The Boston French Film Festival returns with an exciting lineup that captures the textures, tensions, and petits bonheurs (small joys) of contemporary French life. The festival opens with Three Friends, Emmanuel Mouret's bittersweet comedy about love, infidelity, and emotional entanglement among a trio of women. Catherine Deneuve leads The President's Wife, a sly comedy about politician Bernadette Chirac's bid to step out from her husband's shadow. Winner of the 2024 Jury Prize and Best Actor award in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes, Souleymane's Story is a gripping portrait of life on the margins. Holy Cow brings charm to the lineup with a tale about a teenage cheesemaker chasing a contest prize, while Night Call delivers high-stakes thrills as a locksmith races through Brussels during a night of unrest. Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte's sweeping new adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo reminds us that French cinema, like the country's literature, still revels in grand tales of betrayal, justice, and revenge.
Together, these films offer a vivid snapshot of a society in motion—ever-evolving while remaining rooted in the passionate pursuit of artistic and intellectual truth. Grab some French wine and cheese at Taste and join us for these evocative stories.
Schedule of Events:
11:00 am–12:30 pm - Filmlovers! (Spectateurs!)
Directed by Arnaud Desplechin (France, 2024, 88 min.). English and French with English subtitles.
With Filmlovers!, celebrated auteur Arnaud Desplechin (My Golden Days; A Christmas Tale) returns in playful and deeply personal form, blending documentary and autofiction to create a spirited ode to the act of watching movies. Told through the eyes of his recurring alter ego, Paul Dédalus—now a devoted cinephile rather than an anthropologist—Desplechin's latest film traces a life shaped not by making films, but by loving them.
Warm, witty, and unexpectedly moving, Filmlovers! toggles between first-person reflections, delightfully offbeat interviews with everyday moviegoers, and fictionalized scenes of Dédalus's coming-of-age as a cinephile—from sneaking off to watch Bergman to awkwardly flirting over Coppola. Along the way, Desplechin considers what it means to be a spectator: to lose yourself in a darkened theater, to wrestle with a film long after the credits roll, and to carry those images into your life.
Both a breezy film history lesson and a tender self-portrait, Filmlovers! is a joyful and funny celebration of cinema's enduring magic through the eyes of those who love it most.
"Revelatory … on the evidence of this fizzy little film, Desplechin's not done growing yet." —Variety
Members
$12.00
Nonmembers
$15.00
2:30 pm–4:15 pm - The Ties that Bind Us (L'attachement)
Directed by Carine Tardieu (France and Belgium, 2024, 106 min.). French and Romanian with English subtitles.
In this moving adaptation of Alice Ferney's novel L'Intimité, director Carine Tardieu crafts a tender, thought-provoking drama about the unpredictable paths love can take.
Sandra (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), a fiercely independent librarian with no interest in motherhood, agrees to do a simple favor for her neighbor Alex (Pio Marmaï): watch his young son Elliot while Alex's wife gives birth. But when tragedy strikes and Cécile doesn't survive the delivery, Sandra finds herself drawn into an unexpected, evolving bond with both father and child.
Gently observed and deeply humane, The Ties that Bind Us explores how grief, conviction, and intimacy can reshape our most deeply held beliefs, revealing with quiet grace how families are fortified not by obligation, but by attention and care.
"A superb film that understands how absences are the hidden heart of every family.… One of those rare movies that only gets better the more you think about it. What a joy." —In Their Own League
Members
$12.00
Nonmembers
$15.00
Location: Harry and Mildred Remis Auditorium (Auditorium 161)
