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French Films
9/6/2005 18:17

THE FIRST TIME I WAS 20
Synopsis: It's the 1960s, and sixteen-year-old Hannah is the ugly duckling of her affectionate, yet stifling family but she's also the smartest. She lives in the Paris suburbs with her father, who works in a garage as a mechanic, her doting mother and two attractive sisters.
Hannah's dream is to be chosen for her high school's jazz band - a small, all-male ensemble that travels and competes. Hannah has her eye on the cute trumpet player from the band - yet he won't give her the time of day. She's talented at double bass though, and manages to be selected - but that's where her real troubles begin. It's not only the gender barrier - there's also her Jewish-ness and rather plain appearance - and the boys begin to play nasty pranks. She confides in her uncle that she's miserable...

AN INNOCENT LITTLE GAME
Synopsis: When Claire and Bruno, a seemingly model couple, announce that they are divorcing after twelve years of marriage, their friends and family become brutally honest in their opinions of the relationship. Unbeknownst to the new legion of critics is that news of the couple¡¯s breakup was entirely fabricated by Claire.

THE LIGHT
Synopsis: In 1963, Antoine wounded in the Algerian war, arrives at the small Breton island of Ouessant to join the team of lighthouse keepers, replacing the tower's adored deceased patriarch, Emile. The locals feel the job should have gone to one of their own, and Antoine is not only a stranger, but also a novice, and struggles to fit in.
Easygoing and good-humored despite the animosity directed toward him, Antoine slowly bonds with sullen, unfriendly Yvon during their periods of extended isolation working together in the offshore lighthouse. Despite this, the natives back at the island still murmur - and much more besides - when Antoine, the perpetual outsider, walks past them. Worse for Antoine is that he is unable to disguise his deep attraction to Yvon's wife Mabe - and this threatens both of them.

MALABAR PRINCESS
Synopsis: A little child Tom lost his mother when he was young. Five years passed, his father brought him back to the place where he lived with his grandfather. Tom used any way he could to find the body of his mother and found a lot of information and things about his mother step by step, because no one told him what had happened to his mother or they just couldn¡¯t. Eventually, Tom found out the whole story. When he and his grandfather talked about his mother's death, it seemed there was a final hope to find his mother in his heart.

LIVE AND BECOME
Synopsis: Ethiopian in the mid-1980s. During the famine that broke out at the end of 1984/85, Israel and the United States of America helped transport to Israel several thousand Ethiopian Jews known as :Falashas" or, in Hebrew, "Bet Israel". This enterprise was known as "Operation Moses". The protagonist at the center of Radu Mihaileanu's feature film is a "goy" who, in the midst of all the turmoil, has been persuaded by his mother to pretend to be a Jew so as to avoid dying of hunger. But if truth be known, not one of the boy's descendants was a member of the Jewish people. In spite of this, the boy manages to get to the Holy Land, where he pretends to be an orphan and is adopted by a family of Sephardic Jews who have emigrated to Israel from France. He grows up in Tel Aviv, living in constant fear of being exposed as a liar on two counts: for he is neither Jew nor orphan, but just an African boy.
The boy grows up and learns about Judaism and western values; he also learns about racism and the war in the country's occupied zones. Although he becomes a Jewish-Israeli-French citizen, he will never forget his mother or his true identity. He is an Ethiopian who has survived.

36 QUAI DES ORFEVRES
Synopsis: Paris. For several months an incredibly violent gang has been successfully holding up armored bank vans.
he Chief of Police, Robert Mancini, has been quite frank with the two lieutenants under his command, Leo Vrinks the head of the BRI (the Anti-Gang Squad), and Denis Klein the head of BRB (the Organized Crime Unit): whoever manages to bust this gang will replace him as the "Chief" at Police HQ, 36, Quai des Orfevres.
The fight is on between these two supercops, who once were friends, and are now at odds about everything£ºtheir private lives, their methods, their staff and a woman, Camille Vrinks.

COUPLES
Synopsis: Phyl, Clarisse, Aurelia, Titi, Marie, Gerard and Solange met each other while studying literature at Lyons University. Ben was the head of their gang. Handsome, generous and inventive, he radiated a joy for life.
For ten years, Aurelia's house that overlooks Lake Montrion, hidden in the mountains, has sheltered their expectations, joy and pain. They celebrated their successes and their birthdays here, and it was here that they've had arguments and reconciliation...
This evening, they get together for the last time: Aurelia has sold the house. Ben's death has made them all lose their bearings. During a night, this group of friends will share their memories and each one will reveal his or her most guarded secrets.



 Source:www.siff.com