French Arts & Film Festival 2012

afsmakeup June 07, 2022

Bonjour!

Francophiles out there, the French Art and Film Festival is NOT to be missed. If you have read about it in the press and have scheduled your life for the next three weeks around the events, you may ignore this post. But to those of you who wouldn't mind a couple of days soaking in cultural refinement, FAFF should be on your calendar!

I may not proclaim to be a Francophile, but the romanticism, taste and elegance associated with Frenchness and my love for foreign films have marked this as a not-to-be-missed event on my cultural radar.

Unlike some lucky ones out there, I've never been to France. But I hold deep reverence to French culture for its important roles in art, literature and philosophy, the very birthplace of the cinema and the French New Wave, and the individualistic and free-spirited image of French Bohemianism.

My reverence to French culture stem from my studies of the lives and works of extraordinary seminal French figures at uni. France have throughout centuries spearheaded the development of arts and culture - it is very much the birthplace of modern thought, and the incubator of groundbreaking poets, thinkers, intellects and artists that exploded the world with avant-gardism. From Enlightenment figures the likes of Voltaire and Rosseau, poets and artistic precursors Guillaume Apollinaire and Charles Baudelaire, Surrealist movement founders Andre Breton and Marcel Duchamp, feminist trailblazer Simone de Beauvoir, to contemporary thinkers Gilles Deleuze and Jean-Francois Lyotard, they provided intellectual challenge and stimulation in my uni days, smashing preconceived thought structures and opening up fundamental new perceptions to the workings of society and world at large. And then there are the beautiful French screen goddess Catherine De Neuve, more familiar ones are Julie Binoche, Audrey Tatou and Julie Delpy, not forgetting to mention French films that have wound their way into my heart - Le Choristes (2004), Ponnette (1996), and Amelie (2001) among the many titles.

Back to the topic, the French Art & Film Festival is precisely here to provide KL-ites a window to the rich cultural landscape of France, bringing you an array of arts and culture that include theatre, music, circus and of course, films.

I had an invite to the opening launch of FAFF at Pavillion recently. Balloons of blue, red & white covered the arches at the entrance, Martell cocktails & delectable-looking canapés served to guests that consists of a notable presence of French expatriates, tall distinguished men in suits, elegant ladies in chignon and snazzy dresses. And L'occitane giveaways, yippee!

The entrance to the FAFF launch

The FAFF crowd

VIPS in a photo session

Moi

The second part of the launch was the screening of one of the six festival films, The Romantics Anonymous - a simple yet sweet and delightful story of two people with anxiety disorders falling in love with each other, and the setbacks that prevent it from being a smooth affair. Certain parts of the plot were a little underdeveloped, but is certainly to be overlooked with the likable characters - lovely but excruciatingly shy Angelique (Isabelle Carr), and her romantic tension with the obsessive-compulsive Jean-Rene (Benoit Poelvoorde). The story revolves around chocolates, infusing the film with a rather smooth, velvety look and texture, and borrows The Sound of Music feel and style to the film. Angelique desperately singing 'I have confidence' in French to calm herself delights yet evokes empathy in the audience; and her down-to-earth styling of big trench coat, black tights, hand-carry bag, and of course, her little dance routine at the arcade is surely reminiscent of Maria.

The month-long festival from 23 May to 23 June offers the best of French films with trailers of movies (seen below), including award-winning film The Artist, and one of the highest grossing film in France, The Intouchables; classical music by acclaimed conductor Stephane Deneve and piano soloist Eric La Sage. Another notable event is a concert by harpist and singer Cecille Corbel, whose unique vocal and Celtic style caught the attention of Studio Ghibli and later collaborated to produce the soundtrack for the famed Japanese production house's The Secret World of Arrietty. A French market selling French gastronomy and lifestyle products will also be held on Saturday 16th of June, 4pm onwards at the garden side of Alliance Francaise KL, Jalan Semarak.

So....want a taste of Frenchness? Come to FAFF!

Check out the official website for full details: http://faff.com.my/

The Artist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8K9AZcSQJE