Vive la France! on silver screen

Dorothy Brown's Cinema has unveiled its menu of Gallic cinematic delicacies as part of this year's national Alliance Francaise French Film Festival.

Francophiles will be in heaven with a slate of contemporary films and documentaries to choose from in the boutique Arrowtown picture house, depicting on the silver screen intrepid adventures, music and literature, the glamorous, inspiring and the heart-warming, cinema manager Samantha Relph said.

Opening night on April 10 has already sold out and will screen at 6pm the New York-set French comedy Chinese Puzzle, starring Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou.

On April 11 at 11am, Mademoiselle C documents the launch of a new fashion magazine by influential fashionista Carine Roitfeld.

Then, in the adventure drama Turning Tide at 6pm, Francois Cluzet stars as a skipper of a high-tech yacht competing for the Vendee Globe, a strictly solo, three-month, round-the-world yacht race, who discovers a stowaway on board.

Belle and Sebastian, about the friendship forged between a lonely Swiss boy and a wild mountain dog as the Nazis arrive in their alpine village, is presented on April 12 at 1.30pm.

The family drama is followed at 3.30pm by Attila Marcel, a whimsical comedy drama about a 30-something virtuoso pianist attempting to break free of his aristocratic aunts.

Sex, ambition and age differences in the world of Parisian publishing is the focus of the comedy It Boy at 8.30pm.

Chinese Puzzle plays again on April 13 at 1.30pm, followed at 4pm by Bright Days Ahead, a comedy drama starring Fanny Ardant, about a newly retired woman's new lease on life and love.

American neo-cons, corrupt Russians and money-grabbing Chinese are the least of the troubles of a minister's young speechwriter in the comedy Quai d'Orsay at 6pm.

Turning Tide returns on April 14 at 11am, as does Attila Marcel at 6.30pm.

There is another chance to see Bright Days Ahead on April 15 at 11am, then at 1.30pm a long-divorced couple put their differences aside to help their only child in the road movie Tenderness.

Cycling with Moliere, a comedy about two bickering actors taking on Moliere's challenging comedy of manners The Misanthrope, screens at 6.30pm.

Belle and Sebastian is back on April 16 at 11am, followed by Suzanne at 8.30pm. Sara Forestier takes the title role in a drama about a reckless woman's life choices, which have huge consequences for her loving working-class family.

A boy's life changes when he discovers a neighbouring village and meets a beautiful young girl in the animated fable The Day of the Crows on April 17 at 11am.

Under the Rainbow at 1.30pm is a live action modern day patchwork of fairytale characters and plots written by the Academy Award-nominated screen-writing duo of Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri.

A misfit teacher, a boy and the boy's fragile estranged mother form a family, but their bond is soon tested in the romantic drama Going Away at 8.30pm.

Cycling with Moliere makes an encore on April 18 at 11am, then a die-hard middle-aged Tour de France fan decides to live his childhood dream and compete in the cycle race in Tour de Force at 6.30pm.

Tour de Force, starring Clovis Cornillac, pedals back on April 19 at 1.30pm.

At 6pm, a reluctant young law student is asked by his father to go to Algeria and save the family house from demolition, but his attitude changes when he falls in love with a beautiful girl from the village in Homeland.

The final day of April 20 features The Day of the Crows again at 1.30pm and at 6pm is The Finishers, a drama about a disabled son who wants to bond with his father by competing as a team in the Ironman triathlon in the French Riviera.