(SPOT.ph) Clear your calendar from June 3 to 9, because the French Film Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary with 20 movies and the lineup is très magnifique. This year, the festival is happening in two locations: Greenbelt 3 and Bonifacio High Street Cinemas.
Tickets are priced at P100 per screening and now's a good time to save the screening schedules:
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Here's a quick guide to all of the films you can catch!
Diplomatie (Diplomacy)
Director: Volker Schlöndorff | Running Time: 1 hour 24 minutes
What it's about: The year is 1944 and someone...well, actually, Adolf Hitler wants to blow up Paris. Swedish consul Raoul Nordling must stop him!
Good for: History buffs and folk who enjoy a good war espionage thriller
3 Cœurs (3 Hearts)
Director: Benoit Jacquot | Running Time: 1 hour 46 minutes
What it's about: It's like the Before series (Before Sunset, specifically), but with a love triangle. There's a train, a woman named Sylvie and another name Sophie, and a man who has a hard time keeping schedules straight.
Good for: Folks who enjoyed L'Appartement (and it's remake Wicker Park)
Chante ton bac d’abord (We Did it on a Song)
Director: David André | Running Time: 1 hour 22 minutes
What it's about: Teenage small town friends live through a financial crisis and they sing about it.
Good for: People who enjoy musicals and coming-of-age tales, especially in French
Dans la cour (In the Courtyard)
Director: Pierre Salvadori | Running Time: 1 hour 27 minutes
What it's about: A quirky tale of friendship (and more) between a musician-turned-concierge and a woman whose sanity is challenged by a crack on a wall.
Good for: Awkwardness. Adorable awkwardness.
Eden
Director: Mia Hansen-Løve | Running Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
What it's about: It's the '90s! Our main guy is Paul, who will party like the Y2K bug will literally end us all.
Good for: Watching the rise of House music and sneaking a glance at Parisian nightlife in the '90s
Hippocrate
Director: Thomas Lilti | Running Time: 1 hour 42 minutes
What it's about: Doctors—how to become doctor, what it feels like to have a doctor for a dad, and what doctors are like in general.
Good for: Learning about what life is like as a doctor
La Belle et la bête (Beauty and the Beast)
Director: Christophe Gans | Running Time: 1 hour 52 minutes
What it's about: "Barely even friends, then somebody bends...unexpectedly."
Good for: Fans of Léa Seydoux and the quintessential French man of a certain generation, Vincent Cassel
La Famille Bélier (The Bélier Family)
Director: Eric Lartigau | Running Time: 1 hour 44 minutes
What it's about: In the Bélier family, only 16-year-old Paula can hear. The rest of them are deaf and she's been caring for everyone...but that all might change when she begins to seriously consider a career in music.
Good for: Family-oriented movies made with love and fuzzy feelings
La French (The Connection)
Director: Cédric Jimenez | Running Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
What it's about: In Marseille, a newly-appointed judge starts going after organized crime and obviously, he'll be facing heat from the big bosses of the gangs in play.
Good for: French gangsta piece of history
La Jalousie (Jealousy)
Director: Philippe Garrel | Running Time: 1 hour 17 minutes
What it's about: There's a man who lives with a woman, but has a daughter with a different woman, and is in love with this other theater actress. The theater actress leaves him. Tragic.
Good for: A tale of one too many lovers and the poor men who fall prey to their own hormones
La Prochaine fois je viserai le cœur (Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart)
Director: Cédric Anger | Running Time: 1 hour 51 minutes
What it's about: Notorious European serial killer Jack the Ripper meets Light from the Japanese manga Death Note. There's a maniac on the prowl and unbeknownst to the police, they're hunting down one of their own.
Good for: Crime and thriller fans, who can't decide if they want to cheer for the good guy or if they want the bad guy to get away with all of it
L’Amour est un crime parfait (Love is the Perfect Crime)
Director: Arnaud Larrieu and Jean-Marie Larrieu | Running Time: 1 hour 51 minutes
What it's about: A woman goes missing and someone begins an investigation—starting with the professor who had an affair with her...and several other students.
Good for: People who take delight in amorous pursuits
Le Havre
Director: Aki Kaurismäki | Running Time: 1 hour 33 minutes
What it's about: Hitting the same notes as The Visitor, La Havre deals with themes of community and immigration from the perspective of a writer-turned-shoeshiner named Marcel Marx. Marx must rise to the occasion when apathy and authority...wait, his name is "Marx?"
Good for: Layers of symbols and probably fans of that famous Marx
Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! (Me, Myself and Mum)
Director: Guillaume Gallienne | Running Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
What it's about: Adapted from the stage, Guillaume Galliene introduces his brand of comedy to the rest of the world.
Good for: Laughs and boys who love other boys
L’Homme qu’on aimait trop (In the Name of My Daughter)
Director: André Téchiné | Running Time: 1 hour 56 minutes
What it's about: A mysterious disappearance born from a series of shady deals leaves a woman, Reneé, fighting for a chance to put the man she believes to be responsible for the crime behind bars.
Good for: People who enjoy puzzles and solving whodunnits
Lulu femme nue (Lulu in the Nude)
Director: Solveig Anspach | Running Time: 1 hour 27 minutes
What it's about: Lulu walks away from her life and upon meeting strangers along the way, she is reintroduced to a person she has forgotten.
Good for: Self-discovery
Saint Laurent
Director: Bertrand Bonello | Running Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
What it's about: You've seen Coco Avant Chanel. Now it's time for a little YSL.
Good for: The chicest cats in town
Timbuktu
Director: Abderrahmane Sissako | Running Time: 1 hour 37 minutes
What it's about: The eponymous place and the lives of the people affected by the conflict in it.
Good for: Broadening your view of the world and what life is like for other people
Rois-Démons (108 Demon-Kings)
Director: Pascal Morelli | Running Time: 1 hour 44 minutes
What it's about: An animated film exploring the Empire of China in the 12th century through the adventures of Prince Duan, who must work to recover his father's throne.
Good for: Cross-cultural collaborations!
Taklub
Director: Brillante Mendoza | Running Time: 1 hour 37 minutes
What it's about: Brilliante Mendoza's latest work, a post-Haiyan tale that follows the lives of three survivors of the supertyphoon, premiered in Cannes to rave reviews this year. After leaving a resonating impression in the internetional festival, Taklub comes home to remind us of the importance of solidarity and vigilance.
Good for: Identifying the man-made tragedies set in motion by a natural calamity
Tickets are priced at P100 and may be purchased at the ticket booths or through SureSeats.com.