War films and family stories in the French films' section at Titanic

French films traditionally form a significant part of Titanic’s programme, compiling this year into a particularly desirable section. The 17th Titanic International Film Festival presents last year’s biggest French successes between 8th – 18th of April, 2010.   

The section's films mainly deal with war themes, characteristic of the whole programme. For example, we present The Army of Crime about the famous and at the same time infamous Manouchian-group and its role in World War II. The members of this partisan band led by the Armenian poet were all immigrants, yet they sacrificed themselves for the Resistance, while many French people did nothing against the Nazi occupation. Director Robert Guédiguian made a sombre and cruelly realistic film from this gloomy chapter of French history.  

Intimate Enemies reveals the horrors of the Algerian war and excels other films about the same theme by its unbiased portrayal of both the French and the Algerian side. The protagonist of the beautifully photographed film is played by Benoît Magimel, who is probably best known for his performance in The Piano Teacher, which earned him the title of Best Actor at 2001 Cannes Film Festival.   

Beside the war-themed films we also find heart-warming family stories. An extraordinarily strong father-daughter bond and the hardships of separation are presented in 35 Shots of Rum, a film by Claire Denis. The slow-paced and calm, yet internationally loudly acclaimed film focuses on tiny details and gestures, thus mainly describing emotions and moods. One of the leading roles of the film is played by Grégoire Colin, who was our guest last year.

The First Day of the Rest of Your Life records five key events in a family’s life. The film has authentic characters, touching situations and a great soundtrack and in 2009 it was nominated for César in practically all the important categories. Director Rémi Bezançon will also be our guest this year.

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