3-19-25
A Week of French Language Cinema at the TRK
By Diane Sippl
Whether it’s concerts, plays, or dance performances, one always expects the best at a cultural hub like the TRK. Cinema is no exception, especially for Francophones, but rest assured, English subtitles welcome the general public. Beginning Wednesday, March 19th, the Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz continues its tradition of celebrating filmmaking as a nexus of human diversity, relationships intimate and global, and artful communication through its 16th Annual Week of French Language Cinema. This year’s program of award-winning works takes us not only to Bordeaux, Brittany, and Paris, to Brussels and Montreal, but well beyond, to Switzerland, Norway, and Benin with characters from Syria, Dahomey, and the Canadian woods (when we count non-human creatures brought strangely to life).
What may be even more surprising is that of the seven recent feature films to be presented, five have been directed by women, a welcome contribution to March as Women’s History Month. We can take a brief look at these before announcing the total line-up from Wednesday, March 19-Sunday, March 23 at the TRK, 10361 West Pico Blvd., Los Angeles 90064.
While the films range from mockumentary to magical, satirical to surreal, they are refreshing in their tendency to take up taboo topics, at least those often shunned from “polite” cultural conversation: religion, death, and politics. Could it be the nuances of the language—verbal but also cinematic—that invite the filmmakers to portray provocative themes with social and psychological finesse? A longstanding relation to the art and the evolution of French cinema endows three cineastes in particular, Nathalie Saint-Pierre, Emily Atef, and Julie Delpy.
Hailing from Quebec, writer, director, editor and independent producer Nathalie Saint-Pierre has already earned a reputation for creating sensitive films about youths coming of age. Her 2013 film Catimini focused on girls living in foster homes arranged by child protection services. Her recent work, On Earth as in Heaven, delivers us to another conceivably marginal world, at least from the psychological point of view of the character. Saint-Pierre takes us to Montreal today—the people, the streets, the downtown—through the fresh eyes of Clara, who is desperately searching for her sister after she disappeared from an isolated evangelical Christian group in the countryside where the two grew up. Clara has ten days to “rescue” Sara, or to discover the price of freedom she herself has never before known.
While Nathalie Saint-Pierre has continued to refine her investigation into the psyches of youth, for More than Ever, writer-director Emily Atef departed from her TV work on Killing Eve to create a pensive picture of serious illness and the ways we are inept at facing it and accommodating it. When Hélène is diagnosed with a terminal lung condition her doctors don’t know how to treat, she seeks out the clean air and social escape of Norway. Her husband, Mathieu, for example, is at a loss—the more time he spends with her, the more apart from her he feels. And yet she’s the one dying. (Ironically, for French film fans familiar with the actor, Gaspard Ulliel, there is a double sadness in watching him play his final role, since a skiing accident in 2022 took his life.) Meanwhile, Vicky Krieps plays Hélène as a prickly character who asserts the right to make her own choices, even if it means befriending “Mister,” a man she met on the internet, and visiting him at his isolated home on a fjord. More than Ever is no tear-jerker; despite the fact that Hélène keeps her decision-making personal, Atef wants us to learn how to talk about death, and to do it together.
After a sobering melodrama (setting all genre-bending aside), comedy is always welcome, especially when it’s as relevant to our socio-cultural ills as The Barbarians. In her satirical dramedy, Julie Delpy slams the rejection of refugees, but the question is, which ones? As writer-director of her latest work, she also plays the lead as Joëlle, a school teacher who campaigns to bring Ukrainians to the heart of Brittany. A strange twist: France has run out of Ukrainians to bring in, so her village opts for Syrians. A well-educated family is bussed in, with an architect, a graphic designer, and a doctor, and they speak the language, perform underpaid jobs, and face intolerance all the while gazing upon the alcoholism, bigamy, and racism of their rural Gallic community. Delpy launched her career as an actress who brought culture-clash to the foreground. Now living in the U.S. and working in France, she seizes chances for political irony; her broad humor lambasts the true “barbarians” but not without showing, through a fine ensemble of actors including Sandrine Kiberlain and Laurent Lafitte, that both sides of the culture gap could benefit if they got to know each other.
The Barbarians is not the only film with segments shot through the eye of a TV camera. Mati Diop, another crosscultural writer-director, in this case based in Paris and often working in Senegal (home to her musician father and late filmmaker uncle), also started as an actress and also plays with the documentary form, here introducing a surreal voice for a sculpture once looted from colonial Dahomey and now being returned by France to Benin. Emerging as somewhat of a champion of the hybrid form, Diop employs magical elements not only in her recent documentary, Dahomey, but also in her previous theatrical feature, Atlantics. Both films have garnered endless awards and praise internationally.
Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz is not only screening eight films over five consecutive nights but also offers a complimentary buffet each evening included in the ticket price of a mere $10. Wine and champagne are also available on the patio before each night’s event, where guests are bound to find cultivated conversation in French and in English among the theater’s avid visitors. Come early, and enjoy the vibe!
A Week of French Language Cinema
Night #1 Belgium Wednesday, March 19 - 8pm
Les pas perdus (The Lost Steps)
Directed by Roda Fawaz et Thibaut Wohlfahrt
Night #2 Quebec Thursday, March 20 - 8pm
Sur la terre et comme au ciel (On Earth as in Heaven)
Directed by Nathalie Saint-Pierre
Night #3 Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Friday, March 21 - 8pm
Short film: Caroline sur le toît
Directed by Alejandro Bordier
Feature film: Plus que jamais (More than Ever)
Directed by Emily Atef with Gaspard Ulliel
Night #4 Senegal-Dahomey Saturday, March 22 - 5pm
Dahomey
Directed by Mati Diop
Switzerland Saturday, March 22 - 7pm
Le Procès du Chien (Dog on Trial)
Directed by Laetitia Dosch
Night #5 Canada Sunday, March 23 - 5pm
Festin Boréal
Directed by Robert Morin
France Sunday, March 23 - 7pm
Les Barbares (The Barbarians)
Directed by Julie Delpy
Tickets at https://www.theatreraymondkabbaz.com/aweekoffrenchlanguagecinema
Wednesday, March 19, 2025 - Sunday, March 23, 2025
Theatre Raymond Kabbaz
10361 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90064
United States (map)