French films...

The French take their cinema very seriously

So much so that as I sat down in my comfortably large red seat at the local Callac cinema I had the sudden overwhelming feeling that I should have been wearing a short black skirt, black stockings and a striped sweater

and smoking a Gauloise...

It was a far cry from my last visit to an English cinema to see The Da Vinci Code when I consumed a large tub of ice-cream (chocolate mint chip, strawberry and vanilla) and then promptly fell asleep and snored most unattractively through to the end of the film

So such relaxed and disrespectful behaviour is not acceptable in France, s'il vous plaît!

Our local cinema is very worthy.
Films start at 8:30pm
One showing a night
and not a tub of popcorn, cup of coke or an ice cream in sight

The French in this region eat their dinner and then go to the cinema so why would they need to sit munching unhealthy, fatty, cholesterol and chemical-laden 'snacks'?

The French state has always viewed the cinema as a medium for the creation and promotion of a certain image of France and for the promotion of the French language. (I have never known a country to be so proud of its language, one of the reasons why I sit here in a rain-sodden corner of rural Brittany). "Through selective subsidy for films of artistic merit, and through the promotion of support for distribution, dubbing and sub-titling, as well as quotas of films screened on nTV, the French govermenment has been at the forefront of the defence of national and European cinema against Hollywood dominance." (French Society and Culture)

AFAE (l’Association Française des Cinémas d’Art & d’Essai ) was founded in 1955

Poursuivant l’ambition de ses fondateurs de mieux défendre le cinéma qu’ils aimaient, d’en élargir l’audience, en se coordonnant pour se renforcer, l’Association Française des Cinémas d’Art & d’Essai rassemble aujourd’hui dans sa diversité l’ensemble du mouvement Art & Essai. Elle regroupe 1000 cinémas, avec plus de 2000 salles, réparties sur l’ensemble du territoire français et dans toutes les zones géographiques : centre des grandes villes, périphéries ou zones rurales. Près de 20 associations régionales ou départementales de cinémas en font partie.L’AFCAE est également membre fondateur de la CICAE, Confédération Internationale des Cinémas d’Art & d’Essai, réseau international qui rassemble aujourd’hui 3000 écrans dans 28 pays

Sa Vocation

L’AFCAE constitue un réseau de salles à la fois indépendantes et singulières, au service d’intérêts communs :
Défendre le pluralisme des lieux de diffusion, indispensable à la diversité des œuvres.
Promouvoir un cinéma indépendant qui relève de toutes les créations, en toute liberté.
Présenter et soutenir des œuvres de qualité, les aider à trouver des lieux d’exposition et à rencontrer le public.
Favoriser leur circulation dans la durée et en profondeur sur l’ensemble du territoire.
Coordonner des actions au niveau national, entre des indépendants, par une mise en réseau des moyens.
Entretenir un rapport privilégié avec les auteurs, leur permettre l’accès à un public plus large pour qu’ils trouvent les moyens de faire de nouveaux films.
Encourager l’animation de lieux vivants, de proximité, qui favorisent l’échange, la réflexion et les valeurs culturelles.
Développer une action de formation des publics et notamment envers les plus jeunes, qui constituent le public de demain.
Contribuer à la diffusion des films du répertoire en salles.

Serious stuff, worthy of the short black skirt, n'est-ce pas?

I was in Callac with my Zen Buddy CG to see Dans La Vie.

I have to say that she was taking a risk. My reputation as a selector of good films has taken a battering recently after I took a gentle and polite couple to see a dreadful film about a young woman gang-master, treated The Someone to a film that was mostly in an Australian aboriginal language with French sub-titles and then, the piece de la resistance (no accents, can't be bothered), persuaded the gentle hippies + 2 to come see Sweeney Todd with me. That was such a horrific experience that one friend fled after five minutes and I haven't seen her since

Dans La Vie was good

"Esther, une femme âgée de confession juive, a besoin d'une assistance permanente. Mais elle use ses gardes-malades, du fait de sa mauvaise humeur, et la dernière en date vient de démissionner. Elie, le fils d'Esther, ne sait plus quoi faire. Sélima, l'infermière du jour, propose sa mère, Halima, musulman pratiquante.

Contre tout attente, une vraie complicité se crée entre les duex femmes. Halima sait se faire appreciér et respecter. Pleine d'énergie, elle redonne à Esther le goût de vivre."

I wasn't expecting to watch the film in the company of the director though this is, I have to say, quite common in France, nor to have him stand up at the end to discuss the film and answer questions

(I told you I should have been wearing a short black skirt, black stocking and a striped sweater and smoking a Gauloise, oui?)

I wish that I had had the courage to stand up and speak. I'm not generally known for biting my tongue (witness my 'discussion' with a friend at a recent crepes evening in the village hall when we 'debated' the pros and cons of fox hunting) but even I was squashed into silence by the prospect of criticising a French film director's take on his own film, in French!

Suffice to say that I appeared to be alone in seeing the film not so much as a portrayal of Arab/Israeli differences and how two women overcame them but more as an example of how women talk, relate and bond while their menfolk get all macho and hormonal and go to war

and whilst we saw many glimpses of the world of the French muslims, that of the French Jews was distinctly lacking (save for a brief encounter in a kosher shop) and I would have loved to have asked the director why that was...

But I am no film critic and, when it comes to standing up in a packed cinema and criticising the film, I am no heroine either

PS The short black skirt?
It still fits, mon dieu!