It\u2019s hard to imagine French actress Marion Cotillard in anything remotely unserious. She has done the Oscar-winning role of Edith Piaf. In 2015, she\u2026<\/b>
\nIt\u2019s hard to imagine French actress Marion Cotillard in anything remotely unserious.
She has done the Oscar-winning role of Edith Piaf. In 2015, she was Lady Macbeth. The year before Belgium\u2019s Dardenne brothers\u2014experts at depicting the working class for celluloid\u2014stripped her of makeup and glamour for \u201cTwo Days, One Night,\u201d which critics hailed as a brilliant piece of social-realist cinema.
In a rare turnabout last year, the 42-year-old starred in \u201cRock \u2019n\u2019 Roll,\u201d opposite her real-life partner Gillaume Canet (he\u2019s also the movie\u2019s director-screenwriter). Cotillard is no stranger to comedies, but \u201cRock\u201d stands out because the couple satirizes themselves as celebrities, as well as the French show-biz scene in general.
The actress pokes fun at the serious business of being Marion Cotillard, starting with her namesake character\u2019s preference for roles that have either an accent or a disability. She\u2019s so method that she would speak nonstop in an unintelligible Canadian dialect and walk with a limp wherever she goes. In a hilariously freaky dream sequence she even does a Celine Dion, complete with wind-whipped hair and grand GIF-fable gestures.
It\u2019s thanks to the French Film Festival, whose 23rd instalment will be held in a total of five venues in Manila, Cebu and Davao for three weeks starting June 6, that Philippine audiences can watch Cotillard as comedienne.
The festival\u2019s sheer scale and diversity\u201421 titles, plus three films from the Philippines\u2014leaves more than enough room for every type of cinema-goer to broaden their experience of world cinema, especially where the nation that invented film is concerned.
Classified
With help from the Embassy of France Audiovisual Attach\u00e9 Martin Macalintal\u2019s introduction of the 2018 lineup, Super classifies the rest of this year\u2019s films so it\u2019s easier to prioritize which ones to watch. (And also because we know some of us just need to sit back, relax and enjoy a [subtitled] movie.)
For lovers of books and high art
\u201cC\u00e9zanne et moi\u201d (C\u00e9zanne and I), 2016, is a film about the friendship between two of France\u2019s most influential artists, the Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cezanne and the author Emile Zola.
For fans of jazz, music
\u201cDjango,\u201d 2016, is a biopic of jazz artist and musician Django Reinhardt who went through a whole lot of trouble to resist the Nazi propaganda\u2019s invitation for him to perform in Berlin.
For more French comedy
\u201c\u00c9pouse-moi mon pote\u201d (Marry Me, Dude), 2017, tells the story of a straight Moroccan guy who, by a stroke of bad luck, becomes an illegal immigrant in France. He solves the problem by tying the knot with his best buddy, except that an immigration officer seems to have sniffed out their fake union.
For kids and animation geeks
\u201cLouise en Hiver\u201d (Louise by the Shore), 2016, is an animated film about an elderly woman stranded on an island as winter approaches.
For the feminists, also for fans of the beautiful Ad\u00e8le Exarchopoulos
\u201cOrpheline\u201d (Orphan), 2016, depicts four stages in a woman\u2019s life: as a child, a teenage runaway, a young adult and a 40ish woman.
For the mystery junkie
\u201cPersonal Shopper,\u201d 2016, directed by Olivier Assayas, stars Kristen Stewart as, well, a personal shopper, but one with special psychic abilities. Those gifts confront her in the form of ambiguous creepy messages.
For ballet, dance enthusiasts
\u201cPolina, Danser sa Vie\u201d (Polina), 2016, depicts a gifted ballerina who has a change of heart. She ditches the Bolshoi for love and contemporary dance.
For the religious, for those who believe in the power of faith and that people\u2014even drug addicts\u2014can change
\u201cLa Pri\u00e8re\u201d (The Prayer), 2018, is about a drug user who turns to the mountains to quit his addiction, and lives among reformed druggies.
For teens, fans of science fiction
\u201cSeuls\u201d (Alone), 2014, takes us on a journey with a 16-year-old who is transported someplace desolate and hostile. She and the other youngsters she comes across must find a way to escape and survive.
For car lovers, action movie junkies
\u201cTaxi 5,\u201d 2018, is the fifth installment in this blockbuster film franchise. It stars a Peugeot and features a lot of awesome car chases.
For lovers of books, literature
\u201cUne Vie\u201d (A Woman\u2019s Life), 2015, is a period film adaptation of the classic novel \u201cUne Vie\u201d written by Guy de Maupassant.
For fashionistas
\u201cYves Saint Laurent,\u201d 2014, is a biopic of the man who founded the House of Saint Laurent, aka YSL, aided by his lover and business partner Pierre Berg\u00e9.
For film buffs, students, historians, art film connoisseurs, lovers of old movies
\u201cVoyage \u00e0 travers le cin\u00e9ma fran\u00e7ais\u201d (A Journey Through French Cinema), 2016, a documentary about French cinema, plus the films featured in the Jean-Pierre Melville Centennial Restrospective (\u201c24 Hours in the Life of a Clown,\u201d \u201cThe Silence of the Sea,\u201d \u201cBob Le Flambeur,\u201d \u201cL\u00e9on Morin, Priest,\u201d \u201cDoulos: The Finger Man,\u201d \u201cArmy of Shadows,\u201d \u201cThe Red Circle\u201d).
And, finally, to celebrate Philippine Independence Day
The festival\u2019s tribute to Philippine cinema presents Raymond Red\u2019s \u201cAnino\u201d (2000) and \u201cHimpapawid\u201d (2009), and Zig Dulay\u2019s \u201cBagahe\u201d (2017).
For venues and screening schedules, visit www.ph.ambafrance.org or @FrenchEmbassyManila on Facebook.
For inquiries, e-mail frenchfilmfest@gmail.com or call 0966-3899119.<\/p>\n

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Sentiment rank: 0.8<\/div>\n

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