HAS Angoulême, blue is a warm color. It is the one that, from carpets to banners, signals the holding of the 17e Francophone Film Festival in Angoulême, the new name for the festival invented sixteen years ago by Dominique Besnehard and Marie-France Brière. In the steep streets of the Charente city, festival-goers and professionals have been crossing paths since Tuesday and until this Sunday. Some turn to look at André Manoukian, who has come to present “Le Choix du pianiste”, a fresco by Jacques Otmezguine (in theaters on January 8), one of the 17 films shown in preview. Lætitia Dosch is happy to appear in the company of Kodi, the kind canine hero of “Le Procès du chien”, in official competition before its release on Wednesday.
Lætitia Dosch and Kodi, star of the film “The Trial of the Dog”. The comedy is part of the official competition. It has bite!
Anne Lacaud/SO
“I’m rather silent”
On Thursday afternoon, the garden of the Mercure Hotel welcomes journalists and stars. “What? That you take photos during the interview? No, that doesn’t bother me at all,” smiles Jean-Paul Rouve. Who is amused: “My dog, on the other hand, since she hasn’t had makeup, I’m not sure.” In “La Vallée des fous” (in theaters November 13), Rouve plays a young widower in disarray: secluded in a sailboat stranded in his garden, he takes part in the Virtual Regatta, a video simulation of the Vendée Globe, determined to sail around “his” world. A new coup by Xavier Beauvois, who speaks little but right. Like his films, sparing with words but overflowing with emotion. “I’m rather taciturn in life. I quickly get annoyed by people who talk too much and who, to express an idea that can be summed up in three words, make ten-minute sentences. It drives me crazy! When I’m directing, a look sometimes says more than three sentences.” In interviews, it’s the same.
Interview atmosphere, this Saturday morning, at the Mercure garden with Jean-Paul Rouve, Xavier and Madeleine Beauvois for “La Vallée des fous”.
Anne Lacaud/SO
Interview atmosphere, this Saturday morning, at the Mercure garden with Jean-Paul Rouve Xavier Beauvois for “La Vallée des fous”.
Anne Lacaud/SO
At aperitif time, Philippe Rebbot falls into the arms of the technicians who accompanied him on “À bicyclette!”, an autobiographical road trip by Mathias Mlekuz, a formidable cycling epic of a father following in the footsteps of his suicidal son. A human odyssey, funny and sensitive, given among the favorites of the official competition.
“When I lead, a look sometimes says more than three sentences”
Emotional intensity
We know that the mere presence of a film crew in a screening room is enough to make the audience stand up at the end of the screening. It is therefore appropriate to gauge the emotional intensity of the “standing ovation” that has become an obligatory rite. In 2023, Sergi Lopez’s tears after Yolande Moreau’s “La Fiancée du pirate” had the power of a torrent of love. A year later, those that cloud the eyes of Sofiane Zermani – aka rapper Fianso – at the end of Hassan Guerrar’s poignant “Barbès, little Algérie” (released on October 16) are just as upsetting. As he leaves the screening, Sofiane Zermani carefully collects each spectator’s testimony. He smiles in the selfies, but above all, he listens, exchanges, shares. And in spite of himself, generates a joyfully chaotic crowd in the unfriendly basement of the Espace Franquin.
Sofiane unwittingly generates a joyfully chaotic crowd in the basement of the Franquin space
In this concrete cathedral, three exhibitions attract the most curious: the very beautiful work of the Franco-Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui, mortally wounded at the age of 45 during a terrorist attack in Burkina Faso in 2016, testifies in black and white or in color to her humanist vision. In reverse, it is the glamour that springs from the photos of Micheline Presle (who passed away last February at the age of 101), taken by Raymond Voinquel and Sam Lévin on the set of “Le Diable au corps” in 1946. As for the charcoal portraits of filmmakers signed by Nicolas Guérin, there is no doubt that they would have deserved larger formats and a more careful hanging.
Leila Alaoui exhibition at Espace Franquin
Anne Lacaud/SO
A fanfare
In the Bardines garden, in the shade of large oak trees, actors and filmmakers multiply interviews while others add cocktails. The pack of photographers produces a strange cacophony: “Julie, a look over here please!” shouts one; “Here, please, Pauline,” yells another, during the photocall for Julie Gayet’s TV film “Olympe, a woman in the Revolution.”
Not far away, Belgian actress Lubna Azabal laughs with her friends, discusses upcoming projects and the host of interviews that await her for “Une vie rêvee” by Morgan Simon.
The team of the TV film “Olympe, a woman in the Revolution”, gathered around Julie Gayet during the eternal photocall at the Bardines garden.
Anne Lacaud/SO
At the theater, it is with music, thanks to a brass band sent from Cognac, that we celebrate the film “En fanfare” by Emmanuel Courcol with Benjamin Lavernhe. And during one of her rare public outings, Kristin Scott-Thomas (the president of the festival jury) talks about her love of the 7e art during a sold-out master class. Like almost all the sessions of this popular and relaxed festival where, outside the dark rooms, the stars wander among the ordinary people under a blue sky. A warm color, certainly.
