French-Language Film Series
Whitman College
October 12-15 November, 2007
This French-language series is made possible by the «Tournées» program, with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture (CNC). For further information, please see the website of the French-American Cultural Exchange. Additional funding provided by the Cinema Arts Series, the Visiting Educator Fund, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, and the Office of the Dean of the Faculty at Whitman College.
For further information, please contact Jack Iverson, 526-4750, iversojr@whitman.edu
L'Enfant / The Child
12/14 Oct. (Fri./Sun.), 7:30 pm, Hunter 212 - Kimball Auditorium
Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne; Belgium / France, 2005; 95 mins.
Dispossessed twenty-year-old Bruno lives with his girlfriend Sonia in an Eastern Belgian steel town. They live off Sonia’s unemployment benefits, panhandling, and the petty thievery of Bruno and his gang. Their lives change forever when Sonia gives birth to their child Jimmy. She returns home from the hospital to learn that Bruno has sublet their apartment to total strangers. The two are forced to make do under a highway bridge. Bruno feels little attachment to their baby and Jimmy becomes little more to him than a new source of wealth. Desperate for money, Bruno sells Jimmy through the black market. Upon learning what Bruno did, Sonia faints and ends up in the hospital. Realizing his terrible mistake, Bruno sets out to get his baby back. He eventually does but is forced to come up with the money that his black market contact lost in the failed deal. After stealing the day’s earnings from a small store, Bruno and his young associate are caught during a chase with the police. Transformed by his newly discovered sense of responsibility to his son, Bruno steps forward and takes responsibility for the crime and lands in prison, whereas his young partner goes free.
Awards: Golden Palm, Cannes Film Festival (2005)
Reviews on the Movie Review Query Engine
Les Amitiés maléfiques / Poison Friends
18 Oct. (Th), 7:00 pm, Olin Hall 130
Emmanuel Bourdieu; Belgium / France, 2006; 100 mins.
Eloi, a reserved but passionate literature student and son of a well-known writer, befriends André, a brilliant and charismatic student willing to stand up for true literature and criticizing vehemently his peers for their desire to write and published. Mesmerized by André’s impressive intelligence, Eloi and his friends, Alexandre and Edouard, let André become their mentor. With Andre’s help, Alexander enters a famed theatre school and Eloi has the courage to ask Pr. Mortier to supervise his dissertation. Edouard, on the other hand, is soon despised by Andre as he committed the “sin” of having a short story published. This caused Eloi to throw away the book he has been working on. Soon, Eloi and Alexandre discover that André lies, but their admiration for him takes time to erode. The two friends are not the only ones who become disappointed with André; Pr. Mortier, who has the utmost admiration for this bright student, discovers his mediocrity while reading his dissertation. He refuses to grant him a Ph.D. and André threatens him. Faced with humiliation, André pretends that an important research job in a American University awaits while he is in fact joining the French army as a literature instructor. In the meantime, Eloi’s book is recovered by his mother and published to critical acclaim, and Alexander’s career in theatre is flourishing. Caught in a maelstrom of deceptions, André will finally have to confront both the success and rejection of his friends..
Awards: SACD Screewriting Award, Grand Golden Rail and Critics Week Grand Prize, Cannes Film Festival (2006)
Most Promising Actor (Malik Zidi), César Awards (2007)
Indigènes / Days of Glory
25 Oct. (Th), 7:00 pm, Olin Hall 130
Rachid Bouchareb; France, Marocco, Algeria, Belgium, 2006; 120 mins.
In 1944 and 1945 the liberation of Italy, Provence, the Alps, the Rhone Valley, Vosges, Alsace was essential to the victory of the allies. What is little known is that these victories were largely due to the accomplishment of recruits from Africa. 130 000 natives from North Africa and 20 000 Africans fought to liberate France, a country they had never seen before. With a reputation for endurance, sense of orientation and great courage, they were sent to the front lines of the battlefields. Days of Glory relates the forgotten story of these soldiers known as “Indigènes” through four of these courageous men: Yassir, Abdelkader, Saïd and Messaoud. Yassir expects to collect a booty for his services in the army. Surprised by the warm welcome he receives from the French, Messaoud hopes to marry and live in France, in order to escape racism in Algeria. By joining the military, Saïd wishes to escape poverty in Morocco and hopes to find a family in the French army. Abdelkader becomes a soldier to fight for liberty and equality. While fighting for freedom, these soldiers must face tremendous racism in the military, and in French society, forcing them to struggle for equality of treatment at every turn.
Awards: Best Screenplay, Lumière Awards (2007); Best Writing, César Awards (2007); Best Actor (male ensemble cast), Cannes Film Festival (2006)
L'Esquive / Games of Love and Chance
30 Oct. (Tues.), 7:00 pm, Olin Hall 130
Abdellatif Kechiche; France, 2003; 117 mins.
Set in a bleak suburban housing project, Games of Love and Chance follows a group of teenagers, poor and immigrant for the most part. Many are involved in a class production of Marivaux’s 18th-century classic Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard. The rehearsals, both in and out of the classroom, are often the stage for their daily interactions. Krimo, whose dad is in prison, leaves his long-time girlfriend to pursue Lydia, a petulant girl who plays the lead role. Although he has no theater experience and the performance is days away, his infatuation leads him to take the part of Arlequin to play opposite Lydia – making a fool of himself in the process. Arguments among the group quickly surface as Krimo’s sudden love interest turns into a source of gossip and tension. His ex-girlfriend accuses Lydia of luring him away while Krimo’s friend begs Lydia to tell Krimo if she is interested in him. Although Games of Love and Chance reveals a lot about France’s multiethnic youth culture, the film is almost more about the French language than anything else with the juxtaposition between the teenagers’ multi-ethnic slang and the polished rhetoric of the 18th century.
Awards: Best Film, Best Director, Most Promising Actress (Sara Forestier), César Awards (2005)
Bamako
8 Nov. (Th), 7:00 pm, Olin Hall 130
Abderrahmane Sissako; France, Mali, USA, 2006; 115 mins.
Over the course of a few days, a trial pitting African civil society against such international financial institutions as the World Bank and the IMF has set a stage in the courtyard of a home in Bamako, Mali. The trial’s examination of Africa’s debt to the World Bank, which threatens Africa’s sovereignty and continues to alienate and deprive her people, provides a surreal contrast to the everyday life shared by families whose homes surround the courtyard. As numerous trial witnesses (schoolteachers, farmers, writers, etc…) air bracing indictments against the multinational economic machinery that haunts them, life in the courtyard presses forward. Chaka, an unemployed married father, is preoccupied with the imminent break up of his marriage to Melé, a popular Bamako lounge singer. He is being harassed by a detective who accuses him of stealing a gun. In the midst of the powerful testimonies being made at the trial, the juxtaposition of Chake and Melé’s story, as well as those of their neighbours, give a voice to Africa’s silent majority and further fortifies Africa’s case against the World Bank. Filled with warm colors and inspirational music, Bamako voices Africa’s grievances in an original and profoundly moving way: educating, and at the same time, entertaining the audience.
Awards: Jury Special Prize, Carthage Film Festival (2006); Best Francophone Prize, Lumière Awards (2007)
Paris, je t'aime / Paris, I Love You
15 Nov. (Th), 7:00 pm, Olin Hall 130
France, 2006; 116 mins.; Participating directors: Olivier Assayas, Frédéric Auburtin, Emanuelle Benbihy, Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Joel and Ethan Coen, Isabel Coixet, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, Gérard Depardieu, Christopher Doyle, Richard LaGravenese, Vincenzo Natali, Alexander Payne, Bruno Podalydès, Walter Salles, Oliver Schmitz, Nobuhiro Suwa, Daniela Thomas, Tom Tykwer and Gus Van Sant
Paris, je t'aime is a patchwork of eighteen short films by different directors. Each one had to tell a story located in one of Paris' “arrondissements” in less than five minutes and on a relatively tight budget. This atypical collective film bears the hallmark of major international filmmakers and the names of stellar actors such as Natalie Portman, Gena Rowlands, Elijah Wood, Ben Gazzara and Catherine Deneuve. Among the many witty and serendipitous narratives that make up this portrayal of Paris, a young foreign worker moves from her own domestic situation into her employer's bourgeois environs; an American starlet finds escape as she is shooting a movie, a man is torn between his wife and his lover, a father grapples with his complex relationship with his daughter. Paris, je t'aime offers an interesting perspective on how foreign directors see Paris. Although they are all different in style, the films find a unity in the theme that they explore. They all tell a story about the sometimes fragile relationships that bind people who have recently met or who have known each other well.
The «Tournées» program is sponsored by: the Florence Gould Foundation, the Grand Marnier Foundation, highbrow entertainment, agnès b., and the Franco-American Cultural Fund.