.Four of the most successful recent French films will be shown at eight UGC cinemas across the country in an initiative set up by the Institut Française and Unifrance.

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Four of the most successful recent French films will be shown at eight UGC cinemas across the country in an initiative set up by the Institut Française

and Unifrance.

Its aim is to support French cinema in Britain and encourage audiences to experience what it has to offer.

The tour, in co-operation with UGC and sponsored by Renault, is launched in London on March 5 and will then visit Cardiff, Sheffield, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham throughout the month. It will also visit Ipswich from March 14 to 16.

Four titles will be shown at each cinema on the tour, all of which are films due to open later in the year.

Summer Things (Embrassez qui vous voudrez), is directed by Michel Blanc, stars Charlotte Rampling, Jacques Dutronc and Carole Bouquet and is described as a trip to the further shores of lust, snobbery and adultery as a group of Parisians take their summer break at a Normandy hotel.

Pot Luck (L'Auberge Espagnole) is a comedy about students on the loose in Barcelona learning lessons about life and love, stars Audrey Tautou, Romin Duris and Judith Godreche and is directed by Cédric Klapisch.

Patrice Leconte's L'Homme Du Train (The Man on the Train) follows a stranger as he arrives in a French village and strikes up an unlikely friendship with a retired teacher and stars Jean Rochefort and Johnny Hallyday.

Etre Et Avoir (To Be and To Have) directed by Nicolas Philibert completes the programme of films touring the UK. It documents an academic year in the lives of a dozen children who are taught every subject by one dedicated teacher at a school in rural France.

Vincent Melilli, assistant director of the Institut Française, said: "The Renault French Film Tour was created by the Institut Française whose main objective is to give full and practical support to British distributors believing in the artistic and commercial value of French cinema.

"With it, we aim to set up an event which will add impetus to the promotional campaign planned for the release of these films."

UGC Cinemas' film marketing manger Kate Cox added: "This is part of our aim to bring as broad a range of film as possible to the UK audience."

n The Renault French Film Tour is at UGC, Cardinal Park, Ipswich from March 14 to 16.

Weblink: www.ugccinemas.co.uk