French Cinema Now: Eden Log October 11, 2008

The San Francisco Film Society, in association with the French-American Cultural Society, the French Consulate of San Francisco and Unifrance USA, presents French Cinema Now (October 8–12, Landmark’s Clay Theatre, 2261 Fillmore Street at Clay), an inaugural festival dedicated to celebrating the best in contemporary French cinema. The latest expansion in the Film Society’s year-round programming, this new addition to the fall schedule focuses on bringing the most significant new work from one of the world’s most renown filmmaking countries to discerning Bay Area audiences.

Eden Log (dir. Franck Vestiel)
Out of a primordial pond crawls a somewhat human form, grunting and moaning as he slithers and climbs upward toward some mysterious destination. This bestial figure comes from mysterious origins but is driven to escape the devastated multilevel labyrinth he is trapped within. Battling corporate shock troops, mutant creatures and half-mad survivors on his way to the surface, he pieces together the story of the apocalypse in which he too has played a part. Refreshingly complex, vividly unsettling and artfully shot in a palette of greens, blues and grays, Franck Vestiel’s sci-fi feature blends the cyberpunk flair of Tetsuo with the eco-horror concerns of films like Soylent Green and The Last Winter and the existential predicament of Tarkovsky’s Stalker.

Written by Pierre Bordage, Franck Vestiel. Photographed by Thierry Pouget. With Clovis Cornillac, Vimala Pons, Zohar Wexler (98 min. Distributed by Magnolia Pictures).

Presented in association with Landmark’s Clay Theatre’s Late Night Picture Show.

For complete French Cinema Now schedule and to purchase tickets, please visit www.sffs.org.

Official Website: http://www.sffs.org/