25th Singapore French Film Festival

2nd – 11th Oct 2009,
Gala Premiere: Paris 36
Tay Huizhen | benediction.jay@gmail.com
theridge transmedia
A NUSSU Publication

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It began as Singapore’s very first foreign film festival, and in 2009, the Singapore French Film Festival is now into a remarkable 25th year. As part of “Encore! The European Season”, the festival line-up exhibits an overt aim to ‘reflect French cultural diversity,’ in offering diverse film genres ranging from romantic comedy to the police drama and even animation. In his opening speech at The Grand Cathay, the Ambassador of France to Singapore, H.W. Olivier Caron also highlighted a unique showcase of the ‘ongoing vitaliy of French cinema’ through this year’s focus on debut directors.

Kickstarting the festival is “Paris 36” – the highly-anticipated film by director Christophe Barratier after his critically-acclaimed box office-hit, “Les Choristes” (2004). To be released commercially in Singapore on the 8th of October, the film depicts the struggles of the workers of a small-time vaudevillian theatre in a Parisian faubourg in 1936.

While the recognizable plot outline has already been done countless of times [recall “Le Dernier Métro” (1980), and a more distant but recent example in “Synedoche, New York” (2008)], Barratier’s tribute to the golden past of Paris makes for a decent outing at the movies.

Fans of Christophe Barratier do not go to his film screenings expecting an edgy portrayal of Parisian life. The director is known more for portraying feel-good, heart-warming themes of camaraderie and the French spirit à contre-courant. These are again re-visited in “Paris 36”, in which the humble workers of La Chansonia, as the theatre is called, are given a month to succeed and rescue their theatre and ‘the love stories it has seen’ from ruin.

What we have come to anticipate from Barratier, instead, is his skill for drawing the viewer into the heart of the action in as enchanting and magical a way as possible that carries with it the whimsically nostalgic attraction of French sensibilities. In the film, he fully exploits this charm in painting lush, picturesque depictions of Parisian life circa 1936.

Images of quaint café scenes and romantic rooftop sequences abound and set the mood for a visually-rich film. Other than brief references to historical and political changes of the time, however, the audience is given a taste of Paris straight out of fanciful sketchbook pictures and nothing more. If such is exactly his focus, Barratier nonetheless artfully executes through some deliciously breathtaking camera angles and affords the film visual depth through multiple experiments with the long take in many scenes.

Given the overwhelming success of “Les Choristes”, comparisons must undoubtedly be made and the somewhat safe, ‘storybook’ tale of “Paris 36” does not quite carry the authentic emotional poignancy of its predecessor. While it is also hard to tell if the soundtrack of “Paris 36” will in time be as memorable as “Vois Sur Ton Chemin”, there are some notable musical numbers in the former which echoes Barratier’s beautifully simple compositions.

Most of these are delivered by the reel starlet and novice songbird named Douce (Nora Arnezeder). Arnezeder’s clean, penetrating vocals in playing the part are a perfect fit for Barratier’s songs. Her energy in both intimate and spectacular scenes – including one with a slight Berkleyesque reference – is a force that lights up the entire film.

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Barratier also brings back familiar faces Gérard Jugnot (Clément Mathieu), Maxence Perrin (Pepinot) and Kad Merad [Chabert, but who also starred in the previous year’s festival highlight, “Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis”] from Les Choristses, with the first two, continuing their chemistry as reel-time father and son Pigoil and Jojo Pigoil.

With award-winning films and many of which Singaporean audiences do not usually get to see on the local big screen, the French Film Festival is indeed a highlight of the local arts calendar. Here’s to hoping that the organisers will bring “Le Petit Nicolas” to 2010’s.

Paris 36 is now showing in cinemas.

For more information, please visit: http://www.alliancefrancaise.org.sg/