as well as being a quirky love story, and by telling the story from Martin’s perspective makes it a lot more humourous than the reality of it.