Films on the Green, the free outdoor French film festival produced annually in New York City parks by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, FACE Foundation and NYC Parks, announces 2018 line-up for the 11th edition, focused on gastronomy and with an additional screening in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
In 2018, Films on the Green will explore the profound relationship between French culture and gastronomy: an integral part of France’s social fabric. Featuring 12 classic and contemporary films, the selection will explore various aspects of this multifaceted theme, from cuisine as an art to the meal as a social event. French cinema often centers around the staging of meals, like in Claude Chabrol’s Hitchcockian thriller Le Boucher and Claude Sautet’s Garçon!, set in a popular Parisian bistro. Luis Buñuel, on the other hand, plays with this French obsession with food in the ironic film The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, where the guests, already seated, are not permitted to eat.
Twelve screenings in total are scheduled for this year’s festival in eight different locations in New York City and New Jersey. Most of the screenings will be accompanied by DJs from New York University’s radio station, WNYU 89.1 FM and Hunter College’s WHCS, who will spin French music on-site before the screenings.
Here are the screenings in or near the UWS!
June 1 – Central Park (79th St & Fifth Ave): Le Grand Restaurant by Jacques Besnard
With Louis de Funès, Bernard Blier, Maria-Rosa Rodriguez
1966 | Comedy | 1h35 | France
During a dinner at the “Grand Restaurant,” a South American head of state mysteriously disappears. The boss, Mr. Septime (de Funès), is soon suspected. An organization of formidable terrorists, already on the track to find the disappeared, surrounds the restaurant where an incredible game of hide-and-seek between the police, journalists, and Septime’s staff begins.
July 20 – Riverside Park, Pier I (at 70th St): You Will Be My Son by Gilles Legrand
With Lorànt Deutsch, Neils Arestrup, Nicolas Bridet, Patrick Chesnais
2013 | Drama | R | 1h42 | France
Courtesy of Cohen Media Group
Paul de Marseul (Arestrup) is the passionate, demanding proprietor of his prestigious family wine estate in Saint-Émilion. But he has no faith in his son, Martin (Deutsch), who works at the vineyard. Paul dreams of a harder-working, successful son—a dream that one day seemingly materializes when he meets Philippe (Bridet), the son of his dying estate manager (Chesnais). Can Paul turn against his own blood and choose Philippe as the rightful heir to his family estate?
https://youtu.be/2QmBzl5RBik
July 27 – Riverside Park, Pier I (at 70th St): Haute Cuisine by Christian Vincent
With Catherine Frot, Jean d’Ormesson, Arthur Dupont
2012 | Comedy-Biography | PG-13 | 1h35 | France
Hortense Laborie (Frot), a renowned chef from Perigord, is astonished when the President of the Republic (d’Ormesson) appoints her as his personal cook, responsible for creating all his meals at the Elysée Palace. Despite jealous resentment from the other kitchen staff, Hortense quickly establishes herself, thanks to her indomitable spirit. The authenticity of her cooking soon seduces the President, but the corridors of power are littered with traps…
Sept. 6 – Columbia University (at 116th St): The Grocer’s Son by Eric Guirado, presented in partnership with the Columbia Maison Française
With Nicolas Cazalé, Clotilde Hesme, Daniel Duval, Jeanne Goupil
2007 | Drama-Romance | 1h36 | France
Presented in partnership with the Columbia Maison Française
It is summer, and Antoine (Cazalé) is forced to leave the city to return to his family in Provence. His father is sick, so he must assume the lifestyle he thought he had shed—driving the family grocery cart from hamlet to hamlet, delivering supplies to the few remaining inhabitants. Accompanied by Claire (Hesme), a friend from Paris whom he secretly has a crush on, Antoine gradually warms up to his experience in the country and his encounters with the villagers, who initially seem stubborn and gruff, but ultimately prove to be funny and endearing.
