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New New Wave

NEW NEW WAVE

 

Young, irreverent, energetic and groundbreaking, the enthusiasm with which new French filmmakers were greeted by critics in the early 1990s suggested both a moment of reinvigoration and a sense of deja vu: was French cinema seeing the reincarnation of the New Wave of the 1960s? Rejecting what some saw as the shallow aestheticism of the cinéma du look of the 1980s, the arrival of le jeune cinéma heralded a major turning point and a new realism in French filmmaking. The banner films such as  La Haine 1995, Will It Snow for Christmas? 1996 and Western 1997 took spectators away from bourgeois inner-city Paris to document life on the periphery, offering an intimacy and honesty born of close relationship between the directors’ own lives and the stories recounted. Personal, original, multifaceted and multiethnic, the 1990s brought about a New New Wave in the image of contemporary France.

Production still On the Run (Cavale)

On the Run (Cavale) 2002 Ages 18+
35MM, 117 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY DIGITAL, FRANCE/BELGIUM, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / LUCAS BELVAUX
The second in a trilogy directed by Belgian filmmaker Lucas Belvaux all recounting the same story through different perspectives and genres. Belvaux himself stars in this thriller about Bruno, a former ‘70s left wing revolutionary jailed for the bombing of a bank. Three decades later, Bruno escapes and tries to reconnect with his old militant colleagues in Grenoble, only to realize that their lives, and the outside world, have changed radically. A tense, exciting, intelligent thriller about the changing nature of politics and human relationships. JH
Fri 12 Oct 6.00pm / Cinema A

Production still from The Right of the Weakest (La Raison du Plus Faible)

The Right of the Weakest (La Raison du Plus Faible) 2006 Ages 18+
35MM, 116 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY SR/DTS, BELGIUM/FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / LUCAS BELVAUX
In a depressed provincial Belgian town, Marc, a former jailed bank robber befriends a group of largely unemployed men who meet daily in a local brasserie to play cards. When one of their friends falls upon financial hardship, Marc becomes their ticket to a better life through the robbery of the local factory. Part thriller, part social realist drama, Belvaus also stars in this touching homage to ordinary people who turn to desperate measures in difficult times. JH
Wed 19 Sept 6.00pm / Cinema A

Production still from The Other Side of the Sea (L’Autre Coté de la Mer)

The Other Side of the Sea (L’Autre Coté de la Mer) 1997 Ages 18+
35MM, 92 MINS, COLOUR, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / DOMINIQUE CABRERA
Celebrated Algerian-born documentary director Dominique Cabrera’s first feature is a complex melodrama about Franco-Algerian relations. Georges is an ageing pied-noir industrialist who stayed in Algeria after the war of independence. He travels Paris for a cataract operation where he is cared for by doctor Tarek, who has lost all contact with the culture of his parents. An unlikely bond develops between himself and the young beur doctor in this captivating story of displacement and disorientation, haunted by the violence of the past. JH
Fri 16 Nov 6.00pm / Cinema A

Production still from Bye-bye

Bye-bye 1995 Ages 18+
35MM, 104 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY, FRANCE/BELGIUM/SWITZERLAND, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / KARIM DRIDI
Following a tragic family death, Ismael drives to Marseilles with his young teenage brother Mouloud to stay with their uncle’s family. Ismael finds work and new friends, but his brother through a drug-dealer cousin discovers Marseilles’ criminal underworld. This important contribution to the cinéma beur (French-Arabic cinema) which came to prominence in France in the 1980s and 1990s features an impressive performance by Sami Bouajila, one of France’s key beur actors. JH
Wed 21 Nov 6.00pm / Cinema A

Production still from Jeanne and the Perfect Guy (Jeanne et le Garçon Formidable)

Jeanne and the Perfect Guy (Jeanne et le Garçon Formidable) 1998 Ages 18+
35MM, 98 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY, FRANCE, FRENCH/ENGLISH, SUBTITLED / OLIVIER DUCASTEL, JACQUES MARTINEAU
The spirit of the New Wave lives on—and is completely transformed—in Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau’s irresistible transportation of the Jacques Demy-style musical to the new millennium.  Jeanne and the Perfect Guy follows the trials of the gorgeous Jeanne who has several boyfriends, but falls for the charming Olivier, played by Mathieu Demy.  When Oliver reveals that he is HIV positive, Jeanne resolves to stick by him.  Both hilarious and heartbreaking, Jeanne and the Perfect Guy stands as a testament to the wit and ingenuity of the New New Wave.
Wed 24 Oct 6.00pm / Cinema A

Production still from The Life of Jesus (La Vie de Jésus)

The Life of Jesus (La Vie de Jésus) 1997 Ages 18+
35MM, 96 MINS, COLOUR, FRANCE, FRENCH/ARABIC, SUBTITLED / BRUNO DUMONT
Freddo, a young teenage epileptic in the depressed northern French town of Bailleul divides his time between his moped gang, the local marching band, and his girlfriend Marie. Freddo’s world changes with the arrival of Khader, a teenage moped rider of North African parentage who takes an interest in Marie. A story of revenge and, surprisingly, redemption, in a film whose stark realism—including a cast made up of non-professionals—is indicative of the le jeune cinéma français. JH
Fri 23 Nov 6.00pm / Cinema A

Production still from L’Humanité

L’Humanité 1999 Ages 18+
35MM, 148 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY DIGITAL, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / BRUNO DUMONT
Dumont’s existential take on the detective thriller bitterly divided critics at its Cannes 2001 premiere, where it controversially won the Grand Jury Prize and gongs for best actor and actress. The ennui of everyday existence in a Northern French village is shattered by the sadistic rape and murder of an 11 year old girl. Pharaon de Winter, a simple, honest, introverted local detective, struggles to find meaning in the face of incomprehensible evil. Slowly paced, starkly realist, strangely beautiful and frustratingly enigmatic. JH
Fri 23 Nov 8.00pm / Cinema A

Production still from Coming to Terms with the Dead (Petits Arrangements avec les Morts)

Coming to Terms with the Dead (Petits Arrangements avec les Morts) 1994 Ages 18+
35MM, 104 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / PASCALE FERRAN
A delicate comedy about the process of grieving, Ferran’s debut feature deservedly won the 1994 Caméra d’or at Cannes. On a Brittany beach, forty-something Vincent builds an elaborate sand castle, watched by three characters all touched by the death of someone close to them when they were young and for which they feel in some way responsible. Ferran’s film is beautifully constructed, with the sandcastle an appropriate symbol of the fight against time and the ephemeral. JH
Wed 19 Sept 4.00pm / Cinema A

Production still from Golden Youth (Jeunesse Dorée)

Golden Youth (Jeunesse Dorée) 2002 Ages 18+
35MM, 85 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY DIGITAL, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / ZAÏDA GHORAB-VOLTA Jeunesse Dorée offers a refreshing antidote to the often very masculine and pessimistic representation of banlieue youth in recent French cinema. Teenagers Gwenaëlle and Angéla escape their difficult home lives by winning a competition to travel France photographing the lives of those in provincial housing projects. Their quest: to discover why, if France has so much space, are so many people crowded together? Rejecting the spectacle and violence of the road movie genre, Golden Youth seduces through the subtlety and honesty of its two engaging leads on their journey through a France rarely depicted on screen. JH
Fri 16 Nov 8.00pm / Cinema A

Production still from La Haine

La Haine 1995 Ages 18+
35MM, 96 MINS, B. & W., DOLBY, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / MATHIEU KASSOVITZ
La Haine hit like a bombshell in France on its release at Cannes in 1995, with a special screening ordered for President Jacques Chirac and his ministers. Set in the depressed Parisian housing projects and against the backdrop of youth riots, this powerful and confronting film follows the journey through the streets of Paris by Hubert, Saïd and Vinz, a multiethnic teenage male trio angered at the police shooting of one of their friends. A landmark achievement and one of the most important films of the 1990s. JH
Fri 5 Oct 8.00pm / Cinema A

Production still from The Game of Love and Chance

L’Esquive aka The Game of Love and Chance 2005 Ages 18+
35MM, 117 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY DIGITAL, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / ABDELLATIF KECHICHE The power of language is at the heart of Tunisian-born director Abdel Kechiche’s prize-winning banlieue deconstruction of a French theatre classic. 15-year-old Krimo becomes smitten with classmate Lydia when he sees her rehearsing lines for The Game of Love and Chance; he plans to woo her by scoring the role opposite. Kechiche’s cast of amateurs astonishingly re-energise the classical Marivaux play with infectious rhythms of banlieue slang to capture the poetry of everyday life on the housing estates. JH
Wed 21 Nov 8.00pm / Cinema A

Production still from Wild Side

Wild Side 2004 Ages 18+
35MM, COLOUR, FRANCE/BELGIUM/UK, ENGLISH/RUSSIAN/FRENCH, SUBTITLED / SÉBASTIEN LIFSHITZ
If the ménage à trois was a staple for New Wave directors, Lifshitz takes it in directions never envisaged by his cinematic forebears. Stéphanie is a preoperative transsexual prostitute who takes her Russian immigrant lover Mikhail and bisexual hustler friend Djamel to the countryside to look after her ailing mother. The mutual love which sustains the outsider protagonists elevates the film to another plane. Features sumptuous cinematography by Agnès Godard. JH
Wed 24 Oct 8.00pm / Cinema A

Production still from <STRONG><EM>Western</EM></STRONG>

Western 1997 Ages 18+
35MM, 124 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY SR, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / MANUEL POIRIER
Paco is a Spanish shoe salesperson travelling through Brittany who offers a lift to unemployed Russian migrant Nino. Nino steals Paco’s car, forcing Paco to rely on the kindness of Marinette, a local Breton woman with whom he begins a relationship. When it falters, Paco reconnects with Nino and the odd couple embark on a walking tour of Brittany. Manuel Poirier’s peculiar and original road movie offers a thought-provoking portrait of marginality in contemporary multiethnic France. JH
Fri 12 Oct 8.00pm / Cinema A

Production still from Will It Snow for Christmas?

Will It Snow for Christmas? (Y aura-t-il de la Neige à Noël?) 1996 Ages 18+
35MM, 90 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / SANDRINE VEYSSET
This nightmarish drama about the difficulties of rural life won the Cinema in France award at Cannes in 1996. A young unmarried mother cares for her seven children on a southern French farm. Despite a lack of electricity and plumbing, all goes well until the domineering father returns and enlists the children as cheap labour while supporting a wife and children elsewhere. The mother stands as a beacon of hope amidst turmoil in this unsentimental, naturalist portrayal of the exploitation of innocents. JH
Fri 5 Oct 6.00pm / Cinema A

 

Return to Sarajevo (Retour à Sarajevo) 1996 Ages 18+
DIGITAL VIDEO, 73 MINS, COLOUR, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / PHILIPPE GRANDRIEUX
Grandrieux’s first foray in to cinema (following TV and video projects), shot one week after the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, captures a return to Sarajevo through the eyes of Sadija Sada Rarecevic and family. Although a documentary, the particular aesthetic sensibility of Grandieux’s later fictional features is already evident here in the film’s camera work and the layering of sound. A fascinating insight into the postwar Bosnian landscape, and the beginnings of one of France’s most original filmmakers. GH
Wed 28 Nov 4.30pm / Cinema A

 

Sombre 1998 Ages 18+
35MM, 112 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY SR, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / PHILIPPE GRANDRIEUX
The title of Grandrieux’s first fictional feature outlines the over-riding atmosphere of the film, and the aesthetic universe Grandrieux has carved out since. Recounting the story of Jean (Marc Barbé), a Punch and Judy show puppeteer who has much in common with the Big Bad Wolf whose costume he dons during performances, Sombre’s violence may shock, but is never gratuitous. Like Haneke, Grandrieux knowingly implicates viewers of this serial killer story through Jean’s audiences of children, eyes impossibly wide open in ecstatic terror. GH
Fri 30 Nov 8.00pm / Cinema A

 

Production from A New Life (La Vie Nouvelle)

A New Life (La Vie Nouvelle) 2002 Ages 18+
35MM, 102 MINS, COLOUR, DOLBY SR/DTS, FRANCE, FRENCH, SUBTITLED / PHILIPPE GRANDRIEUX
Fragments of stories involving prostitution, betrayal and obsession break through the incandescent beauty of this film as an aesthetic object, A New Life is Grandrieux’s most accomplished work to date, and a bold and radical statement about cinema itself: its function, its use, its possibilities. Reviled by critics at the time of its release, it has been subsequently defended as one of the most important French films in recent times. Every harrowing frame enraptures and terrifies in equal measure. The climax is shot on a heat-sensitive camera. GH
Sat 1 Dec 6.00pm / Cinema A

New New Wave curated by Joe Hardwick (University of Queensland), with film notes by Joe Hardwick (JH) and Greg Hainge (University of Queensland) (GH).