The sixth annual Festival of New French Cinema, presented by Facets Multimedia Center and French Cultural Services in Chicago, runs Friday through Thursday, December 6 through 12, at Facets Cinematheque, 1517 W. Fullerton. Unless otherwise noted, films are in French with subtitles. Tickets are $7, $5 for Facets members; for more information call 773-281-4114.
An Outgoing Woman
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A woman in a provincial town (Agnes Jaoui, from Un air de famille) learns of her husband’s adultery and angrily discards her disciplined, middle-class facade for a volatile, dangerous life of club hopping, one-night stands, and sexual experimentation. This 1999 French drama by Christophe Blanc charts the wife’s gradual disintegration with restless but probing camerawork that recalls A Woman Under the Influence, and like Cassavetes’s actors, Jaoui burrows into the role: her disorderly air, her hateful glances at her ex, and her temper tantrums all signal self-destruction on a path that initially held the promise of liberation. Unfortunately the script, cowritten by Blanc, becomes repetitive and stretches scenes well past their point; instead of understanding or empathizing with the woman’s boredom, we end up sharing it. 118 min. (TS) (9:00)
The Crossing
The French title–which translates as “Poetical Refugee”–more aptly describes this lackadaisical narrative about a hunky and sincere Tunisian immigrant to Paris (Sami Bouajila) who hooks up with two sexually enticing women: a statuesque single mother (Aure Atika) who agrees to an arranged marriage but walks out at the last minute and then a charming but unbalanced nymphomaniac (Elodie Bouchez from The Dreamlife of Angels) who follows him around the streets of Paris. This 2000 feature by Abdel Kechiche, an award winner at the Venice film festival, contains some strong character work, particularly from Bruno Lochet as the middle-aged ringleader of a group of derelicts and Bouchez as the urgent young castabout. The abrupt ending only underscores the fact that there wasn’t much of a plot to begin with, but this offers an interesting look at street life in contemporary Paris. 130 min. (JJ) (9:00)
Damien Odoul directed this 2001 black-and-white feature about a young punk coming of age on his uncle’s farm. 71 min. (5:00)
See Critic’s Choice. (7:00)
