French Film Festival 2016: Preview

As is the case with fungus and sea monkey colonies, great festivals are marked by potential for growth. If programmers successfully communicate their enthusiasm to audiences, events can take on a life of their own, penetrating the consciousness of die-hards and casual consumers alike as familiar subjects are approached with varying degrees of distance and detail.

For evidence of this phenomenon in action, one need look no further than the French Film Festival. Having entertained and engaged with audiences for 23 years, the FFF is set to return this winter for its most ambitious and extensive programme yet. While it's previously been largely confined to London and Scotland – the Central Belt in particular – this year's programme will expand to reach 36 locations across the UK. It's taken decades of quality screenings to establish the existence of a wide and diverse audience for French cinema on these apparently Euro-sceptic shores, at least for a few weeks each year.

As any cineaste will know, what makes film an especially rewarding interest are the unexpected tributaries audiences are compelled to explore, each discovery informing the next. In the case of foreign language cinema, however, this process is frequently disrupted by availability and subtitling issues. Too often we find ourselves resigned to taking what we can get, living on a healthy if predictable diet of movies. In effect, our viewing decisions are made for us, testaments to a history we never got to write.

Those with the slightest interest in the moving image will likely know all about the giants of French cinema, from the pioneering Lumière brothers – whose Train Pulling Into a Station kick-started the film industry as we know it – to the incendiary New Wavers whose intellectual rigour helped contextualise and validate what was then still a nascent and populist art form. The French film industry continues to exert an influence over the rest of the world, yielding the occasional international mega-hit along the lines of Amélie or The Artist.

It's difficult to imagine a credible argument against the talents of Jean Renoir, Francois Truffaut or any other master you'd care to mention, but history is written by the victors and their work represents only a tiny sum of what the country has produced. The FFF recognises this injustice and goes some way toward putting things right for us. It can introduce us to fantastically strong work which would otherwise languish in obscurity across the English speaking world, while painting a compelling portrait of the industry's diversity and inherent strengths. Fanciful and realist documentaries rub shoulders with each other, while shorts point toward a new generation of emerging talent engaging with their country's pedigree in a variety of ways.

The work of less lauded auteurs such as Marcel Carné and Julian Duvivier often seems to straddle a divide between the iconic and the obscure. Only a handful of their films can be accessed through the usual commercial channels, while even their best known pieces are rarely revived. The FFF will feature both directors in their Classics strand, along with the rarely discussed Gérard Oury, whose La Grande Vadrouille was a domestic smash, holding the country's box office record for over three decades. (In a fashion symbolic of America's encroaching industry dominance, James Cameron's Titanic put an end to its reign.)

Perhaps the highest tribute of all will be paid to Jean-Pierre Mocky, a star who rose to prominence in the 1940s when he took a memorable role in Jean Cocteau's Orphée. The sole entry in the festival's 'Tribute' strand, Mocky will be appearing in person at three screenings to introduce his darkly satirical Kill the Referee, a cult classic dating from the mid-80s. 83 years old himself, the director will address audiences as ambassador for a nation whose also-rans ooze more class and sophistication than many of our own homegrown talent would dare dream of.

Five must-see films at FFF:

The Red Turtle (Michaël Dudok de Wit)
A dialogue-free fable about a shipwrecked man’s journey for survival.

The Death of Louis XIV (Albert Serra)
Nouvelle Vague posterboy Jean-Pierre Leaud stars in Albert Serra’s claustrophobic and grimly funny study of death.

Dark Inclusion (Arthur Harari)
The French know how to do a heist-movie, and word is good on this stylish thriller set within the diamond trade from first-time filmmaker Arthur Harari.

Pépé le Moko (Julien Duvivier)
A touchstone of French poetic-realism, the great Jean Gabin stars as a charismatic gangster hiding out in the labyrinthine netherworld among Algiers' kasbahs.

A Journey Through French Cinema (Bertrand Tavernier)
Talking of classic French films, post-Nouvelle Vague stalwart Tavernier takes us on a journey through his country’s cinema history.