French language Movies at Frameline47 Film Festival (EN subtitles)

Founded in 1977, the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival is the longest-running, largest and most widely recognized LGBTQ+ film exhibition event in the world.

Frameline47, the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival will run from June 14-24, 2023. The screening will be happening in more than eight different theaters, including Castro Theater and the Roxie as well as in 2 theaters in Oakland.

If you can’t attend in person, Frameline47: the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival will also feature a national “Streaming Encore”! The Streaming Encore will begin on June 24, and be available to view anywhere in the US over Pride Weekend from anywhere in the US until July 2nd, 2023

The 47thiteration is set to be Northern California’s largest film festival in 2023, reaffirming Frameline’s commitment to in-person cinema and the organization’s continued growth

Here is the French language selection (All movies have English subtitles).

Winter Boy – Directed by Christophe Honoré Le 18 Juin 29023 à 13h30

Propelling a poignant coming-of-age narrative into unusually deep and rewarding territory, Christopher Honoré’s exquisite semi-autobiographical drama maps the journey of Lucas (Paul Kircher), a self-confident gay boarding school student in rural France, whose sense of himself starts to unravel in the wake of a family tragedy. His loving mother (played by the always remarkable Academy Award-winner Juliette Binoche) wants to support her spiraling son, allowing him to spend a week in Paris with his bohemian older brother (Vincent Lacoste, in his third film with Honoré). There Lucas will explore the boundaries of his sexual self-discovery, developing an infatuation for his brother’s roommate (Erwan Kepoa Falé, Dustin, Frameline45) and jumpstarting his adult life. The week will transform Lucas, but not in ways he fully can handle.

As Lucas, Kircher delivers an astonishing breakout performance, while the natural, intimate cinematography anchors the film’s humanity. In Winter Boy, Honoré (Sorry Angel; Love Songs) gives us a reflective, tender, and spiritually uplifting account of that delicate moment of being on the precipice of adulthood and becoming who you are.

The Origin of Evil – Directed by Sèbastien Marnier – June 22nd at 8:30pm

In this diabolical Hitchcockian thriller, a working class woman named Stéphane (marvelously played by César Award-winning actor Laure Calamy) is on the brink of ruin, with her girlfriend (Suzanne Clément, Laurence Anyways) behind bars, her factory job driving her mad, and her living situation influx. With nowhere else to turn, she connects with the billionaire father she’s never met, wealthy capitalist Serge Dumontet (Jacques Weber) inserting herself into a mysterious world of the French upper crust. Stéphane is swiftly introduced to the strange universe of her estranged father, who lives in a luxurious, taxidermy-filled mansion on an island in the south of France where he’s surrounded by women — his wife, adult daughter, teenage granddaughter, and trusted maid — each with their own vendetta against the ailing octogenarian. But of course, nothing is quite what it seems.

Described by Sight & Sound as “a queer(er) Rebecca made by Claude Chabrol had he lived to see The Real Housewives of Beverley Hills,” the latest from director Sébastien Marnier (School’s Out, Frameline43) is a pulpy, sinfully entertaining confection of family skeletons, duplicitous women, toxic masculinity, and an enormous inheritance… where everyone hides a burning secret or two and absolutely no one is be trusted.

Lie With Me – Directed by Olivier Péyon – June 16th at 6pm

The sensual yearning of Philippe Besson’s award-winning novel Lie with Me is writ large in director Olivier Peyon’s achingly tender adaptation. When celebrated author Stéphane (César Award-winning actor Guillaume de Tonquédec) reluctantly returns to his rural French hometown to accept an award, he’s forced to confront skeletons left in the closet decades ago. There’s something familiar about his ostensible tour guide, Lucas (Victor Belmondo, grandson of French acting legend Jean-Paul), something that stirs his memories of his first teenage love (and lust) Thomas (Julien de Saint Jean, also featured in Frameline47 film The Lost Boys).

With its bucolic rural European setting and parallel narratives set in the author’s youth as well as today, Peyon’s film combines the passion of Call Me by Your Name with a Proustian reflective wistfulness. However, Lie with Me stands on its own, a miraculous feat of adaptation with an uncommon understanding of queer sex and desire in both the spring and autumn of life.

The Lost Boys – Directed by Zeno Gratin – On June 21st at 8:30pm

Inside a youth correctional facility in Belgium, pensive teenager Joe is both excited about his upcoming release back into the world, and apprehensive about what awaits him. But his thoughts of freedom are soon derailed by the new boy in the next cell: a live-wire tattoo artist named William. Their spark is instantaneous, and the young men soon find their passion unleashed. As Joe’s release date approaches, he begins to wonder whether liberty will come at too high a cost.

First-time feature director Zeno Graton refreshingly bypasses the obvious “forbidden love in a forbidden place” trope in favor of showing bold, passionate romantic love in the unlikely setting of a prison (the film’s French title, Le paradis, nails the irony). The two leads — Khalil Gharbia (who played the pouty ingénu in Frameline46’s Peter von Kant) and Julien de Saint Jean (who also smolders in this year’s Lie with Me) — are terrific. Set to a plaintive North African-inflected score, this sensuous and sensitive drama asks, what are you willing to give up to be free?

Casa Susanna – Directed by Sébastien Lifshitz – On June 18th, 8:30ppm

In the ’50s, trans women found refuge in Casa Susanna, a remote house in the New York Catskills where they were able to express their authentic selves. This riveting doc reunites manyof Casa Susanna’s former guests.

Heartbeast – Drected by tAino Suni (France/Finland/Germany)

An erotic thriller for a new generation, Heartbeastfollows young aspiring rapper Elina and her new stepsister Sofia, whose bond quickly turns into a dark obsession for both women, with shocking consequence.

my Sole Desire by Lucie Borleteau (France) North American Premiere

When aimless Manon (Louise Chevillotte) begins work at an unconventional strip club, she falls hard for her fellow stripper Mia (Zita Hanrot), forcing her to question her priorities as she explores her newfound erotic life.