Rendez-Vous With French Cinema Puts Focus on Renoir

A score of films ranging from drama to comedy by established and rising talents, as well as a selection of work by and about Jean Renoir will make up the 18th edition of Rendez-Vous With French Cinema, a series presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance Films, an entity sponsored by the French government, the society announced Tuesday. The showings, scheduled to take place not only at Lincoln Center, but also at the IFC Center, BAMcinematek and the Paris Theater, will begin Feb. 28 and run through March 10.

The festival’s opening night, at the Paris, will feature the American premiere of “Populaire,” a social comedy starring Deborah Francois and Romain Duris. Set in the 1950s, it is the tale of a high-speed typist and her debonair boss. In a sign of the film’s commercial potential, the Weinstein Company will release it in the United States in July.

Several other North American or U.S. premieres are also included in the RendezVous program, among them “Therese Desqueyroux,” a new adaptation of Francois Mauriac’s novel about a woman suffocating in her marriage, with Audrey Tautou in the title role. An earlier version, from 1962, will also be shown, starring Emmanuelle Riva, nominated this year for an Oscar for best actress for her performance in “Amour.”

Several other films are about or by the eminent director Jean Renoir, beginning with Gilles Bourdos’s “Renoir,” a biopic focusing on the young filmmaker’s relationship with his father, the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The director’s masterpiece “The Rules of the Game” will also be shown, with an introduction by Mr. Bourdos, as will “The River,” his first color film, and “Boudu Saved From Drowning,” the inspiration for “Down and Out in Beverly Hills.”

Besides Mr. Bourdos, several other actors, actresses and directors are scheduled to appear, including Ms. Tautou and Niels Arestrup, the star of “You Will Be My Son.” That! film, an almost Shakespearean drama about generational intrigue and conflict in the wine-producing business, will close the festival.