PLAY

PLEASE NOTE: The trailer has no subtitles but PLAY is presented with English subtitles, as all the other films!

AVAILABLE TO WATCH IN THE U.S.: Wednesday, October 21 @8am PST → Monday, October 26 @8am PST
Paired with the short film INTERMISSION.
Rent PLAY + Intermission
Rent the MiniFest PASS

Join our Zoom Discussion with le Professeur Kevin Elstob & the SFFF Team • Friday October 23 @ 6:30pm PST.
Please RSVP to kelstob@csus.edu to receive the Zoom invitations.

Finding himself at a crossroad, Max (Max Boublil), a wannabe actor now in his late-30s, reviews the videotapes he has shot over the last 25 years, looking for clues in his past to make a decision about his future. And we watch with him as the film’s story unfolds through video snippets of his life in this delightfully nostalgic comedy spanning 1993 to 2018.

Max was 13 years old in 1993, when his parents (cameos by Noémie Lvovsky & Alain Chabat, #Iamhere – SFFF 2020) gave him his first video camera. Since then he has barely put it down. His filming is interrupted at one point when his mother takes the camera away because of his bad grades, a nice trick of the script to allow for older actors to take over the roles when filming resumes.

Over the years, as Max and his friends grow older, a few remain close: his best friends Mathias (Malik Zidi) and Arnaud (Arthur Périer) – each with their own interesting storyline – and Emma (Alice Isaaz, The Mystery of Henri Pick – SFFF 2020). Emma is still part of the gang after all these years and clearly loves him… but Max is too busy, or too afraid, or too stupid, hiding from life behind his camera and refusing to see what is obvious to his friends and the audience.

Play is a clever and inventive comedy with a killer soundtrack! Those of us, both American and French, who grew up in these times will have our own memories to go with the songs. The film talks about love and friendship with a hint of nostalgia. From the 1990s through the late 2010s, it’s the passionate portrait of a whole generation, in which many of us will recognize ourselves, that takes shape through Max’s lens.

It is pure fun!

Not Rated (all audiences).

Reviews

Anthony Marciano signs here a real ode to the 90s and it feels good. Marie Testa - Elle

A film about the 1990’s and 2000’s, about love and separations, about friends and adolescence, about family and its setbacks, about joy and buddies, a film mostly about cinema. In short, Play is a film about a life that looks like us. Laurent Cambon - aVoir-aLire.com

This comedy full of tenderness deserves the trip, as the friends on the screen seem to include the viewer in their ranks. Caroline Vié - 20 Minutes

Besides its script and technical audacity, the success of “Play” owes a lot to its casting. Éric Mandel - Le Journal du Dimanche