French Film Festival

Premiered at the most recent Cannes Film Festival, French director Justine Triet's SIBYL brings together an all-star cast with Virginie Efira (Elle, Victoria), Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue Is The Warmest Color), and Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann).

Poetic realism reached sublime heights with Children of Paradise, widely considered one of the greatest French films of all time. This nimble depiction of 19th-century Paris’s theatrical demimonde, filmed during World War II, follows a mysterious woman (Arletty) loved by four different men (all based on historical figures): an actor, a criminal, a count, and, most poignantly, a mime (Jean-Louis Barrault, in a performance for the ages). Thanks to a major new restoration, this iconic classic looks and sounds richer and more detailed than ever.

Hidden in Cajun Country live angels among us. Committed to intentional artistry, divine healers share their craft, both inspiring ascension and preserving cultural tradition in Southwest Louisiana. A slice-of-life documentary told by women encompasses the profound gradient of cultural heritage existing in this rich region of our world. Exploring language, music, food, faith healing, and art, the directors intend for viewers to consider their personal pursuits of passion in practice. Winner of the 2019 #CreateLouisiana French Culture Grant

From French Film Festival mainstay Christophe Honoré (Sorry Angel, Love Songs) comes this bittersweet comic fantasy starring Chiara Mastroianni as a highly sexed college lecturer caught in the throes of a mid-marriage crisis. After her husband finds out about her fling with one of her students, she leaves their home and moves into a hotel across the street, with a birdseye view of her marriage, past and present. Over the course of one surreal night, she encounters all the men she's slept with during her marriage—and they all have opinions about what she should do.

Filmed over the course of three years, this portrait of fashion colossus Yves Saint Laurent’s final show was suppressed right after its first and only public screening at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival. The film was blocked by YSL’s business (and on-and-off romantic) partner Pierre Bergé, who objected to the couturier’s portrayal as frail and not quite all there, and to his own depiction of being the behind the scenes mastermind. Fortunately, Berge relented in 2015 and thus Celebration is finally available: an opulent and immersive behind-the-scenes look at one of fashion's greatest.

The untold story of Marthe Cohn, a feisty young woman who joined the French resistance during WWII. After keeping silent for almost 60 years, Marthe now shares the extraordinary story of how she managed to beat the odds and fight the Nazis as a spy. At the age of 98, she still tours the world, showing off her medals and promoting her message to people of all generations. Preceded by the short film Zone Rouge.

The Dardenne Brothers won this year’s Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival for this brave new work, another intimate portrayal of a protagonist in crisis. The filmmakers’ radical empathy alights on a Muslim teenager in a small Belgian town who is being gradually radicalized into extremism despite the desperate protestations of his single mother, and who winds up hatching a murderous plot targeting his beloved teacher. Taking a serious view of a difficult issue, Young Ahmed reminds viewers why the Dardennes continue to be at the center of 21st-century cinema.

A sweeping journey through the backroads, bayous, and sleepy towns of Cajun country, La Veille is a search for signs of Francophone culture still thriving in Louisiana. Filmmaker Marshall Woodworth recounts his childhood when boucheries, cochon de lait, and Creole French were a more dominant cultural force, contrasting that against the dearth of fluent French speakers in Louisiana today. Along the way, Woodworth interviews a rich range of elders, French Immersion instructors, sociologists, and—potentially the key to Creole French's future—musicians.

The latest from Quentin Dupieux (the brains behind the delightfully outrageous Rubber, about a sentient tire on a killing spree), Deerskin follows amateur filmmaker Georges, who becomes obsessed with his new deerskin jacket. Convinced that his jacket must be the only one in the world, Georges is led down a Tarantino-esque path to rid the world of all competition. Played with total commitment by Academy Award® winner Jean Dujardin (The Artist), the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and also stars Adèle Haenel (Portrait of a Lady on Fire).

Demy's 1964 masterpiece of music and romance stars Catherine Deneuve as an umbrella shopkeeper who is separated from her mechanic boyfriend (Nino Castelnuevo) when he is called for military service. The film was fully restored in breathtaking color in 1992 under the supervision of Demy's widow, filmmaker Agnès Varda. Umbrellas won the Grand Prize at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for five Academy Awards. The restored soundtrack features Michel Legrand's unforgettable score remixed in stereo.

In Occupied France, Mr. Klein (played with perfection by Alain Delon) exploits the situation of the Jews by buying and selling their works of art. When a Jewish man of the same name surfaces in Paris, Klein comes under suspicion and experiences the persecution of his countrymen firsthand. Also starring Jeanne Moreau, this rare and celebrated film from 1976 was blacklisted American director Joseph Losey’s first film in French, and it won the coveted César Awards for Best Film and Best Director. This restored version has finally arrived in theaters to ecstatic praise from major critics.

Finding Cajun presents a critical and historically informed perspective on the origin and evolution of Cajun identity. We see how Cajuns compare to the present-day Acadians in maritime Canada, a community that is supposedly at the historical root of Cajun ethnicity. Through interviews with leading experts filmed on site in Louisiana, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, the film examines the diversity and complexity of South Louisiana's French- and Creole-speaking communities, showing how Americanization, racism, and language shift have reshaped the cultural landscape of Louisiana.

The final film from the late, beloved Agnès Varda is a characteristically playful, profound, and personal summation of the director’s own brilliant career. At once impish and wise, she acts as our spirit guide on a free-associative tour through her six-decade artistic journey, shedding new light on her films, photography, and recent installation works while offering her one-of-a-kind reflections on everything from filmmaking to cats to feminism to aging. A warmly human, touchingly bittersweet parting gift from one of cinema’s most luminous talents.

A group of 40-something guys, all on the verge of a mid-life crisis, decide to form their local pool's first ever synchronized swimming team—for men. Braving the skepticism and ridicule of those around them, and trained by a fallen champion trying to pull herself together, the group sets out on an unlikely adventure, and on the way rediscovers a little self-esteem and a lot about themselves and each other. A crowd-pleasing comedy starring Mathieu Amalric and Guillaume Canet.

This drama about time and friendship weaves together the stories of three aging hermits who have left their former lives and gone off the grid into the rural Quebec landscape. Living in a remote forest near a lake, Tom, Charlie, and Ted pass the time by tending to their neighbor’s cannabis crop, swimming, singing, and reminiscing. Their peaceful existence is soon shattered by a sudden death, and by the arrival of two women. Within its intimate, personal dramas, And The Birds Rained Down delivers a poetic study of intertwined lives, where love can happen at any age.

This screening will be followed by a musical tribute to Robert Johnson by St. Louis Slim. On August 16, 1938, in Greenwood, Mississippi, Robert Johnson, one of the greatest bluesman of all time, died in near anonymity at 27. He had appeared on the local musical scene a few years earlier but was rediscovered and made popular by a generation of rock stars of the ‘60s and ‘70s. In 2014, two French cartoonists told Johnson’s story in their graphic novel Love in Vain. This documentary recounts their trip to Johnson's home state, including interviews with a number of genuine bluesmen of the Deep South: R.L. Boyce, Watermelon Slim, Ben Payton, and Lucious Spiller among them.

Millions know the iconic logo and ubiquitous signature but few know the man behind the larger-than-life label. This insightful documentary seeks to answer the question: Who is Pierre Cardin? What is the story behind this legendary icon? House of Cardin is a rare peek into the mind of a genius, an authorized feature that chronicles his life and design. A true original, Pierre Cardin has granted the directors exclusive access to his archives and his empire, and unprecedented interviews at the sunset of a glorious career.

This gripping drama from François Ozon (Swimming Pool, 8 Women) follows three men who band together to dismantle the code of silence that continues to protect a priest who abused them decades ago. Based on events from the 2019 conviction of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon for concealing abuse within the church, By the Grace of God compassionately illustrates the varying effects of trauma on survivors and their families in this urgent portrait of resistance, the power of mobilization, and the mysteries of faith. Starring celebrated actor Melvil Poupaud in the lead role.

Sophia is 35 years old, under-employed, and "temporarily" living with her codependent brother Karim. But their playful, unbreakable bond is put to the test when, for the first time in his life, Karim falls head over heels in love—with Sophia's gynecologist. Almost like a breakup for Sophia, she must now start to question her life choices and face the reality that it's time to grow up. From director Monia Chokri (herself an actress, Heartbeats, Laurence Anyways), this Canadian comedy-drama opened the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival.

We are thrilled to host the U.S. Premiere of Matthias and Maxime, the latest feature from the 30-year-old French-Canadian auteur Xavier Dolan, who premiered six films in Cannes and received too many jury awards and prizes to mention. Matthias and Maxime stars Dolan and Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas in the lead roles, with longtime Dolan muse Anne Dorval playing his ailing mother.