As many New Yorkers may be aware, a mini-festival entitled Rendezvous with French Cinema is currently being held in New York City at multiple venues. Gallic star, Audrey Tautou, has crossed the Atlantic to “present” her native cinema, as she expressed prior to a recent promotional screening of the new French film ‘Populaire’ at the Paris Theatre in Midtown Manhattan, when correcting a reporter who had inquired if she was in New York to “defend” it. Participating locations for the festival include the IFC Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Regardless of what Tautou embodies to the typical film lover, it cannot be denied such an event is intended to help promote the recognition of cinema as an art form. Certainly, there are numerous films in the festival worth watching. You can find the full schedule at their website, http://rendezvouswithfrenchcinema.com.
For many here in New York, the evening’s host, Tautou, represents European cinema’s new trend, having starred in such box office hits as Amelie and A Very Long Engagement, both directed by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, as well as a recent American-inspired romantic comedy, ‘Délicatesse’. Following in a line of actors and actresses which includes but is not limited to Gérard Depardieu, Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, and Brigitte Bardot, Tautou has come to symbolize French cinema in the past decade. Screening during this festival, is Tautou’s representation of Francois Mauriac’s Thérèse Desqueyroux. Mauriac’s mid-century attack on complacent bourgeois values was competently adapted by the late Claude Miller with Tautou in the starring role as a depressed and conveniently married, chain-smoking woman somewhere under the age of forty. She wishes to escape the confines of her comfortable yet emotionally crippling upper middle class surroundings in 1920s France. The film contains visually pleasing cinematography along with exquisite set pieces. Tautou reveals her strengths as an actress in this literary adaptation.
Whatever one has to say on the subject, it is clear New Yorkers love French cinema. Tautou was sure to acknowledge this as she attended the ‘Populaire’ premiere wearing a provocative black frock. If one wanted to over think things, could it be concluded her donning such a garment is indicative of the French propensity for sexual candor?
