“I’m really moved that Line is here. She was there 15 years ago. She didn’t really know what she was going to do but she said: I’m coming and she came. Thank you Line!”, declared, the voice trembling with emotion, Dominique Besnehard, co-creator, with the producer Marie-France Brière, of this meeting become impossible to circumvent. Created in 2008, this festival, first regional then national, is in the process of becoming international, welcomed Dominique Besnehard on stage.
The opening of this anniversary edition, which took place in the presence of many guests including the general delegate of the Cannes Film Festival, Thierry Frémaux, the patriarch of the Pathé group, Jérôme Seydoux, and the actress and director Géraldine Nakache, kicked off with a standing ovation from the audience upon the arrival of the two co-creators. Pre-recorded messages from several actors, including Karin Viard and Virginie Efira, were broadcast on the screen, in what took on the appearance of a celebration of the 7th art at a time when cinemas have still not regained their attendance. pre-Covid.
The festival, which lasts until Sunday August 28, kicked off with the screening ofA great race, dramatic comedy by Christian Carion with the Ch’tis duo, Dany Boon and Line Renaud. In this film which is released in theaters at the end of September, she embodies, with great accuracy, Madeleine Keller, a 92-year-old woman about to enter an EHPAD. It is Charles, played by Dany Boon, who is responsible for taking the old woman to her new home. In the meantime, Madeleine is determined to take advantage of this last trip to revisit the places in the capital that have counted in her life.
The film received a long standing ovation from the public in Angoulême. At the end of the screening, Line Renaud declared, with emotion:“I’m getting close to the moment…. I have to think about it, I had a great life, an extraordinary life and it will never be forgotten. Even when I’m gone.”
Of the fifty films that will be shown to the public, 10 are presented in competition. Among them : Annie Angerthe second feature film by the actress turned director, Blandine Lenoir, with Laure Calamy in the title role (Antoinette in the Cevennes). A film that will echo the news since it will return to the Movement for the Freedom of Abortion and Contraception (MLAC) which campaigned in favor of the right to abortion in France in the 1970s.
Another highly anticipated film: Simone, the trip of the century, a biopic presented out of competition on Simone Veil, ex-minister, survivor of Auschwitz and figure in the fight for women, who will be played by Elsa Zylberstein. The presentation of rumba life, the second film by Franck Dubosc, which will be released in theaters on Wednesday August 24, is also eagerly awaited. Finally, Rwanda is in the spotlight via a selection of nine films.