Based ever so slightly on real life, National Treasure Catherine Deneuve plays Bernadette Chirac, wife of France’s 22nd President Jacques Chirac. After years of servitude to her husband’s career, when the time arrives for her to take residency in the Elysée, she doesn’t take kindly to the marginal position she is expected to live in.

Her emergence from the shadows cast by Jacques underlines most of the film’s humour. It’s marvellous to see Deneuve in a comic role and her timing and way with nuance is unflinchingly good. She is a class act and her role is written to bring this to full fruition. The subtlety shown raises the humour without resorting to joke after joke.

This is feminism shown in a most French way and it’s fabulous. Writer, director and producer Léa Domenach shows she has a way with comedy and has an irreverent approach where amusement comes from a large number of step-outside moments that surprise and entertain. Hard to see any other country making a film like this and that is indeed a compliment.
Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/madmanfilms

Based ever so slightly on real life, National Treasure Catherine Deneuve plays Bernadette Chirac, wife of France’s 22nd President Jacques Chirac. After years of servitude to her husband’s career, when the time arrives for her to take residency in the Elysée, she doesn’t take kindly to the marginal position she is expected to live in.

Her emergence from the shadows cast by Jacques underlines most of the film’s humour. It’s marvellous to see Deneuve in a comic role and her timing and way with nuance is unflinchingly good. She is a class act and her role is written to bring this to full fruition. The subtlety shown raises the humour without resorting to joke after joke.

This is feminism shown in a most French way and it’s fabulous. Writer, director and producer Léa Domenach shows she has a way with comedy and has an irreverent approach where amusement comes from a large number of step-outside moments that surprise and entertain. Hard to see any other country making a film like this and that is indeed a compliment.
Rob Hudson

The President’s Wife screenings in Brisbane
PALACE BARRACKS
10:40AM Wednesday 6 March
8:45PM Thursday 7 March
6:10PM Saturday 9 March
11:00AM Monday 11 March
6:30PM Thursday 14 March
6:10PM Saturday 16 March
6:10PM Sunday 17 March
11:00AM Tuesday 19 March
1:10PM Thursday 21 March
10:30AM Sunday 24 March
6:00PM Friday 29 March
6:10PM Tuesday 2 April

PALACE JAMES STREET
1:40PM Friday 8 March
10:45AM Sunday 10 March
6:30PM Tuesday 12 March
10:45AM Thursday 14 March
6:20PM Saturday 16 March
1:20PM Wednesday 20 March
6:10PM Friday 22 March
4:00PM Tuesday 26 March
1:20PM Wednesday 27 March
6:30PM Thursday 28 March
10:50AM Sunday 31 March
11:10AM Tuesday 2 April
6:00PM Tuesday 2 April

Alliance Française French Film Festival runs in Brisbane from 5 March – 2 April and will take place at the Palace James Street and Palace Barracks cinemas.

Click here for more information about the festival, or head to the official website for more information and to book your tickets!
www.affrenchfilmfestival.org

Pairing beloved Academy Award nominees Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche for the first time, as a celebrated actress and her estranged daughter whose tentative reunion offers an opportunity to either repair or irrevocably fracture their relationship.

The Truth will be released in Australian cinemas December 26.
www.facebook.com/PalaceFilms

In what will be his first ever visit to Australia, Kore-eda, who won the top prize of the Cannes International Film Festival in 2018 for Shoplifters, will attend the Australian Premiere Screening of THE TRUTH in Sydney at the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace Cremorne on Saturday 16th November. The event will be presented in partnership with the Sydney Film Festival and will include a post-screening Q&A hosted by revered film criticDavid Stratton.

Kore-eda will also attend the Melbourne Premiere screening of THE TRUTH at Palace Cinemas’ grand The Astor Theatre in St Kilda on Tuesday 19th November, which will be presented in conjunction with the Melbourne International Film Festival and will include a Q&A.

In addition to the premiere events, Kore-eda will introduce special preview screenings in Sydney at the Palace Norton Street Cinema, Leichhardt, and the Chauvel Cinema, Paddington, on Sunday 17th November.

THE TRUTH, which had its World Premiere as the Opening Night Gala of the 2019 Venice International Film Festival, is a wry and charming dramedy in which Deneuve stars as a celebrated actress and Binoche her estranged daughter, who reunite in Paris upon the release of the former’s memoirs. When the star’s long-suffering assistant unexpectedly quits, the two are forced into an awkward working relationship, where suppressed emotions can no longer be kept in check.

Working outside his native Japan for the first time, Kore-eda’s film maintains his trademark lyricism and humanism, and offers a moving examination of reality and fiction, family, performance, and the great spectacle of life.

THE TRUTH will be released nationally in Australian cinemas by Palace Films on Boxing Day (December 26) 2019.

Sydney Screenings
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE Screening of THE TRUTH + Q&A with director Kore-eda Hirokazu
moderated by David Stratton
Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, Cremorne
2.00pm Saturday 16 November 2019

Special Preview Screening of THE TRUTH + Introduction with director Kore-eda Hirokazu
Palace Norton Street Cinema, Leichhardt
1.00pm Sunday 17 November

Special Preview Screening of THE TRUTH + Introduction with director Kore-eda Hirokazu
Chauvel Cinema, Paddington
2.15pm Sunday 17 November

Melbourne Screenings
MELBOURNE PREMIERE Screening of THE TRUTH + Q&A with director Kore-eda Hirokazu
The Astor Theatre, St Kilda
6.45pm Tuesday 19 November 2019

Tickets & further information: www.palacefilms.com.au/thetruth

On the first day of summer, reclusive millionaire Claire (Catherine Deneuve) lays all of her worldly objects out on the front lawn of her mansion, impulsively determined to sell everything. As a horde of curious bystanders and opportunistic neighbours fight over the ridiculously underpriced antiques, each object stirs vivid memories for Claire of her flamboyant life. But soon, her long-estranged daughter Marie (Chiara Mastroianni) arrives, determined to stop these proceedings by any means.

Emotional, subtle and elegantly directed, CLAIRE DARLING is a deeply personal film for Bertuccelli, filmed in the estate of her own grandmother, and Deneuve is remarkable as always as the largerthan- life heiress, playing opposite her real-life daughter. This is a poignant story of emotional attachment, mis-remembered pasts, and the complexity of mother/daughter relationships.

Claire Darling will be released in Australian cinemas June 20!
www.palacefilms.com.au