SIFF’s Getting Very Francophile-y This Week With Some Very Special Guests

“Jacky in the Kingdom of Women” is just one film screening as part of SIFF’s French Cinema Now festival from Oct 23 to October 30.

Francophiles are swooning this week because SIFF, the Seattle International Film Festival, has teamed up with TV5MONDE for French Cinema Now a week long festival of contemporary French cinema that started this last Thursday, October 23 and continues through this coming Thursday, October 30. There’s a ton of films, parties and guests to check out….go to the SIFF site for more info.

The big exciting guests for French Cinema Now are French cinematic superstars/power couple Michel Hazanavicius and Bérénice Bejo, the director and co-star of the Oscar winning 2011 film, The Artist. The couple will be the featured attraction for a very special evening that is very likely to include a super secret sneak peek of their next film, The Search, a remake of a 1948 Fred Zinnemann film that starred Montgomery Clift. That event is happening Wednesday, October 29 at 6:30pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown…grab tickets HERE!

Ridiculously beautiful and successful French Cinema Power Couple Michel Hazanavicius and Bérénice Bejo are the very special guests for SIFF’s “French Cinema Now” festival this week.

But, the couple will be around for more than one day as they each have other films screening as part of the festival. Ms Bejo is scheduled to attend a screening of her film, The Last Diamond at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, October 28, followed by a 9 pm screening of the film Jacky in the Kingdom of Women which co-stars Mr. Hazanavicius who also moonlights as an actor on occasion. And, for those that wonder why France’s Cinematic Power Couple are hobnobbing in Seattle….the couple has a special affinity for Seattle and SIFF. SIFF was one of the very earliest champions of M. Hazanavivius’s work, and heavily showcased and promoted the director’s now beloved duo of spy spoofs, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies at the 2006 SIFF, and the sequel, OSS 117: Lost in Rio in 2009. The first film won the 2006 Golden Space Needle Award for best film of that year. SIFF’s embrace of these films led to other film festivals showcasing the works as well and helped establish Hazanavicius as a world class filmmaker.

Here’s a clip from The Search, which may or may not screen this week….

For more on this delightful mini-festval, check out the line-up for today and the rest of the week.