OKLAHOMA CITY – Sacré bleu! It’s already time again for the Oklahoma City Museum of Art to turn its Sam Noble Theater over to the most prestigious, ponderous, and emotionally complex purveyors of indie world cinema as they once again present French Film Week in July.
Each year, coinciding with Bastille Day and counterprogramming the Hollywood blockbuster summer, OKCMOA fills their film slate with some of the best recent French fare, and this year, that lineup boasts sizzling drama, thrills, comedy, and at least one American star stealing the show.
So lay out your berets, chesses, and wine, because for one week in July, we’re all French.
‘Two Pianos’
A homecoming, a dangerous love, and an unraveling thread of mind games set the stage for this twisted, charged romantic drama from French great Arnaud Desplechin.
When a long-absent piano prodigy finally returns to his hometown to accompany his spiky, demanding mentor, he’s unexpectedly faced with a long lost love, a mysterious vision of the past, and his own spiraling insecurities and buried fears.
What follows falls somewhere between Hitchcock and “L’appartment,” a sexually charged confrontation of regrets, paranoias, and the towering expectations of musical mastery.
Plus, you get French screen legend Charlotte Rampling glowering, manipulating, and proving that she may still be the reigning queen of the psycho-sexual drama.
‘The Girl in the Snow’
In the opening days of the 20th century, a wide-eyed, city-raised young woman arrives in a largely isolated, snow-covered mountain town, all filled with idealism and modern ideas, and becomes a teacher to the local children, even as suspicious, myths, and accusations begin to swirl around her.
But as misfortune, tragedy, and catastrophe come creeping into the residents’ snowy winter lives, it’s the idealistic outsider and her tales of the wider world that they blame, casting her as a bad omen and maybe even as something more sinister.
The first proper narrative feature for Louise Hémon, it’s a mysteriously slow burn and a frustratingly timely story of a self-righteous and paranoid community looking for a scapegoat as they teeter on the edge of a terrifying new world.
‘That Summer in Paris’
Shot during the actual 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Valentine Cadic’s “That Summer in Paris” is proof positive that not all modern French film is brooding or psychologically fraught.
Instead, we get a sweetly human fish-out-of-water dramedy about a young woman from the coastal calm of Normandy braving the bustling city and the Olympic fray just to spend some time with her half-sister.
It’s the kind of film (even from the implied nostalgia of the title) that feels wistful for a time as it’s still happening, but also that feels irrepressibly lively and more than a little chaotic.
It’s no easy feat to shoot a film – especially an intimately and comically emotional one – in the middle of the biggest sporting takeover a city can experience, but there’s also no other way to do it right than to do it for real.
‘A Private Life’
American acting giant Jodie Foster stars in her first-ever French language role in this wriggly, winding comic mystery.
Foster is an American in Paris, juggling the complexities of an ex-husband and an adult son when a patient unexpectedly dies, setting off a search to catch a killer that might not exist and unravel a mystery that only she might even believe in.
Writer/director Rebecca Zlotowski’s follow-up to festival favorite “Other People’s Children,” “A Private Life” twists together the threads of grief, family tensions, and neurotic comedy in a way that few would attempt, but if anyone can carry it all (while alternating between languages, no less,) it’s surely Foster.
‘Affection Affection’
Another mystery of increasing paranoia, confusion, and aloof comedy set against a woman’s own tense family dynamic, but that’s where any similarities to “A Private Life” end.
In “Affection Affection,” a young aide to a small town mayor finds herself at the center of a spiraling mystery as both the mayor and his daughter disappear.
Except that maybe they didn’t. Maybe there’s no mystery at all and our young protagonist is instead just struggling with her own mother’s reappearance. And maybe no one else in the town takes her worries seriously or shares or concerns because they’re all too worried about crimes of their own.
With the breathtaking French Riveria as backdrop, directors Maxine Matray and Alexia Walther deconstruct the classic “picturesque small town” mystery by questioning the motives and the mental state of everyone involved, even the young would-be detective at its center.
For showtimes, tickets, and more, visit okcmoa.com.
Catch Brett Fieldcamp’s film column weekly for information and insights into the world of film in the Oklahoma City metro and Oklahoma. | Brought to you by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Brett Fieldcamp is the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
