A French film festival with a common touch

Amodest comedy looks as if it’s about to sink “Titanic” as the all-time box-office champ in France. But have you even heard of it?

It’s “Welcome to the Land of Shtis,” or “Bienvenue chez les ch’tis,” and since opening in late February, it has drawn nearly 18 million Frenchmen and -women, putting it on pace to soon surpass the roughly 20 million who saw “Titanic” in theaters.

“It’s incredible. It’s crazy,” says the movie’s star, director and co-writer Dany Boon, a comic who has appeared in such films as “Joyeux Noel” and “My Best Friend.” “We have made more than 100 million euros with the movie, and that is in so short a time. The box office is not finished!”

The comedy is having its North American premiere Monday evening as the opening presentation of the 12th annual City of Lights, City of Angels film festival. The seven-day Francophilic event includes 27 features, 20 shorts and the April 18 world premiere of the restored 1948 Fritz Lang film noir “Secret Beyond the Door,” which was partly funded by the Franco American Cultural Fund. (Though the “Shtis” premiere Monday is invitation-only, it will screen to the public at 5:15 p.m. April 19.)

Boon doesn’t reinvent the wheel with “Shtis,” but it’s still a charming little comedy that explores France’s prejudice about northern residents who speak in a distinct dialect -- Ch’ti -- and whose culture is quite different from those in the southern regions.

The film revolves around a postal worker, Philippe (Kad Merad), who is forced to leave his wife and child behind to relocate to cold northern France. He quickly learns that the area isn’t a wasteland but rather a nice area filled with friendly, quirky residents, including the lovelorn mailman Antoine (Boon).

“Shtis” is a very personal film for Boon, who hails from the town of Armentieres in the north. Chatting late at night on the phone from Paris, where he is shooting a new film, Boon says he believes “Shtis” has struck a chord with audiences because “in France and Europe, comedies are usually more cynical, aggressive, because society is a lot like that now.”

“For the first time in a long time is a sweet movie with a lot of heart, a lot of tenderness. That is really important for people. They laugh a lot. Even in Switzerland and Belgium, they love the movie. They love the humanity of the film.”

Festival director and programmer Francois Truffart was enchanted with “Shtis” when he saw it at a January screening in Paris.

“I always try to get some good comedies for the program,” Truffart says. “I know that comedies are very, very important in America. For me it was important to get this film in particular. Though it’s about a very specific culture, it is in a way very universal -- a story of having a cliche about people, and you [grow] to understand them.”

Truffart says that his countrymen consider Boon as the new Charlie Chaplin. “He is a comedian, a good director and a writer. He is able to do everything, and he’s very smart.”

So would Boon be willing to test the film waters in Hollywood?

“I met Harvey Weinstein, and he loves my movie,” says Boon of the producer. “He told me he wants to buy the rights for the remake, and he proposed me to direct the remake. I told him, ‘As a French director or as an American director?’ I know it is not the same thing at all because here [in France] a movie director is more the author. You have the final cut. You are the boss here. I know in your country, you are just a technician and you just have to shut up!”

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-- Susan.King@latimes.com

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CITY OF LIGHTS, CITY OF ANGELS

WHERE: Directors Guild of America Theatre, 7920 Sunset Blvd., L.A.

WHEN: Monday through April 20

PRICE: $7 to $10

INFO: (310) 289-5346, www.colcoa.org