Adèle Haenel and Kévin Azaïs in Love at First Fight
Two Rendez-Vous with French Cinema films took home multiple prizes at the recent César Awards in Paris. Thomas Cailley's Love at First Fight (Les Combattants) won Best Debut Feature, Best Actress for Adèle Haenel, as well as Best Male Newcomer for Kevin Azaïs. Thomas Lilti's Hippocrates, meanwhile, won in the Best Supporting Actor category for Reda Kateb. The Césars are France's equivalent to the Oscars, presented by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma.
[Related: 22 Premieres Set for 20th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in March]
Hippocrates centers on Benjamin, who is sure he is destined to be a great doctor. But his first experience as junior doctor in his father's service, the Professor Barois, does not turn out the way he hoped it would. Benjamin will be brutally confronted with his own limits, his fears, those of his patients, families, doctors, and the staff.
In Love at First Fight, Arnaud is looking forward to a peaceful summer revolving around friends and the family business. He, however, runs into Madeleine, a beautiful but brusque woman who is full of doomsday prophecies. He expects nothing, but she prepares for the worst. While he takes things as they come and is alway ready for a laugh, she fights, swims and pushes herself to the limit. It's a love story, or a story of survival—or both.
Lasting an impressive four hours on February 20, the César Awards were filled with surprises this year, from Kristen Stewart's win for Best Supporting Actress in Clouds of Sils Maria to the sweep for Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako's Timbuktu, taking seven Césars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent took home Best Costume. The three films had their U.S. premieres at the New York Film Festival last fall. Canadian director Xavier Dolan's Mommy won Best Foreign Film at the awards. Mommy recently played as a first-run release at the Film Society.
The U.S. premiere of Benoît Jacquot's 3 Hearts will open the 20th anniversary edition of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema festival on March 6, and Quentin Dupieux's Reality will close the event on March 15. Twenty-two features and four short films will screen during the event, making their New York, U.S., or North American premieres. Rendez-Vous is presented by UniFrance and the Film Society.
