WELCOME TO OUR NEXT SCREENING
Sébastien Laudenbach & Chiara Malta’s
CHICKEN FOR LINDA!
(LINDA VEUT DU POULET!)
(France/Italy | 2023 | 73 min | PG coarse language)
In co-operation with the Institut Francais and the Embassy of France
Wednesday 6 August, 7.30PM, University of Otago’s Castle 1 Lecture Theatre**
An innocent request leads to a wild chase as a doting mother tries to gather the ingredients for her daughter’s favourite meal in this charming French animation.
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| | “In the animated French feature Chicken for Linda!, directed by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach, a mother accuses her young daughter of stealing a ring of great and mournful value. When the mother, Paulette (voiced by Clotilde Hesme), discovers her error, she promises to do whatever Linda (Mélinée Leclerc) wishes by way of apology. Linda was an infant when her father died, so she asks her culinarily challenged mother |
| to cook her father’s go-to dish: chicken and peppers. A general strike—Vive la France!—tosses a slapstick wrench into Paulette’s pledge, closing stores and forcing her to secure the chicken by other means. Police officers give slapstick chase. A watermelon truck and its kindly driver enter the fray. Paulette’s older sister, Astrid (Laetitia Dosch)—a yoga teacher who self-medicates with candy—is dragged into the mess… |
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Chicken for Linda! explores the differences in grief and memory for child and spouse with a touch as wisely light as the movie’s score, by the composer Clément Ducol, which lands festive, thrilling, sorrowful notes instrumentally and in songs” (Lisa Kennedy, NY Times).Watch the trailer of Chicken for Linda!–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– |
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FURTHER REVIEW
"There is a flavorful frivolity to “Chicken for Linda!” It’s the kind of film where musical sequences dedicated to stress eating candy and to the idiocy of dying over dinner gleefully divert us from the primary plot. For an animated picture composed of broad, confident brush-strokes, whose vibrant color palette cakes each character in unalterable textured hues—Linda is smeared in yellow and Paulette is smudged with orange—these digressions are a welcomed, poppy change |
| from the immense dread that looms. Maybe I’m simple, but I sat transfixed at the fate of the chicken. I felt profound anxiety as it hit every corner of the frame in a wild scampering toward its several attempted escapes, zipped to high-speed effect by the oddball score. The tension is only lightened by the morbid humor espoused by Linda as she demands for the fowl’s slaughter, at least, until you realize that she isn’t joking—she actually wants the chicken to meet its maker... |
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| Children are often more introspective than we give them credit for, especially when it comes to confronting the realities of death. They have a frankness with themselves and those around them... Linda processes her grief, therefore, the dish’s prominence is reduced. That latent bereavement is replaced by the chance at a new life, a new future, and a new family structure" (Robert Daniels, rogerebert.com).
Finally, watch Directors Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach discuss the artistic style and themes of Chicken for Linda!View the video–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ABOUT THE DUNEDIN FILM SOCIETY
ADMISSION
Free to members.
TO JOIN
To purchase a Half Season membership:- complete a membership form from our website and pay by online bank transfer (06-0942-0696013-00);
- or join at the door before any screening (cash only).
- you can also join at the OUSA office reception at the University of Otago (cash only).
Alternatively, you can purchase a Three-Film sampler ($25), which can be also be shared to bring two friends to one screening. The sampler does not expire and can be used over multiple years.
Membership includes generous discounts at Rialto Cinemas (from Monday to Friday) and the 2025 Dunedin Whānau Marama New Zealand International Film Festival; and FREE entry to the 2025 screenings of all other affiliated New Zealand Film Societies. Each member is entitled to ONE FREE GUEST ADMISSION to a single screening.
Please see our website for further details
**To get to the Castle 1 Theatre: walk up between the University of Otago’s Arts building (Burns) and Information Services building (Central Library), on Albany Street.
WE WELCOME YOUR FEEDBACK!... on this screening, or any other Dunedin Film Society showing, on dunedinfi...@gmail.com –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– |
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| Dunedin Film Society
PO BOX 6139 Dunedin North Dunedin, Otago 9059New Zealand |
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