Bonifacio High Street Cinemas
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City
The French Film Festival running this June 3-9, 2015 celebrates 20 years of
bringing quality French films to local audiences by expanding further as the
festival adds the Bonifacio High Street Cinemas at the Bonifacio Global City
in Taguig as another screening venue alongside the Greenbelt 3 Cinemas.
The
films to be screened for this year include Diplomatie (Diplomacy), 3 Cœurs (3 Hearts), Chante ton bac d’abord (We Did it on a Song), Dans la cour (In the Courtyard), Eden, Hippocrate, La Belle et la bête (Beauty and the Beast), La Famille Bélier (The Bélier Family), La French (The Connection), La Jalousie (Jealousy), La Prochaine fois je viserai le cœur (Next
Time I’ll Aim for the Heart), L’Amour
est un crime parfait (Love is the Perfect Crime), Le Havre, Les Garçons et
Guillaume, à table ! (Me, Myself and Mum), L’Homme qu’on aimait trop (In the Name of My Daughter), Lulu femme nue (Lulu in the Nude), Saint Laurent Timbuktu
 |
| French Ambassador Gilles Garachon |
On
the festival’s red carpet opening night, Taklub
by director Brillante Mendoza, the only Philippine entry to the Un Certain Regard section of the 2015 Cannes
Hippocrate
At
the press conference for the festival held at the Bonifacio High Street
Cinemas, the film Hippocrate from
2014 was shown. Directed by Thomas Lilti, Hippocrate
is a medical drama-comedy starring Vincent Lacoste as Benjamin Barois, a young
doctor taking his internship at the hospital where his father serves as the
director. Vincent starts his internship full of optimism but problems, in the
form of stained, ill-fitting coats, broken ECG machines, office politics, party
minded fellow interns, a stubborn foreign doctor and accusations of being a
papa’s boy start to arise. And these prove to be a lot harder to cure than the
patients admitted to the doctors’ care.
This
poignant film focuses more on relationships rather than medical jargon although
I think I got a good grasp on what an ECG and a morphine drip is despite not
having any background in medicine. Reda Kadeb, playing the Algerian doctor
Abdel Rezzak whose convictions almost cost him his career, turned in one of the
most memorable and nuanced performances in the film. I couldn’t help to notice
the irony of doctors lighting up a cigarette right after they've gone through tense and stressful
situations.
Avoiding
major spoilers, I had to say that the incident involving Vincent towards the
end of the film felt too forced and I knew what was about to happen moments
leading up to this pivotal part of the film. And the outcome, felt too
convenient as if everything wrapped up nicely, with the main villain getting
his due and everyone coming out of it satisfied and almost unscathed.
The 20th French Film Festival is
organized by the Embassy of France to the Philippines, Institut Français, the
Alliance française de Manille and Cebu, in cooperation with the Ayala Malls
Cinemas, Bonifacio High Street and Greenbelt. This event would have not been
possible without the support of the platinum sponsors: SSI Group, Inc., Beauty
Bar, Eden Park, Lacoste, L’Occitane, Oliviers & Co., and Vilebrequin; gold
sponsors ThinkBIT and Chateau; bronze sponsors Delsey, Kickers, Sledgers,
Peugeot, Bizu, Le Cellier, Don Papa, Monin and TWG; and media partners ANC, the
Philippine Daily Inquirer, BusinessWorld, High Life, HerWord.com, L’Officiel
Manila and Rogue Media, Art Plus Magazine, Expat News, Mellow 94.7 Sounds Good,
and Spot.ph.
Ticket
price:
P100
For
inquiries:
(0936)
919-6097, frenchfilmfest@gmail.com
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