Totally Serialized

Posts about the Institut français du Royaume-Uni’s TV event Totally Serialized

Film

There’s another Russian film festival no one told me about – Soviet 60s: A Turning Point in Cinema

13 January 2022 Natalia Romanova 8 Comments
Black Widow Scarlett Johansson GIFfrom Black Widow GIFs

Am I doing something wrong? Probably. I’m usually doing something wrong.

But at the moment, all I’m trying to do is promote film, particularly Russian film, yet no one wants to tell me about their lovely new Russian film festivals until it’s almost too late. Guys! I can help! I really can! Just let me know that you’re doing a Russian film festival and I’ll tell everyone else! I might even buy tickets and turn up!

The BFI was the previous “let’s not tell the Russian film girl about our Russian film festival” culprit, just before Christmas. Now it’s the Institut Français who’ve taken against me. To be honest, scanning their web site, they don’t seem to want to publicise it very much at all, so maybe it’s not personal — I actually found out about it through Russian Art & Culture. Maybe I’m being just a little bit paranoid? What do you think?

Anyway, I’ve got you intrigued now, haven’t I? Want to know more about it? I do hope so.

Soviet 60s: A Turning Point in Cinema

This will be a monthly film series at the Ciné Lumière (in association with Russian language film charity Kino Klassika) that runs from 18 January to 30 June and that spotlights “a selection of films from the decade that changed both cinema and the world: from beloved Soviet comedies to rarely-screened New Wave classics”.

Here’s the programme

After the jump, I’ll give you full details of all the films, as well as trailers and even a short TV programme about one of them. As you can probably guess, the trailers are all in Russian (and there’s an even an Armenian one!) so you might have to turn auto subtitles on.

Continue reading “There’s another Russian film festival no one told me about – Soviet 60s: A Turning Point in Cinema”
Events

The French Film Festival is Back at the Institut français

1 November 2021 Natalia Romanova 1 Comment

It’s always great to see a broad range of cinema available, not just the usual US and UK movies. Hooray then! Because hot on the heels of the London Film Festival, we now have the French Film Festival back at Ciné Lumière in London from 3 to 13 November and in 32 other cinemas UK-wide until 15 December.

Most of the films showing at Ciné Lumière will be UK premieres and were presented at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, including the Palme d’Or winner Titane. But there will be some classic French movies, too.

Directors Bruno Dumont and Catherine Corsini will respectively be travelling from France for the screening of France, starring Léa Seydoux, at the Festival opening night (3 November), and The Divide (6 November).

Other highlights include Petite Maman by Céline Sciamma, Paris, 13th District by Jacques Audiard, and OSS 117: From Africa with Love starring Jean Dujardin.

Here’s a trailer and I’ll put the programme and full details after the jump, complete with trailers! Just between you and me, I feel I should point out I just copied and pasted from the web site, but I think this makes it easier to see everything at a glance.

I feel Rob would want me to point out that there will be two French TV shows screened as part of the festival as well: UFOs and All The Way Up.

Continue reading “The French Film Festival is Back at the Institut français”
La-Fête_des_mères
French TV

What TV’s on at the Institut français in June? Including a Q&A with Audrey Fleurot

8 June 2018 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Very, very occasionally, TMINE lets you know what TV-related events the Institut français du Royaume-Uni will be presenting in London

Not technically a TV event, I know, but the Institut français will be screening the movie La fête des mères (Mother’s Day) on Sunday 25th June at 8.30pm, as part of its ‘Women Shaping the World’ season. So why mention it? Well, it stars Audrey Fleurot of Engrenages (Spiral), Les témoins (Witnesses), Safe et al, and she’ll be doing a Q&A afterwards:

La fête des mères (Mother’s Day)

103 mins
in French with EN subs
FRA | 2018 | dir. Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, with Audrey Fleurot, Nicole Garcia, Clotilde Courau, Carmen Maura

Presidents, nannies, bakers, actresses, teachers, florists, journalists, doctors… These women are progressive, benevolent, clumsy, absent, omnipresent, overworked, guilt-laden… Their children both long and fear to spread their wings and leave the nest. When daughters become mothers, they realise it’s all fun and games! This ensemble film gathers on screen a first class cast including Audrey Fleurot and Carmen Maura.

Tickets are available here, standard price £12.

And if you miss her at that, she’s doing bilingual Molière in Tartuffe at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until 28 July.

Le bureau des légendes (Le Bureau)
French TV

Totally Serialized: Le bureau des légendes (The Bureau) – saison 3

15 January 2018 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Although I’m not 100% sure it’s still running its Totally Serialized events, the Institut français du Royaume-Uni is still being very marvellous and running French TV events in London. To save me some hassle, let’s pretend it’s still called Totally Serialized so I don’t have to rename this section.

Office admin out the way, appropriately enough, the first ‘Totally Serialized’ of 2018 is a showing of the first two episodes of the third season of Le bureau des légendes (The Bureau) (France: Canal+; UK: Amazon), as well as a Q&A with producer Alex Berger.

Le Bureau des Légendes

FRA | 2014 | Series 3, episodes 1&2 | 2×52 mins | showrunner Eric Rochant | directed by Samuel Collardey | with Mathieu Kassovitz, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Léa Drucker cert. tbc | in French with EN subs | UK Premiere

If you were hooked by The Bureau, rejoice, here comes the UK premiere of the new season! Based on real-life accounts by former spies, this French addictive series depicts a branch of clandestine undercover agents, dispatched in key and hostile locations around the world. Offering a new perspective on intelligence agencies and intricate geopolitical issues, this third season centres on “Malotru” (Mathieu Kassovitz), who is taken hostage by ISIS.

Followed by a Q&A with Alex Berger, Producer of The Bureau

It’s taking place on Wednesday 24th January at 8.30pm at the Institut in London and you can book tickets online – seats are still available.

Incidentally, I don’t know if the Institut is misspeaking or not, but the Tweet I spotted about the event talks about it being a preview, suggesting that the full season might finally be coming to Amazon…

UPDATE: Turns out there’s also a debate the next day about politics on TV, chaired by Walter of Walter Presents fame:

Power and Politics: The Hottest Genre in TV Drama

22:45-23:45

Chaired by Walter Iuzzolino, the curator behind global drama channel, Walter Presents, ‘Power and Politics: The Hottest Genre in TV drama’ will lift the lid on some of the most popular recent hit thrillers and royal dramas. Why have they struck such a chord with international audiences, and what successful formulae do they share? Meet the producers, writers and actors behind blockbuster hits like Spin, The Crown, Victoria, and The Bureau, and explore the line where fiction and reality meet. Who is manipulating whom, and to what extent is fiction shaping real life politics and public opinion? Mathieu Sapin, author of comic books on politics will also join the debate.

Speakers
  • Alex Berger, Producer of The Bureau
  • Gregory Fitoussi, Actor in Spin series
  • Daisy Goodwin, Creator and Writer of Victoria
  • Andy Harries, Executive Producer of The Crown (season 2)
  • Mathieu Sapin, Political Comic Book Author and Illustrator
Chair
  • Walter Iuzzolino, Global Drama Curator
Events

Totally Serialized: Le Repenti (Reborn) and Annette Andre – Randall and Hopkirk and Me

18 April 2017 Rob Buckley Post a comment

A couple of intriguing events for TV lovers have popped up on my radar recently.

Long-time readers will remember that for five years, the Institut Français organised an annual French/UK TV festival called ‘Totally Serialized‘. Some of you might even have won tickets to it on this ‘ere blog. However, there wasn’t one this year, since Totally Serialized is going to become a series of ongoing events throughout the year. 

The first of these is a showing on 26 April at 6.30pm at Ciné Lumière in London of France 2’s Le Repenti (Reborn), which is being made available on Walter Presents (US readers can get it through Amazon). It stars Engrenages (Spiral)’s Bruno Debrandt as Alexis, who six years after he was left for dead, burned and wounded by his best friend Victor whom he betrayed, returns to Le Havre to work undercover at Victor’s docks. After significant reconstructive surgery and a changed identity, he is unrecognizable but struggles to stay away from his ex-family.

As you do.

Debrandt will be there on stage in conversation with Walter himself, preceding the showing of episode one. It’s worth noting that it’s actually a two-part telemovie, originally broadcast in 2010, so you’ll only be getting half the story and given that episode one is 90 minutes long and the event’s supposed to finish at 8.15pm, that sounds like about 15 minutes of chat.

Unembeddable trailer is at the Walter Presents web site. Bookings here, with tickets £12 for adults.

Annette AndreElsewhere, for fans of old UK TV, on 22 April at 7pm at the Museum of Comedy, also in London, Annette Andre will be reminiscing about her career, particularly Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), but also A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and The Benny Hill Show. There’ll also be a chance to meet her afterwards. Tickets are £17 each.