HKFFF 2026: Hong Kong In French Cinema - With Tributes to Brigitte Bardot and Nathalie Baye 

“French Frames in Hong Kong” presents a selection of French films that have crossed paths with the city: 

            

  

The classic Chinese Adventures in China (Les Tribulations d’un Chinois en Chine), adapted from the novel by Jules Verne’, stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as the wealthy Arthur, who finds life dull until an unexpected stay in Hong Kong leads him to a sense of purpose and true love — Alexandrine, a woman equally captivated by the city’s landscapes. The film genuinely explored local culture and made it an accidental documentary for 1960s Hong Kong. It not only managed to capture lost traditions in Hong Kong on camera like the street storyteller (講古佬) and the bird divination (靈雀占卜), both of which were already history in Hong Kong, it also included landmarks that had been gone or demolished nowadays, such as the old HSBC Headquarters, the Jumbo Floating Restaurant and the Kai Tak Airport. 

The 1970s comedy Banzai (Banzaï) follows insurance broker Michel as he travels the world helping clients, only to encounter one mishap after another; the chaos finally resolves when he rescues his fiancée on a floating seafood restaurant in Aberdeen. The humour of the film is reflective of the cultural differences at the time the film was being produced, yet still manages to capture the beauty of the city with scenes at the Peak and the city street where many neon signs remained. 

The action comedy The Guardian Angels (Les Anges gardien) pairs French comedy with the brisk pacing of Hong Kong cinema: a shady Paris underworld boss meets an upright Catholic priest in the city, and the clash of their personalities mirrors the comic friction of Hong Kong–France cultural exchange.

The psychological thriller La Moustache, adapted by director Emmanuel Carrère from his own novel, follows Marc, who shaves off the moustache he has worn for a decade and begins to feel ignored by his wife, friends and colleagues. He flees to faraway Hong Kong, where he rediscovers himself in an utterly unfamiliar place. The city emerges as a quietly bustling community, offering glimpses of everyday life while echoing the protagonist’s detachment from the world around him.

In Largo Winch, made in 2008, the orphaned protagonist is adopted and groomed as heir by a French tycoon. When the tycoon is assassinated, he crosses the globe to avenge his adoptive father while uncovering the truth of his own origins, culminating in a final confrontation with his enemy in Hong Kong.  It is a fast-paced action thriller comparable to Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible series. 

Across these films, Hong Kong is more than a backdrop: it offers a changing portrait of the city as seen by French filmmakers since the 1960s.

If “French Frames in Hong Kong” shows French cinema’s imagination of the city, the other two parts of this year’s retrospective turn the focus back to French cinema itself, paying tribute to two major figures who passed away this year.

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Brigitte Bardot has long been a household name in France and an internationally recognised symbol of sexual liberation. This year’s festival presents two films that best capture her style and share them with Hong Kong audiences. 

In And God Created Woman (Et Dieu… créa la femme), she plays the young and spirited Juliette, who moves among three men yet remains true to herself, unmoved by money, interests or domestic life. When her newlywed husband looks for her, she is dancing with a group of male musicians in a bar. This 1956 film was Bardot’s breakthrough and caught the attention of Simone de Beauvoir. In a 1959 essay, de Beauvoir noted that Bardot’s subversiveness lay in the fact that she was “both hunter and prey” — her attitude towards men was the same as the way men sought to reduce her to property, and it was precisely this that wounded male pride. For de Beauvoir, Bardot’s “sincerity” was her most dazzling quality: she neither provoked nor created scandals; she simply followed her instincts. 

In Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 New Wave film Contempt (Le Mépris), Bardot plays a wife whose love has nowhere to go. Faced with a husband who struggles to realise his dreams yet buries himself in work, she grows increasingly resentful, repeatedly starting arguments and expressing her grievances. Through Bardot’s performance, the gradual shift from love to resentment in a relationship is laid bare; this profound portrayal of relations between men and women remains as relevant today, in 2026, as ever.

From the first French film screening at Queen’s Theatre in 1953 to the 55th Hong Kong French Film Festival today, the encounter between Hong Kong and French cinema has never truly been interrupted. Whether through the streets, harbours and skylines that French directors have filmed on our doorstep, or through the unforgettable performances of Brigitte Bardot and Nathalie Baye, these works remind us how cinema can bring cultures closer together across time and distance. We hope this retrospective will not only celebrate a shared history, but also inspire Hong Kong audiences — longtime cinephiles and newcomers alike — to discover, or rediscover, the richness of French cinema.

Credits: Bernard Lau

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