French Cinema Now October 29, 2009

French Cinema Now
October 29-November 4

French Cinema Now is a festival dedicated to celebrating the best in contemporary French cinema. For the second year, FCN joins the Film Society’s expanding slate of fall festivals and brings the most significant new work from one of the world’s most renown filmmaking countries to astute Bay Area cineastes.

This year’s FCN selection showcases the broad-ranging thematic concerns and cinematic styles of directors working today from acknowledged master Claude Chabrol to Riad Sattouf, whose comedic debut feature The French Kissers, opens the festival.

The visceral and cerebral extremes of Gallic cinema in French Cinema Now provide a snapshot of this moment in French filmmaking, culture and society, with a nod to the impactful New Wave movement that began in 1959, what might be considered a surprising number of comedies and, not surprisingly, more attention than usual to the ethnic tensions in a country coping with the strains of immigration. New and established talents share the spotlight to remind viewers of the transporting power of cinema.

Official Website: http://www.sffs.org/screenings-and-events/fall-season/french-cinema-now.aspx