January
The Wedding Cake (Pièce Montée)
93 min, 2009
When Vincent and Bérengère decide to get married, they do so in the high style of the haute bourgeoisie, from the chateau to the catering, which features a piéce montée—a towering cake, precariously assembled from cream puffs and caramel. On a beautiful spring day, the respective families of the bride and groom arrive in their elegant clothes and their luxury cars. The mother of the bride’s concern with appearances even extends to covering up an unsightly martyr at the church where the ceremony is to be held. But not everything is comme il faut, as becomes apparent when the crusty local priest rushes through the rites and chases the wedding party from the church. What is his problem? Bérengère’s grandmother knows, and when she tells, it sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to bring down a family façade cultivated over decades. Based on Blandine Le Callet’s eponymous debut hit novel, this confection from director Denys Granier-Deferre (15 years after his previous big-screen foray) uses the prism of each guests' points of view to reveal everyone's shortcomings and the hypocrisy of the event.

February
Top floor left left (Dernier étage gauche gauche)
110 min, 2010
This is not the way it was supposed to happen. Like every other morning, Christian Echeveria, huissier, should have been able to levy his daily distress in this Parisian suburb, before going back to his comfortable home. But that's not what destiny had planned for him, as he'll get to understand it when Salem Atelhadj, 17, takes him a hostage, under his father's desperate eyes, in the tower's twelfth floor which will soon be surrounded by policemen and anti-terrorists squads.

March
Tomorrow at dawn (Demain dès l'aube) (2009)
96 min
A man dealing with a variety of crises learns his brother may have even more troubles than he does in this drama from director Denis Dercourt. Mathieu Guibert (Vincent Perez) is a musician who has sunk into a swamp of anxiety and depression, aggravated by a difficult relationship with his booking agent and former wife Jeanne (Anne Marivin) and the news that his mother (Francoise Lebrun) has been diagnosed with cancer. When Mathieu's mother warns him that his brother Paul (Jeremie Renier) has developed some strange hobbies, Mathieu looks in on him and learns Paul has joined a group that reenacts military campaigns from the era of Napoleon. Mathieu regards Paul's new pastime as eccentric but not dangerous until he meets a self-proclaimed Captain (Aurelien Recoing) who challenges Mathieu to a duel -- using real weapons. Demain des l'aube (aka Tomorrow At Dawn) was an official selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened as part of the "Un Certain Regard" program.