Rendez-Vous with French Cinema: French Film Fest at Wilmette Theatre

 OPENS FRI MARCH 2nd!RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA2011 FILMSThis year marks the first collaboration with Emerging Pictures and the “Rendez-Vous with French Cinema” series, and the first time that audiences in cities across the country will have the opportunity to see these films in local theaters via Emerging Pictures’s digital delivery technology. The Wilmette Theatre will be showing the following:  PATER
Directed by Alain Cavalier105 min.Synopsis:  France’s most unpredictable filmmaker, Alain Cavalier, teams up with actor Vincent Lindon for a witty, semi-improvised look at men, power and politics, starring Cavalier himself as a fictional French President and Lindon as his newly appointed Prime Minister.FRI 3/2 at 5:00pm - SAT 3/3 at 2:15pm -  17 GIRLS (17 FILLES) - with LIVE Q&ADirected by Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin. 90 min
Based on a headline-grabbing incident in the U.S., sisters Delphine and Muriel Coulin’s provocative debut feature follows the fallout in a sleepy French coastal town when a group of teenage girls all decide to become pregnant at the same time.  A Strand Releasing film. FRI 3/2 at 8:15pm -  MOON CHILD  (LA PERMISSION DE MINUIT)
Directed by Crystel Fournier. 110 minutesRomain is a "moon child," afflicted since birth by a rare genetic deficiency that makes him unable to stand exposure to daylight.  Since infancy he has been cared for by David, a consultant dermatologist who is fascinated with his case and with whom he has developed an unusually close relationship.  Now David has to leave, and doesn't know how to tell Romain.  The day of the separation draws near... a new ordeal for them both.MON 3/5 at 3:30pm -  THE SCREEN ILLUSION (L’ILLUSION COMIQUE)
Directed by and starring Mathieu Amalric. 77 minutesCommissioned by La Comédie-Française, actor-director Mathieu Amalric’s wildly inventive update of Corneille’s popular 17th century tragicomedy follows a hotel concierge on the trail of a missing young man who seems to have left many a young female heart aflutter.MON 3/5 at 7:00pm -  THE LAST SCREENING (LA DERNIÈRE SÉANCE)
Directed by Laurent Achard. 81 minutesCINEMA PARADISO meets PSYCHO in a provocative genre film about the dutiful manager/projectionist of a repertory cinema in the French provinces...and the many secrets he holds. TUES 3/6 at 7:30pm - 
 SMUGGLERS’ SONGS (LES CHANTS DE MANDRIN)
Directed by Rabah Ameur-ZaÏmeche. 97 minutesThe 18th century folk hero and bandit Louis Mandrin is the inspiration for this strikingly relevant period tale, tracing the efforts of Mandrin’s followers to distribute his songs and stories in the build-up to the French Revolution.WED 3/7 at 8:30pm -  THE WELL-DIGGER’S DAUGHTER (LA FILLE DU PUISATIER)
Directed by Daniel Auteuil. 107 minutesDaniel Auteuil, veteran of Marcel Pagnol adaptations JEAN DE FLORETTE and MANON DES SOURCES, returns to Pagnol for his first work as a director, telling moving story of a hardscrabble well digger, his eldest daughter and her passion for the son of a local shopkeeper.   A Kino Lorber release. FRI 3/9 at 2:00pm -