French Film Festival // Redoubtable

Dir. Michel Hazanavicius | France | 102 mins | French with English subtitles | cert 15

The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius takes on the French New Wave and runs with it in style in Redoubtable. Charting the brief relationship of the iconic Jean-Luc Godard and Anne Wiazemsky (following the filming of La Chinoise, their marriage, and the May 1968 riots in Paris) Hazanavicius gives his subject a thorough going over, liberally sprinkled with irony, humour and affection. As Godard becomes more interested in politics he alienates his wife and his friends not to mention the public who preferred his zestful early films such as Breathless. He seems eager to reject his own oeuvres (eventually denouncing all of his cinema as “shit,” while espousing such ‘anarchic’ comics as Jerry Lewis and the Marx Brothers). With an almost unrecognisable Louis Garrel displaying a deft talent for comedy as JLG and Stacy Martin (from Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac) looking the part of his Sixties muse who gamely spends much of the time naked, Hazanavicius focusses on the inner turmoil of creative spirits.

"Le Redoutable is a marvelous comedy very reminiscent of Woody Allen’s classics" - Vanity Fair

Screening before the main feature...

ALL THE BOYS ARE CALLED PATRICK / TOUS LES HOMMES S’APPELLENT PATRICK

In the gardens of Luxembourg, in Paris, Charlotte meets Patrick who invites her to have a drink and gives her a rendez-vous the next day. The same night, Charlotte finds out that her friend Véronique has also met someone? That sounds exciting…Here is one short film of the Nouvelle vague which perfectly captures the atmosphere of Paris of these times.

Dir Jean-Luc Godard | 1959 | France | 21 mins | French with English subtitles