Q&A with Serge Bozon at  April 15 screening.

When college ladies man Edouard (Guillaume Verdier) falls into a catatonic state following a breakup, his two soldier brothers (played by Bozon and Laurent Lacotte) arrive to nurse his recovery. Periodically, everyone breaks into stylized dance numbers set to the music of garage rock maestros Phil and the Frantics, The Seeds, and many more. Bozon’s dazzlingly original and assured second feature feels in many ways like a dress rehearsal for La France with its playful spin on the eternal themes of love, valor and compassion.

SCREENING WITH

Étoile violette
Axelle Ropert, 2005, France, 35mm; 45m

Seeking erudition, a lonely tailor (Bozon) enrolls in a night-school literature course on “the solitude of Jean-Jacques Rousseau” and soon finds himself communing with the spirit of the great Enlightenment thinker himself (memorably incarnated by Fists in the Pocket star Lou Castel). La France and Mods screenwriter Ropert’s directorial debut is an enormously charming modern fable, backed up by a terrific folk music soundtrack featuring Shirley Collins, Jackson C. Frank and Devendra Banhart.