MACARONI CHEESE

Movies, men and mischievous film festival behaviour, Girls-style.

With $40,000, a camera, comedic script and cast of friends, burgeoning French auteur Sophie Letourneur (Chicks (Life at the Ranch), MIFF 2010) attended the 2011 Locarno Film Festival with a mission: to weave the movie mecca into her next feature. In one swift week of parties, star-spotting and screening her short film Le marin masqué, the writer/director/actress did just that, crafting a warts-and-all romantic portrait of sex and cinema.

Filmed in pseudo-guerrilla fashion, with production assistant Camille Genaud and editor Carole Le Page doubling as Letourneur's on-screen gal pals, a cameo from art-house heart-throb Louis Garrel as her object of desire and a who's who of European film critics and programmers in supporting roles, Macaroni & Cheese presents a playful yet sincere take on finding love, following lust and forming lifelong friendships in a heady and heightened world.