The French Art & Film Festival 2013 was officially launched in Malaysia on Thursday (25 April) at GSC Pavilion with awesome cocktails served to the invited guests before a screening of the romance comedy Popular. Somehow this formulaic chick flick manages to make typewriting in the late 50s an interesting and sexy subject. The most memorable moment of the evening was when the sex scene and middle finger-showing in the movie was manually censored with a hand covering the projector. The entire hall couldn't hold back their laughter with some even applauding to that. I strongly believe that none of the FAFF featured films are actually censored at all.
With the doubled amount of featured films compared to last year (from 7 to 15), the organisers AFKL expect to sell over 10,000 movie tickets in total. Four of the films feature Juliet Binoche, one of the most celebrated French actresses whom AFKL intends to honour this occasion. Digital 2D titles such as The Chef, What's in a name and Popular will only be screened once in KL and then in Penang. Some of the other French-cultured lineups such as the French market and street theater will kick off next week. For more about FAFF 2013, click here. For a scanned copy of the movie screening schedule, click here.
The FAFF 2013 opening launch was graced with the presence of (from left to right in the top photo) Terence Ong (Pernod Ricard), Marie Julie (Alliance Francaise), Agnes Dovert (Alliance Francaise), H.E. Martine Dorance (Ambassador of France to Malaysia), YBhg Datuk Seri Haji Ahmad Phesal (Mayor of KL), Y.A.M. Tengku Zatashah (President of Alliance Francaise), Koh Mei Lee (GSC) and Stephane Dovert (French Embassy).