Editor

Coming up on January 29th & 30th at the Crest Theatre - The Sacramento French Film Festival presents a Cinema Concert featuring a silent comedy & live music performed by the Sacramento Philharmonic.

The Sacramento French Film Festival presents a one-of-a-kind event: the North-American premiere of An Italian Straw Hat (Un Chapeau de paille d'Italie, 1928), one of the most famous and funny French silent film by acclaimed director René Clair, with new musical score.

Music will be performed live by twelve musicians from the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra -including an accordion player of course! Raymond Alessandrini, French composer of the new score, who will travel from France especially for the occasion, will conduct the orchestra.

Mr. Alessandrini will arrive in Sacramento on Thursday January 27th and will be available for interviews. Prior to that he can by joined by phone or email in France (contact Cécile for more details).

Based on a play by vaudeville playwright Eugène Labiche, An Italian Straw Hat is a highly entertaining typical French farce: Fadinard is on his way to his wedding when his horse eats the hat of a married woman who was spending time with her lover in the bushes of the Bois de Vincennes... To avoid her dishonor, Fadinard must find the very same rare hat, made out of straw from Italy. This will greatly disturb his wedding plans... for our guilty pleasure. Film critic Pauline Kael described An Italian Straw Hat as "One of the funniest films ever made... so expertly timed and choreographed that farce becomes ballet."

There will be only two performances of this fun-filled and one-of-a-kind event featuring a rare 35mm restored print from the French repository of film archives, the Cinémathèque Française.

This project is supported in part by a grant from the Sacramento Region Community Foundation. The Grant was awarded to the SFFF for an "outstanding collaborative arts project." This collaboration between two professional arts organizations - both recognized for the high quality of their programs- is a first for Sacramento. We hope that this partnership will lead the way for other arts groups to collaborate in making Sacramento a more vibrant and inventive arts community.

WHEN: Saturday January 29th, 2011 - 8pm & Sunday January 30th, 2011 - matinee 2pm

WHERE: CREST THEATRE - 1013 K Street, Downtown Sacramento.

WEBSITE: www.SacramentoFrenchFilmFestival.org