Saint-Omer2022, feature film by Alice Diop – César for best first film in 2023, Silver Lion and Lion of the Future – Luigi De Laurentiis at the Venice International Film Festival in 2022.
Synopsis: Summary: Rama, a novelist in her thirties, attends the trial of Laurence Coly at the assizes of Saint-Omer. She is accused of having killed her fifteen-month-old daughter by abandoning her on a beach in northern France when the tide was rising. From this story, Rama would like to write a contemporary adaptation of the ancient myth of Medea. But during the trial, nothing goes as planned. It is ultimately her own relationship to motherhood that the closed trial comes to question…
Disco Boy2023, feature film by Giacomo Abbruzzese, co-produced by France, Italy, Belgium and Poland – Silver Bear for Best Artistic Contribution at the Berlinale in 2023
Summary: Ready to do anything to escape Belarus, Aleksei goes to Paris and joins the Foreign Legion. He is sent to fight in the Niger Delta where Jomo, a young revolutionary, fights once morest the oil companies that have devastated his village. If Aleksei is looking for a new family in the Legion, Jomo imagines himself to be a dancer, a disco boy. In the jungle, their dreams and destinies will intersect.
Jane Campion, The Cinema Woman2022, documentary by Julie Bertuccelli
Summary: In this documentary, exclusively composed of excerpts from her films and her interviews, all the power of Jane Campion and her cinema appears. From her first short films, she applies herself to directing heroines, victims of male domination but whose quest for emancipation will lead them to affirm their own desire. The New Zealand filmmaker explores the intimacy of her characters and confronts their romanticism with the reality of gender relations. Paying a vibrant tribute to her talent, director Julie Bertuccelli (Since Otar Left, The Tree, The Last Madness of Claire Darling…) highlights the defining moments of her life, including the loss of her baby just a few days following receiving the Palme d’or, her vision of the acting profession, her habits as a director, from the writing process to filming, as well as her quiet ability to impose herself in an environment overinvested by men.
An Adolescent girl (L’Adolescente), 1979, a restored classic by Jeanne Moreau,
Summary: In Paris, the flags are at the windows on July 14, 1939 despite the war that threatens. In her parents’ apartment, Marie (Laetitia Chauveau) is waiting for almost half-filled suitcases: the family is going to the countryside in the Massif Central, to Grandma’s (Simone Signoret). Marie is no longer the little girl from last vacation, she is now a teenager. At her grandmother’s, she will find her friends Suzon, Jacquot, Jeannot and François, meet once more Augusta the “witch”, Romain the blacksmith and Fred the young mechanic. But that year, Marie turned away from the usual games to look for something else. However, this summer, there is a stranger in the village, a young Jewish doctor, Alexandre (Francis Huster). Foiling Grandma’s perspicacity, the little girl will find a thousand ways to converse with the young man, even going so far as to pay him a nocturnal visit. Alexandre kindly welcomes this childish interest but only has eyes for the beautiful Eva, Marie’s own mother. When she realizes it, it will be a tragedy, which Granny finally in the confidence, will try to exorcise. Drama however complicated by the return of the father but which, paradoxically, Hitler will resolve by launching his troops once morest France.
A woman is a Woman (A Woman is a Woman), 1961, feature film by Jean-Luc Godard
Summary: Angela is a stripper in a little howler on rue St-Denis. Emile is a cyclist and sells books on the sly to take on their daily lives. Their union is whimsical, but solid, until the day when Angela urgently asks for a child. Emile, who does not feel ready for marriage, refuses. Angela stumbles and threatens to find a more understanding friend. This friend is Alfred who would be delighted to render this service, but he loves Angela, which complicates everything. Emile refuses to take it all seriously, but begins to worry. It is when he understands that Angela is firmly decided, and that she has scientifically chosen a date favorable to what she wishes, that he runs to the cabaret to learn that she is absent; she went up to Alfred. He makes them say that he is leaving for Rio. Angela will then come back very quickly, and very quickly they will turn off the light.
