On the year 2008, from June 6 to 22, in several places in Havana and in some other 30 screens in different provinces, there will be an exhibition with the best of French cinema. There will be presented nineteen full-length movies, produced between 2000 and 2007 with some movies that will be premiered in Cuba and there will also be a retrospective of the deceased Jacques Demy.

The Festival, apart from the venue of the Charles Chaplin cinema and the cinemas Yara and Acapulco from the capital, will also include other smaller venues such as the Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (Association of Writers and Artists from Cuba), the Higher Art Institute, the Enrique José Varona Pedagogical Institute, as well as the Víctor Hugo House and the Cinematográfico Lumiere from the historical center and the Glauber Rocha room from the New Latin American Cinema.

WORLD PREMIERE DURING THE FESTIVAL

The director of the Festival and producer Christopher Barratier has selected the Charles Chaplin room to take place in Havana and on the evening of June 10, the world premiere of his movie Paris 1936, which will only be screened in the French capital during the next month of September.

He, together with the main star of the movie, the actress Nora Aznezeder will present the full-length movie, which is an epoch drama that narrates the atmosphere lived in France during the days of the Popular Front, previous to the Second World War. The critic is awaiting the sequences of this new movie, from the many times awarded director from The choir (The choirsingers), his fiction debut, also presented some years ago, in Havana.

A PROGRAMM OF PREMIERES AND AWARDS

Just together, from the producer Claude Berri, produced in 2007, is the movie selected for the opening, on June 6 in the Cinemateca de Cuba, which will be presented to the public by the moviemakers Christophe Barratier and Nouredine SEADI, organizers of Cinemania.

The movie has a script written by its producer and is inspired in the novel by Anna Gavalda. It had three nominations to the Caesar awards, the highest distinction in French cinema and Laurent Stocker won for it the Caesar to the best new-coming actor.

The director Eric Lartigau will present in the Chaplin, on Saturday, June 7 at 8:00 p.m., his movie Wife for Rent, shot in 2005. This is a sentimental drama that earned three nominations to the Caesar: best actor (Alain Chabat), best actress (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and best supporting actress (Bernadette Lafont).

Also, the producer Erir Barbier will assist to the screening of his movie The snake, on Sunday 8 at 8:00 p.m. in the Cinemateca de Cuba, a movie produced in 2006, whose argument narrates the adventures and misadventures of a family father, who had to go through events such as a murder, a kidnapping and blackmail. The script was written by the director together with the Vietnamese Trân-Minh Nam, inspired in the novel Plender by Ted Lewis.

Dan Herzberg, representative from French cinema, will present to the public in the Chaplin, but on Monday 9, the movie 99 Franks, by Jan Kounen, from 2007 which deals with the advert world. Jocelyn Quivrin won the Lumiere award for his work in this movie.

Don’t tell anyone, by Guillaume Canet, from 2006, is a thriller with a script written by its director himself together with Philippe Lefebvre, inspired in the novel by Harlan Coben. The movie received four Caesar awards: best director, best actor (François Cluzet), best edition as well as best music written for a movie and two 2007 Lumiere Awards: best movie and the public award.

A opera prima, on solitude and marriage agencies, is the sentimental comedy You are very handsome, the debut of the producer Isabelle Mergault in 2005, a movie which won the Caesar to the best Opera Prima.

Other titles which will be exhibited in the Festival are The ambitious, by Catherine Corsini from 2006, a sentimental comedy, as well as Fall in love with me, by Pierre Salvadori, also from 2006, a high comedy and The page changer, by Denis Dercourt from 2005 a thriller with a frustrated passion for piano. This movie had three nominations for the Caesar Awards: best actress (Catherine Frot), best music written for a movie (Jérôme Lemonnier) and best new-coming actress (Déborah François).

There are also programmed Flandres, by Bruno Dumont, from 2006, a movie that talks about a secret love and about the horrors of war. It received the Great Jury Award at the 2006 Cannes Festival. Another movie which may be enjoyed is Bled Number One, by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmèche, the only joint production from this edition, which was produced between France and Algeria in 2006 and which achieved the Youth Award at the 2006 Cannes Festival. There will also be screened Luxury seducer, by Christian Vincent, from 2005, a drama with a sentimental touch for which François Cluzet was nominated as best supporting actor in the Caesars Awards.

JACQUES DEMY IN CUBA

Filled with nostalgia, there will also be in the program of the French Movie Festival, a tribute to the already deceased moviemaker Jacques Demy, with the screening of six of his classic movies: The ladies from Rochefort, staring the sisters Catherine Deneuve together with the also deceased Francoise Dorléac, as well as Lola, with that wonderful actress called Anouk Aimée and The bay of the Angels, with Jeanne Moreau. There will b also screened The Umbrellas from Cherbourgh, which revolutionized the musical genre, with the presence of Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo and the movie Donkey fur, with Deneuve together with the talent of Jean Marais, among others.


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