BONJOUR CINEMA! PROGRAMME

PROGRAMME
WEDNESDAY 15 th MARCH
6.30 pm - ROMANIA
Bless you, prison!
THURSDAY 16 th MARCH
4.30 pm - FRANCE
Le coeur des hommes
BONJOUR CINEMA! is a joint cultural event
organized by the Consulate of Belgium, the High
Commission of Canada, the Embassy of France, the
Embassy of Romania and the Embassy of Switzerland,
in collaboration with the National Film Corporation, with
the intention of offering the Sri Lankan public a
collection of films that represent the richness and the
diversity of the cinema industries of the French speaking
countries represented in Sri Lanka.
7.00 pm - SWITZERLAND
Tout un hiver sans feu
BONJOUR
CINEMA!
2006
Festival du Film Francophone
Film Festival of the French Speaking Countries
Elphinstone Theater
15th - 19th March 2006
Entrance free
FRIDAY 17 th MARCH
4.30 pm - FRANCE
Une affaire de goût
7.00 pm - BELGIUM
Les convoyeurs attendent
SATURDAY 18 th MARCH
3.30 pm - FRANCE
Les enfants du paradis
7.00 pm - CANADA
La grande séduction
SUNDAY 19 th MARCH
2.30 pm - FRANCE
Le rôle de sa vie
5.00 pm - Sri Lanka
A Letter of Fire
(On invitation only)
The Film Festival of French Speaking
Countries invites every year a Sri Lanka director to
screen his film. In 2006, Asoka Handagama will grace
the occasion with the preview of his latest film “A Letter
in Fire”.
Special Guest Screening
A Letter of Fire
by
Asoka Handagama
Une affaire de goût
A matter of taste
Bless you, Prison !
ROMANIA
15th March
6.30 pm
Entrance free
Romania | 2002 | col | 86 min | Dir. Nicolae Margineanu
With Maria Ploae, Dorina Lazar, Ecaterina Nazare.
France | 2000 | col | 90 min | Dir. Bernard Rapp
With Bernard Giraudeau, Jean-Pierre Lorit, Charles Berling.
Canada | 2003 | col | 110 min | Dir. Jean-François Pouliot
With Raymond Bouchard, David Boutin, Benoît Brière.
Inspiré d’un récit autobiographique, le film raconte comment
Nicole Valéry-Grossu, a été transformée par la foi dans sa cellule
d’une prison communiste. La force dont elle a fait preuve pour
préserver la dignité humaine est source d’espérance, de
compassion et de fraternité.
Frédéric Delamont, industriel au sommet de sa réussite, rencontre
dans un restaurant un jeune serveur, Nicolas Rivière. Delamont
lui propose d’être, contre un salaire élevé, son goûteur particulier.
Ce qui commence comme une relation professionnelle insolite
mais légère se révèlera rapidement être un jeu infiniment plus
dangereux pour les deux hommes.
À Sainte-Marie-La-Mauderne, petit village isolé sur une île où
vivent d’anciens pêcheurs devenus chômeurs, l’espoir d’une
vie meilleure renaît avec l’annonce de l’implantation d’une usine.
Afin de répondre aux exigences de l’entreprise, les villageois
doivent attirer un médecin. Mais qui oserait venir se perdre
dans une bourgade aussi reculée ?
Bless you, prison, tells the true-life story of Nicole Valery-Grossu,
a Romanian political prisoner in the 1950s. Though she suffered
great duress, including torture, Valery-Grossu survived her
experience through her newfound faith in God. This film beautifully
captures her religious awakening and her inspirational story.
FRANCE
17th March
4.30pm
FRANCE
Entrance
free
17th March
4.30 pm
Entrance free
FRANCE
A handful of men who are standing in the shady side of 50,
depend on one another to sort out the romantic and personal
complications facing them. In this comedy from France, Manu,
Antoine, Alex, and Jeff are four close friends who’ve known
each other for years, and lately seem to be spending a lot of time
helping one another with women and midlife crises.
BELGIUM
17th March
7.00 pm
Entrance free
Tout un hiver sans feu
One long Winter without fire
SWITZERLAND
16th March
7.00 pm
Entrance free
After losing his young daughter in a fire, Swiss landowner Jean
struggles to rebuild his life. His wife Laure, though, is on the
verge of a breakdown. As the couple grow more estranged,
Jean’s friendship with a workmate (a refugee from Kosovo)
leads him into a new community of exiles as well as a tentative,
faltering relationship with his new friend’s sister and - almost
despite himself - a renewed sense of engagement with the world.
18th March
7.00 pm
Entrance free
Roger Closset habite un petit pavillon de la banlieue de Charleroi
et gagne modestement sa vie comme photographe pour le journal
local. A l’aube de l’an 2000, il veut s’en sortir. Il a un rêve :
rentrer dans le livre des records. N’importe quel “exploit” fera
l’affaire: Roger embrigade son fils Michel pour qu’il ouvre et
ferme une porte plus de 40 000 fois en 24 heures !
Roger Closset a newspaperman and patriarch of a working
class family, decides to try and better his lot by entering his son
in a record-breaking competition: a competition of opening and
closing a door!
France | 2004 | col | 104 min | Dir. François Favrat
With Agnès Jaoui, Karin Viard, Jonathan Zaccai.
FRANCE
19th March
2.30 pm
Entrance free
3.30pm
18th March
Entrance free
3.30 pm
Entrance free
Claire Rocher, an assistant at a fashion magazine, meets movie
star Elisabeth Becker. They lead totally different life styles: their
way of life, relationships, wealth and of course fame. When
Claire is hired as Elisabeth’s personal assistant, her life goes
into a tailspin. The two women start to bond, or so Claire
assumes…
Sri Lanka | 2006 | col | 135 min | Dir. Asoka Handagama
With Piyumi Samaraweera, Ravindra Randeniya, Saumya Liyanage,
Jayani Senanayake.
Dans la foule de badauds qui hante le « boulevard du crime»,
l’amour du mime Baptiste et de la belle Garance. Autour d’eux
des figures devenues légendaires qui brassent les classes sociales:
l’aristocratie côtoie la pègre et le théâtre dans un grand ballet
romantique et désespéré.
Au-delà d’un équilibre apparent, une riche famille sri lankaise
cache un terrible secret qui finira par la détruire.
SRI LANKA
19th March
Set in 1840s Paris and centred around the Funambules Theatre
on the Boulevard du Crime, the story follows the fortunes of
four men whose lives are interwoven by their love for the same
woman, the beautiful actress Garance (Arletty).
Pigiste dans un journal de mode, Claire Rocher rencontre
Elisabeth Becker, une star de cinéma. Tout les sépare, leurs
caractères, leurs rapports aux hommes, et bien sûr l’argent et la
notoriété. Claire est engagée comme assistante personnelle
d’Elisabeth, et sa vie s’en trouve bouleversée. Peu à peu, les
deux femmes se lient d’amitié, du moins Claire le croit-elle...
A Letter of fire
France | 1945 | B/W | 182 min | Dir. Marcel Carmé
With Jean-Louis Barrault, Arletty, Pierre Brasseur.
FRANCE
18th
March
FRANCE
The residents of the tiny port village of Sainte-Marie-LaMauderne try to convince a multinational corporation to set up
a factory in their town that has fallen on hard times. The catch is
that the company requires that a doctor set up practice in the
village. Led by Germain, the 150 villagers do everything in
their power (including learning to play cricket) to “seduce” a
young doctor to settle in the community.
Le rôle de sa vie
The Role of a Lifetime
Les enfants du Paradis
Switzerland | 2004 | col | 91 min | Dir. Greg Zglinski
With Aurélien Recoing, Marie Matheron, Gabriela Muskala.
Jadis agriculteurs prospères dans le Jura Suisse, Jean et sa femme
Laure ont perdu leur fille et la plus grande partie de leur bétail
dans un incendie trois ans auparavant. Quand Laure doit être
hospitalisée à la suite d’une profonde dépression, Jean demande
à son ami d’enfance Roger de lui trouver un emploi dans son
usine. Là, il rencontre Kastriot, un réfugié kosovar, et sa
magnifique soeur, Labinota.
CANADA
Belgium | 1999 | col | 94 min | Dir. Benoît Mariage
With Benoît Poelvoorde, Morgane Simon, Bouli Lanners.
France | 2003 | col | 104 min | Dir. Marc Esposito
With Gérard Darmon, Jean Pierre Darroussin, Bernard Campan,
Marc Lavoine.
Quatre amis. Alex, Antoine, Jeff et Manu.
Quatre hommes d’aujourd’hui, à la fois solides et immatures, au
tournant de leur vie d’adulte. Confrontés à des situations qu’ils
ne maîtrisent pas, ils se font des confidences, s’expliquent,
s’aident, s’affrontent, se remettent en question.
Nicolas, a handsome, young waiter, is befriended by Frédéric
Delamont, a wealthy middle-aged businessman. Delamont, a man
of power, influence and strictly refined tastes, is immediately smitten by Nicolas’ charm. Lonely and phobic, Delamont offers Nicolas
a lucrative job as his personal food taster. Their bond of trust
and admiration soon spirals downward into a dangerous game
of deceit and obsession for which neither is prepared.
Les convoyeurs attendent
The Carriers Are Waiting
Le cœur des hommes
The Heart of men
16th March
4.30 pm
Entrance free
La grande séduction
Seducing Dr. Lewis
On invitation
only
A prestigious family of three, the father – a retired judge, the
mother – who is also a magistrate, and their twelve year old
son, is shaken after the boy is involved accidentally in a murder.
He is given shelter by the safety guard of the museum. The affair
causes a sensation, all the more as the boy’s mother happens to
be in charge of the case. Tension reaches a peak when the too
exclusive love between mother and son is broken, and the secrets
of their family’s tangled, morbid past is revealed in ‘letters of
fire’…