Serm Phenjati, owner of the dusitD2 baraquda pattaya hotel, welcomed French Ambassador Thierry Viteau and Pattaya Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh to the inaugural night of the 2013 French film festival on Friday, Feb. 1. The hotel’s pool area was transformed into a casual outdoor theater, offering guests a chance relax with friends while enjoying movies in the night air.
Eight films are being screened during the month long festival at 8 p.m. every Friday and Saturday night throughout February. Admission is free of charge and all the movies carry English subtitles.
Catherine Viteau (center) cuts the ribbon to officially open the month long movie festival. Catherine is flanked by husband and French Ambassador to Thailand Thierry Viteau, Ronakit Ekasingh, deputy mayor of Pattaya, Serm Phenjati, owner of the dusit D2 hotel, movie producer Regis Ghezelbash, Kriengsak Silakong, Director of the World Film Festival of Bangkok, Prasong Nitinavakorn, Shop Operations Manager for King Power Pattaya, and Tony Malhotra, Deputy Managing Director, Pattaya Mail Media Group
The next two films to be shown in the series are “French Cancan” on Friday, Feb. 8, and “On connaît la chanson” on Saturday, Feb. 9. A brief synopsis of both movies can be found below. Details of further movies to be screened during the film festival can be found in future editions of Pattaya Mail. For more information, call 038-769-999.
French Ambassador to Thailand, HE Thierry Viteau, and his wife Catherine arrive for the opening night of the French Film Festival at the dusitD2 baraquada pattaya on Friday, February 1.
Cinema goers enjoy the first pool-side foreign film festival in Thailand.
Friday 8th February: “French Cancan” 1955
Director: Jean Renoir
Category: Comedy/Drama
Length: 1 hr 42 min
Nineteenth-century Paris comes vibrantly alive in Jean Renoir’s exhilarating tale of the opening of the world-renowned Moulin Rouge. The movie marked a come-back for Renoir to French cinema following his 15 years in Hollywood. Jean Gabin plays the wily café owner and impresario Henri Danglard, who makes the cancan all the rage while juggling the love of two beautiful women – Egyptian belly-dancer Lola (María Félix) and naive working girl turned cancan star Nini (Françoise Arnoul). This celebration of life, art and the City of Light (with a cameo by Edith Piaf) is a Technicolor tour de force by a master of modern cinema. François Truffaut called the film “a milestone in the history of colour of cinema”. (Review: www.criterion.com)
Saturday 9th February: “On Connaît La Chanson” (Same Old Song) 1997
Director: Alain Resnais
Category: Drama/Musical
Length: 2 hrs
Resnais’ tribute to screen-writer Dennis Potter has the actors lip-syncing to songs, instantly recalling Potter’s “Pennies from Heaven” and “The Singing Detective” TV shows.
Odile, a business executive, is married to weak, furtive Claude. In the past Odile was close to successful businessman Nicolas, now married with kids and returning to Paris after an eight-year absence. She is looking for a new, bigger apartment from estate agent Marc. Her younger sister Camille meanwhile has just completed her doctoral thesis in history and is a Paris tour guide. Camille has fallen for Marc, and they begin an affair. Nicolas is also looking for an apartment, as he hopes to eventually have his family join him in Paris. (Review: Rotten Tomatoes)
