Thursday, November 10 marked the inauguration in Seoul of the French Cinema Tour in South Korea, a new event that offers Korean audiences in seven cities a selection of ten French films, accompanied by a delegation of actors and directors.
Created on the initiative of the French Embassy in Seoul, the French Cinema Tour in South Korea were held, for the first time this, year from November 10 through 23, 2016, in the presence of the French artists Danièle Thompson, Marthe Villalonga, Pascale Pouzadoux, Lou Roy-Lecollinet, Thomas Bidegain, and Christian Desmares, as well as Frédéric Bereyziat, deputy general director of Unifrance.
A selection of ten French films were presented to South Korean audiences, who have a long-standing reputation as movie-enthusiasts: South Koreans see an average of 4.23 films at theaters each year, one of the highest rates in the world. French cinema is well-represented in South Korea, with 46 films released in 2015, garnering 3.6 million admissions. South Korea ranks as French films' second biggest Asian market in terms of movie attendance after China, but ahead of Japan.
With a similar format to the "Tour de Cine Francés" festival held in Mexico—which has now become the world's largest film festival dedicated to French cinema in terms of attendance figures, with 410,000 spectators registered in the recent 2016 festival—the films showcased at this new event will travel around South Korea via the CGV cinema network, South Korea's leading exhibitor.
Following the festival's opening ceremony in Seoul on November 10, which features a screening of Cézanne and I, the films travelled to Busan, Daejeon, Gwagju, Gyeonggi, Daegu, and Cheonan.
The following ten films were screened at the event, some of which were accompanied by their directors and key cast members:
- Penny Pincher! by Fred Cavayé
- The Final Lesson by Pascale Pouzadoux, screened in the presence of the director and Marthe Villalonga
- Monsieur Chocolat by Roschdy Zem
- Cowboys by Thomas Bidegain, screened in his presence
- Cézanne and I by Danièle Thompson, screened in her presence
- Eternity by Trần Anh Hùng
- Personal Shopper by Olivier Assayas
- April and the Extraordinary World by Franck Ekinci and Christian Desmares, screened in the presence of Franck Ekinci
- My Golden Days by Arnaud Desplechin, screened in the presence of Lou Roy-Lecollinet
- Slack Bay by Bruno Dumont
Media Gallery
Danièle Thompson
Marthe Villalonga
Thomas Bidegain
Pascale Pouzadoux
Lou Roy-Lecollinet
Christian Desmares
Bong Joon-Ho
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