Today marks the opening of the 47^th La Rochelle International Film Festival, a popular non-competitive film gathering (which recorded 86,000 admissions last year) offering a high-quality yet very eclectic menu. Running until 7 July, the event (the patron of which this year is Canadian actress Alexandra Stewart) will present around 200 movies, including the opening film, the Cannes-awarded It Must Be Heaven [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Elia Suleiman
scheda film] by Elia Suleiman. The festival will pay tribute not only to the Palestinian filmmaker (with a screening of all four of his features to date), but also to cult Italian helmer Dario Argento (with nine of his movies and the documentary Dario Argento: Soupirs dans un corridor lointain [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Jean-Baptiste Thoret), French DoP Caroline Champetier (seven films), Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner (all five of her features, including Little Joe [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jessica Hausner
scheda film], which won the Best Actress Award at Cannes in May) and French animation director Jean-François Laguionie (eight short films and six features, including the premiere of The Prince’s Journey [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which he co-directed with Xavier Picard), all of whom will be in attendance.

Other highlights on the line-up include a focus on Icelandic cinema, with 13 films that have been made since 2008 (including A White, White Day [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Hlynur Pálmason
scheda film] by Hlynur Pálmason, which earned actor Ingvar E Sigurðsson the Rising Star Award in the 2019 Cannes Critics’ Week), ten silent films by Swede Victor Sjöström (ten movies), retrospectives dedicated to French-US actor Charles Boyer (five films), US filmmaker Arthur Penn (ten movies) and Ukrainian director Kira Mouratova (six films), plus a section dubbed "Demented Slapstick" with Louis de Funès (ten titles) and Jim Carrey (six movies).

Standing out in the "Near and Afar" section, featuring 46 firm favourites from the year so far, is a slew of Cannes titles: Atlantics [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Mati Diop
scheda film] by Mati Diop, Les Misérables [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ladj Ly
scheda film] by Ladj Ly, Portrait of a Lady on Fire [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Céline Sciamma
scheda film] by Céline Sciamma, Bacurau [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Kleber Mendonça Filho, Jul…
scheda film] by Brazilian duo Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles, The Traitor [+leggi anche:
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Q&A: Marco Bellocchio
scheda film] by Italy’s Marco Bellocchio, Oh Mercy! [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Arnaud Desplechin
scheda film] by Arnaud Desplechin, The Whistlers [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Corneliu Porumboiu
scheda film] by Romania’s Corneliu Porumboiu, Sorry We Missed You [+leggi anche:
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Q&A: Ken Loach
scheda film] by Brit Ken Loach, Fire Will Come [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Oliver Laxe
scheda film] by French-Spanish director Oliver Laxe, On a Magical Night [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Christophe Honoré
scheda film] by Christophe Honoré, Alice and the Mayor [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Nicolas Pariser
scheda film] by Nicolas Pariser, An Easy Girl [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Rebecca Zlotowski
scheda film] by Rebecca Zlotowski, Oleg [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Juris Kursietis
scheda film] by Latvia’s Juris Kursietis, Tlamess [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ala Eddine Slim
scheda film] by Tunisia’s Ala Eddine Slim, Burning Ghost [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Stéphane Batut, Blind Spot [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Patrick-Mario Bernard and Pierre Trividic, and the documentaries Living and Knowing You’re Alive [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Alain Cavalier and Kongo [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Hadrien La Vapeur and Corto Vaclav. Also of note are the Romanian films Monsters. [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Marius Olteanu
scheda film] by Marius Olteanu and A Decent Man [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Hadrian Marcu
scheda film] by Hadrian Marcu (both as-yet unreleased in France), as well as the animated feature Marona’s Fantastic Tale [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by their fellow countrywoman Anca Damian, Flesh Out [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Italy’s Michela Occhipinti, Stitches [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Miroslav Terzić
scheda film] by Serbia’s Miroslav Terzić, The Souvenir [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Brit Joanna Hogg and the Dutch doc Miel-Emile [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Peter van Houten, not to mention Rojo [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Benjamín Naishtat
scheda film] by Benjamín Naishtat, Belmonte [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Federico Veiroj, Monos [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Alejandro Landes and the documentary Talking About Trees [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Suhaib Gasmelbari.