For Your Viewing Pleasure—French Films!

Come write with us in France – space has opened up in our Céret workshop, September 7-14. This is your chance to enjoy a week among like-minded writers in a perfect town in the south of France. For more info, contact us. We’d be happy to answer any questions!

We’ve asked our writers this year to prepare by reading two delicious books, both by Ruth Reichl, that feature France and food: The Paris Novel and Tender at the Bone. And for added fun, we’re  suggesting writers watch a few French movies to get in the mood. Those we note here are ones we find charming, funny or inspiring – or all the above. But please feel free to go on the hunt for others you can recommend.

1. No one does romantic confusion in the summertime like Eric Rohmer. So what if the beaches in these films are in the north – they’re still beaches, and the lovers and would-be lovers are suitably confused.

Pauline at the Beach

A Tale of Summer

2. Now to the south. Heartbreaker (not Heartbreakers) mostly takes place in Monaco or on the French Riviera. Its premise is scarcely credible, but it’s kind of hilarious. 

3. The inimitable Agnès Varda, at the age of 80+, looks back at her life with special attention to beaches. Of local interest – she spent a chunk of her childhood in the fishing port of Sète, up the road a piece from Céret. The Beaches of Agnès.

4. No beaches here, but a sweet and wry tale of illegal immigration, playing out in the port city of Le Havre. By another one-of-a-kind director, the Finnish Aki Kaurismäki, who (by the way) does not speak French. Le Havre.

5. A truly adorable documentary of a season in a one-room school in the Auvergne. Some very basic grammar lessons included free of charge. To Be and To Have.

Hope you enjoy the films and the books. And remember, we’d love to have you with us in France. Let us know if you are interested!