VTIFF Program-Guide 2023 - Flipbook - Page 24
FILMS A TO Z
SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING
(FUMER FAIT TOUSSER)
THE TASTE OF THINGS
(LA PASSION DE DODIN-BOUFFANT)
Directed by Quentin Dupieux
France | 2023 | Fiction | 80 min | French w/subtitles
Directed by Tràn Anh Hùng
France | 2023 | Fiction | 136 min | French w/subtitles
Directed by Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
Belgium/France | 2023 | Fiction | 88 min | French w/
subtitles
Film Source: Magnolia
Film Source: IFC
Sponsored by: Deborah Schapiro and Louis Polish; Alliance
Française of the Lake Champlain Region
Film Source: Janus
Sponsored by: Alliance Française of the Lake Champlain
Region, Eleanor Lanahan, and Nat Winthrop
SHOWTIMES
SATURDAY, OCT 21 | 7 PM | FH
SHOWTIMES
MONDAY, OCT 23 | 1:45 PM | BB
FRIDAY, OCT 27 | 7:15 PM | BB
SHOWTIMES
FRIDAY, OCT 27 | 4:30 PM | BB
Delight in Quentin Dupieux’s madcap infidelity to genre
expectations in this bloody, fun, French superhero spoof.
Tangling with low-budget, rubber-suited villains, the
Tobacco Force dispels adversaries with the explosive,
cancer-causing effects of cigarette smoke. But when a
streak of individualism threatens the Tobacco Force’s
group cohesion, their boss sends them away on a teambuilding retreat. There, the film slips into a mosaic of gory,
humorous campfire tales, each more stupefying than the
last. ~TW
VENUES
24
*** Opening Night film at the Film House ***
Tràn Anh Hùng’s (The Scent of Green Papaya) lush
gastronomy-themed romance, starring Juliet Binoche and
Benoît Magimel, won best director at Cannes Film Festival
this year and is competing with Anatomy of a Fall for
France’s submissions to the 2024 Academy Awards. This
sensorial film, set in late-19th century France, opens with
a mouthwatering cooking sequence that runs nearly 40
minutes and portrays a slow-burning romance with a
minimalist plot. Yet Hùng, best known for his Cannes
Camera d’or-winner The Scent of Green Papaya, tells
Variety: “What was important to me was not to make a film
about gastronomy. It was more about the filmmaking
challenge that gastronomy presented. The idea was to
weave gastronomy into a love story and see how a man and
a woman who share the same passion for the culinary art
and have lived together for over 25 years form this spiritual
bond. I wanted to choreograph the cooking in a cinematic
way so that it would become magnificent, like a ballet.” As
Travis Weedon, a VTIFF programmer wrote: “A romance of
such delicacy and sumptuousness is a rare specimen these
days. Every frame, from the first to the last, bespeaks care
and affection.” VTIFF programmer Holly Cluse noted:
“Sensual, delicious, mesmerizing. the last sentence of
dialogue -- perfect. Can’t wait to see it again with Charles.”
~OY
FH: FILM HOUSE
BB: BLACK BOX THEATER
UVM RECITAL HALL
AT REDSTONE CAMPUS
All at Main Street Landing
Performing Arts Center, Burlington
384 South Prospect Street
Burlington
TORI AND LOKITA
Showing us the human toll of an inhumane system, Tori and
Lokita is another social-realist gem from the masters of the
form, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Full of heart and
indignant fury, the film follows 11-year-old Tori (Pablo
Schils) and 16-year-old Lokita (Joely Mbundu),
undocumented immigrants who have left Cameroon and
Benin, respectively, for a new life in Belgium. But the
undocumented life is brutal, and they are mercilessly
exploited, harassed and threatened from all sides. Their
saving grace is their profound and deeply beautiful
friendship, a thing of value that somehow exists and even
transcends, briefly, a corrupt and evil system that seeks to
monetize their misery. Both leads are non-professional
actors, and they are tremendous. The filmmakers’
worldview is famously bleak yet compassionate, and this
harrowing, heartbreaking but oh-so-human film is one of
their very best. ~SM
THE ESSEX RESORT & SPA
70 Essex Way
Essex
VTIFF.ORG | VERMONT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2023
