bury me in this dress

I love film festival season. The French Film Festival will start if off on June 3 at the Shangri-la Cineplex 4 in Mandaluyong City. Like the previous French Film Festivals, admission is free. Below are the schedule and synopses.

June 3, Thursday
7:30 p.m. – L’Amour c’est mieux a deux

June 4, Friday
12 p.m. – L’Heure d’ete’
3 p.m. – La Fille du RER
6 p.m. – La Graine et le Mulet
9 p.m. – Les Bureaux de Dieu

June 5, Saturday
12 p.m. – L’Amour c’est mieux a deux
3 p.m. – Le Premier Venu
6 p.m. – Welcome
9 p.m. – Dans La Vie

June 6, Sunday
12 p.m. – Le Genou De Claire
3 p.m. – Le Beau Mariage
6 p.m. – L’Heure d’ete’
9 p.m. – La Fille du RER

June 7, Monday
12 p.m. – La Graine et le Mulet
3 p.m. – Les Bureaux de Dieu
6 p.m. – L’Amour c’est mieux a deux
9 p.m. – Le Premier Venu

June 8, Tuesday
12 p.m. – Welcome
3 p.m. – Dans La Vie
6 p.m. – Le Genou De Claire
9 p.m. – Le Beau Mariage

June 9, Wednesday
12 p.m. – Les Bureaux de Dieu
3 p.m. – La Graine et le Mulet
6 p.m. – La Fille du RER
9 p.m. – L’Heure d’ete’

June 10, Thursday
12 p.m. – Dans La Vie
3 p.m. – Welcome
6 p.m. – Le Premier Venu
9 p.m. – L’Amour c’est mieux a deux

June 11, Friday
12 p.m. – La Fille du RER
3 p.m. – L’Heure d’ete’
6 p.m. – Le Beau Mariage
9 p.m. – Le Genou De Claire

June 13, Sunday
12 p.m. – Le Premier Venu
3 p.m. – L’Amour c’est mieux a deux
6 p.m. – Les Bureaux de Dieu
9 p.m. – La Graine et le Mulet

Synopses

Lola
Genre: Drama
Rating: PG-13
Director: Brillante Mendoza
Cast: Anita Linda, Rustica Carpio, Tanya Gomez, Jhong Hilario, Ketchup Eusebio, Camille Solari

Brillante Mendoza’s Lola features two grandmothers who are linked together by a homicide-robbery case. Lola Josefa “Sepa” Quimpo (Anita Linda) lost her grandson, while Lola Purificacion Burgos’ grandson Mateo is the suspected killer. Both elderly women set about raising money from their meager possessions for their beloved grandsons.

Le Beau Mariage (The Good Marriage)
Director: Eric Rohmer
Cast: Béatrice Romand, André Dussollier, Féodor Atkine, Arielle Dombasle, Huguette Faget

Sabine, an Art History student, no longer wants to be Simon’s mistress. Simon is an artist and a good family man, but Sabine is altogether fed up with being a mere mistress and decides to get married. With who is another matter: her priority is to “marry well”. In this frame of mind, she meets Edmond, who just happens to be “handsome, young and available”. Sabine declares, all too quickly, that she will make him marry her.

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The 14th French Film Festival will be held in Shangri-la Cineplex from June 5 to 14. Admission is free on a first come, first serve basis. This year’s lineup is a retrospective on 14 films which were shown during the Cannes Film Festival as well as a preview of our very own Raya Martin’s La Independencia.

Below is the synopsis of the films:

ÇA BRULE
Director: Claire Simon
Cast: Camille Varenne, Gilbert Melki, Olivia Willaumez, Kader Mohamed, Marion Maintenay, Morgane Moré, Jean-Quentin Châtelain, Nabil Radi, Mathieu Bagnis
Running time: 1h 51mn
She lives in the Var, she has a horse, and she’s angry.
The exalted love story of an adolescent 15-year-old, with a local man: Jean, 37 years old, teacher, voluntary fireman, married and father of two. It’s the beginning of vacation and the eternity of summer.

A TOUT DE SUITE
Director: Benoît Jacquot
Cast: Isild Le Besco, Ouassini Embarek, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Laurence Cordier, Fotini Kodoukaki, Catherine Davenier, Nicolas Pignon, David Ayala, Odile Vuillemin, Léonor Graser, Emmanuelle Bercot, Olivier Augrond, Sabri Lahmer, Fatiha Chériguene
Running time : 1h 35mn
Set in the 1970s, A Tout de Suite is the story of a 19-year-old girl who discovers that her lover, seemingly a Prince Charming, is actually a thief who has just committed murder. “Tout de suite,” instantly, her safe and comfortable world is turned upside down and she is swept into an adventure that takes her from Spain to Morocco and Greece.

LA PIANISTE
Director: Michael Haneke
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Benoît Magimel, Annie Girardot, Anna Sigalevitch, Susanne Lothar, Udo Samel
Running Time: 2h 10mn
Erika Kohut, 40 years old, is a respectable piano teacher at the Conservatory of Vienna. Living a single life, hardened by a possessive mother, she is a musician who leads a frustrated sex life. Frequenting peep shows and watching porno films, Erika dives into a morbid voyeurism and practices masochism. Until one day, when Walter, a 20-something student falls in love with her. From this affection is born a troubled relationship, emotional and perverted, between master and disciple.

MARIE JO ET SES DEUX AMOURS
Director: Robert Guédiguian
Cast: Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gérard Meylan, Julie-Marie Parmentier, Jacques Boudet, Yann Trégouët, Frédérique Bonnal, Souhade Temimi, Maïa Sevleyan, Frédéric Garbe, Danielle Stefan, Jacques Germain, Axel Koehler
Running Time: 2h 5mn
Marie-Jo loves her husband Daniel dearly, but is also passionately in love with her lover Marco. She is torn between the two, with tragic consequences.

FLANDRES
Director: Bruno Dumont
Cast: Adélaïde Leroux, Samuel Boidin, Inge Decaesreker, Patrice Venant, Henri Cretel, Jean-Marie Bruveart, David Poulain, David Legay
Running Time: 1h 31mn
In Flanders, Demester other and young local men enlist as soldiers to fight in a distant land. He also falls in love deeply with the young Barbe, even accepting her strange ways and her many lovers. Tragically, the war exacerbates the relationship between them, leading them to extremes.

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