{"id":531818,"date":"2025-10-27T20:38:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T20:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/531818\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T20:38:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T20:38:19","slug":"5-magnifique-films-to-catch-at-the-french-movie-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/531818\/","title":{"rendered":"5 \u2018magnifique\u2019 films to catch at the French movie fest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The London Film Festival<\/a> has rolled up its red carpet for another year, but that doesn\u2019t mean the city\u2019s movie fest season is over. Far from it, in fact. Film cultures from across the world are being celebrated in style at festivals like the Made in Prague Festival<\/a> (from October 31), London Korean Film Festival<\/a> (from November 5), UK Jewish Film Festival\u00a0(from Nov 6) and London Baltic Film Festival<\/a> (from Nov 7).\u00a0<\/p>\n

One that\u2019s always worth a close look is the French Film Festival London<\/a>. It all happens under one roof at South Kensington\u2019s ornate red-brick Institut Fran\u00e7ais and this year it\u2019s showcasing some genuinely exceptional new movies from France and, thanks to the vagaries of film financing, far beyond the French Republic. This year is the 33rd fest and as you\u2019d expect, it\u2019s a well-oiled machine but an intimate one too, where you can find like-minded film fans gathering for 76 screenings at the venue\u2019s elegant two-screen Cin\u00e9 Lumi\u00e8re<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And because you probably can\u2019t see all 33 films without being fired from your job or your family, we\u2019ve had a moustache-twiddling peruse of the line-up to pick five absolute must-sees on the programme, including a Palme d’Or winner and the year\u2019s single most devastating drama. Bonne s\u00e9ance!<\/p>\n

\"It
\nPhotograph: Courtesy NYFFIt Was Just an Accident <\/p>\n

It Was Just an Accident\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jafar Panahi\u2019s Palme d\u2019Or winner<\/a>, a blackly funny story of kidnap and revenge set in Tehran, may not look like a French film, but don\u2019t be fooled: it\u2019s French financed and a worthy centrepiece for the festival. Panahi has been victimised and censored by the Iranian regime and his latest opus comes as another exercise in pure moral courage and exceptional filmmaking craft. Vahid Mobasseri plays a mechanic who thinks he\u2019s stumbled into the man who once tortured him \u2013 and decides to get his own back.<\/p>\n

\"The
\nPhotograph: Curzon <\/p>\n

The Stranger<\/p>\n

Existentialism has never been sexier than in Fran\u00e7ois Ozon\u2019s black-and-white take on Albert Camus\u2019 1942 novella about a young, disenchanted Frenchman who shoots an Arab man in cold blood and won\u2019t explain or justify his actions to anyone. Summer of 85<\/a>\u2019s Benjamin Voisin takes the role once inhabited by Marcello Mastroianni in Luchino Visconti\u2019s 1967 version, while Rebecca Marder is the lover who can\u2019t make much sense of this unblinking enigma either.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The
\nPhotograph: Venice Film Festival <\/p>\n

The Voice of Hind Rajab<\/p>\n

An absolute turkey could get a 10-minute standing ovation at film festivals these days, but even so, not many films get 23 minutes of raucous, palm-numbing applause. Meet Kaouther Ben Hania\u2019s extraordinary Palestinian docudrama then, a heartbreaking true-life story about a six-year-old girl killed in Gaza by IDF soldiers in 2024. It\u2019s a powerhouse big-screen experience and a sign of the festival\u2019s willingness to tackle the toughest subjects head on.<\/p>\n

\"The
\nPhotograph: French Film Festival London <\/p>\n

The Great Arch\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Square\u2019s Claes Bang is obscure Danish architect Otto von Spreckelsen in St\u00e9phane Demoustier\u2019s festival opener, a real-life story of an aesthetic disrupter who changed the Paris skyline in the most dramatic style. Picking up where The Brutalist left off, The Great Arch follows early \u201980s President Fran\u00e7ois Mitterrand\u2019s commission to build the city\u2019s Great Arch of La D\u00e9fense \u2013 and all the controversy and political shenanigans that came with it.<\/p>\n

\"La
\nPhotograph: France 2 Cin\u00e9ma <\/p>\n

La Reine Margot<\/p>\n

The fest also boasts some retrospectives to sink your teeth into. An absolute humdinger of a period drama, Patrice Ch\u00e9reau\u2019s 1994 C\u00e9sar winner<\/a> is a Grand Guignol-tinged historical epic that\u2019ll be an apt way to celebrate its star, Isabelle Adjani\u2019s 70th birthday. Look out, too, for Marcel Oph\u00fcls\u2019 masterful Occupation doc The Sorrow and the Pity and Harry, He\u2019s Here to Help, the Hitchcockian debut by Dominik Moll, who also has Case 137<\/a> in the festival line-up.<\/p>\n

The French Film Festival London runs November 12-23. Head to the official website<\/a> for all the programme info and to book tickets.<\/p>\n

How many of the 100 greatest French films ever made have you seen<\/strong><\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best films of 2025 (so far)<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The London Film Festival has rolled up its red carpet for another year, but that doesn\u2019t mean the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,61592,393,3063,4884,257,61593,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-531818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-categories-film","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-film","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-news-film","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115448061479299407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}