“Today people are no longer frightened of going to see films with subtitles,” says Richard Mowe, director of the UK-wide French Film Festival.
“There have been some great French series on Netflix, and that has helped open people’s eyes to the possibilities of French cinema.”
His festival began life 30 years ago in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
A niche experience
When it started out, the idea of watching anything onscreen from beyond the UK or English-speaking countries was a niche experience.
But now look at the popularity of Scandinavian crime drama on the BBC, for starters.
It’s not unreasonable to think the French Film Festival might appeal to many more cinemagoers and film fans than it did back then.
“We had a screening in Edinburgh of a film called Maigret with Gerard Depardieu which sold out, so we put on a second screening which also sold out within a day,” says Mowe.
A thirst for new films
“We’ve had many sell-outs already, so we’re optimistic that audiences have come back from the pandemic and there’s a thirst from them to see new films, not just your average blockbuster.”
From its Scottish origins, the festival has spread out to cover the whole of the UK, with screenings from Plymouth to Shetland.
This week sees a mini-season of five intriguing films pitching up at the DCA in Dundee, all of which are very different.
“There’s one called Full Time, which is about a woman who’s desperately trying to juggle three or four jobs and get to a crucial job interview,” says Mowe.
“It takes place in a very short space of time, and it’s framed like a thriller as she tries to get across Paris.
A story of friendship
“Another movie is by the Belgian directors the Dardenne brothers, who’ve won loads of awards at the Cannes Film Festival.
“It’s called Tori and Lokita, about a friendship between a young boy and an adolescent girl who’ve travelled alone from Africa to try and carve out a new life, and the very cruel conditions of their exile.”
With a deal on any two films in the French Film Festival at DCA for £10, the schedule also includes the Isabelle Adjani-starring Peter Von Kant, a remake of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1972 classic The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant.
There’s also director Lola Quivoron’s Rodeo, about a young French woman who gets involved in the ultra-masculine world of illegal motorbike stunt riding.
“The other one is More Than Ever,” says Mowe of the final Dundee selection.
Sad and beautifully told
“It’s a tragic story of a young French woman who discovers she’s suffering from a rare lung disease, so she embarks on a journey to Norway with her boyfriend.
“It’s about them carving out the future of their relationship, which is obviously going to end, and these are their last moments together. It’s a very poignant, tear-jerking movie, but beautifully done.”
Despite the recent closure of Edinburgh’s Filmhouse and Aberdeen’s Belmont Cinema, both venues the festival had to hurriedly reschedule away from, Mowe says the response the French Film Festival has so far been very buoyant.
Some 10,000 Scottish schoolchildren are also getting to see films and use classroom learning packs based around French language and culture.
“One of the cornerstones of French-speaking cinema is the diversity of the subjects it tackles,” he says.
“You have everything from costume dramas to thrillers to contemporary dramas – you name it, French cinema covers it.”
- French Film Festival 2022 is at Dundee Contemporary Arts November 21- 26.
www.dca.org.uk, frenchfilmfestival.org.uk
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