The 17th edition of CineFranco, the biggest French film festival in North America, gets under way on Friday, March 28 and ends on Sunday, April 6.
Twenty five feature films and 14 shorts from several countries, including France and Canada, will be screened at the Royal Theater in Toronto (608 College).
A sampler:
Bright Days Ahead, directed by Germinal Alvarez, is about second chances, romantically speaking.
Caroline (Fanny Ardant), an attractive woman in her early 60s, risks everything, her marriage, her reputation and her place in society, when she has a fling with Julien (Laurent Lafitte), a man half her age.
The film, set in a town on the coast of France, is unusual because of the age factor. Such films are relatively rare. Mike Nichols’ The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, comes immediately to mind. In general, however, relationships of this kind are not often depicted in movies.
Bright Days Ahead initially unfolds in a seniors’ club. Caroline, a retired dentist with time on her hands, has signed up for a computer class. Her instructor, Julien, is in his early 30s, like Caroline’s two daughters. She fixes his teeth, and he invites her to lunch. Romantic sparks fly and body contact is made.
At first, Caroline hesitates to consummate the affair, but she succumbs to her ardor and they make love. The love-making scenes are bereft of nudity, filmed with restraint, sensitivity and good taste. In terms of red hot sexuality, Bright Days Ahead is definitely not in the same league as, say, Blue is the Warmest Color.
It’s left to the viewer’s imagination to figure out why Caroline embarks on this course. Is she bored with her husband? Is she vain? Is she insecure? “Why me?” she asks Julien. Is she looking for a little excitement? Her husband, a doctor, seems like a dull fellow. Is she trying to recreate her youth? The so-called golden years of retirement may not be all that they’re cracked up to be.
Ardant is convincing as a liberated woman who tests sexual and generational barriers. Her fellow performers, particularly, Lafitte, acquit themselves well in this empathetic film.
Bright Days Ahead will be screened on Saturday, March 29 at 6:30 p.m.
Hold Back, by Rachid Djaidani, takes place in contemporary Paris against the backdrop of inter-racial love, ethnocentrism and racism.
As the film opens, two young lovers exchange tender words. “Will you marry me?” asks Dorcy (Stephane Soo Mongo), a Christian African. “Yes,” replies Sabrina (Sabrina Hamida), an Algerian Muslim Arab.
Like forbidden fruit, their relationship is the stuff of rumour, insinuation and scandal. In the tight-knit Algerian community, such liaisons are out of the question.
Slimane (Slimane Daze), Sabrina’s older brother and moral guardian, says that Dorcy is not a “brother” and thus unacceptable. And since he’s black, he can’t be “presented” to the family, adds Slimane, who undermines his case for religious solidarity and racial purity by dating a Jewish night club singer.
Slimane’s admonitions are repeated by friends on both sides of the divide, but Dorcy and Sabrina are determined to go ahead with their marital plans, come what may.
Hold Back is a troubling commentary on the state of Arab-African relations in France today.
It’ll be screened on Wednesday, April 2 at 6 p.m.
Ismael Saidi’s comedy, Moroccan Gigolos, a Quebec-Belgium co-production, is set in Paris as well. Three childhood friends rent a store space in a posh part of the city where ethnic Arabs are usually not seen. They hope to start a sandwich shop. They leave a non-refundable down payment with the real estate agent, promising to pay the balance very soon.
The partners are not sure how they will meet the deadline, but a car accident solves their problem. The shaken middle-aged woman whose car they have hit asks to be taken home. She seduces one of the guys and pays for his services. Bingo! They have found their calling. They will pay off their debt by working as gigolos.
The film, both silly and funny, will be screened on Friday, March 28 at 7 p.m.