When house builder Jean requests a violin “tune” from his son’s elementary school teacher in “Mademoiselle Chambon,” the title character quietly declines. Only the audience is fairy certain that in Stephane Brize’s tenderly paced romantic drama non means oui, or at least peut-etre.
“Mademoiselle Chambon” closes the Denver Film Society’s four-day, 12-film treat “J’adore: A Focus on French- Language Cinema.”
The slate is an impressive one. Coming so soon after April’s inspired “Focus on Japanese Cinema,” the fete also suggests an organization becoming adept at delivering the pleasures of a concentrated mini-fest to local audiences.
“J’adore” kicks off with “L’Affaire Farewell.” A favorite at last year’s Telluride Film Festival, Christian Carion’s intelligent, reality-inspired thriller stars Emir Kusturica stars as a disenchanted KGB operative who passes secrets to a French engineer.
“Animal Heart” marks the debut of a filmmaker to reckon with, Switzerland’s Severine Cornamusaz. Traveling to Paul and Rosine’s farm high in the Alps is not a pleasant adventure. He is a brute. She teeters on the cusp of the abused until a farm laborer arrives. Cornamusaz appears to share her harsh view of male-female relationships with Lars von Trier, considered a master both of cinema and misogyny (although the latter charge proves complicated). “Animal Heart” is a headstrong, infuriating — and gorgeous — first feature.
Two stalwarts of French cinema have movies screening during the weekend. Catherine Breillat delivers a stylistically unusual fable with “Bluebeard.” The story, however — about an ogre whose disappeared wives are presumed murdered — is well-suited to a director known for her tussles with the themes of sexuality and violence.
Prolific director Francois Ozon’s “Hideaway” explores the tried, true but never tired terrain of family and blood when a pregnant woman is joined by her dead lover’s gay brother at a seaside refuge.
Not all the “J’adore” films are strictly arthouse fare. Included in the mix: Emile Gaudreault’s “Fathers and Guns,” Canada’s top-grossing French-language movie.
Emmanuel Levy’s beautifully crafted documentary “Two in the Wave” is a cinephile’s dream. The titular two are directing greats Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. The “wave” is La Nouvelle Vague — or French New Wave — the cinema-altering movement begun in the late ’50s, which also included filmmaking luminaries Claude Chabron, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette.
“Mademoiselle Chambon” closes the festival. Director Brize makes sure that what will (or won’t) transpire between Jean and M. Chambon never takes precedence over how it unfolds. He’s willing to let the dance between his characters go unhurried and unnamed.
Of course, the French are often credited with having a peculiar skill when it comes to depictions of infidelity. “Mademoiselle Chambon” reserves judgment. But we don’t have to.
The film is artful and affecting. And if the festival’s other selections pull off the same sweet dance, audience members will declare of “J’adore,” “J’adore.”
“J’adore: A focus on French-language cinema.”
Film festival. Four-day, 12-film, reception-happy, mini-film festival, including new works by Catherine Breillat and Francois Ozon. June 17-20. Starz FilmCenter at the Tivoli, Ninth Street and Auraria Parkway. Tickets, $10-$20. 303-820-FILM or
