The Competition
All Films
•
2h 0m
Directed by Claire Simon | 121 mins | 2016
The Competition begins, significantly, with the image of a locked gate—that of La Fémis, one of the most prestigious film schools in the world, offering hands-on training from working professionals and accepting only 40 students per year from hundreds of applicants. This Wiseman-esque documentary from Claire Simon, one of France’s premiere nonfiction filmmakers, observes the process whereby those lucky 40 are selected—a process that is revealed to be highly personal, idiosyncratic, and subject to the vagaries of taste and personal prejudice. Funny, penetrating, and surprisingly suspenseful, The Competition offers not only a unique opportunity to see the inner workings of an institution at the very heart of the French film industry but an invitation to look at the assumptions and roadblocks that shape any national film industry, and higher education in general.
A Metrograph Pictures release.
Up Next in All Films
-
The Deep Blue Sea
Directed by Terence Davies | 99 mins | 2011
In a tour de force performance, Rachel Weisz plays a woman brought to breaking point after shunning her husband, a High Court judge (Simon Russell Beale), in order to pursue a passionate affair with a dashing but troubled former RAF pilot (Tom Hiddlesto... -
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Directed by Werner Herzog | 110 mins | 1974
After spotting self-taught outsider artist Bruno S. in a documentary about street musicians, Herzog was determined to work with him, and proceeded to cast this troubled man with zero acting experience who’d been raised in mental institutions as the lead... -
The French
Directed by William Klein | 130 mins | 1982
“For me, this film encapsulates everything I loved and love about the tennis of that moment; and in the hands of the great and singular William Klein, it is at once a gripping sports page, a fascinating piece of reportage, and a work of art.”—Wes ...
