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Audrey Tautou doesn’t need a festival to get her lovely, French-speaking self on the big screen in Australia. The rest of France, however, needs a bit of a celebration to remind us how easy it is to while away the hours listening to French in a darkened room.

The Alliance Française Film Festival is on and while it has already said au revoir to Sydney and Melbourne, the rest of the country can still get down to their local French allied theatre for some frog watching.

The festival runs until the end of March in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and the Big C and my hot tip is on Le Petit Nicolas to have you giggling your way to sub-titled delight. Choice picks from each capital city are listed below. Book tonight to avoid … le disappointment.

And if readers in other spots are feeling a bit miffed not to be part of the French action, Crikey film blogger Luke Buckmaster has just reviewed the latest “delightfully screwy French film” from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the man who brought you Delicatessen and Amélie. MICMACS is a loopy take on a league of heroes story, he says, driven by a character who has a bullet lodged in his brain and can die at any moment. Tense, but funny.

Canberra: Le Petit Nicolas

Delightful.  Funny. Set in a 1950s schoolyard. Find out why five million Frenchies saw Le Petit Nicolas during its 2009 run at the French box office. Greater Union Manuka (6.30pm Saturday, March 27)

Brisbane: je suis heureux que ma mère soit vivante (I’m Glad My Mother is Alive)

This film was apparently considered the best French film at the recent Venice Film Festival. It’s the story of a boy who was adopted at the age of four and tracks down his birth mother to understand why. Palace Centro (7pm Friday, March 26)

Perth: LOL

Fourteen-year-old Lola (the LOL of the title) returns from the summer break to find her boyfriend has cheated on her, so she moves onto his best friend (only in France). Meanwhile, her mother (played by the gorgeous Sophie Marceau) is having relationship issues of her own. Doesn’t sound like an LOL a minute. Cinema Paradiso (6.45pm,  March 27)

Adelaide: Bellamy

Gérard Depardieu — what would a French Film Festival be without the lovable Frenchman? — plays inspector George Bellamy (modelled on author Georges Simenon’s beloved Jules Maigret character) who stumbles upon a murder mystery when he goes on holiday. Eastend Cinemas Palace Nova (6.45pm Thursday March 25)