November 14^th – 25^th

The many facets of love are something of a theme emerging from the 13th IFI French Film Festival, presenting the best in new French cinema and recalling the work of some of its greats.

Bye Bye Blondie portraits Frances and Gloria

Shown in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, where it won Best Actress for Suzanne Clément, 23-year-old writer-director Xavier Dolan’s third film,Laurence Anyways, shows a confidence and ambition unrivalled among his contemporaries. Laurence is in an exceptionally close and loving relationship with Fred when he one day announces that he wants to become a woman. Beautiful melodrama of an impossible love story.

Another favourite from Cannes, The Invisibles, focuses on eleven gay men and women over the age of 70 as they talk about their lives, thus painting a fascinating portrait of the development of French social attitudes and mores over the last 60 years. All the characters we meet have an inexhaustible drive to find happiness. A different love story unveils within one night out in Atomic Age, winner of Prix Jean Vigo 2012 andFIPRESCI Prize in Berlin – from the beautiful opening scene of two Parisian hipsters on a train we journey with them through their night out. Dreamy and highly charged! Director Héléna Klotz will be in attendance at the screening and will participate in a Q&A.

Bye Bye Blondie portraits Frances and Gloria, who met in a psychiatric hospital, where their friendship blossomed into an affair. After some years apart, the two resume their passionate if erratic relationship. Strong performances add to a story of the potency of first love. We are especially honoured to welcome actress Béatrice Dalle to the IFI for a post-screening Q&A.

Another dame of French cinema, Kristin Scott Thomas stars in Love Crime, a thriller set in the world of corporate power games, sexual tensions and boardroom humiliation.

Benoit Jacquot’s Farewell, My Queen, a fictional account of the very final days of the reign of Marie Antoinette, and her relationship with Sidonie, a lowly but trusted reader to the Queen who becomes embroiled in her love affair with Madame de Polignac, is a gripping depiction of the beginning of the end for the French aristocracy. Director Benoit Jacquot will be in attendance at the screening on November 23rd and will participate in a Q&A.

See full Programme or download our Festival Brochure (PDF).

http://www.ifi.ie/FrenchFest