TORONTO, Ontario – Whether hailing from France or Canada’s own French film capital, Quebec, French films have for years attracted large and enthusiastic Canadian audiences. Meeting the demands of French film lovers has its challenges, particularly when there are so many diverse tastes, a wide range of worthy films, and a mere three days to screen 22 films on a single screen in the heart of mid-town Toronto.
Now in its fourth year, cinéfranco is the little French film festival that could. For Marcelle Lean, founder, the challenge is clearly a labour of love – she still introduces the films at each screening and her programming is careful and wide-ranging. From tortuous dramas and historical epics to the broad, confectionery comedies that only the French seem willing to tackle these days, cinéfranco has something for every breed of French film devotee.
More intimate than the Toronto International Film Festival, yet as devoted to showcasing an eclectic range of films, cinéfranco is clearly doing something right – five of the 22 scheduled films are already sold out. This year the films traverse a typically wide range of themes and genres, including Peut-être, a light comedy starring French film icon Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Hochelaga, a biker film that explores the political drama of Quebec’s ongoing biker wars.
Since many of Lean’s programming choices provide a second (and sometimes first) opportunity to see recent French films that would otherwise not get a major release, the festival caters to a specific niche in anglo-centric Toronto. There is a built-in audience for French cinema in Toronto, a thirst for new films emerging from the international festival circuit and from emerging directors. This year, two of those directors, Gabriel Aghion (Le libertin) and Joyce Sherman Bunuel (Salsa), are expected to present their films.
Cinéfranco runs from March 29th until April 1st, 2001 at Toronto’s Cumberland 4 cinema. The complete film list is available at Hochelaga (Canada 2000) ***
Directed by Michel Jette
“Hochelaga” (Dark Souls) is the name of the biker gang in Quebec that small-time hood Marc (Dominic Darceuil) wishes to join. But ex-biker chick mother (Michele Peloquin) is against it. Part-family drama and part-action-thriller, the film is particularly successful in the way it parallels the gang’s rituals and initiation rites to those of the native Quebec Indians. The bikers have their camp fests, often sitting around doing old-school drugs like pot and hash while watching their girls mud-wrestle. Unfortunately, Jette opts for a commercial action film ending. The film won seven Prix Jutra nominations, including one for Best Film.
Qui plume la lune? (Who Plucked the Flowers off the Moon?”) (France 1999) ***
Directed by Christian Carriére<>
The relationship of a widowed father (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) and his two daughters (Garance Clavel and Elsa Dourdet) is at the centre of this dysfunctional family drama that takes the audience from the girls’ puberty to middle age. The father and girls appear perfectly happy, but they are hiding something. The film, too, is on the surface a comedy, but darker tones eventually emerge from Carriére’s brave, uncompromising film. He takes his audience for a harrowing ride, but draws and finally attaches the audience to its characters.
Peut-être (Maybe) (France 1998) **
Directed by Cedric Klapisch
This is one of those millennium films set on the New Year’s eve of 1999 that is supposed to offer some clever message and insight into the human condition. Cedric Klapisch’s (L’Air de famille and When the Cat’s Away) rather wild comedy is put in motion when young Arthur (Romain Duris) refuses to impregnate his girlfriend, Lucy (Geraldine Pailhas). He is pulled into the future where he meets his son, Ato, played by a still very vibrant Jean-Paul Belmondo. Ato is supposed to convince Arthur of the values of children, love and responsibility, but mostly to ‘do’ Lucy before he evaporates into nothingness. The idea wears thin after a while and no amount of wild antics can save the film. Even Jean-Paul Belmondo seems lost in time here.
15 fevrier 1839 (Canada 2000) **
Directed by Pierre Falardeau
Falardeau’s (Octobre, Le party) prison account of the last days of patriots De Lorimer (Luc Picard) and Hindeland (Frederic Gilles) during the 1938 rebellion offers no new insight or excitement to the political prison film genre. The prisoners know only three words in the English language: goddamn, hungry and shit. Yet “Il faut resister” (You must resist) are on the lips of every patriot prisoner. The prisoners grumble, curse, do laundry, offer monotonous monologues and await the crucial day of hanging – the 15th February of the title. The audience, in the meantime, waits for the credits to roll.
 ****<br />
Directed by Alexandre Arcady</p>
<p><I>La-Bas</I> careers back and forth in time between middle-aged, confused Pierre Nivel (Antoine de Caunes) and the rather sure-footed, younger and 18 Pierre (Francois-Xavier Noah) as they wrestle with issues of courage, love and friendship. The historical canvas is Algeria during the 1960s, as Islam extremists rage against the state. Arcady uses the love interest between young Pierre and a native Algerian (often dramatizing it) to hold the narrative together. He succeeds in what can be described as a moving and honest film about honour and lost causes. </p>
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