SanFranciscoFilmSociety

 French Actor Mathieu Amalric Directs and Stars in This Sexy, Wistful Comedy,

Featuring Burlesque Performers from San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles and New York

San Francisco, CA – The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21–May 5) will close with On Tour, Mathieu Amalric’s directorial feature about brassy American burlesque performers touring the French countryside, 7:00 pm, Thursday, May 5 at San Francisco’s landmark movie palace the Castro Theatre. Several of the featured performers are expected to attend. The 54th International will have its final hurrah following the screening at the Closing Night celebration, 9:30 pm at the Factory.

Acclaimed French actor Mathieu Amalric directs and stars in this unsentimental homage to the burlesque show and outsized female personalities barely contained by the proscenium stage. This chatty, bawdy entertainment reminds us that women have real bodies—and they want to run the show. All the women in On Tour—winner of the jury prize for Best Director and the FIPRESCI prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival—are authentic American performers of what is dubbed the New Burlesque. Their acts are not only comic, theatric and erotic but also hypnotic, draped knowingly in feather boas, in a wink to audiences who think they’re watching just a striptease. Keeping the acts and the narrative flowing is the troupe’s manager, Joachim (played by Amalric, in a performance that recalls his lovable alienated misfits in Arnaud Desplechin’s films [Kings and Queen, SFIFF 2005]). A former French TV producer who left France for the United States after some untold disgraces, Joachim has found renewed purpose with a bevy of burlesque queens. He brings them to France with him for a tour of the countryside that will be either a journey of redemption or an utter failure. For the sassy, brassy ladies, it’s a different story. They’ve been promised Paris, but they are willing to give their all in the seedy theaters Joachim books for them in backwater towns along France’s west coast. They are pros after all, and in the end, the show must go on.

“What better finale for the International than a rousing French film that embraces an American phenomenon, merging American exuberance with French élan,” said Director of Programming Rachel Rosen.

At 9:30 pm the Closing Night party kicks off at the Factory, 525 Harrison, near First Street. Partygoers will bring down the final curtain on SFIFF54 with festive drinks, hors d’oeuvres and music inspired by the Gallic/American, neo-burlesque spirit of On Tour.

Admission to the Closing Night film and party is $65 for San Francisco Film Society members and $80 for the general public; film only is $25 for members and $30 general; VIP tickets are $115 for members and $140 general; Festival Premier Package, members only, $165. For tickets and information visit sffs.org/tickets. Tickets go on sale March 21 for members and March 30 for the general public.

SFIFF54 Closing Night screening of On Tour is sponsored by TV5 Monde, French American Cultural Society and the French Consulate, San Francisco.

For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.