Applause Worthy Movies

APPLAUSE-WORTHY MOVIES
 The Clap! French Film Festival brings |award-winning lineup to Bangkok
 WISE KWAI
THE NATION

As part of La Fete, the annual French-Thai art and culture festival, the French Film Festival gets new name this year, Clap!, evoking the applause-worthy lineup of some of the best French films from the past year or so.
It starts tomorrow with the generation-spanning romantic drama “Beloved” (“Les bien-aimes”), starring Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve and Milos Forman.
Screenings will be at SFX the Emporium, except for the annual free Valentine’s Day outdoor show at Museum Siam, which features a double bill of last year’s Oscar-winning silent sensation “The Artist” and the touching “Intouchables”, about the bond between an unlikely pair – a wealthy paralysed man and his streetwise young caretaker.
The closing film on February 20 is Michael Haneke’s bleak drama “Amour”, about an elderly couple and the hard choices they have to make. Winner of last year’s Cannes Palme d’Or and a nominee for five Academy Awards, “Amour” has swept through this year’s awards season, most recently scoring two prizes at the British Film Academy Awards, including best actress for Emmanuelle Riva.
Another highlight is the 2011 Cannes Jury Prize winner “Polisse”, actress-director Maiwenn’s gripping and gritty drama about the Child Protection Unit of the Paris police.
There’s also an animated feature, “The Rabbi’s Cat”, set in 1920s Algeria, where a rabbi and his family struggle to cope with their house cat when it becomes talkative after eating a parrot.
Others are the romantic comedy “Happiness Never Comes Alone” (“Un bonheur n’arrive jamais seu”) starring Sophie Marceau; the culinary comedy “The Chef” (“Comme un chef”) with Jean Reno; the plus-sized comedy “Big is Beautiful” (“Mince alors!”) and “A Gang Story” (“Les Lyonnais”), a fact-based drama about the Gang des Lyonnais, which pulled off a successful series of armed robberies in the 1970s.
  CHEERS!
- The Clap! French Film Festival runs from tomorrow to February 20 at SFX the Emporium, except for the for the free Valentine’s Day outdoor screening at Museum Siam.
- Tickets are Bt120 (Bt100) at the cinema box office.
- All have English and Thai subtitles.
- For the schedule, see the festival website at www.Cooperation-AmbaFrance-th.org.