Visit Paris on the Cheap: French Cinema Now

Paris in November sounds great, but for those of us not in the 1 percent, our own little French film festival is a good substitute. The San Francisco Film Society brings back its annual French Cinema Now series with a mix of recent mainstream fare as well as inventive work from established masters.

This year's lineup skews toward the two things that the French like to makes movies about -- love and sex. (Who'd have thought?). There's a film about marriage-night fright -- Bachelor Days Are Over -- as well as one called Four Lovers, in which two couples swap partners in an ongoing arrangement. Angele and Tony considers the romantic needs of a female ex-con, while Goodbye First Love is a free-spirit film based on the Romeo and Juliet blueprint.

(Warning: trailer may be NSFW)

The Minster is a current-day political drama about an EU minister, which may strike an extra neurotic tone given what's going on over there right now. The Kid with a Bike is the latest childhood drama from Belgian stalwarts the Dardenne Brothers. Le Havre, from Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki, is a tale of an intergenerational relationship between a French man and a young African immigrant. In Beautiful Lies we get to see the lovely Audrey Tautou again on the big screen; here she plays a hair salon owner in what looks to be a spiritual sequel to 1999's Venus Beauty Institute, Tautou's film debut.

These are movies you'll never get to see in American multiplexes, so if Francophone cinema is your thing -- or you just want a chance to hear "mon amour" the way it should be pronounced -- do make an effort to attend.

French Cinema Now continues through Wednesday, Nov. 2, at Embarcadero Center Cinema and the San Francisco Film Society | New People Cinema.