Daily news update from the 2019 edition of the French Film Festival in Japan
Daily Festival: French Film Festival in Japan - #3 - June 2019
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June 22: Day 3 of the Festival
The festival's third day kicked off under the heavy skies of Yokohama, but was bolstered by the light-hearted humor of the actors and directors who spent the day at the Aeon Cinema in Minato Mirai presenting their films and meeting with Japanese audiences, who always guarantee them a warm welcome.
On Saturday, it was over to Michel Ocelot (for Dilili in Paris), Louis-Julien Petit (for Invisibles), Lisa Azuelos and Thaïs Alessandrin (for Sweetheart), Antonin Baudry and François Civil (for The Wolf's Call), and Sébastien Marnier along with his producer Caroline Bonmarchand (for School's Out) to take their turn to enjoy meeting with Japanese spectators, first in the theater at Q&As held after each screening, then in an area reserved for autographs sessions, where they were showered with small gifts.
In the morning, Claude Lelouch headed out to Waseda University to lead a master class, which was punctuated by excerpts from the many films that have marked the director's long career. In the room during the event was a student who is not quite like any other, a certain Hirokazu Kore-Eda...
Meanwhile, Mikhaël Hers and Vincent Lacoste traveled to Tokyo to make a tour of the theaters screening their film Amanda, which was released in Japan today.
Tomorrow, for the final day of the festival, it will be the turn of Nadav Lapid (Synonyms), Judith Davis (Whatever Happened to my Revolution), and Nils Tavernier (The Ideal Palace) to meet with audiences for the very last Q&As and autograph sessions of this 27th edition of the festival.
Sentence of the Day
An anonymous woman comes to speak with Louis-Julien Petit
During a Q&A held after the screening of Invisibles, it was almost exclusively men who volunteered their questions, notably asking Louis-Julien Petit if it wasn't too difficult for him to direct women. At the autograph session that followed, a number of women came up to speak to the director, including one woman who had experienced life on the street, who told him:
"When you are a poor woman in Japan, there are two battles you must fight at the same time: that of being a woman and that of struggling with precarious living conditions."
There is no word in Japanese for "homeless," it is the English word that is used.
Picture of the Day
Hirokazu Kore-eda blends in with the crowd of students attending Claude Lelouch's master class
Keeping a very low profile, Hirokazu Kore-eda, winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2018 for Shoplifters, quietly attended the master class given by Claude Lelouch at Waseda University, even though he had been invited to take an active part in the event. Instead, the filmmaker humbly mingled with the group of 387 students in attendance as Claude Lelouch, alone, presented his long career directing career...
Figure of the Day
539
This is the number of meetings held during the Film Market in Tokyo between the 28 participating French sales agents and the 28 Japanese distributors who came to meet with them. In addition to the two days in Tokyo, discussions have continued in Yokohama throughout the festival, particularly as a number of French sales companies were not able to meet with all of the distributors during the market. Let us hope that these meetings will be highly productive: in 2018, 53 French films were released in Japan. The most successful majority-French production shot in French released in Japan in 2018 was Maria by Callas (a film that nonetheless generated the largest part of its attendance figures in 2019), which attracted a total of 84,961 spectators.
3 Questions to
...Caroline Bonmarchand, producer
At the helm of Avenue B since 2002—following a stint in New York where she started out producing the films of Raphaël Nadjari—Caroline Bonmarchand has produced around fifteen films for the company, notably those directed by Marc Fitoussi (three features, one short, and two documentaries), Sophie Letourneur, and both of Sébastien Marnier's films, Faultless and School's Out, the latter of which is presented at the festival. Caroline is in Yokohama to accompany Sébastien Marnier, notably in order to meet with the film's Japanese distributor.
Is this trip to Yokohama your first experience of Japan?
Well, it's my first trip here to accompany a film. Marc Fitoussi's film Paris Follies was released in Japan, but I was not here to take part in its launch. It's not often that producers travel abroad to accompany films, but School's Out is a special case: we realized this early on, once the film had been shot and we were discussing it with Hengameh Panahi from Celluloid Dreams, who are handling international sales. Hengameh told us that this film was perfect for Japan, particularly due to its themes that deal with ecology and the threat of nuclear war. And in the past few days, we've seen that she was spot on—in addition to the audience reception, we've had a lot of positive comments from journalists who've spoken to Sébastien, and many discussions with our distributor, King Records Co.. The film clearly speaks to Japanese people, despite the obvious cultural differences. For example, people here have questioned the arrogance of the children in the film, even if we explain that these children do not necessarily represent how young people are in France today! We asked our distributor a lot of questions, such as about how young people reacted to the Fukushima disaster and what kind of traumas they experienced because of it. It seems, though, that whatever upheavals they experienced on a personal level, nothing has really changed here at the community or political level. Nonetheless, these people have clearly experienced trauma and they talk about it in the same way as we did in France after the terrorist attacks of 2015 (such as describing exactly where they were at the time and what they were doing that day), and that also creates a point of connection.
How did the sale of the film in Japan come about?
King Records showed an interest in the film when it was screened at Venice, which was the film's world premiere. They really liked it, but they had never distributed a French film and, what's more, they specialize in genre films. School's Out is not a genre film in the strict sense of the term, it's difficult to categorize being neither a genre film nor a purely art house production. So they said they wanted to see it again at the Sitges Film Festival, and that's where they took the plunge and decided to commit to distributing it in Japan. We've signed a deal for theatrical distribution, with its release slated for October. For them, it's an art house film, not one that's suited to release in multiplexes, which is understandable from their perspective, so they were very amused to find out that in France it's more commonly programmed in multiplexes, which they see as only suited to American blockbusters. Moving forward, we'll wait and see how things develop according to how the film is received. In any case, they've seemed very happy to welcome us here in Japan for a few days, and to see that Sébastien was able to meet with so many media representatives in a very short time—he spent two whole days in a hotel room answering questions of all kinds from journalists, not only from specialized media outlets but also from the mainstream press, thankfully with the help of a fabulous, very dedicated interpreter! For King Records, this gives a strong sign of the potential interest from the media in the film, and that's very reassuring.
Is selling a film like School's Out in Japan important to you as a producer?
It's of crucial importance, because it's part of a goal that Sébastien and I set for ourselves to ensure that the film is seen around the world. It's a film that we really wanted to share with people outside France because of the subjects it explores. It's been sold in around fifteen markets around the world, which is fantastic, especially since it wasn't hugely successful in France. It registered 100,000 admissions in France, whereas Faultless registered 200,000. But the fact that it premiered at Venice immediately positioned it on an international level, and the hard work and determination of Hengameh Panahi and her teams, who show great commitment in every territory, took care of the rest. It's very moving for us to think that Sébastien and I first talked about this film only two and a half years ago, and now here we are in Yokohama, facing audiences that we might imagine as being very different from us and yet, at the same time, we share a common language: the language of cinema. When people talk about the film, they mention The White Ribbon, Magnolia, or Village of the Damned, and everyone understands! It's the same with our distributors—we've have dinner with ten people whom we don't know, with everything seeming to be so tightly scheduled, so heavily codified, with a clearly defined hierarchy (which is so different to our meetings in France), and yet we can all enjoy a delicious meal during which we discuss Parasite and French cinema thanks to this common language that unites us and that is of such great importance. Just as important is the fact that UniFrance makes it possible for encounters like this to continue to exist thanks to festivals like this one—these human connections that lead to business dealings, that allow us to sell our films and to show them to people all around the world.
