French-German Film Festival begins

'Menage-a-trois' from the film Jules and Jim by Francois Truffaut

France and Germany are considered to be the pioneers of the film art. The brothers Louis and Auguste Lumiere organised the first commercial screening of films at the Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris on 28th December 1895. La Sortie de l'Usine Lumiere a Lyon (The Workers Coming out of the Lumiere Factory) is the first of a series of minute-long films presented in that programme. But, before that they gave semi-private non-commercial viewings throughout 1895. The brothers Max and Emil Skladanowski organised screening of their films in Germany in November 1895 in front of some invited guests. Officially, the Lumiere Brothers are considered to be the innovators of film art. So, we see that film is really a Franco-German innovation.

For more than a century, both France and Germany presented us with some of the very best films in the history of cinema. The French Avant-Garde film movement of the 1920s, the French Poetic Realism of the 1930s and '40s, the French 'New Wave' of the late 1950s and early '60s, the German Expressionist film movement of the 1920s, the New German Cinema of the 1960s and '70s, are just few of the innumerable film movements that these two countries provided us with. They had a lot of influence on the film movements worldwide. Both France and Germany promote film art. They have the tradition of sponsoring films by talented filmmakers. Different production companies and television channels in these countries not only produce films of their own filmmakers, but also of those from other countries. Two of the best film festivals in the world, namely, Cannes Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival, are organised by the respective governments. Apart from these two festivals there are also other film festivals either sponsored or subsidised by the government.

The Alliance Francaise and the Goethe Institut in Dhaka, in association with the Embassy of the Republic of France and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Dhaka, are screening ten films to mark the fortieth anniversary of the French-German Friendship Treaty known as the Elysee Treaty. These films, five from Germany and five from France, are recent productions and made mostly by young filmmakers dealing with various problems confronted by young people in different situations. These films will give the audience an idea of the themes and trends of the present day cinema in Germany and France.

The Princess and the Warrior by Tom Tykwer, The State I'm in by Christian Petzold, Crazy by Hans-Christian Schmid, The Farewell by Jan Schutte and Black Box Germany by Andres Veiel are the German entries while the French entries are - Tosca by Benoit Jacquot, Human Resources by Laurent Cantet, Jeanne and the Perfect Guy by O. Ducastel and J. Martineau, A Significant Inconvenience by Bernard Stora and Yes, but... by Yves Lavandier.

The festival opened yesterday with the film Jules and Jim by the French 'New Wave' filmmaker Francois Truffaut. This beautiful film deals with Catherine, a French young woman and her relationship with Jules, a German and Jim, a Frenchman. The film symbolic of the French-German friendship was a perfect choice to open such a festival. The entry to the film screenings is free of charge and is open to all. For the screening schedule, please see the 'Recommendations' column of this page.

Sabbir Chowdhury, a film activist, teaches in the department of English at Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka.