Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2019
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Rendez-Vous with French Cinema returns in February with another edition that exemplifies the variety and vitality of contemporary French filmmaking. The films on display, by emerging talents and established masters, raise ideas both topical and eternal, and many take audiences to entirely unexpected places. Highlights from recent Rendez-Vous with French Cinema editions include Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama, Julia Ducournau’s Raw, Bruno Dumont’s Jeannette, The Childhood of Joan of Arc, Robin Campillo’s Eastern Boys, Justine Triet’s Victoria, and Mathieu Amalric’s Barbara. Co-presented with UniFrance Films, the 24th edition of Rendez-Vous will demonstrate that the landscape of French cinema is as fertile, inspiring, and distinct as ever.
Organized by Dennis Lim and Florence Almozini
Explore the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema brochure flipbook or read below.
The Trouble with You
Introductions by Pierre Salvadori and Pio Marmaï on Feb. 28 · N.Y. Premiere · Opening Night
After learning that her late husband’s golden reputation is totally fabricated, a police investigator (Adèle Haenel) makes unconventional amends in the latest comic whirlwind from Pierre Salvadori. Screens with the short Les Indes galantes.
The 400 Blows
Introduction by Russell Banks and Serge Toubiana
When film critic François Truffaut was challenged to put into practice what he’d been preaching, he chose to tell the story of Antoine Doinel, a 13-year-old wild child in Paris whose adventures were based on his own adolescence.
Amanda
U.S. Premiere · Q&A with Mikhaël Hers on March 2
In Mikhaël Hers’s touching story of trauma and resilience, David (Vincent Lacoste) assumes new responsibility for his niece as a potential guardian.
Coincoin and the Extra-Humans
U.S. Premiere
Ectoplasmic gunk falls from the sky and identical twins materialize without warning in Bruno Dumont’s new absurdist epic, his sequel to 2014’s Li’l Quinquin.
The Freshmen
New York Premiere
Hippocrates director Thomas Lilti again draws upon his experience as a doctor for this affectionate tale of two medical-school freshmen (Vincent Lacoste and William Lebghil) who become fast friends and study partners.
Girls of the Sun
Q&A with Eva Husson on March 3
An unshakable Golshifteh Farahani holds the center of Eva Husson’s Girls of the Sun as the commander of an all-female unit of resistance fighters in Iraqi Kurdistan, whose resolve catches the attention of a French war journalist (Emmanuelle Bercot).
In Safe Hands
Q&A with Élodie Bouchez
Jeanne Henry crafts a story stemming from a delicate two-and-a-half-month state of limbo for a newborn child, Théo, who becomes a ward of the state after his mother gives him up for adoption at birth.
Invisibles
Q&A with Louis-Julien Petit, Deborah Lukumuen & Corinne Masiero on March 7 · North American Premiere
With pathos and institutional nuance, Louis-Julien Petit’s third social-realist drama transforms its source nonfiction text by Claire Lajeunie into a spirited ensemble piece about a daytime shelter for homeless women.
Keep an Eye Out!
New York Premiere
The ever-unpredictable Quentin Dupieux sets this intimately scaled bottle narrative in the basement of a police station, where an endless interrogation session twists into something more off-kilter.
Mademoiselle de Joncquières
Q&A with Emmanuel Mouret on March 1
The widowed Madame de La Pommeraye (Cécile de France) concocts an elaborate revenge plot to sabotage an ex-lover (Edouard Baer) in this deliciously calculating twist on Denis Diderot’s Jacques the Fatalist.
Maya
Q&A with Mia Hansen-Løve on March 6 · New York Premiere
A war journalist (Roman Kolinka, Things to Come) copes with trauma by decamping to India, where he spent his childhood. As he strikes up a rapport with his godfather’s daughter (Aarshi Banerjee), Mia Hansen-Løve thoughtfully probes the private intricacies of rehabilitation.
Meteorites
North American Premiere
After 16-year-old Nina (Zéa Duprez) sees a meteorite fall from the sky, she can’t find any physical evidence to prove what she witnessed. Instead, the mysterious event catalyzes an exploratory and quietly momentous summer in Romain Laguna’s atmospheric first feature.
Paul Sanchez Is Back!
Q&A with Patricia Mazuy on November 16
A young police officer (César-winner Zita Hanrot, Fatima) is the only one on the force who believes that a notorious murderer has resurfaced ten years after he vanished without a trace. Also starring Elle’s Laurent Lafitte, and featuring Mazuy’s third collaboration with composer John Cale. A 2019 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema selection.
Raising Colors
Q&A with Hélène Fillières on March 3 · U.S. Premiere
Actress Hélène Fillières’s second feature-film outing as a director, set at a training facility for the French Navy, captures a palpable electricity within one female trainee’s search for self.
School’s Out
Q&A with Sébastien Marnier on March 9 · North American Premiere
In Sébastien Marnier’s sophomore thriller, Pierre Hoffman (Laurent Lafitte, Elle) is called in as a long-term substitute for a class whose teacher has committed suicide. He becomes obsessed with this mysteriously affectless group, seemingly undisturbed by physical violence.
Sink or Swim
Sophia Antipolis
North American Premiere · Presented by Film Comment
Virgil Vernier's richly textured sophomore feature takes stock of the state of the French socioeconomic order as embodied by the eponymous, dystopian business park and an eclectic ensemble of cult members, militiamen, and more.
The Summer House
U.S. Premiere
Playing a filmmaker whose family is coping with loss during an annual summer vacation, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (A Castle in Italy) invites autobiographical readings in her new feature while also complicating the idea of art as personal exorcism.
The Time of the Pirates
North American Premiere
Gaël Lépingle’s first fiction feature sees Géro, a spunky community theater owner in the Loire Valley, plot an idiosyncratic defense against a local government that plans to demolish his home.
The Truk
Q&As with Sarah Marx on March 6 & 10 · North American Premiere
A young man (Sandor Funtek), released early from prison, concocts a desperate plan to afford proper care for his clinically depressed mother (Sandrine Bonnaire) in Sarah Marx’s stinging debut feature.
When Margaux Meets Margaux
Q&A with Sophie Fillières and Agathe Bonitzer on March 1 · New York Premiere
This charming and lightly fantastical tale from Sophie Fillières (If You Don’t, I Will, Rendez-Vous 2014) stages a chance meeting between an impulsive but aimless twentysomething and a disenchanted fortysomething who just might be the same person.
Whatever Happened to My Revolution
North American Premiere
The playful and passionate feature directorial debut of actress Judith Davis follows an idealistic urban planner, played by Davis herself, into a contemporary Paris that missed the revolutionary memo, long after the movements sparked by May ’68 have faded into history.Free Talks
Free Talk: Russell Banks and Paul Schrader
Free and open to the public! · Presented by HBO
As UniFrance’s American ambassador for the 2019 edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, renowned novelist and poet Russell Banks will sit down with Paul Schrader.
Free Talk: New French Comedies
Free and open to the public! · Presented by HBO
Special guests of this year’s edition will discuss the many themes and perspectives of humor that have emerged in recent French films; comedy’s role in addressing social and political issues; and the process of writing, directing, and acting for laughs.
Free Talk: Filming Abroad
Free and open to the public! · Presented by HBO, in partnership with French in Motion
In response to a rapidly globalizing community in the film industry, a selection of French and American professionals will discuss the ethics of filmmaking abroad.Tickets are now on sale! To begin the purchase process, log in to your account. Don’t have an account? Sign up for one today.
To purchase tickets to individual films, please click on the “Films” or “Schedule” tabs at the top of this page and then click on your desired films or showtimes.
Student All-Access Pass – Are you a student? See everything in the series for $50. (Excludes Opening Night. Student ID required. Quantities are limited.) Emerging critics under 30 also invited to submit a review of any film in the festival and enter to win a trip to Paris.
Members get $5 off tickets! Not a member? Take advantage of discounted tickets, early access periods, complimentary offers year-round, and more by becoming one today! Join here.
Tickets
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2022
Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center announce the complete lineup for the 27th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, the celebrated annual festival that exemplifies the variety and vitality of contemporary French filmmaking, taking place March 3–13. Read More
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2020
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema returns in March with another edition that exemplifies the variety and vitality of contemporary French filmmaking. Read More
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2019
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema returns in February with another edition that exemplifies the variety and vitality of contemporary French filmmaking. Read More
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2018
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema returns in March with another edition that exemplifies the variety and vitality of contemporary French filmmaking. Read More
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2017
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema returns in March with another edition that exemplifies the variety and vitality of contemporary French filmmaking. The films on display, by emerging talents and established masters, raise ideas both topical and eternal, and many take audiences to entirely unexpected places. Read More
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2016
North America’s leading showcase for the best in French film, co-presented with UniFrance and opening with Guillaume Nicloux’s Valley of Love starring Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert, demonstrates that the landscape of French cinema has never been more fertile, and the voices issuing from it never more diverse. Read More
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2015
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema returns with another program of features and shorts that exemplify today’s most innovative French artistry. Co-presented with Unifrance Films, Rendez-Vous demonstrates that the landscape of French cinema has never been more fertile, and the voices issuing from it never more diverse. Read More
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2014
This edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, a co-presentation of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance Films, attests to the sheer variety and vitality of contemporary French filmmaking. The lineup includes established masters, critics’ favorites, and actor-turned-directors who have fully come into their own as filmmakers, alongside some of the emerging talent from what has been called France’s next New Wave. Read More
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2013
French cinema is as varied and vital as ever in 2013, and this year’s edition of Rendez-vous with French Cinema covers the wide spectrum from grand and engaging entertainments to the work of uncompromising auteurs, rising independent voices, and master filmmakers. Presented by Unifrance Films and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Read More
