The 18th annual edition of the Rouen "Festival du Cinema Nordique" will take place this year between March 9 -19 in this most picturesque of northern French cities. One may wonder what is the connection between France and Nordic cinema and the answer is two-fold: (1) Rouen, the seat of the festival, is situated in the heart of Normandie, a part of France which was invaded and colonized by the Vikings, or "Northmen" -- the Men of the North, way back in the middle ages, hence the name of the region, and (2) the prime mover and chief programmer of the fest, Isabelle Dualt, is Norwegian-French, completely fluent in both languages, and therefore ideally placed and uniquely qualified to introduce the cinema of the Northern countries to the cinephiles of France.
What makes this festival special is that the Rouen definition of "Nordic" is considerably broader than other Scandi-centric festivals of this kind, embracing, in addition to the usual "Nordic Five" -- (Iceland, Norway,
Denmark, Sweden and Finland) -- the three Baltic Republics, northern Germany, and the Low Countries, Belgium and Holland -- in other words, the entire northern European littoral over which Nordic influence was exerted at one time or another -- all of which makes for a for a wider scope of interesting programming than one might expect.

In past years complete retrospectives of the works of such lesser known cinema masters as Belgium's Andre Delvaux have been presented, and last year's guest of honor was Swedish director Vilgot Sjoman, a contemporary of Bergman's, and best known for the "I am curious Yellow" ( and Blue) films of the sixties. The Rouen fest always comes up with discoveries of one kind or another both in the area of features as well as shorts and documentaries.
One of the gems last year was a full length documentary on the Belgian cartoonist Hergé who created the legendary Tin-Tin comics translated into dozens of languages and still sold in bookstores around the world.

This year the focus is on Norway, 2OO5 being the centenary of that country's independence from Denmark. Another section will introduce early postwar Finnish cinema, which has not come under scrutiny for many years. A jury composed of French film professionals will award best film and best
performance prizes from a roster of fourteen new features in competition. Just under two hours from Paris by train, the festival is centered practically in the shadow of the magnificent Rouen cathedral, familiar to
art lovers all over the world from the famous series of paintings of this medieval monument by impressionist master Claude Monet, who was himself a Normandie native. All in all, a fine place to bone up on the cinema of the north.

By Alex Deleon