In a picturesque town on the coast of Brittany, the Dinard Film Festival celebrates the best of British and Irish Film.
“Can Rupert Everett please make his way to the gate.” This is the announcement at the gate from London Gatwick to Rennes, the day before Dinard Film Festival is due to kick off on the Brittany coast. Everett is this year’s jury head. Whilst you might have more readily heard of Deauville, the American Film Festival of France which takes place in Normandy (and has a cameo in the upcoming Joachim Trier film Sentimental Value), Dinard dedicates itself to the cinema of Britain and Ireland, an industry-focused festival that is nonetheless beloved by the local population.
Whilst my colleague Issy Carr takes the plane, I myself arrive in Dinard by train from the French capital, where Fashion Week is in full swing. After the Eurostar from London I take the Paris-Brest train (that famously gave the dessert its name), and am touched to see that madeleines are available on the train. When dipped in tea, Proust’s madeleine famously took him back to happy summers spent on the coast of Brittany and Normandy in A la recherche du temps perdu. Travelling with me is producer Elizabeth Karlsen, who is on the board of the film festival, and tells me she has been to the festival every year for 33 years. She recalls that in earlier, richer times—used to charter a plane for festival guests.
It’s easy to see why there’s a film festival here. Dinard is a wealthy, picturesque town located along the rugged Brittany coast, where the weather is invariably windy and inclement (with an ability to be sunny and rainy at the same time that I’ve only ever experienced in Ireland). Throughout the town are signs advertising the festival that look like London tube stops and blue police boxes. The festival started here in 1989, in an attempt to revive the region’s ties with the UK (it is Brittany after all). Its importance to the town can be felt in its infrastructure, more than just temporary festival structures, in the central grey palais and Stephan Bouffet cinema, as well as the beach huts, each labelled with the name of a previous jury members and presidents—from Jane Birkin and Anouk Aimée to Eric Cantona and Berenice Bejo.
This years’ jury spotlighted a range of talents and expertise in British and French cinema. Whilst Rupert Everett, the jury head, sadly had to make an early exit due to a family emergency, ever suave, he delivered a pre-filmed message at the opening ceremony, presented by Dinard’s mayor Arnaud Salmon—in fluent French. Everett was replaced by renowned French television journalist Claire Chazal. Her French co-jurors were actors Reda Kateb (who you’ll know from the likes of Spiral and Zero Dark Thirty) and actress Rachida Brakni.
A Rabbit’s Foot speaks to the other jury members which include Jennifer Saunders, an icon of British comedy. Saunders—fresh off an appearance at Burberry with her Absolutely Fabulous co-star Joanna Lumley—couldn’t say no to Rupert, who has been a friend of hers since university. “It was Rupert. And I hadn’t seen him for a long time. I thought, well, that’d be nice. In France for a week?,” she tells us. “We love Dinard and we love the Mayor and his assistant Richard,” say Ruby Wax and Molly Dineen. The comedian and documentarian also form part of this year’s jury– who believe Everett compiled the jury so there would be as much diversity in skillset as possible (Stage, screen, comedy, documentary, television are all represented). Neighbours in London and friends for over 30 years, Wax and Dineen joke that they have been arguing in all the interviews. “We look at each other like cats, hissing.” says Dineen. I confirm I won’t bring up Brexit like a French journalist did previously.
On Friday morning, Issy attends a chaired panel centred on the relationships between the French and British film industry, that involved French distributors in conversation from the BFI and British Council. Their discussion focused on the cultural identity of British films and why they work for French audiences, along with reasons for co-production between the two places, films performing well at the box office in France and an insightful conversation about animation.
Another big presence at the festival is Alfred Hitchcock. The British film director’s rotund silhouette appears on the festival logo, and flat statues of the same design, with added birds on his shoulder, are dotted throughout the town. Hitchcock visited Dinard—then an aspirational holiday resort—in the 1930s. A house which sticks out on the cliffs inspired the house in Psycho. Today, in homage, it is lit up in pink at night.
The opening night of the festival is attended by Kristen Scott Thomas. The Briton—who is deeply beloved in France, and has spent half of her life here—shows her film My Mother’s Wedding out of competition. A semi-autobiographical drama, it stars Scarlett Johansson, Emily Beecham and Sienna Miller as sisters navigating the memory of grief of their “two fathers” who were killed at war as they watch their mother (played by KST) remarry. “In interviews there would always be a sentence referring to my tragic childhood,” says Scott Thomas, introducing the film on stage. “This was a chance for me to respond to that.” The film, while British in sentiment, had moments of homage to her adopted country. Amongst them Thibault de Montalembert, who stars as Miller’s billionaire suitor.
In this year’s main competition is Akinola Davies Jr’s My Father’s Shadow (a film A Rabbit’s Foot adored when we first saw it in Cannes), Paul Andrew Williams’ Dragonfly, Thordur Palsson’s The Damned, Dylan Southern’s The Thing With Feathers and Marc Evans’ Mr Burton. The latter—a wonderful film which tells the story of how Richard Burton became Richard Burton, starring Harry Lawtey and Toby Jones, which won the Hitchcock Award for Best Feature and won Lawtey Best Performance.
While it was disappointing to see an all-male line-up of directors in competition, elsewhere the festival spotlighted young female talents such as Nadia Fall with her radicalisation drama Brides (based on true stories, it is set in a non-descript seaside town so as to avoid associations with one specific place) as well as Daisy May Hudson’s Lollipop—a brilliant, hard-hitting debut about a woman who attempts to regain custody of her children. Also playing was Harris Dickinson’s Urchin (A Rabbit’s Foot interviewed and shot him and his lead actor Frank Dillane just before its premiere in Cannes).
It’s important to remember that Dinard is a festival for Irish, as well as British cinema. The Irish films were amongst the key highlights from the festival—Brendan Canty’s Christy, Brian Durnin’s Spilt Milk and Thordur Palsson’s The Damned—In the documentary genre, there was also the brilliant Edna O’Brien biopic Blue Road (A Rabbit’s Foot interviewed the director of this earlier in the year), which puts forward the writer’s radical, rebellious spirit. As if to counterbalance this Irish punk spirit, the British documentary Twiggy—directed by Sadie Frost, examines the creation of the modelling icon. Excitingly, Twiggy herself made an appearance at the opening ceremony.
And there are naturally things going on beyond the festival. The key hotel in Dinard is Le Grand Hôtel, and is a highly elegant building with smart blue shutters and sweeping views of the coastline. Whilst it is normally advisable to not eat shellfish on a work trip, in Dinard it feels pretty safe—particularly good restaurants include the Oyster Bar, where you can buy half a dozen oysters for only €9. If however, shellfish still feels like too much of a risk, a crêpe is your safest bet. The Crêperie du Roy is a Dinard institution, and even hosts an opening festival event. Beyond food, trips to St Malo are easy (the intrepid journalist and critic Sophie Monks Kaufman makes the journey). On the beach in Dinard a saltwater swimming pool is so picturesque that Anne Hathaway filmed a scene here (as cinematographer and friend of A Rabbit’s Foot Benoit Delhomme informs us) in the 2011 film One Day.
Perhaps the French love English cinema more than the English. It’s a sentiment evoked by in the festival’s opening ceremony. In Dinard, at least, it feels true. Each screening is filled with local French people—who spill out enthusiastically of screenings, despite the rainy weather. (I’m very intrigued to know what they all thought of Danny Dyer’s football hooligan comedy Marching Powder). With filmmakers we talk to, they are all touched by the positive feedback they have from the audience, with British and Irish-made films clearly holding a soft spot in the heart of the French. In Dinard, the Brit is put firmly back into Brittany.
