The French Art of Pleasure

There are many romantic variations in this year's French section. A careless serial killer falls in love with an innocent girl, who possesses a remarkably peculiar love for films, in the thriller, 'Last Screening'. In the romantic comedy, 'A Happy Event', being in love leads to pregnancy and an abrupt awakening to the ups and downs of adult life. A young, female teacher gives in to her impulses in 'A Real Life, and the romance results in a flight from the police.

'Le Petit poucet' delivers a gruesome re-interpretation of both 'Tom Thumb' and 'Hansel and Gretel', when five unfortunate children are sent out into the dark forest by their parents.

In a similar vein as the Danish TV serial, 'The Fortress', the French political thriller, 'The Minister', presents us for a power-lusting minister, and in 'The Snows of Kilimanjaro', a crisis lurks, when the shipyard forman draws lots to decide the redundancies, and is subsequently robbed by a colleague.

Finally, the veteran director, André Techiné, gives us a drama with not only a jealous husband and a bi-sexual wife, but also a druglord.