vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #609 / Arts and Ideas / Reading article...

“Europe has not arrived in Vladivostok yet but there is a market for European culture here,” Cedric Gras, co-director of Alliance Francaise in Vladivostok said, adding that his organization is ready to do the first step presenting an extensive program of French culture to start Thursday.

"I can not understand why American films dominate the screen in Vladivostok cinemas when there are so many excellent Spanish, French or Italian films. I think it is important to show other cultures and my goal is to expose French culture to the Vladivostok audience," Gras said.

According to him, the Vladivostok audience will have a chance to see and enjoy French and German movies from March 6 to March 10 during the film festival organized by French Culture Center in Moscow and German Culture Center of Goethe in Moscow and management of Pacific Meridian Film Festival in Vladivostok with the assistance of Alliance Francaise.

Ten films including fiction and documentaries will be shown in the ‘Ocean’ cinema in Vladivostok. Among the French movies are ‘Les Amants du Flore’ directed by Ilan Duran Cohen, ‘L’enfant d’une autre’ (The other’s child) by Virginie Wagon, ‘Monsieur Max’ by Gabriel Aghion, ‘Signe Chanel’ by Loic Prigent and ‘Welcome Europa’ by Bruno Ulmer.

The German films include ‘Quatre Minutes’ (Four Minutes) by Chris Kraus, ‘Les fantomes’ by Christian Petzold, ‘Losers and Winners’ by Ulrike Frenkel, ‘Knowledge is the beginning’ by Daniel Barenboim and ‘Prinzessinnenbad’ (Pool of Princesses) by Bettina Blumner.

Vladivostok will become the second city to host the French-German film festival after it began in Moscow on February 27. The next cities to receive the festival will be Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov and Kaliningrad.

However, the period of French culture in Vladivostok will not end with the festival’s closing – a week dedicated exclusively to French films will start in the city on March 13. Seven movies including two starring Marion Cotillard, an Oscar winning French actress, will be presented to the Vladivostok audience. The film ‘Toi et Moi’ (You and Me) directed by Julie Lopes-Curval will open the event.

Stanislav de Laboulaye, Ambassador of France to Russia, will arrive in Vladivostok on March 16 and will present the film ‘Ma vie en l’air’ (My life in the air) by Rémi Bezançon to the audience. Another five films to be shown include ‘Qui m’aime me suive’ by Benoît Cohen, ‘Changement d’addresse’ by Emmanuel Mouret, ‘Ça brûle’ by Claire Simon, ‘Douches froides’ by Antony Cordier and ‘Oublier Cheyenne’ by Valérie Minetto.

“The Embassy of France specially selects films of different genres to present a broad view of French culture,” Gras said.

The French film festival will be held for the fourth time in Vladivostok but this year it is supported by the newly-born organization of Alliance Francaise. The inauguration ceremony for Alliance Francais will be held on March 17 and will be attended by the ambassador.

Alliance Francaise will become the 11th center of its kind in Russia. “We will have two main goals – developing cultural programs in spring and autumn and deliver French language courses for all those interested,” Gras shared.

Besides film festivals, the cultural program developed by Alliance Francaise for spring of 2008 includes music performances of French singers Veronika Bulychyova and Marylin Frascone to take the stage on March 10 and March 17 in Primorye’s Philharmonic Society. A contest of French songs and a concert with Jean-Pierre Berube, French-Canadian folk singer,are planned to further plunge Vladivostok residents into the world of French music in April. The photo exposition of Annie Assouline ‘Les mains d’ecrivans’ (Hands of writers) will finish the spring program.

“We already have our audience for all of the events. We are just in the beginning and I expect our steps in Vladivostok will be successful because many people here are genuinely interested to learn more about France in particular and about Europe in general,” Cedric Gras concluded.