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Festival Schedule and Program

en français | time schedule | feature films | short films | program [PDF]

2008 Festival Feature Films (March 28-30)


Dialogue avec mon jardinier

VCU French Film Festival Directors Peter and Françoise Kirkpatrick present the feature film Ensemble, c’est tout

director Claude Berri screenplay Claude Berri based on the novel Ensemble, c’est tout by Anna Gavalda, published by Éditions le Dilettante producers Pierre Grunstein, Nathalie Rheims starring Audrey Tautou, Guillaume Canet, Laurent Stocker, Françoise Bertin running time 1 h 37 min although not rated, parental guidance suggested for viewers under 13

Synopsis

This is the story of four apparently disparate lives that come together under the same Parisian roof. Camille Fauque, an artist by day, “surface technician” (or cleaning lady) by night, is wasting away in a small attic of an apartment building when she meets her neighbor, Philibert, an aristocratic history buff who suffers from bouts of anxiety. His housemate Franck is a chef who lives hard and fast, and whose only worry is the welfare of his elderly grandmother, the fragile and funny Paulette. Together, they learn to ease their doubts and sorrows and try to make their dreams come true. Through their discovery of one another, they learn that together we are stronger.

Cesar award

Congratulations to Claude Berri on his 2008 César nomination for Best Writing-Adaptation for Ensemble, c’est tout.

Congratulations to Laurent Stocker on his 2008 César nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Most Promising Actor for Ensemble, c’est tout.

actor/director
Guillaume Canet

2007 La Clef by Guillaume Nicloux
2006 Un ticket pour l’espace by Eric Lartigau
  Ne le dis à personne
  Darling by Christine Carrière
2005 Joyeux Noël by Christian Carion
  L’Enfer by Danis Tanovic
2004 Narco by Tristan Aurouet and Gilles Lellouche (VCU French Film Festival 14)
2003 Jeux d’enfants by Yann Samuell
  Les Clés de bagnole by Laurent Baffie
2002 Le Frère du guerrier by Pierre Jolivet
  Mon idole
2001 Les Morsures de l’aube by Antoine de Caunes
  Mille Millièmes, fantaisie immobilière by Rémi Waterhouse
2000 La Plage by Danny Boyle
  La Fidélité by Andrzej Zulawski
  The Day the Ponies Come Back by Jerry Schatzberg
  Vidocq by Pitof
1999 Je règle mon pas sur le pas de mon père by Rémi Waterhouse
1998 Ceux qui m’aiment prendront le train by Patrice Chéreau
  En plein coeur by Pierre Jolivet
1997 Barracuda by Philippe Haïm

actress
Audrey Tautou

2006 Hors de prix by Pierre Salvadori
  The Da Vinci Code by Ron Howard
2005 Les Poupées russes by Cédric Klapisch
2004 Un long dimanche de fiançailles by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
2003 Happy end by Amos Kollek
  Pas sur la bouche by Alain Resnais
  Etat de grâce by Patrick Dell’Isola
2002

Dirty Pretty Things by Stephen Frears

  Les Marins perdus by Claire Devers
  A la folie, pas du tout! by Laetitia Colombani
  L’Auberge espagnole by Cédric Klapisch
2001 Dieu est grand, je suis toute petite by Pascale Bailly
  Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
2000 Le Battement d'ailes du papillon by Laurent Firode
1999 Le Libertin by Gabriel Aghion
  Epouse-moi by Harriet Marin
  Voyous, voyelles by Serge Meynard
  Triste à mourir by Alexandre Billon
1998 Venus Beauté (Institut) by Tonie Marshall
  La Vieille Barrière by Lyèce Boukhitine and Franck Gourlat
  Casting: Archi-dégueulasse by Lyèce Boukhitine

actor/director/screenwriter
Claude Berri
selected films from 1986

2005 La Maison du bonheur by Dany Boon
  La Graine et le mulet by Abdellatif Kechiche
2004 San-Antonio by Frédéric Aubertin
  L’Un reste l’autre part
  Le Démon de midi by Marie-Pascale Osterrieth
  Les Enfants by Christian Vincent
2003 Le Bison by Isabelle Nanty
  Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d’enfants by YvanAttal
2002 Une femme de ménage
2001 La Boîte by Claude Zidi
  Les Rois mages by Didier Bourdon, Bernard Campan
2000 Astérix et Obelix: Mission Cléopâtre by Alain Chabat
  Ma femme est une actrice by Yvan Attal
1999 Astérix et Obélix contre César by Claude Zidi
  Tout sur ma mère by Pedro Almodovar
  La Débandade
Mauvaise passe by Michel Blanc
1998 Un grand cri d’amour by Josiane Balasko
1997 Le Pari by Didier Bourdon, Bernard Campan
1996 Didier by Alain Chabat
  Lucie Aubrac
  Le Roi des aulnes by Volker Schlöndorff
1995 Les Trois Frères by Didier Bourdon, Bernard Campan
1994 La Reine Margot by Patrice Chéreau
  Gazon maudit by Josiane Balasko
1993 Germinal
1991 L’Amant by Jean-Jacques Annaud
1990 Stan the Flasher by Serge Gainsbourg
  Uranus
1988 L’Ours byJean-Jacques Annaud
  A gauche en sortant de l’ascenseur by Edouard Molinaro
1987 Sous le soleil de Satan by Maurice Pialat
  Hôtel de France by Patrice Chéreau
1986 Jean de Florette
  Manon des sources

Group interview with Audrey Tautou (actress), Guillaume Canet and Laurent Stocker (actors)

Ensemble, c'est tout starts out with a sad theme: the solitude of these 30-somethings living in a big city and their inability to communicate.
Audrey Tautou: Solitude is the real subject of the film. By living together, Camille, Philibert and Franck realize how extremely lonely they had been before. It does them good to realize that others share this impression of not always being in sync with the world around us.
Laurent Stocker: These three characters are just like our generation. Meeting people from outside their circle seems quite difficult to them.
Guillaume Canet: To tell the truth, there’s something I’d like to change about myself. I wish I were more open-minded about meeting people from outside my milieu. I’m unable to go to a party where I don’t know anyone. It’s my gruff side.

Ensemble, c’est tout

After having broken off relations with their parents, your characters become devoted to a grandmother. Isn’t this an idyllic vision of intergenerational relationships? What are your relationships with your grandparents like?
G. C.: On reading the script, Franck’s relationship with his grandmother touched me a lot because I understood too late the importance of having grandparents. I have lost all of mine and I really regret not having spent more time with them, not having had adult conversations on certain subjects like living in a couple, for example.
A. T.: In our society, you often get the feeling that the elderly are perceived like a herd! As if older people no longer have any personality, as if their health problems make them all identical. Quite often they don’t get the respect they deserve, we forget about the lives they’ve led and the challenges they’ve had to overcome.

Your generation is sometimes judged harshly. You’re said to be change-averse, indecisive, flighty. Do you see yourselves in this description?
A. T.: Every generation gets criticized. They’re more this, less that. ... Listen folks: it was always better back then. Why do we always have to idealize the past and not recognize that each generation is different?
G. C.: And why do we always have to reduce an entire generation to a few clichés?

Comments reproduced with permission of La Figaro Magazine, 10/15/2007.

Interview with Claude Berri (director)

Today, Ensemble, c’est tout [the novel by Anna Gavalda] has become a film by Claude Berri. What’s more, all those who’ve seen it consider it to be an integral part of your filmography. What has Anna Gavalda’s reaction been?
Ensemble, c’est toutAll I can say is that she saw the film and she liked it a lot. She never said anything. I think she had said that if she didn’t like the film and was asked about it, she wouldn’t have said anything. But, on the contrary, even though she is very reserved, if she is asked the question, I think she’ll say that she liked it. She didn’t say anything to me about the things I changed. I remember, after the screening, that her editor was in tears. I think Anna felt the same thing.



 
 

 

 


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