Acclaimed director Claude Lelouch is the special guest at the upcoming Air France Film Festival which runs at Nu Metro in Hyde Park from September 21 to October 4.
Included in this year’s line-up is a Lelouch retrospective featuring the acclaimed French director’s A Man and a Woman (Un Homme Et Une Femme), one of the most beloved romantic films of all time, as well as his latest movie Crossed Tracks (Roman de Gare) which was screened to acclaim at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Four other Lelouch films at the festival are 1993’s All This For That (Tout Ça Pour Ça); 1998’s Chance Or Coincidences (Hasards Ou Coincidences); 1988’s Itinerary Of A Spoiled Child (Itineraire D’un Enfant Gate) and 1990’s There Were Days And Moons (Il Y A Des Jours Et Des Lunes).
The son of an Algerian Jewish confectioner, Claude Lelouch spent the earliest years of his childhood hiding from the Nazis with his mother. After making short films while serving in the military, Lelouch established Les Films 13, a production company, and produced, co-wrote, directed and appeared in his first feature The Right of Man (Le Propre de l’homme) in 1960. He came to worldwide attention with 1966’s A Man and a Woman (Un Homme et Une Femme). When he won a Palm d’Or at Cannes, a Grand Prix Award and an Oscar for A Man and a Woman, Lelouch was the most popular and influential director in Europe. Many of his subsequent films dealt with the symbiotic relationship between sex and crime, or sex and politics, or crime and politics.
As well as the Lelouch retrospective there are plenty of other highlights in this year’s Air France line-up.
Gerard Depardieu stars in three pictures which brilliantly demonstrate just what a remarkable actor he is. Audiences can see him in his breakout performance in François Truffaut’s The Last Metro (Le Dernier Metro) which the New York Times named as one of the best 1000 films of all time.
Two new French films include Costa-Gavras’ The Ax (Le Couperet) a black comedy about a man who decides to literally eliminate his opposition and the Bafta Award winning thriller The Beat That My Heart Skipped (De Battre Mon Coeur s’est Arrete), a character driven film noir adapted from James Toback’s 1978 cult classic, Fingers, about a young man torn between a life of crime and classical music.
There are also films from French-speaking directors from the African continent. Rachid Bouchareb’s Little Senegal follows a Senegalese man’s search for the descendants of his enslaved family 300 years later. In a reversal from the norm he goes on a pilgrimage in search of his heritage – only this time it’s an African coming to America.
The event is presented by Air France in association with the Hyde Park Shopping Centre, Nu Metro Theatres and the French Embassy. Tickets can be booked at Computicket or at the cinemas.
