The Ten Best Films To See At This Year’s French Film Festival

Not so au fait with the nouvelle vague? Can't tell your traveling compensé for your truc le cadre? Fear not festival fans, our guide to the best on offer at this year's number one French cultural event will bring out your inner Truffaut and have you waxing lyrical with the next man - as long as the next man's not Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

From the boulevards of Paris, to the dusky heat of French Algiers, this years' festival embraces everything there is to love about the French-speaking world in an all encompassing celluloid hug. So get your cart du credit ready, because these billets chauds (OK, I'll stop now) will be going fast.

10. Attila Marcel

Looking like a technicolour version of a classic Jacques Tati farce, Attila Marcel is the first live action film from festival favourite Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville and The Illusionist) and it's sure to charm.The decidedly trippy looking tale of late-bloomer Paul (Guillaume Gouix), his overbearing maiden aunts (Hélène Vincent and the late Bernadette Lafont) and the eccentric Madame Proust (Anne Le Ny) is a quirky tale of what happens when need to create collides with the desire to live. If you enjoy the vaguely melancholy tone of Chomet's animation, and still pine for Jeunet's tres jolie Amelie, then a dance with Attila Marcel is the one for you.

Screening times: Rialto, Wednesday, 5 March 6.15pm; Sunday, 9 March 5:45 PM; Takapuna, Tuesday, 11 March 6.30pm, Saturday, 15 March, 8.30pm.

9. Belle and Sebastian

Please be warned, this film has a large, impossibly fluffy dog and an adorable, elfin faced child in it. Bring a box of tissues and a support person to see this cinematic  reboot of a beloved French childrens' TV show from the 1960s. Set in a small alpine town (hence the giant ball of fluff  - a Pyrenees Mountain dog) during the second world war, Belle and Sebastian tells the touching, no doubt tear inducing story of an outcast boy (Félix Bossuet) who finds acceptance and companionship with an outcast dog. Spectacular scenery, the drama of the French Resistance's underground railway, and that magnificent pooch - what more could you want in a family film?

Screening: Rialto, Friday, 28 February 6.15pm; Sunday, 2 march 3.30pm; Wednesday, 5 March 12.30pm; Takapuna, Saturday, 8 March 2.30pm; Mon 10 Mar 10.30am; Tues 11 Mar 9.30am; Fri 14 Mar 6.30pm; Sun 16 Mar 2,30pm.

8. Max

The French excel at romantic farce.  Max, by Stéphanie Murat, follows in the country's long, noble tradition of cheeky, mismatched love stories.  Cutie Max (Shana Castera) is determined to help her widowed Papa (Joey Starr) find love, or at least companionship.  So she brings him Rose (Mathilde Seigner), a beautiful street worker she meets at a bus stop. Tender, spontaneous and above all charming, Max is a heart warmer from the blue collar side of the tracks.

Screening: Auckland Rialto, Saturday,  8 March,  6.30pm; Takapuna, Friday, 28 February 7.30pm

7. Homeland

The only Algerian offering in the festival, Homeland tells the story of French raised Farid (Tewfik Jallab) who is sent back to the old country by his father to help save the family home.  A fish out of water, Farid feels no connection to his so-called homeland, until he begins to see it through the eyes of a beautiful girl from the village (Zined Obeid). Exploring notions of identity, roots, race and culture, Homeland is a semi-autobiographical comedy-drama by directors Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, the masterminds behind 2011 hit Intouchables, and looks to be just as glorious.

Screening: Rialto, Monday, 10 March 6.30pm; Friday, 14 March,  10.30am; Saturday, 15 March,  11.30am; Takapuna, AUCKLAND, Sunday, 2 March, 11.30am; Tuesday,  4 March, 6.30pm; Friday, 7 March, 10.30am

6. Going Away

A sensitive drama in the grand French tradition of character observation, Going Away is a triumph for veteran actress-turned-writer-director Nicole Garcia. Following the chop-and-change career of teacher Baptiste (Pierre Rochefort) and his tentative relationship with a fragile single mum Sandra (Louise Bourgoin), Going Away bookends nicely with Max. Though told with more unpredictability and less witty warmth, it too involves a precocious child procuring a companion and help-meet for an isolated parent.  Compelling and sombre drama.

Screening: Rialto, Thursday, 6 March, 10.30am; Friday, 7 March, 8.30pm; Sunday, 9 March 1.30pm; Thursday, 13 March, 6.30pm; Takapuna, Saturday, 1 March, 6.30pm; Monday, 3 March 6.30pm.

5. It Boy

A slick, fun little rom-com in the style of Bridget Jones’ Diary, only less frantic and more Franco, It Boy was a huge hit in France and shows they can do Hollywood just as well as LA. It tells the tale of Alice (Virginie Efira), a successful 30-something publisher with the world at her manolos.  Until she meets Balthazar (Pierre Niney), 20,  and her cougar credit sends her career sky high. Whacky japes and romantic scrapes ensue, but when feelings come into play, Alice must decide if Balthazar is more to her than just a boy-toy.

Screening: Rialto, Sunday, 2 March, 5.30pm; Sunday, 9 March,  8pm; Takapuna, Monday, 10 March, 8.30pm; Sunday, 16 March,  6.30pm.

4. Mademoiselle C

Nothing says France like high fashion. This slick little doco from Fabien Constant is a balls-to-the-wall, access-all-areas pass to the heady world of Haute Courture in the tradition of The September Issue.  Chronicalling the somtimes rocky launch of CR Fashion Book, the brain child of former French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld, Mademoiselle C is a lifestyle ride-along of unparallelled honesty.  It draws back the crimson silk chiffon curtain on Roitfeld's career and personal life too and it's on drenched in celebrities, models and inspirational gorgeousness.  This is a must see for fans of frocks that rock.

Rialto, Friday, 28 February, 10.30am; Saturday, 1 March, 6.30pm; Tuesday, 4 March, 8.30pm; Thursday, 6 March,  12.30pm; Takapuna, Monday, 10 March, 6.30pm; Friday, 14 March, 10.30am; Sunday, 16 March, 4.30pm.

3. Our Heroes Died Tonight

Fixed wrestling matches in seedy dives, smoke hazy bars, stark black and white images of swarthy men with serious faces - Our Heroes Died Tonight is the kind of French cinema your Mama warned you about - mad, bad and dangerous to know. A pair of wrestlers are caught up in the world of match fixing and mobsters when a plan to swap masks and share winnings falls afoul of gangland plans. Tense, tough and dripping with noir class, this one will put you out for the count.

Screening: Rialto, Wednesday, 12 March, 8.30pm; Saturday, 15 March, 4.15pm; Takapuna, Thursday, 6 March, 8.30pm.

2. The Days of the Crows

The only animated feature in the festival, The Days of the Crows tells the magical, emotional tale of a wildboy of the woods (Lorant Deutsch) and his "ogre" father (Jean Reno). The pair live in rustic hardship deep in a magical forest inhabited by the benevolent spirts of the dead. The boy's rough and tumble life is turned upside down when he discovers the nearby villiage and meets Manon (Isabelle Carré).  Captivated, the boy discovers what real love looks like through his friendship with Manon. Chanelling Studio Ghibli's magic realism, The Days of The Crows is a family film with a very grown up and touching message of love at its vibrant heart.

Screening: Rialto, Saturday, 8 March, 4.30pm; Monday, 10 March, 12.30pm;  Sunday,  16 March,  3.30pm;  Takapuna, Saturday, 1 March, 2pm; Monday, 3 March, 10.30am; Wednesday, 5 March, 6.30pm; Wednesday, 12 March, 10.30am.

1. La Flabuleuse histoire de la tête Maori du Museum de Rouen

In a festival unusually gifted with excellent documentary entries, this one comes a little closer to home. La Flabuleuse histoire de la tête Maori du Museum de Rouen (The Fabulous History of Rouen Museum's Maori Head), uses a journalistic style to describe the political to-and-fro of returning a Maori head, held in a French Museum for more than 100 years,  to iwi. The documentary raises difficult (perhaps more so for the French, than iwi) questions about the human remains preserved in museums and making restitution for the imperialism of past generations.  Add to that an obstinate museum director and five years of political squabbles between Paris and the provinces and you have a unique viewing experience.

Screening: Rialto, Saturday, 1 March, 10.30am; Takapuna, Saturday, 15 Mar 10.30am