Le Forum

After the sudden death of her father, 8-year-old Simone shares a secret with her mother Dawn. She’s convinced her father speaks to her through the leaves of her favourite tree and he’s come back to protect them.

But the new bond between mother and daughter is threatened when Dawn starts a relationship with George, the plumber, called in to remove the tree’s troublesome roots.

As the branches of the tree start to infiltrate the house, the family is forced to make an agonising decision. But have they left it too late?

How much or how little are we obliged to honour the wishes of our parents after they're gone? This is the question posed by Olivier Assayas in his rueful and wise new film, the most internationally heralded of his career to date.

In Summer Hours, the divergent paths of three forty-something siblings collide after their mother (Edith Scob), heiress to her uncle's exceptional 19th century art collection, dies suddenly, leaving them to come to terms with themselves and their differences. Adrienne (Juliette Binoche) a successful New York designer, Frédéric (Charles Berling) an economist and university professor in Paris, and Jérémie (Jérémie Renier) a dynamic businessman in China, are forced to discuss the practical details concerning the collection: preserve or sell? Display, or protect? In doing so they must confront the end of childhood, their shared memories, background and unique vision of the future.

Every moment of this wonderful film is imbued with longing, joy, regret and illumination. Incisively written, superbly acted and boasting a delicately understated approach to the subject matter, Assayas' new film moves effortlessly through its narrative with all the grace of Renoir at the height of his powers.

Berlin, 1970. Leopold (Bernard Giraudeau) is a 50-year-old businessman who has begun a very insular love affair with Franz (Malik Zidi) a 20 year-old toy boy who enjoys the attention and his dominance over his ever-pleasing lover. But as time evolves, obsession grows and finally their secluded tryst is destroyed when Franz's ex-girlfriend and leopold's ex-lover reappear, bringing them a collision of emotions and a sinful proposition.

François Ozon's Water Drops On Burning Rocks is a scathing examination of a suffocating relationship, and the consequence of love, obsession, and aggression. it is also a Queer classic. Based on a play by the late Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Querelle), one of cinema's great gay directors, who died in 1982 at age of 36, having completed an astonishing 40 films. ozon draws heavily from Fassbinder, setting this farce in a chic, art deco apartment and relying on tight camera work, impeccable acting and his skills as a film maker to set sparks flying.

The moving true story of a simple housemaid who painted to appease the voice of heaven. In 1913, German art collector Wilhelm Uhde, the first Picasso buyer and discoverer of acclaimed naïve primitive painter Le Douanier Rousseau, rents a modest apartment in Senlis in order to leave behind the excesses of his Parisian life and concentrate on his writing. Once settled, he hires a cleaning lady, the 48 year old Séraphine de Senlis, a quiet and retiring woman with little regard for life beyond her means. But while visiting the home of a prominent local family, Uhde notices a small painting on wood and is surprised to discover that it was created by the unassuming Séraphine. A poignant and unexpected relationship then develops between the avant-garde art dealer and the visionary cleaning lady. Yolande Moreau delivers a multi-award winning performance as Séraphine de Senlis, a simple housekeeper whose brilliantly colourful canvases, to this day, adorn some of the most famous galleries in the world. Director Martin Provost’s fictionalised and tragic portrait of this forgotten painter is a moving and compelling testament to creativity and the resilience of one woman’s unique vision and spirit.