EYE
Galway, Wellpark, Galway, Co. Galway.
www.eyecinema.ie
Tel: 091 780 003
Highlights from the French Film Festival will be touring to the EYE Cinema in Galway.
Monday Nov 17
Après lui
Director: Gaël Morel • France • 2007 • 92 minutes
Gaël Morel first burst onto the scene as an actor in André Téchiné's Les roseaux sauvages and later forged a reputation as a director in his own right with À toute vitesse. Après lui marks his second collaboration with Christophe Honoré (Le Clan) and explores a central theme that appears in both their work — grief and mourning.
Catherine Deneuve stars as a mother who becomes obsessed with her son’s best friend after her child dies unexpectedly in an accident. It is a pleasure to see Deneuve tackling such a different role, opening all registers of motherly love and desperation in her difficult journey to come to terms with a loss that goes against all natural laws.
Tuesday Nov 18
Eldorado
Director: Bouli Lanners • Belgium | France • 2008 • 80 minutes
Although Belgian filmmaking is well known for the thought-provoking work of the Dardenne brothers, Eldorado represents the idiosyncratic and darkly funny side of the country’s humour. Writer, director and star Bouli Lanners’ film was selected for the prestigious Director’s Fortnight section at Cannes this year, where it proved to be an audience favourite and won three well-deserved jury prizes.
Lanners plays Yvan, a world-weary vintage car dealer who returns from work to find his house being burgled by Elie, a young local junkie. A standoff ensues between the two men, and several hours later they have formed an uneasy camaraderie. The two men embark on a cross country road trip in a 1979 Chevy to return Elie to his family…
Wednesday Nov 19
Deux jours à tuer (Love Me No More)
Director: Jean Becker • France • 2007 • 109 minutes
During a meeting with a client, advertising executive Antoine (Albert Dupontel) starts unexpectedly abusing both the product and the client. Advised to take some time off, Antoine goes one step further and quits the company, which he co-owns. Since this day happens to be his birthday, it’s suggested that Antoine is having a massive midlife crisis, but he seems more hellbent on inducing a crisis in everyone else around him. Antoine then takes off on a road trip that leads him to the wilds of Connemara, where he confronts his father (Pierre Vaneck), a loner who has never met his grandchildren.
Deux jours à tuer may sound like a melodrama about male anxiety, but it becomes more than that in the hands of masterful director Jean Becker who makes good use of some spectacular Irish locations.
Special guest
Jean Becker / Dours à tuer
Jean Becker is part of a French Cinema family which began with his father, the legendary director Jacques Becker, but also includes his brother, a cinematographer and his son, a producer. Jean Becker honed his craft in world of commercial cinema, television and advertising. He is probably best known to Irish audiences for his award-winning thriller L’Été meurtrier and the charming Les enfants du marais which was a huge success both in France and abroad.
