What else is there for audiences who want movies that don't have lasers, robots or robots with lasers? In 2015, The Grand offers everyone the opportunity to see the latest French films the way they were meant to be seen – projected on a giant screen, larger than life – movies where the explosions come from the storytelling not the special effects. The line-up of titles for Summer French Film Festival 2015 are as follows:
Friday, July 10th at 7 pm and Saturday, July 11th at 4 pm – Gemma Bovery. Director Anne
Fontaine’s (Coco Before Chanel) clever adaptation of Posy Simmonds’ graphic novel “Gemma Bovery” is this vibrant seriocomic re-imagining of Flaubert’s literary classic “Madame Bovary.” Life imitates art in uncanny ways when earthy British beauty Gemma Bovery (Gemma Arterton) and her furniture restorer husband Charles (Jason Flemyng) move to a charming ramshackle old farmhouse in the very same Norman village where the novel was written a century earlier. Their welcoming neighbor, local baker and Flaubert expert Martin Joubert (Fabrice Luchini) becomes entranced with Gemma and sets out to be her guide and mentor to her new surroundings. It doesn’t take long before he is drawing parallels between the literary and real life woman, while he insinuates himself into her life, in a film that is at once a cheeky literary mash-up, a sensuous romance, a witty feminist commentary and a heady celebration of French provincial life. Please note while this film is mostly in French, there are some conversations in English.
Saturday, July 11th at 7 pm and Sunday, July 12th at 5 pm – 3 Hearts. A touching and tense drama about destiny, connections, and passion, the film presents a heady romantic look at a classic love triangle. One night in provincial France, Marc (Benoît Poelvoorde) meets Sylvie (Charlotte Gainsbourg) after missing his train back to Paris. Instantly and intensely drawn to one another, they wander through the streets until morning in rare, almost choreographed, harmony. A thwarted plan for a second meeting sends each in a separate direction – Sylvie reunites with her ex and leaves France; Marc falls in love and marries. What neither knows is that Marc’s new bride is Sylvie’s sister, Sophie (Chiara Mastroianni). Upon Sylvie’s return to France, the spark between her and Marc is reignited in ways that will forever alter the relationships between sister to sister and husband to wife. With Catherine Deneuve, Mastroianni's real-life mother.
Friday, August 21st at 7 pm and Saturday, August 22nd at 4 pm – The New Girlfriend. From the French director of 8 Women, Swimming Pool, Under the Sand and In the House comes a film which stars Anais Demoustier (Elles, Therese) as Claire, a young woman whose closest friend since childhood, Lea, passes away leaving behind a husband, David (Romain Duris- Populaire, Mood Indigo) and a newborn baby. One day she drops by David’s house unexpectedly, and finds him dressed in his dead wife’s clothes and feeding their baby with a bottle. He explains that Lea was well aware of his predilection, and eventually, so relieved that he has someone to share his secret with, David and Claire create a female persona for him named Virginia. As David begins to identify more strongly as Virginia, this leads to confusing and conflicting feelings in Claire, and causes a rift between Claire and her husband (Raphael Personnaz).
Saturday, August 22nd at 7 pm and Sunday, August 23rd at 5 pm – Two Days, One Night. From the Belgian film-making Dardenne brothers (Rosetta and L’Enfant) comes a film featuring Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose, Inception) in her Academy Award®-nominated performance. Sandra (Cotillard) has just been released from the hospital to find that she no longer has a job. According to management, the only way Sandra can hope to regain her position at the factory is to convince her co-workers to sacrifice their much-needed yearly bonuses. Now, over the course of one weekend, Sandra must confront each co-worker individually in order to win a majority of their votes before time runs out. With Two Days, One Night, the Dardennes have turned a relevant social inquiry into a powerful statement on community solidarity, once again delivering a film that is simple on the surface but alive with both compassion and wisdom.
So bring a friend and share the experience of seeing great movies the way they were meant to be seen – on the big screen – at The Grand’s Summer French Films series, in July and August 2015.
For more information on these or other Grand events, please call the box office at 207-667-9500 or visit The Grand website at www.grandonline.org or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Grand-Auditorium/112755987339
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