For the seventh consecutive year, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Unifrance and its USA delegation presents, with the support of the French Embassy’s cultural services, the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.
From March 8 through 17, 14 French films will receive their premier screenings in New York at the Walter Reade Theater. The selection:
- “Chaos” by Coline Serreau
- “Cet Amour-là” by Josée Dayan
- “Les Destinées sentimentales” by Olivier Assayas (American distributor: Wellspring)
- “Dieu est grand, je suis toute petite” by Pascale Bailly
- “Far Away” by André Téchiné
- “Inch’Allah Dimanche” by Yamina Benguigui
- “The Kid from Paris” by Christian Carion
- “The Newcomer” by Claude Miller
- “The Officers’ Ward” by François Dupeyron
- “The Pornographer” by Bertrand Bonello
- “Read My Lips” by Jacques Audiard
- “Tanguy” by Étienne Chatiliez
- “Tosca” by Benoît Jacquot
- “The Wimbledon Stage” by Mathieu Amalric
Jeanne Moreau, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Béart, Mathieu Amalric, Olivier Assayas, Jacques Audiard, Pascale Bailly, Yamina Benguigui, Bertrand Bonello, Christian Carion, Étienne Chatiliez, Josée Dayan, Benoît Jacquot and Claude Miller will be attending.
This sixth edition occurs at a very positive time for French film in the United States. “Amelie from Montmartre” is in the running for 5 Oscars, while “No Man’s Land”, a French coproduction, has been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, after winning the Golden Globe in the same category. “Murder on a Sunday Morning”, a French/American coproduction, has been nominated for Best Documentary Feature.
2001 was a bumper year for French films in the United States, the best in a decade, with 35 films grossing $67m. French-language films earned more than $23m in 2001 (a 170% increase on 2000 figures), with 5 films grossing more than $1m: “Amelie from Montmartre”, “The Closet”, “Harry is Here to Help”, “The Widow of Saint Pierre” and “Under the Sand”. French productions in a foreign language also take pride of place at the North American box office with a total of $44 m, including 3 films grossing more than $2m: “Kiss of the Dragon”, “Just Visiting” and “Himalaya”.
Many other French films also won over American audiences in 2001: “At the Height of Summer”, “Intimacy”, “The Taste of Others”, “Lumumba”, “Who Knows”, “Our Lady of the Assassins”, etc.
2002 has also got off to a great start with the success of “Brotherhood of the Wolf”, which should gross $10m at the box office.
