COMPETITION CLOSING DAY
The last day of festival will be on Tuesday April 28, but the 2015 COLCOA Competition will close on Monday April 27th with a program starting at 12:00 pm and ending with the special presentation in the evening of two exclusive French films in Competition for the COLCOA Awards: One will close the COLCOA Television Competition and the other one, the COLCOA Cinema Competition.
The COLCOA Cinema Competition closing film will be announced on site, Facebook, Twitter and on colcoa.org the day of opening (April 20)
For the first time, COLCOA and its partner TV5 Monde invite you to a reception to celebrate the end of the competition from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. You need to have a ticket for the 5:15, 5:30, 8:00 and 8:30 pm screenings to attend the reception.
Join us for this very special day at COLCOA presenting two digitally restored classics and four exclusive new French films:
Renoir Theater – 2:15 pm
West Coast Premiere • Digitally Restored Version • COLCOA Classics Series
Harry Dean Stanton disappears into the role of Travis, a forlorn and grizzled loner who emerges from the Texas wastelands after years of despair and penitence for an unnamed misdeed. Emotionally dead and unable to speak, only a phone number in his pocket connects him to a brother in Los Angeles. Travis is like a ghost walking through the rusted junkyards of his past, always on the cusp of vanishing back into the barren terrain from which he came, but as he slowly recovers his strength, he is possessed of a mad dream to put the shattered pieces of his life back together. Nastassja Kinski, in her most important role since Tess, portrays Jane, the unsophisticated Texas girl who escaped a troubled childhood by marrying too young. This fable of alienation and redemption features a spare but evocative score by Ry Cooder and spectacular sprawling vistas by the influential cinematographer Robby Müller. COLCOA is pleased to present the West Coast Premiere of the restored version of this largely French production, casting a European’s eye – Wim Wenders - for intimacy on the epic horizons of the American West.
Truffaut Theater – 3:30 pm
Two Men in town (Deux hommes dans la ville - 1973)
International Premiere • Digitally Restored Version • COLCOA Classics Series
COLCOA is pleased to present the International Premiere of this digitally restored thriller, the final paring of Alain Delon and Jean Gabin. Four years earlier the old-school sensei and the new wave upstart shared the screen in the hugely successful The Sicilian Clan, and audiences wanted more. Here, Delon plays a reformed safecracker determined to walk the straight and narrow even as the machinery of state and the cruelties of fate conspire against him. Gabin plays Germain, a world-weary social worker fighting to give Gino a fair shake and a second chance in life. Things look promising as Gino lands a job and rekindles an old romance, until the vindictive Inspector Goitreau returns - with nods to Les Miserables’ Inspector Javert - intent on inflaming Gino’s pent up rage. In an early role, a young Gérard Depardieu plays a swaggering tough from Gino’s criminal days. Co-written and directed by José Giovanni.
Truffaut Theater – 5:15 pm
IN THE NAME OF MY DAUGHTER (L'Homme qu'on aimait trop)
West Coast Premiere • Film Noir Series
This true-crime thriller set against the backdrop of the French Riviera casino wars of the 1970’s, is based on a case that has fed the French tabloid mill for three decades. Agnès Le Roux, a rebellious casino heiress returns from abroad determined to have her share of the family fortune in order to live an independent life. Her biggest obstacle is her widowed mother Renée, the Grand Dam of the last casino standing in the way of a mobbed up plan to give the entire area a Vegas-style makeover. With the mob breathing down her neck, Renée can’t find the liquidity to pay her daughter out. Agnès finds solace in the arms of Renée’s lawyer and confidant Maurice, a cold-blooded playboy with outsized ambition, and a plan to take full advantage of Agnès’ passion, leaving Renée on a 40-year quest for justice. Co-written and directed by André Téchiné.
Renoir Theater – 5:30 pm
108 Demon-Kings (108 Rois-Démons)
US Premiere
Blending live action with 2D and 3D animation in a way that’s never before been seen, 108 Demon Kings adapts the Chinese literary classic Water Margin to make a visually bold and humorous adventure aimed at older children and adults. In 12th century China, after the assassination of the king, Prince Duan and his teacher Zhang-The-Perfect are forced to flee the kingdom. Merciless demon kings now terrorize the countryside. Few have seen them, and fewer still have the courage to face them. Prince Duan wants to restore order, but legend has it that defeating the demons requires the courage of 100 tigers, the strength of 1,000 buffaloes, and the cunning of as many serpents, not to mention the luck of the devil. Prince Duan will have to make do with Zhang-The-Perfect’s bewildering proverbs, and the little beggar Pei-Pei’s gift of gab. But the Prince, the monk, and the beggar have one advantage: they’ve never been told that defeating the demon kings is impossible. Co-written and directed by Pascal Morelli.
Lobby and Lounge of the DGA – 7:00 pm~8:30 pm
Closing Competition Reception in association with TV5 Monde
Free with tickets for 5:15, 5:30, 8:00 and 8:30 pm screenings
Truffaut Theater – 8:00 pm
2014 TELEVISION COMPETITION CLOSING FILM
WHITE SOLDIER (Le Soldat Blanc)
International Premiere
(Followed by a discussion with writer-director Eric Zonca)
From the director of the César winning Dreamlife of Angels comes this gritty historical drama pitting two idealistic French soldiers against one another in colonial Vietnam circa 1945. Robert and André strike up a friendship in their Saigon base camp while waiting for deployment on a mission they believe is aimed at curtailing Japanese aggression against the Vietnamese. Both are eager to engage the enemy, but once they hit the rice fields of Tonkin they are faced with a sordid reality: they are actually fighting civilians who have taken up Ho Chi Minh’s call for political freedom. Refusing to kill Vietnamese, André joins the Viet Minh resistance, and becomes responsible for the political “re-education” of captured French soldiers. Determined to make André pay for his treason, Robert forms a commando unit.
Renoir Theater – 8:30 pm
2014 CINEMA COMPETITION CLOSING FILM
To be announced on Monday April 20.
