' ' Cinema Romantico: La France

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

La France

My filmmaking colleague and the man who introduced me to the wonders of "Arrested Development" ("Maybe I'm not cut out to be a DeNiro or a Regis or a Pinkett-Smith") was, stunningly, a man who had never tasted the varied cinematic delights of the event known as the Chicago International Film Festival despite the fact he has lived in this city several years longer than I have. On the other hand, I've attended both years during my residency here and have been afforded many wonderful experiences. Seeing a fantastic French comedy "Housewarming" two years ago and having the chance to meet Joey Lauren Adams last year (I like to mention that little nugget whenever possible).

Therefore it became a stated goal of my colleague to attend this year's film festival and as a regular festival-goer I was placed in charge of selecting our movie.

I selected a film entitled La France. And I could bore you with a synopsis or I could get you up to speed with one of those old-school pitch-meeting descriptions.

"La France" is "All Quiet on the Western Front" meets "Shakespeare in Love" meets "Moulin Rouge". (No, I'm not exaggerating.) Which is to say, "La France" is a World War I epic concerning young Camille "disguising" herself as a boy and heading off to the front lines to find her missing husband where she encounters a band of deserters headed for Holland who every so often break into song. (I said I wasn't exaggerating.)

I could bore you with all the gory details our experience (which ended with several Labatt Blues to wash it all away) but instead I'd like to take this moment to apologize.

I'm sorry, Daryl. It's my fault. Blame it on me, not the festival. The Chicago Film Festival really does have goodness in its heart. I swear.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"We have free pizza for the game."

-Waitress at bar we went to after seeing "La France." In that moment, holding LeBatt in my hand, the world finally made sense again.

Anonymous said...

Indeed. $3 Labatts, free pizza for MNF, plus Lucinda Williams and Uncle Tupelo on the jukebox. I think we were made to suffer through "La France" to discover (or in your case, re-discover) that bar.

Anonymous said...

From suffering comes happiness.