COLCOA Classics Series — Film Noir Blonde

City of Lights City of Angels (COLCOA) French Film Festival is in full swing in Los Angeles at the Directors Guild

April 25, 2017 by Film Noir Blonde

The 21st annual City of Lights City of Angels (COLCOA) French Film Festival opened Monday night in Los Angeles at the Directors Guild of America with a grand party and the North American premiere of “Everyone’s Life” (Chacun sa vie), directed and co-written by the great Claude Lelouch. The comedy-drama stars pop legend Johnny Hallyday, Oscar winner Jean Dujardin, Christopher Lambert, Elsa Zylberstein and many other French stars.

As we sipped champagne and noshed on fare from local French restaurants and food stores, we spotted the stunning and gracious Jacqueline Bisset and shared a hug with her. That made our night!

The festival will screen about 80 films, including classics, shorts, dramas, comedies, documentaries, NeWave 2.0 and a special slate of film noir. The fest also features a considerable offering of acclaimed TV programs and will hold a virtual reality live demo. No matter which movie you select, you will more than likely see a work that is extremely well made with top-notch acting.

Additionally, COLCOA will honor writer-director Stéphane Brizé with a special presentation of “Not Here To Be Loved” (2005) and the festival will host the West Coast premiere of Brizé’s new film “A Woman’s Life,” (Une Vie), based on the Guy de Maupassant novel and starring Judith Chemla.

To mark the 100th anniversary of iconic filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville’s birth is a special presentation of “Le Cercle Rouge,” starring Alain Delon, Bourvil and Yves Montand.

“Le Cercle Rouge,” will essentially kick off the film noir lineup on Friday and will be followed by “The Eavesdropper,” an espionage thriller directed and co-written by Thomas Kruithof. It stars François Cluzet as a man with few career options who accepts a mysterious job transcribing tapes of intercepted phone calls.

The second film noir is “Corporate,” directed and co-written by Nicolas Silhol, with Céline Sallette playing an ambitious career woman whose cut-throat “innovation” plan seriously backfires. The last film of the series is “Ares” a dark fantasy set in 2035 Paris, starring Ola Rapace and Micha Lescot. Jean-Patrick Benes directed and co-wrote “Ares.”

Additionally, COLCOA will show an international premiere of “Farewell Bonaparte,” a restoration of Youssef Chahine’s 1985 film. “Playtime,” Jacques Tati’s inventive and ambitious 1967 film, will have a special presentation at the festival as will “The Lovers on the Bridge” (1991, Leos Carax).

Facebook

Twitter

COLCOA celebrates 20th anniversary with a superb lineup

April 10, 2016 by Film Noir Blonde

By Film Noir Blonde and Michael Wilmington

The COLCOA French Film Festival turns 20 this year!

The Franco-American Cultural Fund’s City of Lights, City of Angels (COLCOA) French Film Festival, now in its 20^th year, will run April 18-26 at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles.

COLCOA’s executive producer and artistic director François Truffart has announced that a record 70 films and television series will be shown at the fest. This includes four world premieres, seven international premieres, 19 North American or U.S. premieres, 17 West Coast premieres and 21 new shorts. Fest organizers say COLCOA is the world’s largest event dedicated to French films and television.

The festival will open on Monday, April 18, with the North American premiere of “Monsieur Chocolat,” a biopic about the first French black clown, directed by Roschdy Zem, and starring Omar Sy. The fest will close with a romantic comedy called “Up for Love,” starring Academy Award winner Jean Dujardin and Virginie Efira.

COLCOA will celebrate the 11^th anniversary of its Film Noir Series with a three-title series to run Friday night, kicking off with “A Decent Man,” a dark drama about a feckless dude (Nicolas Duvauchelle) who falls into a dire trap of dishonesty. Emmanuel Finkiel directed and co-wrote.

The next film in the series is director and co-writer Vincent Garenq’s “Kalinka” (“Au nom de ma fille”), the story of a father’s 27-year fight for justice in the name of his murdered daughter, starring the always-magnificent Daniel Auteuil.

The final movie is “Fast Convoy,” which the fest calls a “slick, turbo-charged road thriller.” It was co-written and directed by Frédéric Schoendoerffer and stars Benoît Magimel.

All other series are back as well: COLCOA Shorts, Classics, and Documentaries as well as Happy Hour Talks, World Cinema Produced by France, the After 10 series and the French NeWave 2.0 series.

Bon anniversaire, COLCOA !

Facebook

Twitter

Filed Under: Noir Style, Out of the Shadows Tagged With: COLCOA, COLCOA Classics Series, COLCOA Film Noir Series, COLCOA French Film Festival, film noir

French neo-noir takes the cake at this year’s COLCOA

May 1, 2015 by Film Noir Blonde

The next time I visit Paris, I might not wander on the Left Bank. I might skip the visits to the Musée Rodin and the Petit Palais, and say no to making a little journey to Giverny. I could easily be talked into holing up at the Plaza Athénée (I am overdue for a visit), ordering room service and binge-watching superb French neo-noir and police-procedural gems. I found out at this year’s tremendous COLCOA film festival that French filmmakers can now claim the title of the hottest, most cutting-edge noiristas in the world.

“SK1” won the fest’s First Feature Award.

How so? Well, “L’Affaire SK1,” a riveting depiction of an eight-year hunt for a serial killer nicknamed the Beast of the Bastille (based on real events), snared the fest’s First Feature Award. “SK1” was directed by Frédéric Tellier (who co-wrote the film with David Oelhoffen), and features Nathalie Baye as a public defender. “SPIRAL” Season 5 (think “The Wire”) received the TV Series Award.

Joining “SK1” in the Film Noir Series, now in its 10^th year, was Oscar-winning actor Jean Dujardin’s new film (from director Cédric Jimenez) “The Connection,” which picks up where William Friedkin’s landmark thriller “The French Connection” left off. The final film in the noir series was “Next Time, I’ll Aim For the Heart,” a tense and haunting story, based on the real-life Oise Killer, a cold-blooded psycho on the loose in 1978 Paris, flawlessly portrayed by Guillaume Canet. The film was written and directed by Cédric Anger.

Anger was one of several writers on yet another gritty and twisted tale taken from real life, “In the Name of My Daughter,” which stars the one and only Catherine Deneuve, and was directed by the great André Téchiné. “Daughter” was somewhat disappointing, however, seeming to lose its way about midway through.

The COLCOA festival opened with “A Perfect Man.”

Perhaps my favorite part of the fest (other than hearing French accents and enjoying lovely receptions) were the revival screenings of “La Chienne” (1931, Jean Renoir) and “Two Men in Town” (1973, José Giovanni). Seriously, does it get much better than watching Alain Delon as a divinely handsome ex-con struggling to go straight and Jean Gabin as a world-weary but somehow regal cop, not to mention a brief appearance by Gérard Depardieu? No. It does not, especially when you know there is a chilly St-Germain cocktail waiting for you after the show.

The COLCOA festival opened with the North American premiere of “A Perfect Man,” a thoroughly enjoyable Hitchcockian thriller co-written and directed by Yann Gozlant. I heard some post-screening crabbing about the flick’s plausibility but I think the naysayers missed the point.

American neo-noir storytellers would do well to study these sleek, sharp, psychologically complex cinematic offerings.

Now, to make that reservation at Plaza Athénée …

Facebook

Twitter

Filed Under: Neo Noir Reviews, Noir Style Tagged With: COLCOA, COLCOA Classics Series, COLCOA Film Noir Series, COLCOA French Film Festival, film noir

Film Noir Series at COLCOA celebrates 10th anniversary with Jean Dujardin’s new film

April 1, 2015 by Film Noir Blonde

The Franco-American Cultural Fund Tuesday night announced the lineup for this year’s COLCOA French Film Festival. The fest, now in its 19^th year, runs April 20-28 at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles.

Speaking at the Consul General of France in Beverly Hills, COLCOA’s executive producer and artistic director François Truffart revealed that 68 films (including three world premieres and 14 U.S. premieres) will be shown over nine days. Additionally, COLCOA will introduce a new competition dedicated to films and series produced for television.

The festival will open with the North American premiere of “A Perfect Man,” a thriller co-written and directed by Yann Gozlant. It stars Pierre Niney and Ana Girardot.

COLCOA will celebrate the 10^th anniversary of its Film Noir Series with Academy Award winner Jean Dujardin’s new film “The Connection,” co-written and directed by Cédric Jimenez. The other two films in the series are: “SK1,” co-written and directed by Frédéric Tellier, and “Next Time, I’ll Aim For the Heart,” written and directed by Cédric Anger.

As part of the COLCOA Classics Series, an exclusive program of digitally restored premieres, master director Jean Renoir’s first-rate pre-noir from 1931 “La Chienne” will screen. This was remade in the U.S. in 1945 by Fritz Lang as “Scarlet Street.”

All other series are back as well: the After 10 Series (April 21-25); the Happy Hour Talk Panel Series in association with Variety (April 21-25); the French NeWave 2.0 Series presented in association with IndieWire (Saturday, April 25); the Short Film Competition (Sunday, April 26); the Focus on a Filmmaker (Michel Hazanavicius) (Thursday, April 23) and the Focus on Two Producers: Maxime Delauney and Romain Rousseau (Saturday, April 25).