This month IFC Films is proud to present three terrific films from the best of the best in French cinema. Headlined by three of the brightest French talents around, Nathalie Baye, Louis Garrel, and Juliette Binoche, these films are unmissable for any fan of Gallic film!



FRENCH GIGOLO, the French box office hit, continues the long tradition of exploring female desire and sexuality with sharp wit and insight. The film caused much discussion in France for it’s frank depiction of female sexuality in a country that’s never been shy on the matter. Directed, written and co-starring Josiane Blasko (FRENCH TWIST), the film stars Nathalie Baye (VENUS BEAUTY INSTITUTE, TELL NO ONE) and Eric Caravaca (MONSIEUR IBRAHIM) and premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Stephen Holden of the NY Times notes: “The movie is very canny about the intersection of sex, power and money.” The Times also highlighted the film exactly for this reason:



From “France. Sex. Problem?” By ELAINE SCIOLINO, Published: October 29, 2008:
“THE posters displayed in Paris Métro stations show a slim woman in her 50s in a cocktail dress, reclining on a leather sofa. Her hair is natural, her makeup understated, her smile satisfied. In the foreground, a man, his torso nude, slips two 100-euro notes into his pocket.



The posters were advertising “Cliente,” a popular movie that revolves around clichés about prostitution and gigolos in France. Judith, the client, who is played by Nathalie Baye, one of France’s highest-paid actresses, is not a pathetic, lifted rich woman of a certain age and nothing to do. Rather, she is a hard-charging, 51-year-old television shopping-channel anchor and director who, after her marriage falls apart, wants good sex without strings and is willing to pay handsomely for it.



For Josiane Balasko, 58, the director, author and actress (she plays Judith’s sister), the goals were twofold: to shatter a long-held taboo in France and to send a positive message to middle-aged women who find themselves alone and wanting sexual fulfillment.



A FRENCH GIGOLO is now available on demand from IFC Festival Direct.






IFC Films’ collaborations with Christophe Honoré (LOVE SONGS, DANS PARIS) are always very exciting, and we’re glad to add his latest, THE BEAUTIFUL PERSON to the list. Louis Garrel, Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet, and Lea Seydoux star in this “pleasingly tart vision of lust, teenage or otherwise” (Village Voice).



Likened by some to a “Gallic Gossip Girl”, this indelibly French romance blends the same irresistable measures of swooning emotion and sly wit the made us love Honoré’s previous films. Dennis Dermody exclaims, THE BEAUTIFUL PERSON is “INTELLECTUAL, PLAYFUL AND THRILLINGLY ALIVE…FREEWHEELING, TEMPESTUOUS. Louis Garrel is brooding, beautiful and ultimately touching. Lea Seydoux is gorgeous and mysterious.”



THE BEAUTIFUL PERSON is now available on demand from IFC Festival Direct.






Oscar-winner and America’s French Sweetheart, Juliette Binoche, leads a brilliant ensemble in the latest from from Cedric Klapisch (L’AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE). PARIS explores the lives and loves of a cross-section of French people with elegance and romance. The Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern gushes on the subject: “Klapisch makes fiction films that are better than most documentaries at tracking the ravages and felicities of urban renewal, the connections between people and their neighborhoods, the ties that both bind and torment families. In his latest feature, PARIS, he does all of that and then some. PARIS sees life—on earth, not just in La Ville Lumière—as a dance of human connections, some of which fail while others endure… [the film] pulses with a contemporary version of the energy that animated Balzac’s novels, or Colette’s accounts of the life she observed from the window of her apartment in the Palais Royal.”



This satisfying portrait that manages to capture both the reality and immortal romance of the City of Lights creates a great film experience. Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post concludes: “hurry, please, to PARIS, Cedric Klapisch’s intoxicating portrait of a city…[the director] captures both the picture-postcard ideal of the city and the candid truth behind it, managing to enhance both images… [it] is a funny, sad, romantic and deeply felt love letter. If you can’t book a trip now, it’s the next best thing.”

PARIS is now playing in theaters nationwide, and is also available to watch on demand.