Join us for a ciné-club discussion night with former Cahiers du Cinéma correspondent Nicholas Elliott.

AFDC is proud to be partnering for another year with the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center to bring you the 33rd AFI European Union Film Showcase. This year’s Showcase is presented online for the first time.

We will be discussing two French movies, À L'ABORDAGE (Guillaume Brac) and ÉTÉ 85 (François Ozon), with Nicholas Elliott, a former Cahiers du Cinéma correspondent. Watch the movies online on the AFI Silver website, at your convenience (check the screening time below), and join us for a discussion with your questions and comments on December 16 on Zoom! Let's travel back to summer, and across France, from the South to Normandy, with these two foolhardy and highly entertaining dramedies. All aboard!

Nicholas Elliott is a programmer for the Locarno Film Festival and a Contributing Editor for Film for BOMB magazine. He previously worked as a correspondent for French film magazine, Cahiers du Cinéma, in New York. His writing on film has also appeared in Film Comment, The Criterion Collection, 4 Columns, Extra Extra Magazine, and anthologies on the work of Chantal Akerman, Philippe Garrel, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi. He is the Secretary of the Flaherty Film Seminar board of directors and sits on its programming committee.

À L'ABORDAGE

Available December 11, 9:00 AM - December 20, 11:45 PM, 2020

Click here to watch the movie.

Road movie, buddy comedy, summer romance or social commentary? All could equally describe Guillaume Brac's highly entertaining and refreshing dramedy about an oddball trio who find themselves on an impromptu summer vacation to the south of France on a foolhardy romantic mission. Left lovelorn after the whirlwind one-night romance he shared with the beautiful Alma (Asma Messaoudene), Felix (Eric Nantchouang) must do something bold if he wants to hold onto her. Knowing she is leaving the next morning to spend the summer at a small riverside town more than 300 miles from his home in Paris, Felix intends to follow and surprise her there, convincing his best friend Chérif (Salif Cissé) and unwitting companion Edouard (Édouard Sulpice) to accompany him. When Alma is less than thrilled to see him, Felix's romantic fantasies of their reunion suddenly seem to have been arrogant and impetuous all along. As he determines whether any hope remains in recapturing the spark with Alma, Chérif and Edouard explore the town free from expectation, embracing the bittersweetness of young love and the passing summer days.

Winner, FIPRESCI Prize – Honorable Mention, 2020 Berlin International Film Festival. Official Selection, 2020 AFI FEST, Reykjavik and Odesa film festivals.

ÉTÉ 85

Available December 5, 9:00 AM - December 20, 11:45 PM, 2020

Click here to watch the movie.

With ÉTÉ 85 [SUMMER OF 85], François Ozon (BY THE GRACE OF GOD, FRANTZ, POTICHE, SWIMMING POOL) expertly mixes camp, queerness, dark humor and thriller elements into a sun-drenched romance-turned-tragedy set on the coast of Normandy in the 1980s. Alexis (Félix Lefebvre) is a working-class teenager deciding whether to join the workforce or continue his studies in literature. While out sailing, he capsizes during a storm and is saved by 18-year-old stranger David (Benjamin Voisin). David takes Alexis to his home, where they meet David's forceful and charismatic mother (the hilarious Valeria Bruni Tedeschi). As David takes the helm of this new friendship, romance blossoms, and soon he is showering Alexis with attention and gifts, even giving him a summer job at his mother's nautical store, which David took over after his father's recent death. The chemistry between the two actors burns as their summer fling gives way to a dangerous obsession and David's fixation on Alexis turns into something more deranged. SUMMER OF 85 is both a joyful celebration of desire and youthful sexuality and an astute exploration of infatuation, devotion and identity; CALL ME BY YOUR NAME meets PURPLE NOON with a killer '80s soundtrack.

Official Selection, 2020 Toronto, San Sebastián, Rome, Chicago, NewFest, Philadelphia and Stockholm film festivals.

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