Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2022
Tickets
Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center present 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.
Tickets are now on sale!
The 2022 Opening Night selection is Claire Denis’s Fire, featuring screen legend Juliette Binoche as Sara, navigating the reemergence of her ex-lover François (Grégoire Colin), who coincidentally contacts her partner Jean (Vincent Lindon) for a business proposition. The melancholic drama showcases Denis’s characteristic knack for capturing the intimate sensuality of everyday life, bolstered by a gorgeous score from regular collaborators Tindersticks.
Highlights of the 23-film lineup include Authentik, Audrey Estrougo’s crowd-pleasing and galvanizing biopic of rap duo Suprême NTM, offering a dynamic reconstruction of a moment in hip-hop’s global explosion; Emmanuel Carrère’s Between Two Worlds, taking inspiration from investigative journalist Florence Aubenas’s 2010 best-selling nonfiction book The Night Cleaner and a longtime passion project for star Juliette Binoche; Deception, master filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin’s adaptation of Philip Roth’s classic novel encompassing a fusion of rigorous intellectual discourse and fervid emotionality; Rendez-Vous regular Christophe Honoré’s Guermantes, cunningly shot and wonderfully imagined by Honoré’s theatrical community despite the production’s debilitating COVID delays; Hold Me Tight, Mathieu’s Amalric’s daringly fluid portrait of one woman’s fractured psyche; Antoine Barraud’s third narrative feature Madeleine Collins, equal parts drama and thriller, starring Virginie Efira (Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta); Our Men, starring director and Rendez-Vous regular Louis Garrel and directed by Rachel Lang, drawing upon her own background as an officer in the French army reserves; Paris, 13th District, Palme d’Or–winner Jacques Audiard’s exploration of casual sex, webcams, and relationships in an unsparing but nonjudgmental portrait of young Parisians; and much more.
This year’s lineup also features a number of highly anticipated debut features, including Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Anaïs in Love, which premiered in the Critics’ Week section at last year’s Cannes; Vincent Le Port’s Bruno Reidal, Confessions of a Murderer, a cold and unnervingly charged portrait of a sexually driven killer; Emilie Carpentier’s The Horizon, following disaffected teenagers discovering a sense of purpose in political engagement; Magnetic Beats; Vincent Maël Cardona’s heady, emotionally rich reconstruction of an intense moment of social and cultural change and a Directors’ Fortnight selection at last year’s Cannes; and Constance Meyer’s Robust, featuring Gérard Depardieu and a premise reminiscent of the unlikely friendship in 2012’s Rendez-Vous selection The Intouchables, but with a drier sense of humor that’s all its own.
Confirmed to appear in person at the festival are: Mathieu Amalric, Jacques Audiard, Antoine Barraud, Philippe Béziat, Juliette Binoche, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, Leyla Bouzid, Vincent Maël Cardona, Emilie Carpentier, Emmanuel Carrère, Claire Denis, Arnaud Desplechin, Eric Dumont, Déborah Lukumuena, Aurélia Georges, Axelle Ropert, with more to follow.
Free talks include a sit-down with filmmakers Claire Denis and official Guest of Honor at this year’s Rendez-Vous Jim Jarmusch, in an extended conversation about their decades-spanning careers; Juliette Binoche and Déborah Lukumuena, meeting to discuss their professional trajectories and creative influences; and “Working the image : a French-American look at cinematography,” a special panel organized in partnership with French In Motion and the Gotham Film & Media Institute and bringing together French and American filmmakers and cinematographers to discuss their varied inspirations, creative philosophies, and artistic practices.
Moviegoers will have the opportunity to recognize their favorite film in the lineup with the third annual Rendez-Vous Audience Award. This year’s festival will also feature the inaugural Best Emerging Filmmaker Award, a new initiative to bring attention to the unique cinematic point of view of emerging filmmakers and their interpretation of France’s new and diverse identities, and to encourage young people to attend the festival. Six students pursuing film and French studies degrees from NYC colleges will be invited to participate in the jury and to choose their favorite first or second feature from this year’s Rendez-Vous slate. Each jury member will receive a free all-access pass to view every screening in the festival. The jury-awarded film will be announced shortly after the end of the festival alongside the Rendez-Vous Audience Award.
Organized by Florence Almozini and Maddie Whittle, in collaboration with Unifrance.
Anaïs in Love
Q&A with Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet on March 6
Thirtysomething Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) is in a manic search for stability when she embarks on a breathless love triangle with a middle-aged publisher and his partner, a formidable literary force in her own right, in Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s effervescent feature debut.
Authentik
Q&A with editor Sophie Reine on March 8
Doing for French rap duo Suprême NTM what Straight Outta Compton did for N.W.A., Audrey Estrougo’s crowd-pleasing and galvanizing biopic is a dynamic reconstruction of a moment in hip-hop’s global explosion.
Between Two Worlds
Q&A with Juliette Binoche on March 5
When famed journalist Marianne Winckler (Juliette Binoche) goes undercover to investigate the exploitation of cleaning people in the north of France, she must grapple with the effects of her deception on the fellow workers she has come to befriend.
Bruno Reidal, Confessions of a Murderer
Deception
Q&A with Arnaud Desplechin on March 5
Love, Israel, regret, and mortality are all in the heady conversational mix in the newest drama from Arnaud Desplechin—a faithful adaptation of Philip Roth’s classic novel, whose fusion of rigorous intellectual discourse and explosive emotionality is a perfect fit for the master filmmaker.
Everything Went Fine
Gallant Indies
Q&A with Philippe Béziat on March 12
Philippe Béziat’s documentary follows a diverse troupe of dancers and singers as they prepare to mount an ambitious new production of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Les Indes galantes, transplanting the action to 21st-century France in a radical new staging that both honors and transforms the original text.
Guermantes
The Horizon
Q&A with Emilie Carpentier on March 10
Harnessing flawless performances from her young leads, first-time feature filmmaker Emilie Carpentier plunges viewers into the midst of a new generation of activists’ coming of age in this story of disaffected teenagers discovering a sense of purpose in political engagement.
Madeleine Collins
Q&As with Antoine Barraud on March 4 and March 12
Judith Fauvet (Virginie Efira) leads a double life with two families: as the mother of one girl with a partner in Switzerland, and the parent of another two sons in France. The mysterious reasons for Judith’s lies, and the complications that ensue, propel this third narrative feature from Antoine Barraud.
Magnetic Beats
Our Men
Paris, 13th District
Q&A with Jacques Audiard & Lucie Zhang on March 4
Webcams, casual sex, and the mores of modern love are all explored in this unsparing but nonjudgmental portrait of young Parisians in and out of love and lust from Palme d’Or–winner Jacques Audiard.
Petite Solange
Q&A with Axelle Ropert on March 12
Deftly transitioning from comedy to drama, director Axelle Ropert takes inspiration from The 400 Blows in this sensitive divorce drama that places children, rather than adults, at the center of unexpected familial collapse.
Rise
Robust
Q&A with Déborah Lukumuena on March 6
A past-his-prime actor (Gérard Depardieu) and the young female security guard who takes over as his assistant (Déborah Lukumuena) develop an unexpected friendship in this assured feature debut from Constance Meyer.
Secret Name
Q&A with Aurélia Georges on March 12
Loosely adapted and updated from a Wilkie Collins novel, Aurélia Georges’s latest film, about a World War I battlefield nurse (Lyna Khoudri) who assumes the identity of a patient, brings the intensity of a thriller to thoughtful historical drama.
A Tale of Love and Desire
Q&A with Leyla Bouzid on March 5
Two students from very different backgrounds, both enrolled at the Sorbonne, find themselves passionately attracted to each other in Tunisian-born writer-director Leyla Bouzid’s sophomore feature, a sensual and sensitive cross-sectional portrait of Arab diaspora life in Paris.
Touchez pas au grisbi
Introduction by Jim Jarmusch on March 4
Jacques Becker’s brilliantly crafted, surprisingly poignant crime drama features Jean Gabin in a tremendous performance that helped relaunch his sagging career, and Jeanne Moreau in one of her earliest film appearances.
Undercover
Q&A with Thierry de Peretti on March 6
The dogged, sometimes thorny relationship between a journalist and his police informant—and the consequences of their revelations—drive this methodical procedural, based on the real-life scandal that led to the indictment of a police chief for drug smuggling.Free Talks
Free Talk: Claire Denis & Jim Jarmusch
Free and open to the public!
Join Claire Denis, the singular cinematic visionary whose newest film Fire opens this year's festival, and Jim Jarmusch, American filmmaker and the official Guest of Honor at the 2022 edition, for an extended conversation about their decades-spanning careers.
Free Talk: Juliette Binoche & Déborah Lukumuena
Free and open to the public!
Actors Juliette Binoche and Déborah Lukumuena come together to discuss their professional trajectories and creative influences, their philosophies and priorities in selecting new projects, and their respective relationships with the American film industry.
Free Talk: Working the Image: A French-American Look at Cinematography
Free and open to the public! | Arnaud Desplechin, Kirsten Johnson, Ashley Connor, & Antoine Barraud
This special panel conversation will bring together French and American filmmakers and cinematographers, working across a range of genres and styles, to discuss their influences, creative philosophies, and artistic practice.Tickets are now on sale!
Tickets for the 27th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema are $17; $13 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $12 for Film at Lincoln Center members.
Opening Night tickets for Claire Denis’ Fire are $25 and $20 for all Film at Lincoln Center members. Fire is included in the Student All-Access Pass.
Update: Limited passes remain: Students can save with the discounted Student All-Access Pass for $35. Please note, Free Talks are not included in the Student All-Access Pass.
All-Access Passholders can pick up their physical pass at the box office on the day of their first screening. Passholders must present this pass for entry at each screening and will not need individual tickets.
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
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