A Week of French Language Cinema

A Week of French Language Cinema 

Posted By Robin Menken

For the fifteenth year straight, in collaboration with the Consulates General of Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, France, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Quebec Government Office in Los Angeles, and Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles, Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz (TRK) presents A Week of French Language Cinema, with nightly screenings of critically acclaimed French language films, from March 19th through March 25th. All films are subtitled in English.

A Week of French Language Cinema is organized annually to coincide with the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF)’s celebration of the French language and Francophone culture on March 20th. The event is the perfect showcase to present the artistry of French-language voices the world over. 

"Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person"- Canadian filmmaker Ariane Louis-Seize’s debut feature is a witty dark comedy, a sort of Romeo and Vampira.

Amusing world building and a witty cast portray the coming of age woes of young Sasha (Sara Montpetit), who’s just too compassionate to kill and feed. She’s kept alive by refrigerated blood packs, as her parents quarrel.

A black comedy scene of little vampire Sasha's birthday party sets the film in motion. Decades pass. Unwilling vampire, teenager-like Sasha is an unending stress to her bickering family 

Sara Montpetit (wonderfully matched by actress Lilas-Rose Cantin who plays Sasha as a little vampire) has a face that speaks volumes. She’s a Goth glamor girl. Her dead-pan stares hold hidden depths.

Young looking Sophie’s a late bloomer. Her fangs have never dropped. Unable to feed she spends her nights busking, playing Cello outside the local bowling alley. 

One night she spots Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard) on the roof of the bowling alley where he works, planning to jump. He puts it off.

Sensitive teenager Paul spends his days at school bullied by a bunch of thugs. He can’t tell his mom. Félix-Antoine Bénard plays Paul as a crestfallen innocent willing to follow Sasha's lead.

The next time Sasha spots him, they lock eyes. Paul flees, right into a wall, knocking himself out. Scenting his blood, Sasha’s fangs finally emerge. Afraid of her teenage (blood) lust it’s Sasha’s turn to flee. (She’s already 62 years-old and fang-shy).

This works as a metaphor, Sasha is afraid of her adult sexuality. So is Paul. They connect as two awkward virgins. Sasha explains her issue to Paul framing their various problems as each other’s solutions. It’s a morbidly endearing perfect match.

When Sophie backs off from biting his neck, besotted Paul hurriedly offers to take off his shirt.

Steve Laplante is hilarious as a protective father who resists forcing Sophie to feed, while Mom (Sophie Cadieux) fumes. She’s sick of hunting for the whole family and worries it will go on for the next 300 years.

Eventually they lock the fridge and send Sasha off to room with her bawdy older cousin Denise (Noémie O’Farrell). Efficient vampire Denise, who uses her sexual charms and promises of kinky sex to lure her dinner dates (make that dinner) promises to make Sophie into the vampire they all know she can be.

Dodging Denise’s nightly vampire lessons, Sophie finds ways to hang out with Paul. They complete each other.

Unable to properly kill off one of Denise's assigned kills, she saddles her cousin with one of her pick up amuse-bouche, sleazy J.P (Gabriel-Antoine Roy) an aggravating permanent addition to their Vampire clan.

Production values are tops. Louis-Seize and Christine Doyon’s amusing screenplay, appealing night cinematography (all blues and reds and oranges) by Shawn Pavlin, clever production design and art direction by Ludovic Dufresne, set decoration by Jamille Borges and Siham Mrim and costume design by Kelly-Anne Bonieux all contribute to this oddly affecting, moody Teen romp .  

I’ve only liked four Vampire movies; the original, silent “Nosferatu” (F. W. Murnau) “The Hunger”, the  original “Let The Right One In” (Tomas Alfredson) and Neil Jordan’s poetic “Byzantium”. Add this to the list

“Respire”-Set in Montreal Onur Karaman’s “Respire” is a trenchant tragedy focusing on the impact of immigration.

Turkish born Quebecois director Onur Karaman stated in a press release  “When my family immigrated to Quebec, the transition was brutal. I experienced social exclusion because of my origins at a very young age. Despite what I may have suffered, I did not experience an unhappy childhood, on the contrary, it was full of richness. Nothing is completely white or black. This is why it was important to me to make a nuanced film. With Respire, I’m not pointing the finger at anyone…”

Two young men’s lives intersect in tragic ways.

Fouad (Amédamine Ouerghi) a 15-year-old Moroccan immigrant, and Max (Frédéric Lemay), a 27-year-old Quebecer, face different challenges and frustrations in the damaged economic system of Post-Covid Montreal.

Fouad’s father Atif (Mohamed Marouazi), an engineer in his home country of Morocco, struggles to get an engineering job in Quebec. Job interview scenes detail his humiliation. He’s forced into a precarious social class, with apparently no way out.

To provide for his family Atif runs a suburban Kabab shop joint for a seamy, exploitative boss.

Atif’s son Fouad gets into frequent fights at school, pushed by another immigrant student who continually calls him a lair and a pussy. Fouad proves to be a sensitive writer. One of his school exercises is a poem of forgiveness and understanding to the father who dragged his family to Quebec. Student/soccer fan Fouad helps Atif close each night.

The Cafe is the only late night restaurant in the district and depressed Max eats there daily.

Max still lives with his mother (Marie Charlebois) distant on anti-depressants, and his mechanic father Gilles (Roger Léger), a decent man who runs interference when his agro-rascist mechanic nephew (Guillaume Laurin) expresses his increasingly dangerous viewpoints.

Max, installed in his family’s basement, longs, with little hope, to climb out of his economic dependence,

Karaman slowly weaves the fate of the two families.

The film’s irony is that the younger men have much in common, if they could interact in a neutral situation, as do Atif and humanist Gilles. 

Although many events are sadly predictable, Karaman saves a poetic punch to the very end.

“Colette and Justin”-Documentarian Alain Kassanga was 11 years when his family left Kinshasa and moved to France.

Kassanga’s documentary “Colette et Justin” portrays his grandparents’s life growing up in the Belgian Congo. 

Kassanga began this complex political portrait once grandfather Justin finally agreed to tell the story of his political career during the independence of the Republic of the Congo in 1960’s and Zaire in the 70’s

Fascinating archival footage shows the Belgian government's missionary schools training indigenous tribal Congolese. Repurposing the colonizer’s images, Kassanda narrates, “How do you make a film from the oppressor’s archives?”

Displaying images of natives with bows and arrows disputing ‘witch doctors’, Justin clarifies. The Belgian film crew directed the sequences as a form of propaganda, justifying their Mission schools.

One of the major legacies of colonial rule in Kasai was the arbitrary redivision of the population into new ethnic groups. Colonial strategies underpinned the creation of the Luba as a super-tribe under Belgian Colonial rule, their language given privileged status.

Preference for Luba resulted from Colonial prejudice. 

The center of a wide trade network, the Luba Kingdom was one of the most influential polities in nineteenth-century Central Africa. The history of the Luba Kingship combined with ethnic stereotypes of industrious entrepreneurship cast the Baluba as the ‘Jews’ of the Belgian Congo.

The Baluba and Luba were originally one ethno-linguistic group (they shared the Tshiluba language).

Colonial administrators believed the inhabitants of the Lulua river area to be ethnically different, dubbing them the Bena Lulua. Colonists described the Bena Lulua as ignorant reactionaries and the Baluba as more intelligent and open to new ideas. From the 1930s, the state applied different policies to each, promoting the Baluba to positions above other ethnicities. 

The Luba moved, or were moved to rural areas. The Baluba remained in the cities and were educated to work as clerks assisting the Belgian administrators. They became the backbone of the  "Western" educated "évolués" .

The boys and girls were separated. The boys were taught French through high school. Some continued into higher education. The girls were taught cooking  and homemaking in their tribal language, often dropping out after grammar school to marry.

Education for male Congolese “évolués”, exceeded that of neighboring African countries. Kassanda narrates-”When the first University of the Congo was inaugurated, women were not admitted…But with the arrival of independence, women were not allowed either."  Nor were they given the vote. “They were marked by the double condition of being colonized and women."

Colette Mujinga, a rural Luba, married Justin Kassanda when she was only fourteen.

Justin was one of three Missionary educated évolués  who passed the government post office training school one-year course with with honors. Patrice Lumumba was one of the other two.

Évolués spoke French, followed European (rather than tribal) laws, held white-collar jobs and lived primarily in urban areas of the colony. As members of the elite they experienced more civil rights and lived in better housing.

(In 1948 the Governor-General of the Belgian Congo  created the carte de mérite civique (civic merit card), which could be granted to any Congolese who had no criminal record, did not practice polygamy, abandoned traditional religion, and had some degree of education.

In 1952 the colonial administration introduced the carte d'immatriculation, which granted to those who obtained it full legal equality with Europeans.

Of a population of 14 million, in 1958 only 1,500 "evolved", had a carte de mérite civique, allowed them certain privileges such as renting a house or having a car. Only 217 Congolese had been awarded a carte d'immatriculation.) 

Justin and Colette applied for proof of 'immatriculation' 

(official evidence of their assimilation with European civilization) and submitted to frequent house visits.

An investigative commission would visit a candidate in his home, examine his household items such as linen and silverware, and verify if he ate with his wife at the table and communicated with his children in French. 

Cardholders were given an improved legal status and were exempt from certain restrictions on travel into European districts.

The évolués saw themselves as Belgians in the making, separated themselves from their fellow Congolese, fought for their own privileges and were more interested in approval by the colonial powers.

Colonial/missionary partiality towards the Luba created tension with neighboring ethnic groups as well as internal conflict within the “super-tribe”, where resources were channelled disproportionately towards the Luba-Kasai (Baluba).

Archival footage shows the triumphant first visit of King Badouin in 1955. Indigenous tribesmen lined the rural and urban roads, enchanted to see a European king for the first time. 

Still shut out from full equality many disillusioned  évolués became politically active and began pushing for Congolese independence from Belgium.[

Justin joined the Alliance des Bakongo (ABAKO) party and served as a Senator in the government of Joseph Kasa-Vubu, the first President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

The Baluba, closer to the colonial administration, were mistrusted during the independence process. 

Trying to avoid the bloody confrontations France and Germany experienced in the transfer of Colonial rule,

as the Belgians prepare to cede the Country to local rule

they caricaturized the Baluba as "Invaders". Playing the traditional Divide and Conquer card pushed the Congo into a tragic Civil War.

Kassanda, who looked on Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as a heroic figure, was shocked to discover his grandfather Justin had served in the government of president Joseph Kasa-Vubu, whose coup d'état, supported by the Belgian Government and CIA advice, captured Patrice Lumumba and shot him in 1961. 

While creating an uncomfortable series of questions between grandson and grandfather, the discovery reveals much about the pervasive social engineering of  Colonial rule in the Congo and the multi-generational trauma of colonization.

Questioned about Lamumba’s murder, Justin mutters. “He spoke of thing he shouldn’t speak of. He humiliated the King and the Colonial regime.”

Justin referred to Lamumba’s fiery, unexpected speech at the Ceremony of  the Proclamation of the Congo’s Independence, which Europeans viewed as an insult to the Belgian king.

The nuanced story counters Justin’s political choices with a great love story. Justin’s social “climbing” was motivated by his deep love for Colette and their children.

Colette accepted the role of pampered house wife, but when the political shifts made Justin jobless, Colette mastering the economics of the local marketplace, supported the whole family. Emotionally canny Colette let Justin play master of the house.

Justina and Colette moved their family to France. Kassada’s happy ending shows the couple, a living history of tragic social engineering, in their cheerful relocation.

(Independence and Civil War For Dummies

The Congo became independent in June 1960, and, in July, the province of Katanga seceded from the country. 

As the Congo became engulfed by crisis, members of the Luba ethnic group became subject to violent attacks.

In 1960, when Lumumba, prime minister of the  Democratic Republic of the Congo excluded the Baluba from his regime, ethnic tensions led to the split of the territory controlled by them. 

Denied an important ministerial position in Lumumba's government, Maluba politician Albert Kalonji declared the secession of South Kasai, with the aim of creating a Baluba-dominated state. South Kasai's secession was supported by Belgian corporate interests, chiefly the Forminière mining company.

Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, resolved to put down the secessions by force. When the Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC) seized Bakwanga, the secessionist capital, Kalonji fled to Katanga.

The ANC then came into conflict with local Baluba civilians. Both sides perpetrated atrocities, with the ANC committing several massacres, resulting in the deaths of about 3,000 civilians.

The massacres in Bakwanga provoked U.N. and international condemnation. On 5 September Congolese President Joseph Kasa-Vubu declared that Lumumba had "plunged the nation into fratricidal war" and dismissed him from the premiership.

ANC Chief of Staff Joseph-Désiré Mobutu launched a coup seizing control of the central government. On 18 September Mobutu agreed with UN officials to end the fighting, and the ANC withdrew from South Kasai. The territory remained in secession until 1962 when Kalonji was overthrown and the ANC occupied it.)

Justin was on the side of the Democratic Republic of the Congo secessionists. 

Based on family experiences Kassanda’s film bridges the often ideological differences in versions recounted by pan Africanist, African progressives and Belgian apologists. 

For five years Kassanda was the film programmer for Les 39 Marche Cinema in Sevran, a suburb of Paris. Since 2015 he's been based in Nigeria.  Alain Kassanda is known for “Coconut Head Generation”(2023), “Trouble Sleep” (2020) and “Colette et Justin” (2022). A MUST SEE

"Le Gentils" -One of the saddest days for LA film buffs was when the Belgian Embassy stopped underwriting the monthly Belgian screenings "Grit and Whimsey"at the American Cinematheque. For years this screening series delighted and surprised Los Angelinos with the passionate diversity of Belgian films. Happily there is always one at the TRK's Week Of Francophone Films.

Olivier Ringer's "Les Gentils" is a wry heist film. Slow to get going it serves up a delicious surprise ending enlivened by droll casting.

Ringer is known in Belgium for a series of successful kid films " Pom le poulain", " À pas de loup ", " Les Oiseaux de passage ". With "Les Gentils" he turns in an amusing heist social criticism, sort of a Loachian comedy turn set in the  ruthless economic waters of the 21st century. 

Michel (Renaud Rutten) and his wife, Blandine (Isabelle de Hertogh) ran a successful SME, until its major client Antartica relocated.

In denial, soft spoke Michel fudged his accounts in order to continue receiving bank loans to make payroll. (He's wonderfully loyal to his workers.) But no good deed goes unpunished.

Accountant Florent (Achille Ridolfi), who lives with his demanding mother is her "good boy". At Michel's request he helped cook the books. The company faces bankruptcy and, with no way out,  Michel and 'good boy' Florent face serious jail time. 

Michel, the man who did the wrong thing for the right reasons, and is now treated like a criminal, comes up with a desperate bank robbery scheme. After all, he calculates, the jail time for robbery is barely more than his bankruptcy punishment. He brings in a loyal worker Bruno (Tom Audenaert).

Blandine loses everything too as their house and furnishing and van are sold. She moves in with her sister, but vows to follow her Michel to the end of the earth.

Ronald Beurms plays the confident, overly polite Inspecteur Leitzburger. Renaud Rutten is a resourceful actor, his "dead pan' is anything but, and we can read all his fleeting thoughts. A Delight!

"Last Dance"- Delphine Lehericey, whose "Beyond the Horizon" won Best Film and Best Screenplay at the 2020 Swiss Film Prize), returns with “Last Dance” an affectionate portrait of sudden widower 75-year-old Germain (François Berléand), who, hounded by over-concerned grown kids, attempts to carve out private time to complete a vow he made to his beloved wife Lise (Dominique Reymond.) Whoever outlives the other must fulfill the other’s final project,

Grumpy stay at home Germain preferred quiet time with his books. His active wife Lisa handled the details of his life, managing to squeeze in charity work and inspiring activities. 

Recently Lisa joined an experimental dance company as a local non-professional performer.  She comes home from rehearsal, elated, chattering about her amusing  experiences working with renowned choreographer La Ribot (the Spanish-Swiss  dancer plays herself in the film.) Minutes later, Lisa's dead.

Beset by a team of schedule-following children, grand children and a solicitous neighbor, who attempt to control every minute of his lifer, or worse-move him to an apartment where panicky son Mathieu (Jean-Benoît Ugeux) can keep a constant eye on him, Germain outfoxes them all and sneaks off daily to replace his Lise in the dance show.

Germain visits the rehearsal and explains to the company that he wishes to dance in Lisa’s stead. Moved,

La Ribot and her team welcome Germaine. Since La Robot often works with non dancers, the company complies.

Awkward Geriane attempts to following along with the contemporary dance moves, the “contact improvisation” dropping, falling, lifting gravity based tropes that have dominated dance since the mid 70’s. As Germaine becomes more comfortable. La Ribot decides to re-build the show around him and his sudden loss.

Saddled with his granddaughter Jennifer (Elise Havelange) Germaine brings her to the rehearsals when he sneaks out, aided by dancer Samir (Kacey Mottet Klein).  

When Jennifer sees Samir massaging Germaine's sore muscles, she jumps to a sophisticated but erroneous conclusion. But its enough for her to blackmail Germaine into doing her homework.

Multi-discipline artist (Maria)La Ribot fills the screen emotionally in every scene, including her dance with Germaine. Their chemistry is engaging. Sabine Timoteo plays daughter Carole. Anna Pieriplays daughter Sonia. Dominique Reymond plays his meal toting neighbor.

"Last Dance.” won the 2022 audience award at the Locarno Film Festival. 

“Deux”- The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg presented Filippo Meneghetti’s moving LGBT drama “Deux"  (AKA "Two Of Us.")

The film previously played Week of French Language Cinema in 2019, when it was released.

This quiet lesbian love story, rich in texture, details the decades's long secret love affair between pensioners Nina (played by Fassbinder vet Barbara Sukowa) and Madeleine (Comedie-Francaise veteran Martine Chevallier), living next to each other in an apartment building. Connecting inner doors discretely joins their two apartments.

Decorous Mado, as Madeleine is nicknamed, has never told her two adult children about her great love. 

When free-spirited Nina convinces her to sell her flat and run away with her to Rome, where “we can be who we want,” she promises to tell them.

At her familial birthday party, Mado is unable to go through with it, infuriating Nina.

A witty layered, nuanced screenplay explores the physical effects of the psychological stress of living a lie.

Nina's rage triggers a tragic stroke. Convinced their profound love can help reverse Mado's stroke, 

'Neighbor' Nina is shut out of Mado's post-stroke life.

Eschewing the melodrama you might expect in this tale, Meneghetti follows Nina's desperate journey to  reawaken her lover. She systematically outwits caregiver Muriel (Muriel Benazeraf), who’s threatened by hints of a loving relationship between the neighbors.  She runs afoul of protective daughter Anne (Lea Drucker) and..