Les Olympiades (Paris, 13th District) - English subtitled
Beautifully photographed black-and-white film by Jacques Audiard (De Rouille et d'Os) about love, sex and intimacy in the multicultural thirteenth district of Paris.
Based on three stories by graphic novelist Adrian Tomine, LES OLYMPIADES sees French maestro Jacques Audiard stepping away from his previous crime genre tendencies to offer a panorama of love, desire and everyday survival in a racially, culturally, sexually diverse contemporary city. Lucie Zhang plays Emilie, a free spirit working in telesales and trying to handle the expectations of her Taiwanese family, and who gets involved with her lodger Camille. Alongside these mesmerising newcomers, Noémie Merlant plays law student Nora, whose life implodes when she is mistaken for cam girl ‘Amber’. As their lives intersect, a bustling but unromantic Parisian district is the backdrop for a tough, tender, often euphoric city symphony. Script collaborators are writer-directors Céline Sciamma and Léa Mysius, with Paul Guilhaume’s crackling black-and-white photography bringing the Nouvelle Vague’s urban dreams electrically into the 21st century. (source: BFI)