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  RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA

uniFrance films announce the full line up for 2012's RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA, featuring eight avant-premieres, hosted across five cinemas within London and Edinburgh. 

The festival will run from March 21st-24th in London and from March 23rd-25th in Edinburgh.   All films featured in the festival's programme will be released in the UK in the coming months.

Opening with BELOVED on Wednesday March 21st, at London's Curzon Soho, the film's stars Catherine Deneuve and her daughter, Chiara Mastroianni (Perseopolis, Pret a Porter), will attend the premiere, with director Christophe Honoré. 

BELOVED, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the official selection and closing night event, will kick-off a stellar line-up of the best in French cinema, including: César nominated ANGEL & TONY with director Alix Delaporte and César winner Clotilde Hesme in attendance; Audrey Tautou starrer THE DELICACY with director duo Stéphane Foenkinos and David Foenkinos, who also wrote the screenplay, in attendance; FREE MEN with director Ismaël Ferroukhi and star Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) in attendance; A GANG STORY; GOODBYE FIRST LOVE with director Mia Hansen-Løve (Father of my Children) in attendance; THE SOURCE  with director Radu Mihaileanu and star Leïla Bekhti in attendance and animated feature TALES OF THE NIGHT. 

uniFrance films said "These last months have been wonderful for French cinema and we're very excited to be bringing our RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA event to both London and Edinburgh.  We are delighted to be able to share this year's eclectic program of wonderful films with a wider audience than ever before."  

LONDON

21st - 24th MARCH 2012

Ciné Lumière, Clapham Picture House, Curzon Mayfair & Curzon Soho

21st March

BELOVED (Les Bien-Aimés) - 6.20pm - Curzon Soho (followed by Q&A)

A musical elegy to femininity and passion, the film follows Madeleine (Catherine Deneuve & Ludivine Sagnier) and her daughter Vera (Chiara Mastroianni) through Paris in the 60's and modern day London as they waltz in and out of the lives of the men they love.   The score for this musical, composed by Alex Beaupain, was nominated for Best Original Score at this year's César Awards.  French heartthrob Louis Garrel (The Dreamers) co-stars.

PRESS CONTACTS: robert@newwavefilms.co.uk / pamela@newwavefilms.co.uk

ANGEL & TONY (Angèle et Tony) - 8.40pm - Ciné Lumière (followed by Q&A)

This tale of unlikely romance follows Angel and Tony as they tame each other's ways, having been brought together in a small fishing village in Normandy.  The film has garnered the two young leads, Clotilde Hesme and Grégory Gadebois César Awards in the Newcomer (Female) and Newcomer (Male) categories, as well as a Best First Film nomination for director Alix Delaporte.

PRESS CONTACT: Simon@peccapics.com

22nd March

GOODBYE FIRST LOVE  (Un Amour de Jeunesse) - 8.40pm - Ciné Lumière (followed by Q&A)

From the director of Father of my Children, Mia Hansen-Løve, this epic tale of love and heartbreak chronicles the highs and lows of the relationship between Camille and Sullivan.

PRESS CONTACTS: Jonathan.Rushton@artificial-eye.com / louisa.dent@artificial-eye.com

23rd March

TALES OF THE NIGHT (Les Contes de la Nuit) - 1.15pm - Ciné Lumière (followed by Q&A)

Every night a girl, a boy, and an elderly technician meet in a little cinema that seems abandoned, but is in fact full of wonders.  This assembly of animated tales unfurl from the minds of the three creators in a magical night where anything is possible.  The film premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival.

PRESS CONTACTS: eve@sodapictures.com / kate@sodapictures.com

THE DELICACY (La Délicatesse) - 6.15pm - Ciné Lumière (followed by Q&A)

Audrey Tautou stars as Nathalie, a woman who has put her romantic life on hold following the death of her husband in this tale of rediscovering passion for life.  The film was nominated for two César Awards this year, in the Best Adapted Screenplay and Best First Film categories.

PRESS CONTACT: Suzanne.Noble@studiocanal.co.uk

FREE MEN (Les Hommes Libres) - 8.30pm - Curzon Mayfair (followed by Q&A)

Breakout star of A Prophet, Tahar Rahim, stars as Younes, an unemployed Algerian in 1940's Nazi occupied Paris.  He is working as a spy in the Parisian mosque when he meets and befriends Salim, an Algerian singer whom he discovers is Jewish.  Younes quickly ends his collaboration with the police and thus begins his evolution into a fully fledged freedom fighter. 

PRESS CONTACTS: Jonathan.Rushton@artificial-eye.com / louisa.dent@artificial-eye.com

24th March

A GANG STORY (Les Lyonnais) - 6.00pm - Curzon Mayfair

Based on a true story, Les Lyonnais is a gripping thriller set in the French underworld.  Edmond Vidal, aka Momon (César Best Newcomer (Male) nominee, Dimitri Storoge) and Serge Suttel are childhood friends and former members of Gang Des Lyonnais.  They were the most notorious armed robbers of the early 70's, culminating in their spectacular arrest in 1974.  Now, as he nears 60, Momon would like to forget his past life.  He has found peace by retiring from the "business".  A man of simple and universal values, he tends to his wife Janou, who has suffered much in the past, and to his children and grandchildren.  That is until Serge, who has disowned nothing of his past, comes back into the picture. 

PRESS CONTACT: ryan.holloway@organic-marketing.co.uk

THE SOURCE (La Source Des Femmes) - 8.30pm - Clapham Picture House

The women in a small village between North Africa and the Middle East, fetch water from a mountaintop spring in the blazing sun, something they've done since the beginning of time.  Leila (Leila Bekhti - nominated for Best Actress at this year's César Awards), a young bride, urges the women to launch a love strike: no more hugs and no more sex until the men run water into the village.  The film premiered at Cannes in the official selection (Un Certain Regard).

PRESS CONTACTS:  charles@charlesmcdonald.co.uk / becky.palmer@organic-marketing.co.uk

EDINBURGH

23rd - 25th MARCH 2012

The Filmhouse

23rd March

GOODBYE FIRST LOVE (Un Amour de Jeunesse) - 8.30pm - Filmhouse

From the director of Father of my Children, Mia Hansen-Løve, this epic tale of love and heartbreak chronicles the highs and lows of the relationship between Camille and Sullivan.

PRESS CONTACTS: Jonathan.Rushton@artificial-eye.com / louisa.dent@artificial-eye.com

24th March

TALES OF THE NIGHT (Les Contes de la Nuit) - 1.20pm - Filmhouse

Every night a girl, a boy, and an elderly technician meet in a little cinema that seems abandoned, but is in fact full of wonders.  This assembly of animated tales unfurl from the minds of the three creators in a magical night where anything is possible.  The film premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival.

PRESS CONTACTS: eve@sodapictures.com / kate@sodapictures.com

THE DELICACY (La Délicatesse)- 8.15pm - Filmhouse

Audrey Tautou stars as Nathalie, a woman who has put her romantic life on hold following the death of her husband in this tale of rediscovering passion for life.  The film was nominated for two César Awards this year, in the Best Adapted Screenplay and Best First Film categories.

PRESS CONTACT: Suzanne.Noble@studiocanal.co.uk

25th March

FREE MEN (Les Hommes Libres)  - 8.15pm - Filmhouse

Breakout star of A Prophet, Tahar Rahim, stars as Younes, an unemployed Algerian in 1940's Nazi occupied Paris.  He is working as a spy in the Parisian mosque when he meets and befriends Salim, an Algerian singer whom he discovers is Jewish.  Younes quickly ends his collaboration with the police and thus begins his evolution into a fully fledged freedom fighter.