Award-Winning French Cinema Stalwart Isabelle Huppert Opens the French Film Festival 2022

Eiffel recounts the building of the iconic Eiffel Tower and the complicated love story between its architect and engineer Gustave Eiffel and Adrienne that inspired its creation. Starring Romain Duris as Gustave Eiffel and Emma Mackey as Adrienne Bourgès, it depicts a fictional take on the romantic story that allegedly inspired the ingenious French engineer to build the tower that changed Paris' skyline forever. 

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The selection of the opening film for this year's festival was apt, considering the milestone year for the diplomatic relations between France and the Philippines. The film started with Eiffel being lauded for the enhancements he made to the Statue of Liberty, France's gift to the United States. However, the film was a half-baked mix of action, romance, politics, rich-poor drama, and a bit of Ayn Rand's school of Objectivism, a progenitor of the "great man" genre. It deviates from being a biopic of the film's hero as Bourboulon's choice is to focus on the humanity of Eiffel, leaving audiences with partial glimpses of the iconic monument's structure. Nevertheless, it succeeds in reminding the audience how Eiffel was challenged by the government, the people, and even his workers during the construction of the tower and yet he succeeded and literally elevated French engineering.

Huppert and Bravo engaged with Filipino cinephiles and members of the press to talk about their film Mrs Harris Goes to Paris by Anthony Fabian the following day. Afterwards, they graced the annual gala of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Philippines at Raffles & Fairmont Makati, also celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Phil-France relations. Later, photos of Huppert and Bravo with their diplomatic hosts circulated over social media, where the two are seen enjoying Intramuros' heritage sites.

Here are the films screening at the French Film Festival:

Director: Anthony Fabian
Starring: Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Rose Williams, Lambert Wilson, Lucas Bravo, Jason Isaacs
Genre: Romance / Drama

Synopsis: A widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress and decides that she must have one of her own.

Director: Xavier Gianolli
Starring: Benjamin Voisin, Xavier Dolan, Cécile de France, Gérard Depardieu, Vincent Lacoste, Jeanne Balibar, Louis Do de Lencquesaing, Jean-François Stévenin
Genre: Romance / Drama / Historical Fiction

Synopsis: Lucien is a young unknown poet in 19th-century France. He has great expectations and wants to forge a destiny. He leaves the family printing business in his native province to try his luck in Paris, on the arm of his protector. Soon left to his own devices in the fabulous city, the young man will discover the backstage of a world dedicated to the law of profit and pretence. A human comedy where everything is bought and sold, literature as well as the press, politics as well as feelings, reputations as well as souls. He will love, he will suffer and survive his illusions.

Director: Fred Cavayé
Starring: Daniel Auteuil, Sara Giraudau, Gilles Lelouche, Nikolai Kinski, Mathilde Bisson, Anne Coesens, Frans Boyer, Claudette Walker
Genre: Drama

Synopsis: Paris 1941. François Mercier is an ordinary man whose only goal is to start a family with Blanche, the woman he loves. François works for Mr. Haffmann, a talented Jewish jeweler. Under the German occupation, the employer and employee are forced to strike a deal which, over the following months, will upend the fate of our three protagonists.

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Starring: Samuel Labarthe, Jean-Paul Bordes, Mikaël Chirinian, Jules Sadoughi, Jérémie Laheurte, Chloé Jouannet, Vassili Schneider, Ava Baya
Genre: Disaster / Drama

Synopsis: Notre Dame on Fire offers a blow-by-blow recreation of the gripping events that took place on April 15, 2019, when the cathedral suffered the biggest blaze in its history. The film retraces how heroic men and women put their lives on the line to accomplish an awe-inspiring rescue.

Director: Guillaume Canet
Starring: Guillaume Canet, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Kassovitz, Laetitia Casta, Gilles Cohen, Nathalie Baye, Patrick Chesnais
Genre: Drama

Synopsis: A composer starts doubting and questioning his whole life and its meaning. Isolating himself in his house in Brittany where various important persons (his wife, his mistress, his best friend, his parents, his doctor…) will come and visit him.

Director: Alice Winocour
Starring: Virginie Efira, Benoît Magimel, Grégoire Colin, Maya Sansa, Amadou Mbow, Anne-Lise Heimburger, Sofia Lessafre, Zakaria Gouram, Dolores Chaplin, Jonathan Turnbull, Sokem Ringuet
Genre: Drama

Synopsis: One Saturday evening in autumn, Mia is caught in a terrorist attack on a Parisian bistro. Three months later, still unable to pick her life back up, and remembering only fragments of that night, Mia decides to investigate her memories to find a way back to happiness.

Director: Christophe Barratier
Starring: Léo Campion, Guillaume de Tonquédec, Mélanie Doutey, François-Xavier Demaison, Anne Charrier, Michel Vuillermoz, Lucie Loste-Berset, Olivia Côte, Bruno Raffaelli, Nicolas Dromard, Didier Landucci, Véronique Balme
Genre: Drama

Synopsis: Marseille, July 1905. Nearly a teenager, Marcel Pagnol embarks on his last summer vacation before high school and returns, at last, to his beloved hills in Provence. What begins as a summer of boyhood adventures becomes one of the first loves, and unearthed secrets.

Director: Marie Amiguet, Vincent Munier
Genre: Documentary

Synopsis: High up on the Tibetan plateau. Amongst unexplored and inaccessible valleys lies one of the last sanctuaries of the wild world, where rare and undiscovered fauna lives. Vincent Munier, one of the world’s most renowned wildlife photographers takes the adventurer and novelist Sylvain Tesson (In the Forest of Siberia) with him on his latest mission. For several weeks, they’ll explore these valleys searching for unique animals and try to spot the snow leopard, one of the rarest and most difficult big cats to approach.

Director: Bruno Dumont
Starring: Léa Seydoux, Blanche Gardin, Benjamin Biolay, Emanuele Arioli, Gaëtan Amiel, Juliane Köhler
Genre: Comedy / Drama

Synopsis: Paris, today. France de Meurs is a star journalist running between a television set, a distant war, and the hustle and bustle of her busy family life. Her frantic high-profile world is suddenly turned upside-down after a traffic accident in which she injures a pedestrian. This unexpected irruption of reality calls everything into question. As France attempts to slow down and retreat into a simple anonymous life, her fame continues to pursue her until a mystified love affair seems to put an end to her quest.

Director: Laurent Larivière
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Lars Eidinger, Swann Arlaud, Freya Mavor, Florence Loiret-Caille, Dimitri Doré
Genre: Romance / Comedy / Drama

Synopsis: At the corner of a street in Paris, Joan Verra runs into her first love, a once-young Irishman. Overwhelmed, she leaves for her country house and revisits the last 40 years, building a fantasized picture of her life. Her son Nathan, just back from Montreal, accompanies her in these moments. A long-awaited but liberating journey about coming to terms with the stories we tell ourselves.

Director: Thomas Kruithof
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Reda Kateb, Naidra Ayadi, Jean-Paul Bordes, Soufiane Guerrab, Laurent Poitrenaux, Hervé Pierre, Walid Afkir
Genre: Drama

Synopsis: Clémence, the fearless mayor of a town near Paris, is completing the final term of her political career. With her faithful right-hand man Yazid, she has long fought for this town plagued by poverty, unemployment and slumlords. However, when Clémence is approached to become Minister, her ambition arises, questioning her devotion and commitment to her citizens. Will her political integrity and election promises survive her newly found ambition?

Director: Cédric Jimenez
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Anaïs Demoustier, Sandrine Kiberlain, Jérémie Renier
Genre: Drama / Thriller

Synopsis: Plunge into the heart of the Anti-Terrorist investigation during the 5-day manhunt following the November 13 terrorist attacks.

Director: Cédric Klapisch
Starring: Marion Barbeau, Pio Marmaï, François Civil, Denis Podalydès, Muriel Robin, Hofesh Shechter, Souheila Yacoub, Alexia Giordano
Genre: Comedy

Synopsis: Élise thought she had a perfect life: an ideal boyfriend and a promising career as a ballet dancer. It all falls apart the day she catches him cheating on her; and after she suffers an injury on stage, it seems like she might not be able to dance again. The path to physical and emotional recovery will lead her away from Paris to a picturesque location in Brittany—where her friends, new love and the freedom of contemporary dance will help her reconnect with her father and most importantly, herself. A heartwarming and inspiring story that tells us how sometimes, the worst thing that could happen may turn out to be the best.

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