TIFF 2011: LE GAMIN AU VÉLO (THE KID WITH A BIKE, 2011)

Le gamin au vélo (The Kid With A Bike, 2011)—the latest achievement by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne—arrived at the 36th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) after a successful premiere at Cannes, where Danny Kasman dispatched to MUBI and David Hudson followed suit with a suite of reviews. Continuing their coverage of the film, MUBI published Dan Sallitt's dispatch from TIFF and Hudson's aggregate of follow-up reviews from the New York Film Festival (NYFF). It's now positioned in the San Francisco Film Society's French Cinema Now.The Dardenne Brothers return to form in t

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Cécile de France, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Jérémie Renier, Thomas Doret, TIFF11,

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ROXIE—GAINSBOURG: THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN (2010)

While the San Francisco Film Society places its finger on the pulse of contemporary French cinema with its ongoing French Cinema Now (affectionately previewed here at The Evening Class by Michael Hawley), the musical yesteryear of France is explored through the personage of Serge Gainsbourg in two projects likewise screening in the Bay Area. First up is the theatrical rollout of Joann Sfar's feature debut Gainsbourg: Vie héroïque (Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, 2010), currently at the Landmark Cinemas. Earlier this year, I spoke with Sfar who noted how beloved Gainsbourg is among the French and

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Bambou, Bernard Pivot, Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Françoise Hardy, Jane Birkin, Juliette Gréco, Michel Sardou, Roxie, Serge Gainsbourg, Vanessa Paradis,

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FCN 2011—Michael Hawley Previews the Lineup

Showcasing a mix of auteur blockbusters and auspicious upstarters—including three North American premieres—the San Francisco Film Society's French Cinema Now (FCN) launches its fourth annual edition this Thursday, October 27. The majority of this year's 11 films were nowhere on my radar, an exciting prospect given that past FCN treasures like Stella, The Wolberg Family and Love Like Poison were similarly unknown entities.By my estimation, most of this year's FCN selections won't return to the Bay Area or see a Region 1 DVD release—rendering the week-long festival even more of an imperative f

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FCN 2011, Michael Hawley,

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BERLIN & BEYOND 2011—If Not Us, Who? (Wer wenn nicht wir)

[Our thanks to Kurtiss Hare for his review of the West Coast premiere of Berlin & Beyond's closing night entry If Not Us, Who? (Wer wenn nicht wir), directed by Andres Veiel (in attendance on closing night).]This year's Berlin & Beyond festival, hosted at the ever magnificent Castro Theatre, is in progress, running from Oct. 20th-26th. As I'm set to begin day three of the festival, I'm carving some time out to preview the closing night film, If Not Us, Who?Books, it seems, can be burnt. But the stories we're told and the lessons we learn as children have a sort of dogged persistence

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Andres Veiel, Berlin and Beyond 2011, Kurtiss Hare,

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FANTASIA 2011 / TAD 2011: THE DIVIDE—The Evening Class Interview With Xavier Gens, Michael Biehn, Michael Eklund & Jennifer Blanc-Biehn

At its world premiere earlier this year at SXSW, Xavier Gens' apocalyptic morality tale The Divide met with divisive reviews.At Quiet Earth, Rochefort ranked the film 9 out of 10 and enthused, "As much as I loved Frontiere(s), The Divide tops it in every way; bleaker, more brutal and intense, and disconcertingly plausible." At The Criterion Cast, Joshua Brunstling fairly warned that The Divide would not be for everyone judging from the film's polarizing effect at SXSW but crowned Xavier Gens "the film's biggest star" for forcing a view "into the depths of human nature, through the guise of a

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Fantasia 2011, Iván González, Jaffer Hasan, Jean-Pierre Taieb, Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, Laurent Barès, Michael Biehn, Michael Eklund, Milo Ventimiglia, Rosanna Arquette, Xavier Gens,

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