Dinard is served!
For the best of cinema from British and Ireland, the place to be is... Brittany? But yes, from 3-6 October the picturesque seaside resort of Dinard in the north-west of France will hold its 24th Festival du Film Britannique - and some quality Irish films are scheduled.
Like the more well-known Cannes in the south, Dinard has its popular star turns and ambitious art house endeavours as well as a host of professional and social events. A bigger difference is that apart from the students short film competition, all the movies on show are either British or Irish.
First, there is a competition of six top-notch new features from up-and-coming directors. This year includes the much anticipated The Selfish Giant by Clio Bernard, a film that generated great buzz in Cannes this year. It’s a very emotional story, where two young working class Bradford boys find their friendship tested when they get involved in scrap collecting and clandestine trotting races.
Another film in competition is Stephen Brown’s adptation of John Banville’s Booker Prize-winning The Sea. A nostalgic and melancholy tale, set in Banville’s own native Wexford, with a stellar cast including Ciaran Hinds, Charlotte Rampling, Natasha McElhone, Sinéad Cusack and Rufus Sewell.
The preview section includes 15 prestigious and very diverse films ranging from the Stone Roses concert epic Made of Stone to the Hanif Kureisi-scripted, Paris-located Le Week End, directed by romantic feel-good specialist Roger Michel, and the much tougher For Those in Peril by Paul Wright, which tells the tale of the sole survivor of a fishing boat accident that ravages a Scottish coastal village.
There is also a special screening of Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric, about a beleaguered Manchester postman (a soccer fanatic, of course) who finds solace in his devotion to Britain’s favourite Frenchman, Eric Cantona. To his astonishment, his idol duly shows up to share his inimitable life philosophy and sort out some sticky moral issues.
‘King’ Cantona, now an actor on stage and screen, will also show up in Dinard, for he will be the president of the competition jury alongside fellow thespians and filmmakers from France and the UK.
Also featuring will be an homage to actor Toby Jones, notably his interpretation of Alfred Hitchcock in The Girl; a retrospective of French cinematographer Philippe Rousselet’s British films, notably his work with Stephen Frears; and a cracking TV drama section.
The only problem with Dinard is that there isn’t enough time in four full days to see everything that might take one’s fancy in this French feast of British and Irish film.
