French film festival starts
February 21
Far From Men, one of six
films to be shown at a French film festival at the University of Rhode Island
in February and March. Photo by Cohen Media.
The
University of Rhode Island is once again hosting a French film festival with
six movies, ranging from a story about orphaned girls in the Turkish countryside
to a tale about Versailles on the eve of the 1789 revolution.
The
films from Feb. 21 through March 8 are free and open to the public and will be
shown Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons at either Fogarty Health Sciences
Building, 41 Lower College Road, or Chafee Social Science Center, 142 Flagg
Road, both on the Kingston campus.
The
third Tournées French Film Festival was made possible with a $2,200 grant from
the French American Cultural Exchange, a New York-based nonprofit that promotes
French culture through grants and special projects in the arts and education.
“The
French section is delighted to host another festival,’’ says Leslie
Kealhofer-Kemp, assistant professor of French. “It will provide the URI
community with another great opportunity to watch a diverse selection of films
from the French and francophone world.’’
Here
are screening times of the films, all subtitled in English:
School
of Babel/La cour de Babel, directed by Julie Bertucelli, Wednesday, Feb. 22,
at 3 p.m. in Fogarty, Room 214. The film follows a year in a Paris schoolroom
for children who have recently immigrated to France. Using a fly-on-the-wall
intimate style, the documentary provides unforgettable glimpses into the lives
of teens from Mauritania, Serbia, Venezuela, Romania, Senegal, Libya, Ireland,
Brazil and China.
Mustang, directed by
Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 4 p.m. in Chafee, Room 271. An
Academy Award nominee for best foreign film, Mustang begins
when the childhoods of five orphaned sisters in the Turkish countryside come to
an abrupt end. Their grandmother and uncle discover that they had been swimming
in the sea with boys and lock them inside the house. Things go downhill from
there—medical checks, arranged marriages, even suicide—yet a glimmer of hope
remains through the rebellious acts of the youngest sister.
Chicken
with Plums/Poulet aux prunes, directed by Marjane Satrapi and
Vincent Parronaud, Wednesday, March 1, at 3 p.m. in Fogarty, Room 214. A
graphic novel adapted to the big screen, the film is set in Tehran in 1958 and
mostly includes live action. The real actors—including Mathieu Amalric as
Nasser-Ali Khan, a gifted violinist so miserable he wills himself to die—appear
before hyper-stylized sets that make the film seem like a parable. The reason
behind Nasser-Ali’s anguish is revealed: the end of his first—and only—great
love affair.
Far
from Men/Loin des hommes, directed by David Oelhoffen, Tuesday, March 7, at
4 p.m. in Chafee, Room 271. Adapted from Albert Camus’ short story The
Guest, the film begins in a one-room schoolhouse in the Atlas Mountains,
where Daru (Viggo Mortensen), the son of Spanish settlers, teaches Algerian
children French at the start of the Algerian War. One day, local French police
officers appear with Mohamed, an Algerian accused of murder, and charge Daru
with escorting him to the closest city for trial while they continue to fight
the growing insurrection. The film is a gripping meditation on the fate of
individuals tossed around by sociopolitical forces beyond their control.
Chocolat, directed by
Claire Denis, Wednesday, March 8, at 3 p.m. in Fogarty, Room 214. The film is
seen through the eyes of a French district officer’s girl in a remote part of
Cameroon. When a French plane crash-lands nearby, the officer takes in its
passengers, a group of colonial administrators and entrepreneurs who soon bring
to light the many tensions underlying the family’s sleepy existence.
For
more information, visit http://web.uri.edu/languages/tournees-french-film-festival or
call Kealhofer-Kemp at 401-874-4699.