" French Cinema Now opens and closes with two key and much celebrated French films of 2008 — A Christmas Tale and The Class — which frame a diverse selection of French cinema, including its biggest box-office hit ever, an equestrian documentary and a scintillating murder mystery" says San Francisco Film Society Director of programming Linda Blackaby.

Covering a broad spectrum of subject matter and genres, the films in this series — ranging from a rowdy rural comedy to an intricate equine nonfiction feature to a tense science-fiction thriller — build a comprehensive picture of the current moment in French cinema. A brief retrospective of the career of celebrated auteur Arnaud Desplechin and a New Wave classic round out the series with some important historical perspective. This thematically rich programming is bookended by what are arguably the two most important French films of 2008: Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale (with the filmmaker in attendance) and the winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Laurent Cantet’s The Class.

Opening Night
Wednesday, October 8

6:30 pm A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël)
Arnaud Desplechin in person
dir. Arnaud Desplechin
In this Cannes award winner, Desplechin tells the story of a family Christmas get-together, bringing to it a dizzying but delicious complexity. Emotionally resonant and wickedly funny, the film stars Catherine Deneuve as the cool matriarch of a fascinatingly dysfunctional family and Desplechin regular Mathieu Amalric as her estranged, unstable son. French cinema luminaries Chiara Mastroianni, Emmanuelle Devos and Hippolyte Girardot round out the expert ensemble cast. With the breadth of an epic novel and the wit of classic comedy, Desplechin proves once again that he is one of the most ambitious filmmakers of his time.
Written by Arnaud Desplechin, Emmanuel Bourdieu. Photographed by Eric Gautier. With Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Chiara Mastroianni, Jean-Paul Roussillon. (152 min, IFC Films. A Christmas Tale is scheduled to open in the Bay Area on November 21)
9:00 pm Opening Night Reception LOCATION TBD

Thursday, October 9

6:45 pm Welcome to the Sticks (Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis)
dir. Dany Boon
This little charmer came out of nowhere this year to become the most successful French film of all time. Post office manager Philippe longs for a transfer to the sunny, sophisticated south of France. But when his attempt to cheat his way into a transfer backfires, he is sent instead to the northern province of Nord-Pas de Calais, which for most of the French might as well be a frozen version of hell.
Written by Dany Boon, Alexandre Charlot, Franck Magnier. Photographed by Pierre Aïm. With Kad Merad, Dany Boon, Zoé Félix, Lorenzo Ausilia-Foret (106 min.)

9:15 pm Actresses (Actrices)
dir. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
A tour de force for director/cowriter/star Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and winner of the Special Jury Prize in Cannes’s Un Certain Regard, Actresses is a pointed and poignant portrait of a middle-aged woman who is artistically successful but generally unhappy.
Written by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Noémi Lvovsky, Agnès de Sacy. Photographed by Jeanne Lapoirie. With Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Mathieu Amalric, Noémie Lvovsky (107 min. IFC Films).

Friday, October 10

5:15 pm Life of the Dead (La vie des morts)
dir. Arnauld Desplechin
In his first film, little-seen in the U.S., Arnaud Desplechin begins his revelatory investigation into the web of relationships that comprise the modern family.
Written by Arnaud Desplechin. Photographed by Eric Gautier. With Thibault de Montalembert, Suzel Goffre, André Cellier, Elisabeth Maby, Suzanne Waters (54 min. Motion Media).

6:45 pm Alibi (Le grand alibi)
Special Preview Presentation
dir. Pascal Bonitzer
When Senator Henri Page invites a few wealthy friends to his mansion for a hunting party, his prized gun collection finds an unfortunate human target. This is an Agatha Christie adaptation after all, and when one of the guests turns up dead poolside, the webs of sexual intrigue and romantic jilting are so tangled that everyone has a motive. Pascal Bonitzer writes and directs this crisply paced and witty whodunit.
Written by Jérôme Beaujour, Pascal Bonitzer. Photographed by Marie Spencer. With Pierre Arditi, Miou-Miou, Lambert Wilson, Anne Consigny, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (93 min. UGC International).

9:15 pm Lads and Jockeys (Lads et jockeys)
dir. Benjamin Marquet
Benjamin Marquet’s first feature-length documentary takes us into the world of jockey apprenticeship where young teens adopt a grueling training regimen in hopes of landing an elusive career: riding at professional horse races.
Photographed by Sébastien Buchmann, Laurent Chalet, Benjamin Marquet (90 min. Les Films du Losange).

Saturday, October 11

12:30 pm My Sex Life . . . or How I Got into an Argument (Comment je me suis disputé…(Ma vie sexuelle))
dir. Arnaud Desplechin
Arnaud Desplechin perfectly captures the heady milieu of graduate school — sex, rivalry, parties, term papers, rambling conversations — in this keenly funny and exceedingly intelligent film about Paul, a 29-year-old assistant professor of philosophy.
Written by Arnaud Desplechin, Emmanuel Bourdieu. Photographed by Stéphane Fontaine, Eric Gautier. With Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Devos, Marion Cotillard, Jeanne Balibar (178 min. Zeitgeist Films).

4:15 pm Lads and Jockeys see Oct. 10

7:00 pm Six in Paris (Paris vu par…) Six in Paris represents the crème de la crème of the French New Wave: Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Rouch, Claude Chabrol and Eric Rohmer, along with the lesser known Jean Douchet (better known as a writer at Cahiers du Cinema) and Jean-Daniel Pollet.
Photographed by Nestor Almendros, Albert Maysles, Étienne Becker, Alain Levent, Jean Rabier. With Stéphane Audran, Claude Chabrol, Barbet Schroeder, Claude Melkin, Micheline Dax (95 min. New Yorker Films)

9:15 pm Alibi (see Oct. 10)

11:59 pm Eden Log
dir. Franck Vestiel
Refreshingly complex, vividly unsettling and artfully shot in a palette of greens, blues and grays, Franck Vestiel’s sci-fi feature blends the cyberpunk flair of Tetsuo with the eco-horror concerns of films like Soylent Green and The Last Winter and the existential predicament of Tarkovsky’s Stalker.
Written by Pierre Bordage, Franck Vestiel. Photographed by Thierry Pouget. With Clovis Cornillac, Vimala Pons, Zohar Wexler (98 min. Distributed by Magnolia Pictures. Eden Log is scheduled for a San Francisco theatrical opening in Spring 2009). Presented in association with Landmark’s Clay Theatre’s Late Night Picture Show.

Closing Night Sunday, October 12

1:15 pm Welcome to the Sticks (see Oct. 9)

3:45 pm Actresses (see Oct. 9)

6:15 pm The Class (Entre les murs)
dir. Laurent Cantet
Unanimously voted the Palme d’Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival — the first French film to win the award in over 20 years — The Class is "utterly engrossing from start to finish," says Geoff Andrew of Time Out London.
Written by Laurent Cantet, François Bégaudeau, Robin Campillo. Photographed by Pierre Milon, Catherine Pujol, Georgi Lazarevski. With François Bégaudeau, Franck Keita, Rachel Régulier, Wei Huang. (128 min, Sony Pictures Classics. The Class is scheduled to open in the Bay Area in November 2008)

9:00 pm Closing Night Reception at Elite Café, 2040 Fillmore Street

9:30 pm Six in Paris (see Oct. 11)

Box office information:
$12.50 general/$10.00 Film Society members/$11.00 seniors, students and persons with disabilities
Opening or Closing Night Film & Reception: $35.00 general/$25.00 members
Opening or Closing Night film only — $15.00 general/$12.00 members
CineVoucher 8-Pack: $92.00 general/$72.00 members
Box office opens September 10 for members and September 16 for the general public: online at www.sffs.org, by calling 925.866.9559 or by faxing 925.866.9597.

Location:
Landmark’s Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore street
San Francisco, CA 94115