Jun 30, 2010
SFFILM
San Francisco, CA – Making Plans for Lena (Non ma fille, tu n’iras pas danser, France 2009), Christophe Honoré’s family drama about a recent divorcée who is unexpectedly confronted by her ex and a plethora of unwanted counsel on how to live her life during a family weekend in the Breton countryside, opens Friday, August 6 on SFFS Screen at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas. Honoré’s La Belle Personneplayed at SFFS Screen last September.
Lena blazes into her family’s country home in a desperate fury, her two bewildered children in tow. Ostensibly, she and her chain-smoking pregnant sister and happy-go-lucky brother are seeing their parents off on a bus tour to Rome, but other agendas soon surface. Lena, having impulsively packed up and left her husband, is in the midst of a messy divorce, and her family’s desire for her to be happy results in a pileup of unsolicited advice, personal critiques and misguided attempts at social intervention. Not even the bucolic Breton countryside offers much comfort, serving up instead gothic folktales featuring a variety of dangerous women. French director Christophe Honoré wears the mantle of the New Wave lightly as he playfully unfolds his version of a woman on the edge, mixing dispassionate documentary-style observation with direct addresses to the camera and sudden leaps across time and place. A galaxy of supporting characters turn in stellar performances as they revolve around and react to Lena’s unpredictability. In a film that provides no easy resolutions, Chiara Mastroianni is riveting as the alternately brusque and vulnerable Lena, unwilling or unable to conform to others’ expectations and radiating panic in the face of vertiginous freedom as she confronts a life falling apart.
Written by Christophe Honoré, Geneviève Brisac. Photographed by Laurent Brunett. With Chiara Mastroianni, Marie-Christine Barrault, Jean-Marc Barr, Louis Garrel. In French with English subtitles. 107 min. Distributed by IFC Films.
For screeners and interviews contact hilary@sffs.org.
For photos and press materials visit: http://www.sffs.org/pressdownloads
At the Sundance Kabuki all seats are reserved and an amenities fee is in effect for most shows. Tickets are available through the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas box office, at kiosks in the lobby and online at sundancecinemas.com/kabuki with print-at-home capability. San Francisco Film Society members receive discounted admission only to SFFS Screen programs and only at the box office, not online or at the lobby kiosks.
Also coming to SFFS Screen
July 30: Alamar Pedro González-Rubio’s lovingly made story of the growing bond between a father and son, who are spending a summer together on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, demonstrates exquisite poetry and sophisticated craft.
August 13: Vengeance Johnnie To’s genre-busting gem populated by a hit man turned chef, family men moonlighting as assassins and earnestly official women detectives stars Johnny Hallyday, the iconic French crooner who exudes cool.
August 20: Army of Crime Robert Guédiguian’s lush historical drama focuses on a largely overlooked cell of French Resistance fighters-refugees of the antifascist fight throughout Europe, mostly Jews and communists-led by French Armenian poet Missak Manouchian (Simon Abkarian) and his wife Mélinée (Virginie Ledoyen).
For full, complete and up-to-date information on all SFFS Screen programming, including buying tickets, visit sffs.org. Information and tickets are also available at sundancecinemas.com.