Rendez-Vous French Film Festival unveils diverse program of screenings, February 18 to March 31
Lush period pieces and poetic docs, with tribute to late Quebec director Jean-Marc Vallée
Comme Une Vague
Aline
Les Illusions Perdues
AN OPULENT HISTORIC EPIC, an impressionistic documentary, and a buzzed-about biopic are among the movies coming to this year’s 28th annual Rendez-Vous Film Festival.
Organizer Visions Ouest unveiled a full live-screening program this week, to be complemented by online offerings. The fest runs from February 18 to March 31.
The opening weekend, February 18 to 20, takes place at the cinema at SFU Woodward’s, with programming dedicated to celebrated Quebec filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée, who passed away late last year. Screenings on the first weekend and beyond will be preceded by Annie St-Pierre’s humorous NFB short “Jean-Marc Vallée”, about a Chinese video club merchant dedicated to selling VHS and DVD copies of films directed by the Quebecois director.
Opening night kicks off with Marie-Julie Dallaire’s Comme Une Vague (Big Giant Wave), with the director in attendance for a talkback; the film was executive-produced by Vallée. The documentary is a visually poetic homage to the power of music, interweaving performance clips and interviews with musicians including singer-songwriter Patrick Watson, classical violinist Stéphane Tétreault, and DJ Osunlade.
Before the screening, enjoy three Canadian short films nominated for this year’s Oscars: “Les Grandes Claques”, by Annie St-Pierre, “Frimas” by Marianne Farley, and “Fanmi” by Carmine Pierre-Dufour et Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers.
On February 19, Rendez-Vous screens Jean-Marc Vallée’s 2005 retro-coming-of-age drama C.R.A.Z.Y., about a young gay man dealing with homophobia while growing up with four brothers and his father in 1960-70s Quebec. The same night, catch Aline, Valérie Lemercier’s over-the-top, unauthorized Céline Dion biopic that caused a buzz at Cannes, copresented with l’Alliance française de Vancouver.
On February 20, settle in for Eric Besnard’s Délicieux, a sumptuous tale of France’s first restaurant, and Catherine Therrien’s thought-provoking Une Révision, about a Muslim student and her deeply secular philosophy teacher.
On February 23, Rendez-Vous hosts a special screening of Jean-Pascal Zadi and John Wax’s Tout Simplement Noir at Le Maison de la francophonie’s Studio 16, copresented with l’Alliance française de Vancouver.
March 5 the fest returns to SFU Woodward’s with Xavier Giannoli’s lush historical epic Les Illusions Perdues, based on the famous novel by Honoré de Balzac and featuring young Canadian actor-director Xavier Dolan. On March 29 at the same venue, it features Pierre Pinaud’s fun La Fine Fleur, about a rose-grower who hires three nongardeners to try to save her business.
March 28 Rendez-Vous hits SFU’s student centre with Caroline Monnet’s Bootlegger, and March 31 it screens the Harvester Time at Cineplex Silvercity Coquitlam.
Watch for a full roster of online streamed films to follow. Watch here for tickets and more information. As always, Rendez-Vous screenings have English subtitles.
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