Review: Cinemania

French film festival celebrates 21st year

By Byron Toben

Cinemania, the Montreal French film festival with English subtitles, has become one of the largest French film festivals in the world.

Founded by the ebullient Maidy Teitelbaum 21 years ago, it has screened 711 films over the years, mostly Quebec, North American or even world premieres.

We managed to view 5 of this year’s 41 offerings and enjoyed all of them. Many of the films may not get general release even though they are of high quality, but keep your eyes peeled for these five, in case they do.

The art dealer (L’antiquaire)

This film is based on the true story of the Jewish granddaughter of a Parisian art dealer whose valuable collection was confiscated by the Nazis. She worked for years to recover the stolen art despite obstacles from French authorities and museums. Anna Sigalovitch is perfect in the role. Quebec’s Niels Schneider plays one of the bad guys.

Once in a lifetime (Les héritiers)

Another true story. The working class suburb of Paris, Creteil, hosts the Lycée Leon Blum, named after the three-time Jewish Prime Minister of France. The area is multi-ethnic, largely Muslim. A teacher of an unruly class managed to interest the “blackboard jungle” students into entering a national competition “children and teenagers under the Nazi regime” and they won! One of the students, Ahmed Drame wrote a script about this event and played himself in the film. Ariane Ascaride is wonderful as the persistent teacher.

I am a soldier (Je suis un soldat)

Has nothing to do with soldiers, but rather with the illegal trade in dogs, which are treated as mere commodities. Popular actress Louise Bourgoin plays a 30 year old forced to move back in with her mother and work with her uncle, a seedy dog trafficker. The title stems from a popular song of the time sung by the family at a rare picnic.

The anarchists (Les anarchistes)

Paris 1899, a time of periodic social unrest. A police sergeant is recruited to infiltrate a group of anarchists. But growing sympathy for the causes plus love for one of the women create a conflict. Rising star Tahar Rahim as the spy anchors a fine cast in this period piece.

Discount (Discount)

Comedy is successfully combined with social drama in this hilarious tale of some hard discount super market workers facing replacement by automated systems; they “appropriate” large quantities of almost spoiled or stale dated goods to unload at their own country pop up store discount alternative. How long can they get away with making more money in a day than a month’s salary?

Cinemania ran at the Cinéma Impérial from November 5 till 15.

Images: courtesy of Cinemania

Byron Toben is the immediate past-president of the Montreal Press Club.