French cinema festival showcases complex yet honest films

Every year, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance hold Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, an event that showcases many of France's most celebrated films of the year. "L'Affaire Farewell" ("Farewell"), the premiere feature of this year's impressive list of films, is an honest and urgent portrayal of the events that undermined the Soviet regime in its last days.

The film follows a disenchanted KGB official (Emir Kusturica) who decides he wants to make a difference for the future by passing on crucial information to the French government.

The opening scenes set viewers right in the middle of the Cold War. Propaganda fills the screen with urban chaos, but soon we are immersed in a pristine, snowy hillside. We are given a moment to breathe, a moment of apparent calm, but it is quickly broken by a gunshot. The plot of the movie races off, not quite waiting for the viewer to catch up as it veers between Moscow, Paris and Washington, D.C.

This constant transnational movement grabs you and rarely lets go, contradicting the cliché notion that the Cold War was in any way inactive.

Kusturica's character, Colonel Gregoriev, is more than a simple KGB career man — he is a deeply soulful guy whose desire to change the world is propelled by his hopes for his son. He does make mistakes in his home life, and that adds a dimension to the film that is lacking in many other espionage thrillers.

"La Famille Wolberg" is another film featured in the festival that is marked by its strong character development. The film, directed by Axelle Ropert, is the story of Simon Wolberg (François Damiens), the mayor of a small provincial town in France.

It begins with Simon in a cemetery, leaving a withered poppy on a grave. We follow him throughout his day as he gives an inspirational speech about an American soul singer to schoolchildren, visits his father and cherishes family time. Simon seems to have attained a perfect balance between community and private life. But the further the story digs into his existence, the darker his character becomes — for one thing, it seems that his obsession with his family might be detrimental to the relationships within it. Everything that seems perfect about his family life, when examined more carefully, is deeply flawed.

The film looks at Simon's relationships with his wife Marianne (Valérie Benguigui), his nearly 18-year-old daughter Delphine (Léopoldine Serre), his son Benjamin (Valentin Vigourt), his father and his brother-in-law, whose bohemian lifestyle is quite different. The plot is slow-moving and methodical, but it has a way of drawing you in and keeping you voyeuristically fixated. Like "Farewell," the film examines that which is shown at first glance and that which is discovered upon fuller examination.

The films at Rendez-Vous with French Cinema will be playing from Thursday, March 11 through Sunday, March 21 at Lincoln Center, IFC Center and BAM. For more information, visit filmlinc.com.

Lauren Wilks is a contributing writer.