IFI FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL 2009

The 2009 IFI French Film Festival ran from November 19th-29th 2009. Special guests at the festival included hip-hop artists IZM and Lucien Revolucien.

We are delighted to be able to open this year's Festival with MICMACS, a film so wonderfully inventive, visually distinctive and utterly charming it could only have come from Jean-Pierre…

Thursday 19th Nov 2009 18.30

Soigne ton gauche (1936) L'Ecole des facteurs (1947) Cours du soir (1967) As a teenager Tati developed a passion for sport: he was accomplished in rugby, football, tennis and horse-riding.…

Friday 20th Nov 2009 17.00

This incredible biopic stars Yolande Moreau (also seen in MICMACS) in the title role as artist Séraphine Louis (now known as Séraphine de Senlis). When the German art critic Wilhelm…

Friday 20th Nov 2009 18.15

Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday

'Everyone has a bit of Hulot in them' Jacques Tati Three years after his first film, Jour de fête, Tati introduced the world to Mr Hulot a tall,…

Saturday 21st Nov 2009 14.00

The French Kissers

Pubescent, pimply, sex-obsessed high-schoolers Herve (Vincent Lacoste) and Camel (Anthony Sonigo) want to get girlfriends, get laid and get cool. So far, so American Pie. But there's far more to…

Saturday 21st Nov 2009 16.30

Someone I Loved

Based on Anna Gavalda's novel of the same name, Someone I Loved is an unabashedly sentimental, old-fashioned romantic melodrama. It stars Daniel Auteuil and Marie-Josee Croze (also in Hidden Diary)…

Saturday 21st Nov 2009 20.45

The Girl on the Train

Director Andre Techine lets the drama burn slowly in this hugely compelling film, which is based on a true incident, making the most of a supremely talented ensemble cast. Emilie…

Saturday 21st Nov 2009 20.45

PlayTime (70mm)

'A film that comes from another planet, where they make films differently.' François Truffaut PlayTime shows the director's fictional alter ego Mr Hulot wandering through Paris at a time…

Sunday 22nd Nov 2009 14.00

It comes as something of a surprise to realise that this low-key thriller marks the first occasion Claude Chabrol and Gerard Depardieu have worked together. In a role Chabrol created…

Sunday 22nd Nov 2009 18.30

The Beautiful Person

Inspired by the 1678 novel La Princesse de Cleves by Madame de Lafayette, Christophe Honoré's (Dans Paris) The Beautiful Person switches the drama from the court of Henry II to…

Sunday 22nd Nov 2009 20.45

Henri-George Clouzot’s Inferno

Archivist Serge Bromberg tells the intriguing story of director Henri-George Clouzot's (Les diaboliques, The Wages of Fear) ill-fated film Inferno. In 1964, after a succession of profitable films, Clouzot found…

Tuesday 24th Nov 2009 18.30

Regrets, the latest film from director Cedric Kahn (Roberto Succo, Red Lights), stars Yvan Attal and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi as ex-lovers who become reacquainted and embark on a passionate and destructive…

Tuesday 24th Nov 2009 20.30

The Thorn in the Heart

Michel Gondry's (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep) latest film is at first glance disarmingly slight; on the face of it a home-movie exploring the life…

Wednesday 25th Nov 2009 18.15

For many the highlight of this year's Cannes Film Festival (the film won the Grand Prix), A Prophet is a stunning piece of filmmaking and, without doubt, the finest crime…

Wednesday 25th Nov 2009 20.15

Please, Please Me!

Once again taking on the roles of writer, director and actor, the latest romantic comedy from Emmanuel Mouret Shall We Kiss? FFF '08) sees him playing Jean-Jacques, a slightly eccentric…

Thursday 26th Nov 2009 20.15

Low-budget zombie action flick The Horde, the first film by directing duo Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher, has been dividing genre fans since its official world premiere at the Venice…

Thursday 26th Nov 2009 22.00

Up and coming actors Marina Hands (Lady Chatterley) and Marie-Josee Croze (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) star alongside Catherine Deneuve in this family drama spanning three generations. Pregnant and…

Friday 27th Nov 2009 18.15

Round Da Way was described by Variety as Beavis and Butthead meets La Haine and it's as accurate a description for this riotous animation as any (though the influence of…

Friday 27th Nov 2009 20.30

The Magnificent Tati

This new UK documentary exploring the work of Jacques Tati follows the filmmaker's career from his roots in the Parisian music-halls of the '30s to his rise and ultimate fall…

Saturday 28th Nov 2009 13.45

Sisters, directed by Eleonore Faucher, is based on actor Sylvie Testud's (Sagan, La Vie en rose) semi- autobiographical novel Gamines. Three sisters, Sybille, Corine and Georgette live with their Italian…

Saturday 28th Nov 2009 15.30

Adapted by writer/director Benoît Jacquot from a novel by Pascal Quignard, Villa Amalia stars Isabelle Huppert (her fifth collaboration with the director) as Ann, a woman whose life is turned…

Saturday 28th Nov 2009 17.45

Catherine Breillat's (Anatomy of Hell, The Last Mistress) distinctive retelling of the French fairytale by Charles Perrault begins in the 1950s where two young sisters are at play. As the…

Sunday 29th Nov 2009 16.30

Around a Small Mountain

In this, the 50th Anniversary of the French New Wave, it seems somewhat appropriate that we should close this year's Festival with a film from one of the movement's most…

Sunday 29th Nov 2009 18.30