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No 5: A scene from the film Coco Chanel&Igor Stravinsky directed by Jan Kounen. — File Photo |
HA NOI — Five new movies showing in Ha Noi this week are examples of French cinema, known for its slow-paced philosophical art films with interesting, even weird characters.
The movies in a variety of genres are features of the Country in Focus section of the Viet Nam International Film Festival which ends tomorrow.
The movies are Heartbreaker (a comedy showing at Platinum Cineplex today at 6.30pm), Coco Chanel&Igor Stravinsky (a period piece showing at Megastar Vincom at 7.30pm), Babies (documentary showing at Platinum Cineplex tomorrow at 4pm) and Little Nicholas (feature showing at Megastar Vincom at 5pm). Oceans, (a documentary), which was shown on Sunday
Coco Chanel&Igor Stravinsky, directed by Jan Kounen, was chosen as the closing film of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. It is based on the 2002 fictional novel Coco&Igor by Chris Greenhalgh and traces the affair between Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky in Paris in 1920, the year that Chanel No 5 was created.
The documentary, Oceans, which was shown on Monday, is an ecological drama documentary filmed throughout the globe. It is part thriller and a part meditation, with minimal dialogue, on the vanishing wonders of the sub-aquatic world.
It was directed by Jacques Cluzaud, a cameraman for the movie Indochina, a 1992 French film set in colonial French Indochina during the 1930s.
Another French movie, the 3D animation movie Arthur and the War of the Two Worlds, directed by Luc Besson, opened the festival on Sunday. The director shows the world that French cinema is not only all about art house movies, but also successful box-office blockbusters, including the very latest in 3D animation technology.
French representatives at the festival are Coco Chanel&Igor Stravinsky actress Anna Mouglalis, director of Heartbreaker Pascal Chaumeil, Babies director Thomas Balmes, and a representative of the Canne film festival Christian Jeune.
Two others, Francois Catonne and Mathieu Poirot-Delpech, are jury board members at the Viet Nam festival in the feature film category and for short films and documentaries. — VNS