Special dossier: French film studies in Australia

Abstract

As I write this editorial, the Alliance Française French Film Festival (AFFFF) in Australia is drawing to a close. Beginning in 1989, this annual event is sponsored and co-run by the Alliance Française with support from the French Embassy, and provides a shop window for new French films. In terms of tickets sold and films screened, the AFFFF has grown to become the largest film festival dedicated to contemporary French cinema outside of France. Taking place in a dozen different cities and towns across the country, the AFFFF now screens over 50 new films each year and includes events such as debates, special guests and master classes (Zabou Breitman was a guest of the festival in 2020; Jacques Audiard came in 2019 and Benoît Jacquot in 2013). Now in its 33rd iteration, it attracts around 200,000 spectators annually and for many represents the cultural highlight of the year (Cojean 2019). An analysis of this year’s viewing trends reveals Australian audiences’ tastes and dispositions – the four most viewed films in the AFFFF nationwide were Adieu Monsieur Haffmann/Farewell, Mr. Haffmann (Fred Cavayé, 2022), Mes frères et moi/La Traviata, My Brothers and I (Yohan Manca, 2022), Illusions perdues/Lost Illusions (Xavier Giannoli, 2021) and La Brigade/The Kitchen Brigade (Louis-Jean Petit, 2022). There are no real surprises here: Australians, like most others in the Anglosphere, continue to gravitate towards costume dramas, family melodramas, social comedies and films set during the Occupation. They also help prop up the French star system – the fifth most viewed was Patrice Leconte’s Maigret (2002), an adaptation of Georges Simenon’s Maigret et la jeune morte, starring Gérard Depardieu. When the AFFFF artistic director and French embassy’s cultural attaché Karine Mauris was asked why Australians are so fascinated by French film, her reply was indicative of the extent to which French culture is all-pervasive in Australia: