The film forum of European countries "Scanorama" strengthens its long-standing cooperation with the French Institute in Lithuania and announces the first news of this year - in the autumn "Scanorama" will be complemented by the French film program "Ziemos ekranai", which will replace the 2005-2023 held festival. This program is part of the Lithuanian cultural season in France and its echo in Lithuania.
Each year, Scanorama pays special attention to French cinema, which pays respect to the best traditions of film art and reflects the processes of European culture. In different years, in the festival program, we presented the names of classics who shaped the history of cinema, such as Robert Bresson and Jean-Luc Godard, invited us to discover modern French cinema and look at the portraits of actors that testify to the timeless mastery. I am happy that we will continue this francophone tradition, having joined forces with our long-time partner and friend, the French Institute in Lithuania, symbolically marking Lithuania's season in France with such a connection", - the festival's founder and artistic director Gražina Arlickaitė presents the program changes.
Bright faces of French cinema
French director Bruno Dumont's apocalyptic science fiction film "Empire" will be one of the highlights of this year's fall cinema, participating in the competitive program of the prestigious Berlin Film Festival starting today. "Scanorama" became the distributor of this film in the Baltic countries.
French director Quentin Dupieux's film Janikas, which outlines the contours of the new French comedy, will be released in theaters in March. In April, the audience is waiting for the intriguing MrFrench director Stéphanie Di Giusto costume drama "Rozali" with expressive actors Nadias Tereshkevic and Benoît Magimeliand duet. The talented one Audiences can still see Benoît Magimel in Scanorama's French-produced film Silence of the Isles by Catalan director Alberto Serra, which is available on home cinema platforms.
The repertoires of cinemas will also be supplemented "Barbara" by Bertrand Mandic, creating a cinephilic and theatrical interpretation of "Divine Comedy" for fans of genre cinema. The French-Austrian production of Hungarian-Lebanese director Patric Chiha's Beast in the Jungle will take you on a romantic and euphoric journey to the beat of all-time favorite dancefloor hits.
The Francophone direction was also represented by the bands that opened the festivals of recent years. Last year, the opening film became by a French director of Vietnamese origin Tran Anh Hung's homage to the art of life and cinema, "Gourmet Passion" with the duo of actors Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel, was awarded Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival. In the anniversary year, Austrian director Marie Kreutzer's film "Corsage" about the legendary empress Sisi stylishly provoked the audience, which won the "Special Look" award at the Cannes Film Festival for actress Vicky Krieps, who played the main role. The Aussie-French co-production drew packed houses at the festival and is still one of the most watched films on home cinema platforms. In previous years, the opening guests were invited to the festival by Mios, who follow the Bergmanian tradition close to the festival. Hansen-Løve's "Bergman Island", presented in the competition program of the Cannes Film Festival.
French cinema classics and the present
In different programs, the festival introduced the audience to pages of the history of French cinema that reveal a memorable artistic diversity. in 2013 organized a retrospective dedicated to the director Robert Bresson, consistently presented the work of Jean-Luc Godard, known as the philosopher of cinema - in the thematic program "Cinema and his Deputy" organized in the anniversary year, he showed the film "King Lear", an original interpretation of William Shakespeare's work, last year he organized his short films film program "Godard vs. Godard" and presented the director's last work - the experimental biopic "The Movie That Will Never Be Trailer: Shallow Wars".
Every year, Scanorama invites you not only to get acquainted with the history of French cinema, but also to follow the work of contemporary directors. Mia could be called the director of Scanorama for many years Hansen-Løve, who established herself on the big screen with her subtle visual language and psychologically nuanced portraits of women. The film "The Future" with Isabelle Huppert's female perspective explores the theme of freedom, while "One Beautiful Morning", recognized as the best film of the Cannes Film Festival's "Two Directors' Weeks" program, reveals to the audience a new familiar Léo Seydoux's acting capabilities. Unconventional anthropologists of French cinema Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor'I'm in the band De Humani Corporis Fabrica pays homage to the beauty and horror of the human body discovered by anatomist André Vésale, while last year's Quentin Dupieux comedy Daaaaaali! creates a biography worthy of the famous surrealist.
The French films "Silence of the Islands" (dir. Albert Serra), "Corsage" (dir. Marie Kreutzer), "De Humani Corporis Fabrica" (dir. Verena Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor), distributed by the European film forum "Scanorama", "Bergman Island" (dir. Mia Hansen-Løve) you can currently watch it on the home cinema platforms "ŽMONĖS CINEMA" or "Telia Play".
This year, the Scanorama film festival will take place from November 7 to 21 in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, Panevėžys, Alytus and Visaginas.