NOTRE-DAME ON FIRE
(NOTRE-DAME BRÛLE)
Monday, October 10
OPENING NIGHT GALA
BY INVITATION – LIMITED TICKETS FOR SALE
RENOIR & TRUFFAUT THEATRES– 6:00 pm
Followed by a conversation with writer/director
Jean-Jacques Annaud
Friday, October 14
FILM RERUN WITH BOX OFFICE
RENOIR THEATRE – 5:00 pm
(Screening ends at 7:10 pm)
+ Short Film Presentation: RULES OF SUCCESS
FICTION / DRAMA, EPIC, HISTORY
Presented in Association with:
Pathé Films
ARP
North American Premiere | France, Italy | 2022 | Drama, Epic | 110 min | In French with English subtitles
Directed by: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Written by: Jean-Jacques Annaud, Thomas Bidegain
Produced by: Jérôme Seydoux, Ardavan Safaee, Jean-Yves Asselin & Marie de Cenival (Pathé Films), Mario Giannini & Lorenzo Gangarossa (Wildside), Jean-Jacques Annaud (Repérage), Vendôme Production, TF1 Films Production.
Cinematography: Jean-Marie Drejou
Film Editing: Reynald Bertrand
Original Score: Simon Franglen
Cast: Samuel Labarthe (Fire Chief Gonthier), Jean-Paul Bordes (Fire Chief Gallet), Mikaël Chirinian (Laurent Prades), Jérémie Laheurte (Assistant Chief Joël), Maximilien Seweryn (Sergeant Reynald), Garlan Le Martelot (Aurélien), Dimitri Storoge (Captain Francis), Pierre Lottin (Lieutenant Alexandre)
International Sales: Pathé Films
Jean-Jacques Annaud delivers a riveting, action-packed, truly spectacular cliff-hanger of a disaster movie — filmed for IMAX, no less — recounting the real-life, devastating blaze that engulfed Notre-Dame cathedral on April 15, 2019. Inventively intercutting original dramatic scenes of firefighters and emergency responders doing their thing, with digital effects, smartphone videos and archival news footage, Annaud offers up a dazzling, blow-by-blow recreation of that terrifying inferno. There are plenty of pyrotechnics and lots of production value, with real spires collapsing and molten lead gushing from the mouths of gargoyles. But it’s the courageous men and women risking their lives to battle that firestorm, against all apparent odds, who keep us on the edge of our seats and lodge that veritable lump in our throats. For a story whose outcome we all know only too well, it’s a real nail-biter!
Veteran filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud is a 1964 graduate of the IDHEC film school. He began his career directing TV commercials in the late ’60s and early ’70s. His very first feature, Black and White in Color (1976), nabbed an Academy Award as Best Foreign Film. He went on to win five César Awards — for Best Film and Best Director for Quest for Fire (1982); Best Foreign Film for The Name of the Rose (1987), starring Sean Connery, which also nabbed a David di Donatello Award; and Best Director again for The Bear (1988). His other films include an adaptation of the Marguerite Duras autobiographical novel, The Lover (1992); Seven Years in Tibet (1997), starring Brad Pitt; Enemy at the Gates (2001), starring Jude Law; Two Brothers (2004); and Sa majesté Minor (2007). In 2018, Annaud directed all ten episodes of the miniseries The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair. The 26th American French Film Festival is proud to present Notre-Dame On Fire as its Opening Film, in its first screening to North American audiences.
