City of Lights, City of Angels shines on our city, April 20-26

April 18, 11:33 AMLA Alternative Movie ExaminerMarvin Miranda

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On Monday, April 20, City of  Lights, City of Angels begins its week-long 13th annual Film Festival, showcasing France's current and upcoming crop of films, many of them North American or West Coast Premieres.  Created in 1996 by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, comprised of the Directors Guild of America, the Motion Picture Association, the Writers Guild of America, West, and France's Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (SACEM), the festival has been responsible for securing some of France's most anticipated films.  Previous highlights have included the Los Angeles premiere of such hits as the Oscar-winning La Vie en Rose and the international collaboration and short film anthology, Paris, Je T'aime.

This year's features include two films with actor Daniel Auteuil (Caché, Girl On the Bridge), namely, the romantic drama Someone I Loved (Je l’aimais) and the split personalities comedy Me Two (La personne aux deux personnes).  Also a big draw at the festival, the thriller/biopic of one of France's most notorious gangsters, Mesrine: A Film in Two Parts (Mesrine : L’instinct de mort & Mesrine : L’ennemi public nº1), with a cast that includes Vincent Cassel as the titular subject, Gérard Depardieu, and Ludivine Sagnier.  The Monty Python-esque A Day at the Museum (Musée haut, musée bas), also has its West Coast premiere, starring Almodóvar regular Victoria Abril and Michel Blanc.  Costa-Gravas is scheduled to discuss his new film, Eden is West (Eden à l’ouest), Thursday, April 23, while his first movie, the giallo-esque The Sleeping Car Murders (Compartiment Tueurs), starring Simone Signoret, Yves Montand, Michel Piccoli, and Jean-Louis Trintignant will be opening up the festival that same day.     

Two espionage thrillers Secrets of State (Secret Défense), and Spy(ies) (Espion[s]) will be making their North American premiere, while director André Téchiné's new film, The Girl on the Train (La Fille du RER), with a cast that includes Catherine Deneuve and Michel Blanc, will be making its West Coast premiere.  Other screenings include the comedies Hello Goodbye, starring Fanny Ardant and Gérard Depardieu, and With a Little Help from Myself (Aide-toi et le Ciel t’aidera), as well as the dramedies, God's Offices (Les Bureaux de Dieu) and The First Day of the Rest of Your Life (Le Premier jour du reste de ta vie).

Besides the smorgasbord of feature films, COLCOA will also premiere various film shorts, include daily "Happy Hour Talks" with topics that range from "French filmmakers discussing American Cinema" to "young audiences and foreign film," and the second annual "COLCOA High School Screenings," that will host "four screenings with 40 high schools and more than 2,200 students aged 15 to 18."

See you there!

For more info: Visit COLCOA.