Je ne sais quoi: VCU French Film Festival appeals to wider audience
Joannah Nwokeabia
Issue date: 4/4/05 Section: Spectrum
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Subtitles and all, the films also offered moviegoers a break from the norm - big-budget Hollywood flicks. The festival's 26 films, half features and half shorts, included comedy, drama, romance and thrillers.
In "L'Equilpier," the arrival of a mysterious stranger on an island changes the dynamic of its dreary dwellers. Phillipe Torreton, one of the film's actors, told the audience that the film's theme of silence conveyed a lot about the characters' relationships, friendships and love. In the movie his character befriends the outcast who had an affair with his wife.
"It gets us looking into the inside of the human heart ... and it can be shown in a simple way," he said through a translator. Torreton's Normandy roots brought him closer to his character because silence was a big part of their customs.
Another highlight of the three-day festival came when popular French actor Thierry Lhermitte showed the psychological thriller "Qui perd gagne!"(Loser Takes All!). In it he plays a recovering gambling shark enlisted by French Intelligence Agency out to expose a math professor who wins the lottery twice in a row and claims to know the formula for winning.
No stranger to the film festival, Lhermitte told the audience that while he has starred in some hit movies, he has learned more from the misses.
"You learn a lot more when you fail than when you win."
Asked how knowing more than one language has benefited his career, Lhermitte said he found acting in another language to be more difficult than speaking it because he had to learn the customs, emotions and gestures associated with each word.
Lhermitte also recognized actor Jacques Villeret, a film festival staple who died in January.
"Jacques was a wonderful person.You could only do better in shooting with him," said Lhermitte, who shot three films with Villeret.
Much to the dismay fans in the audience, Lhermitte also revealed that he has no plans to become a director because he has much more fun acting.
After watching the films, many in the audience saw clear differences in the ways Americans and French approached cinema.
