French Film Festival UK 2021 Reveals Line-Up Including Isabelle Huppert, Léa Seydoux, Jean Dujardin, and Juliette Binoche Features

The French Film Festival UK 2021 reveals a stellar line-featuring some of the most eagerly anticipated French cinema including screenings of Léa Seydoux starrer On a Half Clear Morning and Palme d’Or winner Titane. The festival runs between the 3rd of November and 15th of December 2021.

The latest works by cinematic luminaries including Jacques Audiard (Paris, 13th District); Arnaud Desplechin (Deception); Stephane Brizé (Another World); Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Lingui); Emmanuelle Bercot (Peaceful); Joachim Lafosse (The Restless) and Céline Sciamma (Petite Maman) will also be featuring in the impressive line-up.

The full line-up can be explored on the French Film Festival UK’s official website. Below we have picked out some of our most anticipated titles:

Between Two Worlds
Director: Emmanuel Carrère
Cast: Juliette Binoche, Hélène Lambert, Didier Pupin, Emily Madeleine, Evelyne Porée, Léa Carne

Synopsis: “Juliette Binoche stars as an author who, inspired by George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier, goes undercover as a cleaning lady in a northern French port to research a book on job insecurity and social precariousness. It is the second fiction feature for screenwriter Carrère after The Moustache, which premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2005.”

Robust
Director: Constance Meyer
Cast: Gérard Depardieu, Déborah Lukumuena, Lucas Mortier, Megan Northam, Florence Janas, Steve Tientcheu

Synopsis: “Larger than life in all conceivable ways, Gérard Depardieu can be a disruptive, unsteadying presence in films which fail to cater to the fact that he brings generous helping of Depardieu to any role he plays. Constance Meyer’s highly enjoyable Critics’ Week opener Robuste not only takes this on board, it runs with it, casting Depardieu as Georges, an ageing French actor with a tendency to crash motorbikes and to embark on drunken misadventures.”

Promises
Director: Thomas Kruithof
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Reda Kateb, Naidra Ayadi

Synopsis: “The feature by Thomas Kruithof (The Eavesdropper), starring Isabelle Huppert and Reda Kateb dives into the world of top down politics and political power games ahead of local mayoral elections in a tough Parisian suburb. It exposes the unavoidable Machiavellian clash between personal ambition and campaign promises. World Premiere Venice 2021.”

A Tale of Love and Desire
Director: Leyla Bouzid
Cast: Sami Outalbali, Zbeida Belhajamor, Diong Keba-Tacu, Aurelia Petit, Mahia Zrouki, Bellamine Abdelmalek, Mathilde La Musse,

Synopsis: “Ahmed (Sami Outabali), an 18-year-old French-Algerian university student is bright, reserved, incredibly indecisive and, we find out eventually, has never had sex. Whether he wants to or not is the question at the heart of Tunisian writer-director Leyla Bouzid’s languorous and subtly erotic coming-of-age film.”

Titane
Director: Julia Ducournau
Cast: Nathalie Boyer, Vincent Lindon, Agathe Rousselle, Myriem Akheddiou, Dominique Frot

Synopsis: “A girl is injured in a car accident as her father explodes at her for humming too loudly. To save her life, surgeons insert a titanium plate into her head, which seems to give her a metal fetish. As a grown woman, Alexia (Agathe Rousselle in her first film role) is an exotic dancer at car shows, sexually aroused by the cars themselves. Also, she’s a serial killer.”

Deception
Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Cast: Léa Seydoux, Denis Podalydès, Emmanuelle Devos, Anouk Grinberg, Gennadi Famin

Synopsis: “Adapted from Philip Roth’s 1980 novel of the same name, Arnaud Desplechin’s latest foray stars Denis Podalydès as a writer whose life is captured through his snatched conversations with the women in his past and present, played by Léa Seydoux, Emmanuelle Devos and Anouk Grinberg.”

On a Half Clear Morning
Director: Bruno Dumont
Cast: Léa Seydoux, Benjamin Biolay, Blanche Gardin, Emanuele Arioli

Synopsis: “Bruno Dumont’s eleventh feature stars Léa Seydoux as a celebrity journalist who falls out of love with fame after a freak car accident. Penned by Dumont, the story chronicles the frenetic life of a famous TV star and journalist who becomes caught in the trappings of celebrity and subsequently overcome by a spiral of events which ultimately lead to her downfall.”

OSS 117: From Africa With Love
Director: Nicholas Bedos
Cast: Jean Dujardin, Pierre Niney, Natacha Lindinger, Melodie Casta, Fatou N’Diaye, and Wladimir Yordanoff

Synopsis: “Nicolas Bedos, who made La Belle époque, takes over the reins from Michel Hazanavicius for the third chapter of the satirical adventures of Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath aka secret agent OSS 117.”