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EVENTS Portugal

Jaoui, Varda and Balibar at 10th French Film Party

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Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the 2009 French Film Party is more ambitious than ever. Once a mere selection of avant-premieres in Portugal, the Party now offers more films, more guests, a new partnership with the Portuguese Film Museum and an extension to five other cities besides Lisbon (Almada, Porto, Guimarães, Faro and Coimbra).

Agnès Jaoui – acclaimed in Portugal for her films with Jean-Pierre Bacri – is kicking off the Party on October 7, in Lisbon, with her latest film, Let It Rain [+see also:
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, in the event's main section. Jaoui will also hold a masterclass at the Theatre and Film School.

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Other titles of this non-competitive event include Jan Kounen's Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky [+see also:
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, Claude Chabrol's Bellamy [+see also:
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, Josiane Balasko's Client [+see also:
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, Marina de Van's Don’t Look Back [+see also:
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and Jane Birkin's directorial debut Boxes [+see also:
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.

The sidebar sections take the concept of French cinema beyond the borders of French-speaking territories, presenting older films by foreigner directors that were co-produced by France, such as Raja Amari's Satin Rouge, Tran Anh Hung's The Scent of Green Papaya and Maria de Medeiros' Captains of April, among others.

This summer's successful release of The Beaches of Agnès [+see also:
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by Midas Filmes is a good pretext for organising a retrospective on Agnès Varda at the Film Museum, which will also host a mini-cycle dedicated to Jeanne Balibar. The latter will also be at the Party, alongside Pedro Costa, to present their first collaboration, Ne Change Rien [+see also:
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(seen at the latest Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight).

The Party is expected to help boost local interest in French cinema. Despite the strength of the French film industry within Europe, in Portugal French films are still partially unknown and frequently associated with niche audiences.

According to ICA data, the only French title in the top ten films of 2008 is Frédéric Forestier's Asterix at the Olympic Games [+see also:
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. It is in fifth position with 438,014 admissions and just over €1.8m grossed.

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