The Alliance Française French Film Festival will return to Palace Cinemas throughout March and April with a host of contemporary movies and documentaries exemplifying the very best of France’s vibrant film industry.
Brimming with highlights, the 2017 event will present 45 films, unveiling the artistry of renowned directors ranging from Emmanuelle Bercot, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Nicole Garcia, Benoît Jacquot and Mia Hansen-Løve, to Philippe Lioret, Martin Provost, Jérôme Salle, Bertrand Tavernier and Roschdy Zem.
Helming the Festival for the first time, Artistic Director, Philippe Platel, has assembled a brilliant programme encompassing romance, adventure, comedy, historical tales, thrillers and dramas, that will be showcased across 10 aptly named sections, incorporating many Australian première screenings.Treats awaiting audiences include It’s Only the End of the World (Juste la fin du monde), which garnered director Xavier Dolan the Grand Prize of the Jury at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival; the multi-award winning Things to Come (L’avenir) starring Isabelle Huppert; the deliciously comedic Slack Bay (Ma Loute); Planetarium, from writer/director Rebecca Zlotowski in which Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Depp portray sisters surviving as mediums in 1930s Paris; The Odyssey (L’Odyssée), starring Lambert Wilson and Audrey Tautou as famed oceanic adventurers Jacques-Yves and Simone Cousteau; director Anne Fontaine’s haunting 1940s drama The Innocents (Les innocentes) and The Dancer (La Danseuse), the story of Loïe Fuller, the toast of the Folies Bergères and embodiment of the Art Nouveau movement.
The French Film Festival 2017 will screen between the 7th and 30th March at Palace Norton Street, Palace Verona, the Chauvel and the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace.