THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER AND UNIFRANCE FILMS
ANNOUNCE SPECIAL EVENTS TO CELEBRATE THE 
20TH ANNIVERSARY RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA
MARCH 6-15

Includes Free Talks with Nathalie Baye, Guillaume Canet, and Mélanie Laurent, photo exhibit of influential French filmmakers, live musical performances, a retrospective of director Benoît Jacquot, and much more

New York, NY (February 18, 2015) – The 20th Anniversary of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and UniFrance films’ celebrated annual showcase of the best in contemporary French film, sweeps across screens at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the IFC Center, and BAMcinématek, March 6-15.

As previously announced, this anniversary year marks a special acknowledgment in support of French cinema with the appointment of two festival Co-Chairs, Nathalie Baye and Martin Scorsese. In addition, the Film Society and UniFrance films have added special events to the lineup, as well as partnered with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy NY and the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) on programs around town. An outline of all special events can be found below.

   FREE TALKS
Sponsored by HBO®

The 21st-Century Cinephile
In a world where images circulate ever faster and instant access is the norm, what place is there for the love of cinema? With the growth of the Internet and the preponderance of smartphones, new viewing habits have appeared. More and more, people do their watching on smaller and smaller screens, and the content itself has seen radical changes: from six-second Vines to 10-hour YouTube videos and Netflix binge-watching. Have these new practices led to a different rapport with the moving image? Can we see in this the birth of a new kind of cinephilia, fueled by new media and how younger viewers relate with the images they consume? Join a group of French and American journalists to discuss the role of cinephilia today and how France and the United States have approached fostering the love of movies in future generations.

Participants: Melissa Anderson (journalist), Thierry Lounas (SOFILM magazine), Florence Ben Sadoun (ELLE magazine), and Serge Toubiana (Cinémathèque Française)
Moderators: Isabelle Giordano, Executive Director of UniFrance films, and Dennis Lim, Director of Programming for the Film Society of Lincoln Center
*Saturday, March 7, 5:30pm
Venue: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center’s Amphitheater

Actress on Actress: Nathalie Baye & Mélanie Laurent
SK1 star Nathalie Baye, who started her career with François Truffaut, Maurice Pialat, and Jean-Luc Godard, will sit down with Breathe director Mélanie Laurent, well known for her roles in Inglourious Basterds, Beginners, and Enemy and discuss their career, working with U.S. directors, and much more. SK1 and Breathe are official selections in the 20th Anniversary Rendez-Vous with French Cinema lineup, for more information, visit filmlinc.com.
*Sunday, March 8, 5:00pm
Venue: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center’s Amphitheater

Guillaume Canet
In the Name of My Daughter, Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart
French actor/screenwriter/director Guillaume Canet will sit down with Variety critic Scott Foundas to discuss his latest films, In the Name of my Daughter by master filmmaker André Téchiné and crime thriller Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart by former Cahiers du Cinéma critic Cédric Anger. Both will premiere at Rendez-Vous with French Cinema and will yet again showcase Canet’s impressive acting skills and the layers of complexity he brings to his roles. A major figure in French cinema today, Canet will cover his career, his vision as a director, and his love of American cinema.
*Tuesday, March 10, 5:30pm
Venue: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center’s Amphitheater

Free tickets to the talks will be distributed at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center box office (144 West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam) on a first-come, first-served basis starting one hour prior to the conversations. Limit one complimentary ticket per person, subject to availability. For those unable to attend in person, video from the event will be available online at filmlinc.com.

Special Closing Night Live Musical Performance

A special live musical performance will take place on Closing Night of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, Sunday, March 15 in the Furman Gallery, comprised of a trio of musicians from LoW Entertainment, responsible for the scores of Hippocrates and Party Girl. The performance will be held as part of a celebration of composing in the films of the French New Wave, with all its eclecticism and dynamism and represented in the Closing Night selection of Reality from director Quentin Dupieux (also known as Mr Oizo in the music world) to Para One (Girlhood) to Hit & Run (responsible for the Love at First Fight score) to Flairs (The French Kissers) and Syd Matters (Heartbeat Detector). Ticket holders for the Closing Night film, Reality, can attend the event. For more information, visit filmlinc.com.

The Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York to house pop-up Galerie Cinema
created by Parisian producer Anne-Dominique Toussaint
from March 10 – April 10

The Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York will host a group photo exhibition featuring works by film directors, cinematographers, photographers, and actors such as Raymond Depardon, Agnès Godard, and Ed Lachman from March 10 to April 10, transporting the Parisian concept of the Galerie Cinema—an art gallery devoted to cinema—to a new American audience.

The French Embassy’s Stanford White designed mansion will showcase the work of directors Cédric Klapisch, Atiq Rahimi, cinematographers Ed Lachman and Agnès Godard, actors James Franco and Vincent Perez, photographers Kate Barry and Harry Gruyaert, and director-photographer Raymond Depardon.  An opening reception will take place on March 9. Parisian producer Anne-Dominique Toussaint opened the first Galerie Cinema in Paris’ Marais district in September 2013. The inaugural New York Galerie Cinema exhibition reinforces the French Embassy’s mission to promote French-American intellectual and creative exchange. The temporary New York exhibition organized with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy is made possible by Le Fonds Culturel Franco-Américain (DGA/MPA/SACEM/WGAW), Natixis, and the optics manufacturer Angénieux.  Support is provided by the Aperture Foundation and Piper-Heidsieck. The exhibit is free and open to the public, visit www.frenchculture.org for more information. 

French Institute Alliance Française  (FIAF) will present
Benoît Jacquot: Leading Ladies

The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) will present the retrospective Benoît Jacquot: Leading Ladies in conjunction with the 20th Anniversary of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. Jacquot’s latest film, 3 Hearts, will open the festival on March 6 at Alice Tully Hall, followed by a nationwide release.

Director Benoît Jacquot’s signature is undeniably his talent for directing actresses. From Léa Seydoux as Marie Antoinette’s maid, to Viginie Ledoyen as a pregnant 19-year-old, Jacquot creates vivid portraits of singular women on the brink of change. This homage to Jacquot opens with a special appearance by the director himself, introducing The Disenchanted on Tuesday, March 3. Screenings will take place every Tuesday throughout March, and will be followed by a free wine reception. Admission is free for FIAF Members, $13 for Non-Members, and $7 for students. Visit www.fiaf.org for more information.

Education

The 2015 edition of Rendez-Vous will also focus on extending special offers and collaborations with local high schools and colleges. On Monday, March 9 at 11:30am director Cédric Kahn will present to students his latest film, Wild Life, which will have its North American Premiere at this year’s festival and also received a special jury prize at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Kahn has created a riveting true story (based on the case of Xavier Fortin) of a father’s reckless but all-consuming love, and stars Mathieu Kassovitz, who gives the performance of his career, while Céline Sallette is extraordinary as the desperate mother fighting to reunite with her sons. For more information on the screening, contact Adeline Monzier, [email protected]. The New School has also collaborated with the Film Society and UniFrance to include director Cédric Anger’s film Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart in their class syllabus and will attend a screening of the film at the festival, study the filmmaking, and then write about it for their current college course.  

20×24 Exhibit

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the festival, the Film Society and the 20×24 Project have partnered to host an exhibit in the Furman Gallery, which will consist of influential French filmmakers and talent captured over the course of the last four years at the Film Society. The exhibit will include such notables as Olivier Assayas, agnès b., Isaach De Bankolé, Juliette Binoche, Bertrand Bonello, Catherine Breillat, Claire Denis, Jean Dujardin, Isabelle Huppert, François Ozon, Abderrahmane Sissako, and many more. Photographer Myrna Suarez has been the primary portraitist with occasional guest appearances by Chuck Close and Elsa Dorfman.  These images grace the walls of the Elinor Bunin Munroe and Walter Reade theaters year-round, and the collection continues to grow. The exhibit will be up for the entirety of the festival, March 6-15, and will be open during regular theater hours. Check filmlinc.com for more information. 

Special thanks to the following 20th Anniversary Rendez-Vous with French Cinema sponsors for their support: Renault-Nissan, Lacoste, Piper-Heidsieck, L’Oreal Paris, TV5 Monde, La Sacem, and to our partners the Cultural Services of the French Embassy NY and the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF).

General-public tickets for the 2015 Rendez-Vous series at all three locations will go on sale Thursday, February 19. Tickets are available online for each participating venue at filmlinc.com, ifccenter.com, and BAM.org/BAMcinematek respectively, as well as directly from the box offices. Tickets for Opening Night at Alice Tully Hall will be available online at filmlinc.com.

FSLC’s Walter Reade Theater is located at is 165 West 65th St. (between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway) and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Centers is located at 144 West 65th Street (between Amsterdam and Broadway). The IFC Center is located at 323 Sixth Ave. at West 3rd Street. BAMcinématek is located at 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn. Alice Tully Hall is located at 1941 Broadway.

ABOUT UNIFRANCE FILMS
Founded in 1949, UniFrance films is a government-sponsored association of French film industry professionals dedicated to the international promotion of French films. With offices in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Mumbai, and Beijing, UniFrance films provides financial and logistical support to theatrical distributors and major film festivals, and showcase recent French cinema throughout the world, partly through their online French film festival. For more information, visit http://en.unifrance.org/.

FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER
Founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center works to recognize established and emerging filmmakers, support important new work, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility, and understanding of the moving image. The Film Society produces the renowned New York Film Festival, a curated selection of the year’s most significant new film work, and presents or collaborates on other annual New York City festivals including Dance on Camera, Film Comment Selects, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, NewFest, New York African Film Festival, New York Asian Film Festival, New York Jewish Film Festival, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema and Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. In addition to publishing the award-winning Film Comment magazine, the Film Society recognizes an artist's unique achievement in film with the prestigious Chaplin Award, whose 2015 recipient is Robert Redford. The Film Society’s state-of-the-art Walter Reade Theater and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, located at Lincoln Center, provide a home for year-round programs and the New York City film community.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Jaeger-LeCoultre, American Airlines, The New York Times, HBO, Stella Artois, The Kobal Collection, Variety, Trump International Hotel and Tower, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com, follow @filmlinc on Twitter, and download the FREE Film Society app, now available for iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android devices.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Film Society of Lincoln Center
John Wildman, [email protected], 212/875-5419
David Ninh, [email protected], 212/875-5423

For UniFrance films please contact:
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Marian Koltai-Levine, [email protected],212/373-6130
Nina Baron, [email protected],212/373-6150
George Nicholis, [email protected], 212/373-6113

ONLINE PRESS OFFICE:
Press materials, including high-res images and press releases, are available for download at www.filmlinc.com/press.