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Farewell, starring Guillaume Canet and Emir Kusturica, was a Tuesday night COL•COA highlight.

Apr 22, 2010 By Chris Tinkham Charlotte Gainsbourg

The third night of the 14th annual City of Lights, City of Angels (COL•COA) film festival, a weeklong showcase of new French films at the Directors Guild in Los Angeles, was highlighted by the Cold War espionage thriller Farewell and the West Coast premiere of Please, Please Me!, from writer/director Emmanuel Mouret (Shall We Kiss?). Mouret participated in a Q&A following the screening. Farewell, which features a strong soundtrack of circa-1980 songs from Queen, Pink Floyd, Joe Jackson and Simple Minds, stars Guillaume Canet and Emir Kusturica, along with Fred Ward as Ronald Reagan.

Thursday: The free 11 a.m. “Rerun” is Pascal Elbé‘s Tête de Turc, which screened on Tuesday night with Elbé in attendance. The COL•COA Classics screening at 1:45 p.m. is Claude Miller’s 1988 crime romance The Little Thief, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg. Miller will attend a Q&A following the West Coast premiere of his film I Am Glad That My Mother Is Alive at 8:30 p.m. The After 10 film, the adventure/horror thriller High Lane, will screen at 10:15 p.m.

A scene from The Father of My Children.

Writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve’s touching and bittersweet The Father of My Children was a highlight on Tuesday night. The film is inspired by Hansen-Løve’s encounters with art-house producer Humbert Balsan, who championed her work prior ending his life in 2005. Fans of Summer Hours should seek out the film when it is released by IFC in May. The free Blind Date With a French Film screening turned out to be An Ordinary Execution, a historical drama based on Joseph Stalin’s last days. The film, which stars André Dussollier (as Stalin) and Marina Hands, screened again for free on Wednesday morning.

The festival commenced Monday night with the North American premiere of Heartbreaker, starring Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis. The gala screening cost patrons $100 a ticket, but a second screening of Heartbreaker is scheduled for Saturday at regular prices.

Students and film lovers under the age of 21 have a great incentive to attend the fest, with tickets priced for them at $5. General admission is $10 and senior admission is $7. Tickets to COL•COA Classics screenings such as Godard’s Pierrot le Fou (Friday) and Eric Rohmer’s Pauline at the Beach (Saturday) are $5. And Wednesday through Sunday, there will be one free 11 a.m. screening of a film from the previous day’s lineup.

Many of the aforementioned films are sold out, but waiting standby has proved to be rewarding in previous years. For information, visit www.colcoa.org.