Schedule of Events:

12:30 PM: Wild Diamond - Walter Reade Theater
Agathe Riedinger / 2024 / France / French and English with English subtitles / 103 minutes

Nineteen-year-old Liane (Malou Khebizi) lives with her mother and sister in a small southern town and harbors dreams of achieving fame as a reality TV contestant. When she auditions for Miracle Island, her breakout moment seems imminent—but anticipation soon curdles into disillusionment, and Liane’s hopes start crashing as she spirals into self-doubt. Scouting nonprofessional performers for her feature debut (the only first film selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival), writer-director Agathe Riedinger treats potentially sensationalistic material with an authentic and refreshingly non-judgmental gaze, bringing a complex perspective to a subject often reduced to well-worn sound bites, and introducing viewers to the lesser-known rhythms of life in the workaday small cities of the Côte d’Azur region. A Strand Releasing release.

3:15 PM: And Their Children After Them - Walter Reade Theater
Ludovic Boukherma , Zoran Boukherma / 2024 / France / French with English subtitles / 140 minutes

Taking place against the backdrop of widespread deindustrialization in ’90s France, And Their Children After Them dramatizes the long-lasting consequences for two boys following a fight at a party. Anthony (Paul Kircher) is the son of a stern, embittered alcoholic father (Gille Lellouche) and disconnected mother (Ludivine Sagnier); coming from a differently fraught family background, Moroccan immigrant Hacine (Sayyid El Alami) is more vulnerable before the law. One of the most important French novels of recent years, Nicolas Mathieu’s 2018 winner of the prestigious French literary award Prix Goncourt comes to epic life in this adaptation from twin writer-directors Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma. Inspired equally by the works of Émile Zola and Bruce Springsteen, the Boukhermas anchor their saga with pitch-perfect realism in a vividly evoked mid-’90s period setting. At the film’s center is Kircher, who, following breakout roles in Winter Boy (Rendez-Vous 2023) and Animal Kingdom (Rendez-Vous 2024), confirms his promise as one of the most charismatic and compelling young actors in France today.

6:45 PM: Being Maria - Walter Reade Theater
Jessica Palud / 2024 / France / French and English with English subtitles / 103 minutes

“Actors don’t choose roles,” actor Daniel Gélin (Yvan Attal) tells his daughter Maria Schneider (Anamaria Vartolomei). “Roles choose them!” After her galvanizing performance as a young woman seeking out an illegal abortion in Audrey Diwan’s Happening (ND/NF 2022), Vartolomei delivers another indelible portrait of a woman in extremis with writer-director Jessica Palud’s second feature, moving beyond Schneider’s encounter with director Bernardo Bertolucci on the set of Last Tango in Paris, during the shoot of the infamous “get the butter” scene (which the actress repeatedly identified as a violation of her consent), to contemplate the actress’s larger life and legacy. The shoot itself is meticulously reconstructed—featuring a remarkable turn by Matt Dillon as Schneider’s significantly more famous costar and scene partner, Marlon Brando—in order to contextualize the private and public fallout from Schneider’s equally iconic and traumatizing breakout performance. Palud was herself an assistant director for Bertolucci at age 19 (the same age Schneider was during the production of Last Tango) and brings a welcome eye for complexity to an unsparing, compassionate reframing of a much-discussed incident—rooted firmly in the perspective of the actress at its center. A Kino Lorber release.

9:30 PM: Jim’s Story - Walter Reade Theater
Arnaud Larrieu, Jean-Marie Larrieu / 2024 / France / French with English subtitles / 101 minutes

Adrift in his early twenties, Aymeric (Karim Leklou) runs into former coworker Florence (Laetitia Dosch), six months pregnant with a child for whom already-married father Christophe (iconic actor and musician Bertrand Belin) refuses to take responsibility. Aymeric proves himself to be a generous partner to Florence and a perfect, loving parent, adored by his adoptive child—but when Christophe decides he wants to build a relationship with his growing son, Jim (Eol Personne), the security of Aymeric’s cherished role in the family unit begins to falter. Equally at ease applying their offbeat vision to thrillers (Love Is the Perfect Crime, Rendez-Vous 2014) and comedies (21 Nights with Pattie, Rendez-Vous 2016), the Larrieu brothers make a triumphant return with this impressive adaptation of Pierric Bailly’s novel of the same name, crafting a heartfelt and realistic portrait of the bonds of fatherhood, beautifully embodied by Leklou in a generous, vulnerable lead performance.

Ticket Prices:

General Public: $19
Students, Seniors, and Persons with Disabilities: $17
FLC Members: $14
Opening Night - General Public: $25
Opening Night - FLC Members: $20

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