The Ciné-Café association, made up of film enthusiasts, meets at the Felix Faure brasserie to debate films currently showing. On the schedule, Lincoln, Django Unchained, and Zero Dark Thirty will be analyzed by these experts, who are not quite so amateur.
Every first Monday of the month, the association gathers over drinks to discuss and debate movies currently in theaters. Consisting of a board of directors, a president, and even a treasurer, these enthusiasts (about thirty in number) are organized like a real assembly. Founded in March 2002, the ciné-café has already welcomed a few names from the movie industry to its table, such as Jean-Claude Dreyfus. It is also not uncommon for them to join cinematic events and festivals or other cultural activities related to cinema.
The evening begins with a quick review of the past year, expenses, significant events, and guests. Then follows a brief presentation of a film that hasn’t been released in theaters in Nice, unknown to the public: Chercher le garçon by Dorothée Sebbagh.
It’s the story of a 35-year-old single woman who decides to give internet sites a chance to meet the man of her life. The film is a succession of her encounters, each more comical than the last. At first glance, this feature film doesn’t seem anything exceptional. After the presentation, we learn that the young director shot it using just a simple camera with an almost nonexistent budget. But the true uniqueness of the film lies in the freedom she gave her actors, only providing them with a few indications about the scene to be played. The rest is pure improvisation.
It’s 8 PM, the glasses arrive on the tables, and it’s precisely the moment for the heart of the evening, the debate. Three films have been chosen: Lincoln by Steven Spielberg, Django Unchained by Quentin Tarantino, and Zero Dark Thirty by Kathryn Bigelow. The films are analyzed one by one, and everyone is free to express their point of view. But beware, even though we are among enthusiasts, the observations are incredibly insightful (sometimes even more so than some established critics). It is with pleasure and intelligence that each person speaks and yields the floor, listening attentively to what others have to say.
Many people leave a cinema and can debate the film for hours, and that’s exactly what happens here, which is quite delightful.
