Free French cinema--all over NYC--as FILMS ON THE GREEN returns for its eighth annual series

Films on the Green, New York City's favorite outdoor film festival -- of free French movies all summer long -- opens its eighth annual series this Friday evening, May 29, in Central Park with a landmark film that lifted a certain French sexpot named Brigitte Bardot (below and above, right, with a very young Jean-Louis Trintignant) to international acclaim, while taking her director, Roger Vadim, along for the ride -- for awhile.

Here's a film that should make clear to today's youth audience what something sexy looked like in the mid 1950s, when the poor old USA was getting damned little of it and so had to turn to France for a good turn-on. Interestingly enough, this film is now rated only PG -- which indicates, among other things, how very G-rated (if we'd actually had a rating system way back then) were most American films of the 1950s.

TrustMovies has a particular soft spot for the annual Films on the Green fest because he's been covering it since its inception: first, for the late, lamented Greencine.com, and then yearly on this blog. Each summer the festival -- hosted by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, FACE Foundation and the City of New York Parks & Recreation -- chooses a wide array of films from various decades (this year's includes the 1930s, 50s, 60s, and post-Millennium, of quite varied content and styles that show off French cinema to fine advantage. The dates are Friday evenings, beginning May 29 through July 31, with a final screening on September 10. Locations range from Central Park to Riverside Park, Tompkins Square Park, Washington Square Park, Columbia University, and Transmitter Park (in Brooklyn).

All the screenings are absolutely free and viewers are invited to bring their own food and drink and enjoy an evening of film culture al fresco. This year's films includes classics like the Vadim and Duvivier's Pepe Le Moko, as well as one of the great French comedies of recent years -- Priceless (above) by the ever under-valued Pierre Salvadori -- plus three movies completely new to me that I can't wait to view: Goha (1958), La Derive (1963) and Zarafa (2012). And that's only little more than half of what's in store.There's a Rohmer (two photos up), Sandrine Bonnaire (below) in one of her best roles, and some first-class animation.

You can see the entire program below, along with the proper park locations and descriptions of the films via the press office of the French Embassy. Mark your calendar now, and don't miss a single screening. What with all the dry weather we've been having of late, there may not even occur any rain interference, as in some former years.

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FILMS ON THE GREEN 2015

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE WITH FILM DESCRIPTIONS

Friday, May 29 | 8:30 pm - Central Park (79th street and Fifth Avenue)
…AND GOD CREATED WOMAN (Et Dieu créa la Femme)
Directed by Roger Vadim with Brigitte Bardot, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Curt Jürgens
1956 | Romance | PG | 1h35
Juliette is a seductive young woman with an unbridled appetite for pleasure. She attracts the attention of all of St. Tropez, including the wealthy Eric Carradine, Antoine Tardieu, and his sweet yet naïve brother, Michel, who all fight for her indecisive heart.

Friday, June 5 | 8:30 pm - Washington Square Park

CARAMEL

By Nadine Labaki with Nadine Labaki, Yasmine Al Massri, Joanna Moukarzel

2007 | Comedy | PG | 1h35 | France-Lebanon

Presented in partnership with the Fondation Liban Cinéma

In a colorful and sensual Beirut beauty salon, five women meet regularly to talk and confide in each other. Between haircuts and caramel sugar waxes, the friends share intimate stories about men, sex, motherhood, and their personal liberation. 

Friday, June 12 | 8:30 pm - Washington Square Park
PÉPÉ LE MOKO
By Julien Duvivier with Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin, Marcel Dalio
1937 | Crime | UR | 1h33
The notorious Pépé le Moko is a wanted man. In the labyrinthine Casbah of Algiers, Pépé is safe from the clutches of the police. But his clandestine life is unveiled when Gaby, a Parisian playgirl, compels him to risk his life and leave his past behind.

Friday, June 19 | 8:30 pm - Tompkins Square Park

PRICELESS (Hors de Prix)

By Pierre Salvadori with Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh

2006 | Comedy | PG-13 | 1h46 

Irène, an attractive young woman, is on vacation at a French Riviera resort with Jacques, an older and very wealthy man. One night, while celebrating her birthday alone, she meets the handsome and intriguing Jean, who claims to be a millionaire and ad-venturer. However, unbeknownst to 

Irène, Jean isn’t everything he appears to be… 

Friday, June 26 | 8:30 pm - Tompkins Square Park
ZARAFA by
Rémi Bezançon & Jean-Christophe Lie
2012 | Animation | Ages 7 & up | 1h18
Presented in partnership with the Poitou-Charentes Region and the New York International Children’s Film Festival. Beneath a baobab tree, an old man tells the story of Maki, a young boy who crosses the desert with his giraffe and a Bedouin nomad named Hassan. During the epic journey from Africa to Paris, which takes them through Alexandria and the bustling port of Marseilles, Maki and his companions meet countless exotic characters.

Friday, July 10 | 8:30 pm - River-side Park, Pier I

GOHA

By Jacques Baratier with Omar Sharif, Claudia Cardinale, Daniel Emilfork 

1958 | Drama | UR | 1h21 | France-Tunisia

Goha, a poor, ignorant, and naïve boy, wanders around with his donkey all day long in a small Tunisian town. Taj El-Ulum, a wise old man who is respected and admired by all, soon remarries and chooses the pretty Fulla. But, bored 

in her new home, the young bride falls in love with Goha, and to no surprise, chaos ensues.

Friday, July 17 | 8:30 pm - Riverside Park, Pier I
QUEEN TO PLAY (Joueuse)
By Caroline Bottaro with Sandrine Bonnaire, Kevin Kline
2009 | Drama | UR | 1h37
Presented in partnership with the Collectivité Territoriale de Corse, Institut Français and Corsica Pôle Tournages.
The lovely, repressed and quietly intelligent chambermaid Hélène comes upon a couple engaging in an intense chess match, and discovers she has a knack for the game. This obsession–much to the chagrin of her family– leads her to seek the clandestine tutelage of a reclusive American doctor, a liaison that radically transforms both of their lackluster lives.

Friday, July 24 | 8:30 pm - Transmitter Park

LA DÉRIVE

By Paula Delsol with Jacqueline Vandal, Pierre Barouh, Paulette Dubost

1963 | Romance | UR | 1h30 

Jacquie, a beautiful young girl, returns home in the South of France. There, she regretfully re-assimilates to a life with her childhood friends, stay-at-home mother and unhappily married sister. She drifts from lover to lover in the process of shredding the social conventions that dictate a life of submission and resignation.

Friday, July 31 | 8:30 pm - Transmitter Park
LA COLLECTIONNEUSE
By Eric Rohmer with Patrick Bauchau, Haydée Politoff, Daniel Pommereulle
1967 | Romance | UR | 1h29
Adrien, a bombastic, womanizing art dealer and Daniel, his painter friend, go to a seventeenth-century villa on the French Riviera for a relaxing summer getaway. But their idyll is disturbed by the presence of the bohemian temptress Haydée.

Thurs., Sept. 10 | 7:30 pm - Columbia University
THE RABBI’S CAT (Le Chat du Rabbin)
By Joann Sfar & Antoine Delesvaux
2011 | Animation | UR | 1h29
Presented in partnership with the Columbia Maison Française.
Algiers, 1920s: Rabbi Sfar has more than one problem. His beautiful daughter Zlabya is transforming into a teenager, and even worse, his parrot-killing cat has just started talking. The Rabbi’s life grows all the more complicated when a box arrives from Russia with a painter inside. Ultimately Rabbi Sfar ends up on a quest for a hidden tribe and its mythical city of origin in Africa.

Here's where to go for more information:

www.Frenchculture.org - @franceinnyc - facebook.com/frenchculture

You can also follow Films on the Green via 

Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest 

#filmsonthegreen 

Pablo D'Stair's try at a thriller A PUBLIC RANSOM streams free via Vimeo -- if you're interested....

Just about anybody can make a movie these days, it seems (just like anybody, ahem, can start a blog reviewing those movies), but whether the film in question is worth spending time on is another matter. TrustMovies learned about A PUBLIC RANSOM, a black-and-white, 100-minute film from a fellow named Pablo D'Stair, via a compatriot of mine who knows I'll take a chance on a lot of different kinds of films, from folk both known & unknown--& hope for the best.

The best is nowhere to be found here, though there are a few worthwhile things to say about this movie. Mr. D'Stair, whom I believe is shown at right, does have a way with words. His characters never stop babbling, and some of what they say is quick and fun and even sometimes clever. But after only a bit, it begins to be way too much too often. This is particularly true of the filmmaker's leading character, a guy named Steven (played by Carlyle Edwards, shown below and further below) who simply never shuts up. Mr. Edwards seems a pretty good actor, however, and he certainly finds the way in which to deal with D'Stair's over-bearing/over-active dialog. He clearly understands what he & his writer are saying, and so he simply lets it all hang out.

Unfortunately much of that dialog is spoken while Steven is on his cell phone (this film may be make you wish the things had never been invented). This becomes near-laughable as the movie moves along. "Again?!" you ask yourself, annoyed, as scene after scene seems to involve that phucking phone.  (Certain characters Steven speaks to never show up in the flesh. This is fine for a mini-budget but hard on the few performers we actually do see.)

The plot of this would-be thriller is so utterly unbelievable as to make you fear for D'Stair's grasp on reality. His film technique -- said to be a kind of homage to folk like Fassbinder, Bresson, Jarmusch and Akerman, which involves setting the stationary camera in a stable position (not always such an interesting position) and letting his cast (basically three performers) "act" in front of it -- is not much better. Everything is kept at middle- or long-distance. It seems ages before we ever get a close-up to see what our lead character actually looks like.

The other two characters are Steven's best friend, Rene (Helen Bonaparte, above, left), who has an equally fine understanding of this weird dialog thing. Put the two of them together and you get sparks of a sort. But still not much believability.

Even less of that is provided by the third character, Bryant (Goodloe Byron, above, left), a fellow Steven meets by calling the phone number on a homemade "missing child" poster that looks to have been made by the child herself. As the plot thickens into a tale of writers and storytelling, kidnapping, the ransom of the title, murder and maybe suicide, any remote credibility flies out the window. (None of the actors seem to register on the IMDB, nor does the film itself, so perhaps this is a low-profile first-time-out for everyone.)

The reason to keep watching is more to see how bad the movie becomes rather than learning the usual what's-going-to-happen? At times, other better movies may come to mind (Strangers on a Train, for one), and the film is full of movie posters that grab our gaze. But because the film's premise (Steven's involvement in this whole crazy thing) is so lacking in motive and justification (except to prove that his guy is a soulless, narcissistic piece of crap. So, new?) that D'Stair simply gives us no place to go and no reason to go there.

The film is also repetitive and tiresome visually. At least ten, maybe twenty, minutes could have been cut with no appreciable loss to content or understanding. This may be D'Stair's first feature (his only credit on IMDB that I can find is as associate producer on The Canyons), so his work to come may prove better.

For now, anyone interested in viewing A Public Ransom can do so by clicking here, and then going to the Vimeo link, along with the password, that the filmmaker has embedded in his text. Enjoy! Or not.

SPECIAL NOTE: This film is now part of a contest in which you

can view a bunch of new movies and then vote for your favorites

(you must vote for at least three films for your vote to be counted).

Here's the link to the contest and especially to D'Stair's film.

Kovarova's DISAPPEARING ACT 2 show- cases current Euro cinema -- admission free -- plus a smart panel discussion

Last year, that bundle of energy Irena Kovarova, shown at right, organized a terrific little festival of film and panel dis-
cussion, under the title DISAPPEARING ACTS. TrustMovies is delighted to see that she is back again for another go-round, this one titled DISAP-
PEARING ACT II: A Showcase of Current European Cinema.  The series will begin this Thursday, April 8, and run through next Saturday, April 17.  The venue, as last year, will be Manhattan's spacious and comfortable Bohemian National Hall, 321 E. 73rdSt., NYC, Ph: 646-422-3399 info@bohemiannationalhall.com.  (FYI: the nearest subway stop to Bohemian National Hall is on the #6 line at either the 68th Street or 77th Street NYC station.)

And the admission charge?  Well, it's FREE.  Which makes this -- considering the high level of film quality, the completely affordable price and the rarity of any showings of most of these movies -- probably the best film deal available in the entire town.

This year, with the continued support of various European cultural and diplomatic institutes, Kovarova's program has expanded to include 17 films from eleven countries. The panel discussion will cover the distribution of foreign language films in this country and, once again, the panelists will include some of the most active members of the film industry, with IndieWire's Eugene Hernandez as moderator, who will be joined by Ryan Werner, vice president of marketing at IFC Films; Meghan Wurtz, vice president at Film Movement; and Carlos A. Gutierrez, co-founding director of Cinema Tropical.  The series kicks off with an opening night party after the first screening and a Q&A with director Robert Sedlacek.

TrustMovies is particularly thrilled to see included in the line-up two of his favorites films from last year.  Camino, the Spanish film by Javier Fesser that took home most of the Goya awards this year, is -- love it or hate it -- a must-see movie with visual panache, emotion, humor and great performances to spare.  The film deals with sainthood, The Catholic Church, family, deception and pain.  It sure ain't pretty, and yet Señor Fesser has made it, in some ways, among the most beautiful films I can recall. Camino made its NYC debut last December as part of the FSLC's Spanish Cinema Now series.  I can't wait to see this film again, and given that no distributor has stepped up to the plate, I was beginning to doubt that I ever would.  But now it's back -- and it's free, too.  How can you pass this up?  It screens Tuesday, April 13, at 8:30 pm.

Also on the agenda is another one-of-a-kind movie that I also doubted  I'd have the opportunity to view again: Lesson 21 (Lezione 21) directed by Alessandro Baricco.  When this film first appeared for its two-performance run during the presentation of new Italian films in the FSLC's Opens Roads series, it was translated as Lecture 21.  Lecture or lesson, the movie is like little you will have even seen.  It leaps off from a very special lecture given by an equally unusual professor (played by John Hurt, shown above) that takes in Beethoven's 9th, the act of creativity, life, death, love, philosophy -- the works -- all of which Signore Baricco then spins into his own exemplary piece of art. Noah Taylor, Phyllida Law and the supremely lovely Leonore Watling also appear. Lesson 21 is an odd film, but if you're able to tune in to its frequency, it will move, thrill and entertain you like little else.  It screens -- yes, free -- on Wednesday, April 14, at 6:30 pm.

Below is a quick checklist of films in Disappearing Act II: A Showcase of Current European Cinema, which runs from April 8 through 15.

While admission is free to all the programs, reservations are required for the opening night and panel discussion via e-mail to info@czechcenter.com. Admission to other screenings are on a first-come first-served basis. Visit www.czechcenter.com for film details and program updates.

The series is curated by Ms Kovarova and organized by the Czech Center New York in partnership with the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, the Consulate General of Slovenia, the Consulate General of the Slovak Republic with the support of the +421 Foundation, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the Goethe-Institut New York, the Hungarian Cultural Center, Instituto Cervantes New York, the Italian Cultural Institute, the Romanian Cultural Institute, and with the support of Holland Films.

Ms. Kovarova notes that these 17 films that have made a name for themselves on the festival circuit and with the critics, but remain largely unknown to American audiences. Some of the presented films have even secured a limited U.S. theatrical distribution and/or dvd release, yet the nature of the current distribution map still prevents them attaining wider renown. The program brings these titles back to the attention of the media and public, giving them another exposure and attempting to prevent their complete disappearance. Films will be introduced by special guests and director Robert Sedlacek will be present for Q&As at both of the screenings of his feature film titled Men in a Rut (April 8 & 10).

All films in original languages with English subtitles unless noted otherwise.

FULL PROGRAM NOTES and UPDATES AVAILABLE AT WWW.CZECHCENTER.COM

Some changes had to be made suddenly in this festival, 

so here is revised and extended schedule below.

Thursday, April 8
6:30 pm Men in a Rut (Men in a Rut, dir. Robert Sedlacek, 2009, Czech Republic)
followed by Q&A with the director

9 pm Opening Party
Reservations required for all opening night events separately via e-mail to info@czechcenter.com

Friday, April 9
7 pm Father's Acre (Apafold, dir. Viktor Oszkar Nagy, 2009, Hungary, photo shown below)

8:45 pm Rene (dir. Helena Trestikova, 2008, Czech Republic)

Saturday, April 10
3 pm The Secret of the Grain (La Graine et le Mulet, dir. Abdellatif Kechiche, 2007, France)

6 pm The Invisible Frame followed by Cycling the Frame (2009 and 1988, both dir. Cynthia Beatt, Germany)

8 pm Men in a Rut (Muzi v riji, dir. Robert Sedlacek, 2009, Czech Republic)
followed by Q&A with the director

Sunday, April 11
1:45 pm Hooked (Pescuit sportiv, dir. Adrian Sitaru, 2007, Romania, photo shown above)

POSTPONED to Fri, 4/16 @ 8:15pm  Cooking History (dir. Peter Kerekes, 2008, Slovakia)

POSTPONED to Fri, 4/16 @ 6:30pm  A Call Girl (Slovenka, dir. Damjan Kozole, 2009, Slovenia)

POSTPONED to Sat., 4/17 @ 6pm  Carmen of the North (Carmen van het noorden, dir. Jelle Nesna, 2009, The Netherlands)

Monday, April 12
6:30pm Panel Discussion: "The New World Distribution for Subtitled Films," chaired by Eugene Hernandez, with Ryan Werner, Meghan Wurtz, and Carlos A. Gutierrez
Reservations for panel discussion via e-mail to info@czechcenter.com

8:45 pm Summer Holiday (Boogie, dir. Radu Muntean, 2008, Romania, photo shown below)

Tuesday, April 13
6:15 pm God's Offices (Les Bureaux de Dieu, dir. Claire Simon, 2008, France)

8:30 pm Camino (dir. Javier Fesser, 2008, Spain)

Wednesday, April 14
6:30 pm Lesson 21 (Lezione 21, dir. Alessandro Baricco, 2008, Italy)

8:15 pm Revanche (dir. Götz Spielmann, 2008, Austria)

Thursday, April 15
6:30 pm Moon Inside You (Mesiac v nas, dir. Diana Fabianova, 2009, Slovakia)

8:15 pm Jerichow (dir. Christian Petzold, 2008, Germany)

Friday, April 16
6:30pm A Call Girl (Slovenka, dir. Damjan Kozole, 2009, Slovenia)

8:15pm Cooking History (dir. Peter Kerekes, 2008, Slovakia)

Saturday, April 17
6pm Carmen of the North (Carmen van het noorden, dir. Jelle Nesna, 2009, The Netherlands)
- introduced by Thessa Mooij