VCU French Film Festival to bring language, culture to Byrd

The time has come for VCU to host its annual French Film Festival. In the past years VCU and The Byrd Theatre have welcomed hundreds of feature and short French films, most of which make their United States debut at the festival.

Now in its 13th year, the film festival has been accredited by the Cannes Film Festival as well as other festivals.

Peter and Francoise Kirkpatrick, VCU professors of French literature and culture, created the French Film Festival in 1993 with hopes to educate and enlighten the public about French culture and art. Since then the festival has grown at an exciting rate. Originally, the directors or actors introduced their films to the Byrd Theatre audience via teleconference. Now either directors or starring actors introduce most of the films in person to the audience.

This year the VCU French Film Festival offers 13 feature length films and 13 shorts.

Two films starring actor Jacques Villeret are worth noting. Villeret, who showed films in the festival for four of the past five years, died January 28 this year.

Villeret stars this year in “Malabar Princess,” the story of a boy’s search for his mother in the Glaciers of Mont Blanc when he comes to live with his grandfather for the school year. The film is based on the actual 1950 crash of The Malabar Princess, an Indian airplane.

The other film starring Villeret, “Vipere