Two French Film Reviews: The Stolen Painting/Le Tableau Volé + All Stirred Up!/Tous Toqués!

Seeing French films on the big screen is such a treat! While SBS is a truly wonderful treasure trove, these films are best viewed not only in cinemas, but even better during a film festival with like-minded people. We laugh together, we gasp together – it’s great listening to what people have to say when the film’s over.

(For dates in your area in Australia, go to https://www.affrenchfilmfestival.org)

A couple of marvellous films I’ve seen recently at the festival :

The Stolen Painting/Le Tableau Volé

This was one of the most original films I’ve seen in years. But the characters – and the talented actors that carry it off – make this film.

This film provides an insight into the world of high-end art auctions and is also like an art appreciation class; I enjoyed watching how people love art.

André (Alex Lutz), an ambitious art appraiser, and his delightful ex-wife Bettina (Léa Drucker), an expert valuator, work for a prestigious auction house in Paris. He is also dealing with Aurore (Louise Chevillotte), a fascinating intern who seems to be a compulsive liar.

A long-lost painting stolen in World War II is discovered in a factory worker’s attic in a small village in France. André and Bettina don’t hold out hope for it to be genuine, believing the painting was destroyed in the war. This painting – is it real or fake? – will either make or break their reputations.

There’s some wheeling and dealing to get the painting to auction, and a few twists and turns in this well made film. It’s difficult to work out what everyone’s real agendas are, but the journey (and the end) is worth it.

All Stirred Up!/Tous Toqués!

The characters in this film are also interesting and original. This a gentle, heart-warming comedy, but (mostly) not clichéd. Directed and written expertly by Manon Briand.

Lili-Beth (the delightful Élodie Fontaine) is a young girl in country Quebec who wants to be popular at school – and thinks she can do this by winning the annual nationwide Mini Chefs cooking competition. Problem of course is she can’t cook and none of her family can either.

Her stickler-for-the-rules mother, Sonia (Julie Breton), is an unpopular border control officer, confiscating most of the townspeople’s goods on their way back from America. Her mother’s unpopularity s rubbing off on Lili-Beth who is taunted and called mini-cop at school; this is the reason Lili-Beth needs to boost her popularity.

But Sonia remembers a French chef from New York who tried to cross the border with illegal (yet delicious) gourmet food. She contacts him and convinces him to help her daughter.

A failed competition winner himself, over many years, the chef wants Lili-Beth to win and throws himself into exploring all the local produce of the area. There’s a few obstacles (of course) to overcome before Lili-Beth has a shot at the competition, not least that her mother’s unpopularity means most people refuse to sell their local produce to them.

Interestingly, this is a film about food without being a film about food! We’ve seen great films concentrating on French food produce, but this film concentrates on the relationships between the characters but we still get to appreciate the food, its provenance, and understand the connection between cooks and their dishes.

This is a charming little film. There’s no great dramatic twists or social messages writ large, just a cute film with plenty of laughs and good acting.

Have you been attending the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival in Australia… Oui ? If not, then, here are two reviews to help you to decide whether to add these two films to your must see list.

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