Channel Hopping: French Film Festival 2014

French cinema lost one of its greats this year. Aged 91, Alain Resnais shipped off to that great cinema auditorium in the sky leaving behind some of the most mysterious, idiosyncratic and hauntingly beautiful films of the French canon. Although most well known for his early features like 1961’s Last Year at Marienbad, made during the heady few years that the Nouvelle Vague was redefining cinema,

Resnais never rested on his laurels. His most recent films like Wild Grass (2009) and You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet! (2012), which embraced CGI and green screen technology, were equally as inventive as his early masterpieces; it became a cliché for critics to note that these sparky films felt like the work of a whiz-kid straight out of film school, not someone who’s been prolifically working for six decades. Fittingly, the French Film Festival’s tribute brings together his alpha and omega, debut feature Hiroshima Mon Amour and swan song Life of Riley, which The New Yorker’s Richard Brody called “one of cinema's most lighthearted and free-spirited farewells.”

Talking of Nouvelle Vague figures still bursting with vigour: Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye To Language 3D might be the best film he’s made in decades. It’s certainly the most impish. It takes the form of multi-layered collages of images and sound, with Godard’s trademark text and slogans appearing on screen in stereoscopic 3D. If you’re looking for a character to invest in, your best hope is the film’s canine star – played by the director’s own dog – and for much of the film we’re seeing the world through his eyes. Like all Godard films it’s a provocation, but in this rare case it’s as playful as it is contemplative.

Several other great auteurs bring new films to the festival, including FFF favourite André Téchiné with the typically elegant French Riviera, starring Catherine Deneuve and Guillaume Canet, and New German Cinema legend Volker Schlöndorff, whose historical drama Diplomacy, about the political brinksmanship that saved Paris from destruction during the Second World War, garnered rave reviews when it premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. But we know what you’re thinking: enough with these old farts! What about the new blood? On that front FFF have it covered too.

We’re particularly excited about Love at First Fight, a delightful romantic comedy from first time director Thomas Cailley. It centres on an easy-going young man who forms a deep and unsettling attraction to a combustible tomboy when she beats him up at an army recruiter's self-defence class – think of it as a meet-brute. The film is pleasingly spiky, full of abrasive humour, sly subversions of traditional gender roles and allusions to the economic and emotional struggles facing today’s young adults.

Another great-looking title in FFF’s Discovery Horizon’s strand is Welcome to Argentina, which follows two brothers (played by Philippe Rebbot and Nicolas Duvauchelle) as they drown their sorrows on a road trip through South American wine country. FFF regulars will be sure to catch Camille Chamoux’s followup to her charming debut The Hedgehog, a favourite at FFF’s 2010 edition: it’s a riotous comedy called Gazelles that’s based on Chamoux’s own one-woman stand-up show. We’d also urge you to seek out intimate two-hander Not My Type – a clichéd but beautifully acted romantic drama starring Émilie Dequenne and Loïc Corbery.

There's also the opportunity to see plenty of films that have made rumblings on the international festival circuit – Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu, Mathieu Amalric’s The Blue Room – and we’re keen to see The Finishers to find out if Nils Tavernier, the son of Bertrand (Rounding Midnight), is a chip off the old block. But most of all we’re excited to find some hidden gems, and FFF’s wide and eclectic programme is sure to have plenty on offer for those who want to go hunting. Bonne chance!