HE BOSTON FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL

Thu 7/12 – Sun 7/29 @ MFA

All screenings $13 ($10 for MFA members)

And so we return, as every summer, to the storied—even notorious—cinema of the Boston French! Beantown’s dominant ethnic group since the mass migrations of the Napoleonic Wars, Franco-Bostonians, with their distinctive accent and Red Sox berets, have, of course, long been the butt of jovial mockery from across the entire spectrum of unFrench-Americans. But rest assured, no one begrudges them their exalted stature in the annals of filmmaking. For this year’s festival (okay, for every year’s festival; the above is risible merde), the MFA focuses on films from France itself, featuring a stellar line-up of new and recent releases that sets works by exciting newcomers like Léa Mysius (director of AVA, a startling, magic-realist, girl-vs-world fable concerning the persistence of vision) alongside the latest efforts from celebrated stalwarts, including Claire Denis (LET THE SUNSHINE IN), Agnes Varda (FACES PLACES), Arnaud Desplechin (ISMAEL’S GHOSTS) and Austrian Francophone Michael Haneke (HAPPY END). Even more celebrated is New Wave legend Jean-Luc Godard, whose 1963 film LES CARABINEERS receives a rare screening (or two). A vertiginous, semi-bitter concoction, comprised of equal parts anti-war, anti-market moralism and heliated, zany, tilt-a-whirl invention, it reminds us just how long the French have been at the top of this game

Photo caption: THE ROYAL EXCHANGE (2017) dir. Marc Dugain