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| Tikoy Aguiluz, Briccio Santos, Amb. Gilles Garachon, Gerald Anderson, Alice Dixon, Joel Torre, Sid Lucero, Adolfo Alix Jr., and Marvin Macalintal |
The
18th French Film Festival had an elegant and star studded opening
night in its new home at Greenbelt
in Makati . Celebrity guests at the
opening cocktails held at the Gallery in Greenbelt
5 included Gerald Anderson, Sid Lucero, Joel Torre and Angeli Bayani who all starred
in films that were screened at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival. Actors
Diether Ocampo, Solenn Heussaf, Alice Dixon, Pinky Amador and Althea Vega along
with directors Adolfo Alix Jr. (Death March director that was also screened at Cannes )
and Tikoy Aguiluz were among the movie personalities also spotted in this red
carpet event that featured an exhibit courtesy of L’Oreal.
French
Ambassador Gilles Garachon (who I think is the Ambassador who has one of the
coolest hairstyles) was kept busy during the opening cocktails welcoming
guests, granting interviews and basically being a good host. There were lots of
talk about Cannes and many of the
guests (including myself) wanted to hear more stories from Gerald Anderson and Angeli
Bayani about their Cannes
experience.
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| French Ambassador Gilles Garachon |
Among
the hors d'oeuvres served, it was the
salmon roulade that received lots of raves. And of course, a French event will
not be complete without the wine which I enjoyed probably too much. In instances
such as this, time for socializing seemed never enough as we had to cut
everything off when we were asked by Martin Macalintal, the Audiovisual Attaché
of the French Embassy, to head over to the cinema at Greenbelt
1 to watch the opening film.
Le Prénom/What’s in a Name?
The
film that was screened during the opening night of the 18th French
Film Festival was Le Prénom/What’s in a
Name? which was directed by Alexandre de La
Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte. The directing duo also wrote the
stage play which this film was adapted from. The film starred Patrick Bruel, Valérie
Benguigui, Charles Berling, Guillaume de Tonquedec and Judith El Zein.
Very
likely due to my high alcohol intake, it took me quite some time to figure out
who the characters were and how they are related to each other. Still, I
managed to settle in and understood that the film was about Vincent (Bruel),
who was expecting his first child with his girlfriend Anna. Vincent is invited
by his sister Élisabeth (Benguigui) aka Babu for dinner along with her husband
Pierre (Charles Berling) and their childhood friend Claude (Guillaume de
Tonquedec). As expected, the conversation over dinner touched upon what Vincent
and Anna are planning to name their child. But what was unexpected was the
ensuing chaos that this name has brought up among the group. Buried secrets and
pent up emotions were brought up to the surface threatening to ruin friendships
and marriages. All of this happened just because of one name.
The
film didn’t feature a lot of action and was very conversation heavy. It’s
amazing that a play that was probably staged with just a single, basic set
could be material enough to be a full length movie such as this. I was grateful
that I could read subtitles really fast so I was able to follow the flow of the
conversation and catch the wit and the humor in it. I also think that my wine
intake contributed to my uninhibited bursts of laughter throughout the screening. I
imagined afterwards how things would’ve been very different had they screened a
very serious film for the festival’s opening.
The 18th
French Film Festival was presented by the Embassy of France to the Philippines ,
the Alliance Française de Manille and Institut Français the under the
French cultural program FrancoPhil.
Text by RAd
Photos by Roland Samson
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