The Alliance Francaise French Film Festival, which opened last Wednesday, 5 March with the screening of Paris at the Palace Academy Twin in Sydney’s Paddington, is now in it’s nineteenth year and grander than ever.

Vibewire.net spoke with the French Ambassador Jean-Jacques Garnier. As the festival’s artistic director he has had the pleasure of selecting this year’s mammoth platter of cinematic crème de la crème that we can expect to enjoy over the next few weeks in Sydney and in other capital cities until the end of April.

The perpetually industrious French diplomat was bristling with energy in anticipation of the event and privy to all its secrets. He also shared some astute perspectives on the film industry both in here and in France while reflecting on the inclinations of mixed audiences.

For how many years have you been the festival’s artistic director?

For the festival in Australia this is only the second year but I did the same when I was in working in Singapore for the film festival. Before that I was running a theatre and a cinema in the suburbs of Paris.

The festival will be running simultaneously in different cities, does that make the organisation of the event somewhat difficult?

The Alliance Film Festival definitely presents a huge organisational task involving the whole network of Alliance Francais Australia wide. Perth this year was in charge of the printing, which means the programs, the catalogues, the posters and so on. Sydney is in charge of the marketing, sponsorships and fund-raising, and Canberra is in charge of the co-ordination. Melbourne is in charge of all of the logistics and the print distribution, which is definitely a very huge task. At the moment there are six films that have been lost. We’re waiting for six movies, we don’t know where they are.

Really?

Yes, seriously! I’ve had a very bad weekend!  I think it will be ok though, at least by tomorrow, tomorrow evening or Wednesday morning!

With the festival now in its nineteenth year and with more than eighty percent of the attendees being Australian born, are you specifically selecting films for an Australian audience? Do you think Australians have a particular taste when in comes to French cinema?

That’s a good question. I am in fact doing three things when I make the selection. First of all, I must forget my own taste, for sure! All the movies I selected I did like in some way, but for some of them I would not pay to go to the cinema to see the theatrical release. They may not necessarily all be the kind of movies that I would like to see, but my job is to present another view, one of the diversity and vitality of French film production.

Secondly, the film must have a universal story. Of course different audiences exist in different countries, but the idea is also to find the kind of movies that can touch anybody, anywhere in the world.

After that I also have to think about the local audience who are in this case the Australian public. Because I only arrived in Australia eighteen months ago I can’t say that I know what the real cinematic tastes of the Australian people are. I’m following what’s going on with cinema, I’m following the box office, of course I have some idea about what films are popular over here, but it’s also about what image Australians have of France, what they are expecting from us.

In Australia, like anywhere else in the world, there are many different audiences. You’ve got movie lovers waiting for the next art-house film from France, people who want French comedy so you have to think about them, you’ve got the ones who prefer to watch an action film regardless of the country it comes from and so on. Hopefully one is not obliged to select something that’s only fit for one kind of audience.

Recently there are increasingly more and more Australian people coming to the cinema to see French movies.  In 2007 we saw an increase of sixty percent in the admission of French films for theatrical release in Australia and for just one year that’s a huge increase. I hope that this year the audiences will love the selection of films in the festival. We are indeed offering Australian audiences various improvements on the festival this year also..

What kinds of improvements?

First of all we are bringing more films this year that are solely for festival release. In the previous year about fifty percent of the films were released soon afterwards, but this year almost sixty percent will only appear in Australia during the festival.

Secondly we have opened a documentary section, more and more we see documentaries made for cinematic release and in the case of the festival, documentaries can be particularly interesting as a window onto the real life aspects of France.

Many of the films in this years selection are in some way about Paris. Was this a deliberate decision to promote the French capital?

It’s definitely not a deliberate choice. I think it’s because the French directors, when they made their movies, were quite inspired by Paris. Sometimes you may have three or four movies about the French countryside or the south of France in the same year and you never know exactly why, but for sure, Paris is a nice city and it’s a fantastic set for a movie or for a story. It’s funny, I’ve selected several movies where Paris may appear almost as a character, but it was definitely not something I was thinking about. There were also other films set in Paris which I did not choose to include in the festival. It’s more of a coincidence than anything else.

Why then in your opinion was the film “Paris” the most suitable choice for the opening of the festival?

Again, I can say for three reasons.

First of all because we had the possibility for the first time to present a film that was released only two weeks before the opening of the festival, even in France. The movie was released in Paris on the 20th of February.

Secondly, its’ a fabulous cast; Juliette Binoche, Roman Duris, Frabrice Luchini, Francois Cluzet, Albert Dupontel, Karin Viard, Melanie Laurent to name a few. Also the director Cedric Klapisch is very well known here because of Russian Dolls and Spanish Apartment  so we were sure to have something of quality for opening night.

I haven’t even seen the film yet. Icon Film bought the movie without even seeing it. They looked at the script and because of the director and the cast it was an obvious choice. It will arrive in town tonight and I will see it tomorrow afternoon for the first time.

To open the film festival with a film that is called “Paris” by a director who normally makes great movies makes me very confident about how the audience will respond. The majority of the screenings here are already fully booked and after ten days in France the film was seen by over one million viewers, so I think it’s going to be something special.

From your personal perspective what will be some of the other festival highlights?

Every time the same question. It’s difficult to say, it really depends on the audience. It also depends on whether or not the film is going to be released later on. There are some films that audiences will be able to see throughout the year and others that are not to be missed as they are only part of the festival program.

After Him is definitely a highlight, for me it’s perhaps the best film starring Catherine Deneuve in maybe ten years. Her performance is excellent.

I think that the comedy, Could This Be Love, is a great movie.

The Dinner Guest is also a highlight but it will also be released later. It’s a typical French comedy.

Molière is a highlight.

 The Secret of the Grain  most definitely. It has received four French awards for best French film, best director, best screenplay and best newcomer actress.

A Secret is also an excellent film.

After that you have a whole selection films only released for the festival, one of which, Trivial, I believe to be something special. It’s a thriller by director Sophie Marceau,  a little bit Hitchcock and really very interesting.

I also loved Odette Toulemonde and The Price to Pay which are both comedies.

Love Song  was presented in Cannes and is a kind of “ménage à trois” film,  and what is a French festival without a little ménage à trois? Even though this year we have no Gerard Depardieu!

It’s not often we make war films in France, but Intimate Enemies is a masterpiece, for sure.

Gotta Dance is recommendable as a zany comedy and Chrysalis is a very good thriller.

Crime Insiders is a peculiar movie. I think it’s the most violent, dark and bloody movie I’ve seen in a long time. For people who like these kind of thrillers it’s an awesome film with some very good actors. Philippe Caubere, who’s normally a theatre actor and hasn’t been in many movies, plays the most perfect of characters.

It must have been very difficult culling the selection down. How did you manage?

It was tough. Last May I made a list of one-hundred titles. I watched eighty-two of them and came up with a short-list of fifty.  Then from that short list I needed to succeed in negotiations with the French or Australian distributors to be sure that we will have the print available. This is not simple because we will need to keep the prints for such a long time. I am also the artistic director of the New Zealand French film festival so that  means I needed the prints from mid February through to mid April.  In the end I managed to procure thirty-seven films including those in the documentary sections and some for the family festival. I think there’s a good balance between comedy and drama, mainstream and slightly more art-house, it is definitely a mix that manages to represent the cultural diversity of France.

I still of course am awaiting the reactions of the audience.

Vibewire.net describes itself as a youth website. What particular films could you recommend to an audience, let’s say, between eighteen and twenty-six years of age.

The Age if Man,Chrysalis and Crime Insiders for sure. They will love The Dinner Guest, Love Songs, Molière , UV (a strange, atmospheric psychological thriller starring two very beautiful women) and in the documentary section Lagerfield Confidential and Animals in Love they should really enjoy. One animated movie in the family section, Azur & Asmar,  I can highly recommend, however in this category most of the films would better suit children from ages three to twelve years.

Would you say that people often go into a foreign film expecting something outside of the mainstream? When people see subtitles, do they unconsciously prepare themselves for something different than, let’s say, an American blockbuster?

 Certainly, they go to see something aside from what the cinema generally offers them. Something that we have noticed is that there are still relatively few attendees in the eighteen to twenty-five age bracket because of the subtitles. Subtitles definitely still present a barrier and prevent bringing more audiences to the cinema. I think it’s a bit of a pity. I definitely prefer to see the original version with subtitles rather than to see a movie dubbed into another language, such as they continue to do in France.

What do you do when you’re not artistically directing the Alliance Francais French film festival?

 The French film festival is a very tiny part of my job. First of all I am the “Attaché Culturel” which means I am in charge of promoting French culture here in Australia. This means visual arts, performing arts, the music industry and so on. I am also linked with all the major festivals in Australia through institutions such as museums, galleries, etc. We support various programs and try to develop some exchanges between schools such is the National Institute of Circus Arts, the National Institute of Dramatic Art, the National Art School, the College of Fine Arts, the Victorian College of the Arts and so on. We also support artists residencies mainly in visual art and are trying to build relationships between French and Australian artistic directors who travel abroad to meet their foreign counterparts. I move a lot between the capital cities of Australia and much administrative work needs to be done to report back to France on what we are doing over here. So as you can see I’m quite busy!

Not too busy to watch a lot of movies though I’m sure. Are you a fan of Australian cinema and have there been any recent Australian films you’ve particularly enjoyed?

The last Australian film I saw was September directed by Peter Carstairs and I really like it. I feel that it’s difficult to compare with France because the industries are not on the same scale but I do believe that Australian cinematography is great, there is a whole host of excellent actors and production in general is certainly very diverse and interesting. What I did see recently was the documentary Bra Boys which I found particularly interesting.

And what of the Australian film industry in general?

I think various official bodies such the Australian Film Commission are doing a lot to try and develop the industry which is great. It’s important in any country to have a strong film industry that promotes an art which holds a mirror to society. Apart from the fact that films tell us stories, make us dream and travel, it’s also an art that has to make us think about and face the reality of our country. I feel that, as in France, the Australian film industry provides this important aspect of film for a diverse variety of audiences. Like most people I am excited about the release of Baz Lurhman’s film Australia and I also subscribe to the magazine Encore which furnishes me with all sorts of interesting information about the local film scene. It is an important aspect of my job to be well informed about these things.

You’ve certainly informed me about a lot of things today. Is there anything else about the Festival you would like to add before we conclude the interview?

Almost certainly Catherien Deneuve will be visiting Australia for the festival, she should be here between the fifteenth and the twentieth of March. If all goes to plan she will attend all the screenings of After Him in Sydney and will also be appearing in Melbourne and Canberra. Deneuve will give a press conference here in Sydney on the fifteenth of March between 5.00 and 5.30pm at the Sofitel Wentworth hotel on Phillip street.

Thank you very much Jean-Jacques Garnier, it’s been most interesting speaking with you this morning.

And you, thanks very much.

________________________________________________________________

The festival runs until the 19th of March in Sydney and Melbourne. It begins again on the 20th of March in both Canberra and Brisbane kicking of in Perth and Adelaide on the 27th.

For more information visit www.frenchfilmfestival.org