Presented by Facets Cinematheque and the French Cultural Services in Chicago, the seventh annual Festival of New French Cinema runs Friday through Thursday,
Gerard Bitton and Michel Munz’s spirited romp (2002) stars Jean-Pierre Darroussin as an unsuccessful salesman of beauty products who alienates his long-suffering wife (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) with his spending. The couple agree to separate as the husband’s boss develops a passion for the wife; then the husband wins 10 million euros in the lottery and, eager to conceal it from the divorce lawyer, maintains a workingman’s facade while furtively living it up. Pointed observations about sex, marriage, and work animate the film, but the coarseness of the humor ultimately derails this comedy aimed at a beleaguered middle class. 100 min. (Andrea Gronvall) (7:00)
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With nods to Bob le flambeur, Belle de jour, and Goodfellas, director-cowriter Sam Karmann examines a week in the lives of some affable small-time crooks who hang out at a Parisian dive owned by an ex-con. Slackers of the criminal underclass, they’re long on talk and short on action, except for the two youngest, a dreamer (Jacques Gamblin) and a live wire (Clovis Cornillac) who are itching for a big score. They get bolder when an old pro (Gerard Lanvin in a Jean Reno-esque part) returns from prison, and as some menacing former associates pursue him while the kids look to make their move, the passing of each day raises the ante. There’s also romance, both sweet and sad; compulsion vies with honor among these thieves, and though love may not conquer all, it does offer hope. 100 min. (Andrea Gronvall) (9:15)
Severine Cancele (L’humanite) is a former factory worker incarcerated at a women’s prison; Sophie Leboutte plays her former colleague, who faces a similarly oppressive environment on the factory floor, in this feature directed by Benedicte Lienard, a former assistant to the Dardenne brothers. 85 min. (1:00)
A Real Man
- Feathers in My Head
A man and a woman suffering from amnesia (Bernard Campan and Isabelle Carre) meet at a clinic in this comedy-drama (2002) by Zabou Breitman (who also plays a doctor’s assistant at the clinic). The film won a Cesar, as did Carre and Bernard Le Coq, who plays the doctor. In French and Yiddish with subtitles. 110 min. (5:15)
