Movie

LA FRANCE

by Serge Bozon 2007, 102 minutes, 35mm. In French with English subtitles. Starring Sylvie Testud and Pascale Greggory. Special thanks to Adam Sekuler (Northwest Film Forum) and Paul Richer (Pyramide International).

One of the most genuinely peculiar movies to emerge in many a moon, LA FRANCE is a bizarre but beautiful brew, equal parts gender-bending drama, war-film, romantic odyssey, and anachronistic folk-musical. Determined to find her husband, who has vanished into the storm of WWI, Camille (Testud) disguises herself as a man and sets off into the countryside, where she soon falls in with a band of wandering soldiers (equipped with more than the usual instruments of war) who are burdened with a secret of their own. Eschewing realism for an allegorical, fable-like tone, LA FRANCE is note-perfect, a soulful, mysterious, and poetic voyage through a landscape that is both war-torn and enchanted. Like the songs that punctuate the narrative, LA FRANCE is melancholy, strange and lovely.

“Audacious in concept but superbly controlled in execution, what might easily have seemed a gender-bending stunt instead registers as a highly sensitive, inspired approach to the subject of men – and one woman – confronting the dehumanizing effects of war.” –Scott Foundas, VARIETY

“[A] WWI troop movie with the soul of a troubled nation and the heart (and tune!) of a Beach Boys album…. Bozon’s film channels the hooks and melodies of ’60s sunshine pop while evoking the frontline grit of Fuller and the formal austerity of Bresson – a work of startling originality and charm.” –Chi-hui Yang, SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Friday Jul 11 6:45 PM & 9:00 PM, Saturday Jul 12 4:30 PM, 6:45 PM, 9:00 PM, Sunday Jul 13 4:30 PM, 6:45 PM, 9:00 PM, Monday Jul 14 6:45 PM & 9:00 PM, Tuesday Jul 15 6:45 PM & 9:00 PM, Wednesday Jul 16 6:45 PM & 9:00 PM, Thursday Jul 17 6:45 PM & 9:00 PM

Anthology Film Archives 32 2nd Ave, New York, NY  http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/schedule/