French Film Festival
Back for its 38th edition, the festival – which runs from Nov 17 to 27 – features 30 films and is presented as part of the Voilah! France Singapore Festival.
The opening film is the young adult drama Ride Above (2022, rating to be confirmed, 110 minutes, screening at various locations and timings), directed by Christian Duguay and adapted from a popular French novel.
It stars Melanie Laurent, Pio Marmai and Carole Bouquet and follows the story of Zoe, a young woman who grows up at her family’s stables. She yearns to be a celebrated jockey like her father, but after tragedy strikes, she faces the possibility that her dreams might never come true.
Where: Shaw Theatres Lido, Levels 5 and 6 Shaw House, 350 Orchard Road; Shaw Theatres Paya Lebar Quarter, 05-02 PLQ Mall, 10 Paya Lebar Road; Alliance Francaise, 1 Sarkies Road; Projector X: Picturehouse, 05-01 The Cathay, 2 Handy Road; The Projector, 05-00 Golden Mile Tower, 6001 Beach Road
When: Nov 17 to 27
Admission: From $11.50. Certain titles will be screened for free, with registration, at public libraries.
Info: str.sg/wVvM
Israel Film Festival
Organised by the Embassy of Israel in partnership with the Singapore Film Society (SFS), the 30th edition of the festival returns with a slate of comedies, dramas and thrillers.
The programme includes Image Of Victory (2021, NC16, 128 minutes, Sunday 4pm), a historical drama from director Avi Nesher telling the story of an Egyptian newsreel director (Amir Khoury) who is sent to document a military raid on a kibbutz. The story is inspired by the real-life events of the 1948 Battle of Nitzanim.
Where: Shaw Theatres Lido, Levels 5 and 6 Shaw House, 350 Orchard Road
When: Friday to Sunday, various times
MRT: Orchard
Admission: $15 (standard) or $13 (students, seniors, SFS Fam & Friend members)
Info: shaw.onl/iff
The Good Nurse (NC16)
123 minutes, on Netflix, 4 stars
A nurse (Jessica Chastain) at a New Jersey hospital suspects a co-worker (Eddie Redmayne) is behind a number of unexplained patient deaths. She will eventually expose America’s most prolific serial killer.
By the time of his arrest in 2003, Charles Cullen was believed to have murdered some 400 patients via insulin over a 16-year nursing career at nine East Coast hospitals.
The Good Nurse, based on the 2013 book of the same name by journalist Charles Graeber, does not sensationalise or psychoanalyse. It is not even about Cullen. The true-crime drama locates instead a much more human story in Amy Loughren and her friendship with Cullen.
Chastain and Redmayne – two actors whose showiness won them Academy Awards for The Eyes Of Tammy Faye (2021) and The Theory Of Everything (2014) respectively – impress in their underplaying. – Whang Yee Ling
