The French Film Festival is back on big screens this month and the program offers plenty of laughter, drama and a chance to work on your language skills, as Ara Jansen details.
Open your mind, expand your horizons and enjoy some armchair travel during this year’s Alliance Francaise French Film Festival which kicks off on March 9.
The 2022 festival features more than 40 films and documentaries and its 33rd year celebrates French culture with movies across genres, featuring several Australian and international premieres packed with a collection of rising stars and well-known favourites.
Festival Artistic Director Karine Mauris says there’s truly something for everyone in the festival which last year sold more than 200,000 tickets across Australia and close to 20,000 in Perth.
“From several laugh-out-loud comedies, many beautiful tales of romance and compelling stories,” Mauris says. “You will travel to France, Lebanon, Mali, Russia, Canada, Tibet, the North Pole and many other places, where you will meet fascinating characters that will take you into the whirlwind of life.”
Overseeing the festival here in Perth is Alliance Francaise executive director Thomas Feldstein, who arrived in town late last year after a four-year stint in Fiji. Luckily, he’s a huge cinephile and is looking forward to seeing many of the films he hasn’t yet seen – reliable babysitter pending – after a local diet of Hollywood and Bollywood blockbusters.
“I like the variety of films the festival has – there’s comedy and romance but also a bit of more heavy themes with a social conscience and a few movies about the end of life and the elderly. Some of them are quite tense but very interesting,” says Feldstein.
“The festival offers very different styles of movies for a large audience as well as having movies for a more niche audience. Great for language students too, it’s the largest festival dedicated to contemporary French films outside France.”
While streaming has changed the film watching landscape, Feldstein says there’s still nothing like seeing one on the big screen and going into a room with other people.
“You feel so different having that experience but you’re also feeling a lot of the same things with other people at the same moment in a film. You can’t replace that. There’s also something important in making the gesture to spend your time to go and sit and enjoy the big screen with others.”
The 2022 Alliance Francaise French Film Festival runs from March 9 – April 6 at Palace Cinemas Raine Square, Luna Palace Leederville, Windsor and Luna on SX and Camelot. Tickets and screening times: affrenchfilmfestival.org
Win…
We have five double passes to the film festival to give away – valid for all sessions except special events. To enter, click here.