VCU news

By Mike Porter

The 17th annual French Film Festival will present an outstanding selection of feature films and short films, including several North American premieres. 

This year’s festival takes place March 27 through March 29 at the historic Byrd Theatre, 2908 W. Cary St., in Richmond.

Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond have joined forces in presenting this year’s festival.  A fitting match, as festival directors and founders Françoise and Peter Kirkpatrick are professors at the University of Richmond and VCU, respectively. The partnership has allowed the festival to continue to grow and attract a record number of French actors and directors to Richmond.

The festival will bring more than 12 feature films from award-winning French directors and 19 short films, all of which will be presented by their directors or actors. The festival seeks out the latest French films that best illustrate the diversity and richness of today’s French cinema. All films are subtitled in English and most are North American premieres.

The goal of the festival is to introduce the American public to French films and to provide the audience with an opportunity to engage the actors and directors in a question-and-answer session following each film.

This year, award winning French director Claude Miller will lead a delegation of 38 actors and directors, including French writer, actress, and director Josiane Balasko. Balasko has written and directed one of this year’s featured films, “Cliente,” and is starring in four others. She is a well-known, influential figure in the French film industry and the audience will get an opportunity to experience her talents as an author, director, producer and actress.

The festival will open Friday at noon with the first of two master classes titled, “Image Creation in Filmmaking.” This three-part class will open with a lecture on “Directors of Photography, Image Creators in Filmmaking” and will be presented by festival co-directors Françoise Ravaux-Kirkpatrick and Peter Kirkpatrick; the Program Director of the VCU School of the Arts Department of Cinema, Rob Tregenza; and professor and President of Commission Supérieure Technique de I’Image et du Son (CST), Pierre William Glenn.

Part two of the master class is titled “From Film Studies to Short Film Production” and features three short films and their accompanying master theses by David Kremer, Senda Bonnet and Benjamin Rufi- student directors of the La FÉMIS film school. Part three is titled, “New Technologies in Cinema Production and Projection: Setting New Standards for the Image Industry” and will be presented by Pierre-William Glenn, President of CST; Rip Hampton O’Neil, director of research and development CST; Alain Besse, board member CST and sound editor; and Angelo Cosimano, general director of Digimage. 

The second master class, “Laughter and Cinema,” is scheduled to follow the Friday screening of “L’Auberge Rouge” and will feature Balasko and French director Gérard Krawczyk. These master classes are designed to cultivate a deeper understanding and appreciation in the audience on the art and techniques of filmmaking. 

A new twist this year: the festival brings a special touch of Cannes to the Byrd. Technician specialists from the CST will assist in adjusting the audiovisual equipment at the Byrd Theatre. These are the same technicians who set industry standards and are responsible for all projections at the Cannes International Film Festival. This will make the Byrd Theatre the only U.S. theater whose optics and projection equipment have been improved using the latest in audiovisual innovations and standards developed by the CST.

The French Film Festival has had great success in attracting a large and diverse audience during the three-day festival. Last year, admissions were estimated at a record 21,000, making this the largest French film festival in the United States. The audience includes foreign dignitaries, students, teachers, film enthusiasts, families and art aficionados. Some audience members travel from as far as Oregon, California and Texas.

This year’s festival is sponsored by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Unifrance, L’ARP (French Guild of Authors, Directors and Producers), the CNC, the CST, and the SACD (Society of Dramatic Actors and Composers). The Community Idea Stations (PBS) and Style Weekly magazine are the official broadcast and print media sponsors of the festival.

Visit www.frenchfilm.vcu.edu for the 2009 festival schedule and a synopsis of each film.