French Films Rule!

The French Film Festival is coming to the Byrd Theatre, March 21-24.  The festival, a four-day screening of 30 French features and shorts, many of them U.S. premiers, is sponsored by the University of Richmond’s Department of Modern Literatures and Cultures and Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of World Studies. Since 2003 it has been acclaimed as the most important French film festival in the United States. For information and tickets, visit http://frenchfilmfestival.us/.  

Robert Hickman, film buff and Library Associate at RPL’s Westover Hills Branch, can’t wait:

“I love French films. I’m more likely to forgive and stay with them until the end, unlike the many U.S. releases I lose patience with after twenty minutes. A friend once remarked, “there’s nothing dumber than reading movies,” but I find that each one is still a new experience, as fresh and exciting as when I first started watching them decades ago. There’s more attention paid to character development, and the slower (European?) pace allows the story to unfold more naturally without a lot of pyrotechnics and other visual gimmickry. They are like small, independent U.S. films, which don’t need an overblown budget and lavish design and often employ the same cast and crew from film to film.

French film lover Robert Hickman

Because of the small size of both the French film industry and France itself, most film workers, studios and distribution companies are based in Paris. With a small number of directors, actors and technicians living in a concentrated area, it is logical that many often work together. This makes faces familiar, but not ubiquitous. Because French actors are not overexposed in the media as actors are in the United States, audience members can focus on the performance rather than the actor giving it.


French films don’t require Hollywood tricks such as the obligatory happy ending. While sometimes very frustrating, it’s also thought-provoking, and often keeps a film in memory long after it’s over. Some French films move more slowly than paint dries, but since I care more about the characters, I give them more leeway than their American counterparts. There is much less violence on the whole. Sex scenes are realistic and integral to the story rather than gratuitous. (There are so many beautiful sex symbols in French cinema history I cannot begin to list them all!)


Because many French film stars’ children and family members go into the business, it often seems like I’m spending time with an extended family, interesting yet not intrusive. It is a lovely way to spend a couple hours, which is also the perfect length for a visit. I only wish I could share the food they’re eating. There are fewer places I’d rather be than sitting in a darkened theatre, lost in a French film.”

Use your library card to enjoy your own French Film Festival at home.  Here are Robert’s ten top picks, all available @your library: 

Rules of the game [DVD] = La règle du jeu	Breathless [DVD] = À bout de souffle	Jules and Jim [DVD] = Jules et Jim	The 400 blows [DVD] = Les Quatre cents coups	Hiroshima mon amour [DVD]
A secret [DVD] = Un secret	Purple noon [DVD] = Plein soleil	Grand illusion [DVD] = La grande illusion	Beauty and the beast [DVD] = Belle et la bête	Summer hours [DVD] = L'heure d'été