Parlez Vous Francais?

The London Film Festival may be just around the corner but, if you happen to more continentally inclined, you might be interested to know that the French Film Festival (the only festival in Britain dedicated uniquely to French cinema) will be touring the country throughout November. For full details, take a look at www.frenchfilmfestival.org.uk but read on for a preview of the highlights from Empire's David Parkinson. Stopping off at various venues across the UK, this excellent annual survey of Gallic cinema boasts the usual smattering of big names, notably G ard Depardieu and Jean Reno in Francis Veber's doltish comedy, Tais-Toi!, and a tribute to Alain Delon. Jean-Marc Moutot's Violence des Echanges and Eleonore Faucher's Brodeuses suggest that social realism remains in vogue, while a strong documentary strain includes Genesis (the latest from the Microcosmos team) and William Karel's lacerating The World According to Bush. But there are also some unexpected delights, including Emmanuel Mouret's Rohmeresque Venus and Fleur, and Janis and John, in which embezzling insurance clerk Sergi Lopez persuades wife Marie Trintingnant and failed actor François Cluzet to play Janis Joplin and John Lennon to dupe stoner cousin Christophe Lambert out of his inheritance.