Beleaguered fathers, eccentric midlifers, woke teenage girls from the projects—the French Film Festival returns for month-long screenings of, to borrow the words of Ambassador…
Beleaguered fathers, eccentric midlifers, woke teenage girls from the projects—the French Film Festival returns for month-long screenings of, to borrow the words of Ambassador Nicolas Galey, alternative cinema that reflects on the human condition in society.
Opening in Metro Manila right after the Father’s Day weekend, the festival’s 24th edition premiers one of two dad-centric films by Nils Tavernier. The French actor turned director-screenwriter will be walking the red carpet at tomorrow’s (June 11) gala night at Greenbelt 3, featuring his 2017 biopic “The Ideal Palace” (“L’Incroyable Histoire du Facteur Cheval”).
The film recreates the life of Ferdinand Cheval (1839-1924), the postman who built with his own bare hands—minus any formal education in architecture, design or masonry—Le Palais Idéal. It’s a real castle that’s made of pebbles and other found objects in the Hauterives commune in France, a concrete symbol as well of the potency of artistic endeavor, determination and love.
It took Cheval 33 years—a good amount of it spent enduring ridicule by his neighbors—to complete the structure he had dedicated to his daughter.
