French homepage
March - April 2007
3/25/07
Mickael Haneke, Caché (Hidden) (2005)
Georges
(Daniel Auteuil) the television host of a literary magazine, and his wife Anne (Juliette
Binoche) are living a perfect life of modern comfort and security. One day,
their world is disrupted when they receive a videotape from an anonymous source.
On it, they discover that their house had been filmed by a hidden camera. As
more tapes arrive wrapped in drawings that are disturbingly violent and
personal, the walls of security that Georges and Anne have felt around them
begin to crumble. Georges launches his own investigation and secrets from his
past are revealed. As a young child, Georges was confronted by his parents’
wishes to adopt Majid, the son of their Algerian farm workers who disappeared in
Paris during the police brutality that followed the October 17, 1961
demonstration. Georges made up a lie about Majid who was put into foster
care…A psychological thriller that masterfully brings the viewer into the
story, Caché
is as much a searing commentary on France’s bourgeoisie and its colonial
heritage as it is about father-son relationships. Awards: Best
Director, Cannes Film Festival (2005) Best Director, Best film, Best Actor
(Daniel Auteuil) European Film Awards (2005) Best Foreign Language Film, Los
Angeles Film Critics Association Awards (2005)
3/28/07
- Ousmane Sembène, Mooladé (2004)
In Mooladé,
Ousmane Sembène continues to provoke his audience and reiterates the strong
feminist consciousness that marked his previous film, Faat Kiné. This time, he
takes on the explosive issue of female circumcision, a practice still common in
Africa. Set in a small African village, four young girls face a ritual
purification that involves genital mutilation. They flee to the house of Collé
Ardo Gallo Sy, a strong-willed woman who once managed to shield her teenage
daughter from circumcision. Collé invokes the time-honored custom of “mooladé”
(sanctuary) to protect the fugitives, creating a conflict in the community and
forcing every villager to take sides…Sembene sets the action amidst a
colorful, vibrant tapestry of village life and expands the narrative well beyond
the bounds of straightforward, socially-conscious realism, employing an
imaginative array of emblematic metaphors, mythic overtones and musical numbers.
Mooladé is the second of a trilogy of films about heroism in daily life and, to
use Sembene’s own words, about the ‘underground struggle’ of people which
is often overlooked by their governments and the rest of world. Awards:
Best Film Award, Un Certain Regard - Cannes Film Festival (2004)
4/1/07-
André Téchiné, Les Temps qui changent (Changing Times) (2004)
Antoine
(Gérard Dépardieu) arrives in Tangiers from Europe to supervise the building
of an audiovisual center. The secret aim of his journey is to link up with Cécile
(Catherine Deneuve) whom he has continued to love with a silent passion for more
than thirty years. Cécile emigrated to North Africa and married Natan, a
Jewish-Moroccan doctor. Sami, their son, arrives at his parents’ place with
his girlfriend Nadia, who is raising Saïd, a young child. Sami and Nadia help
each other to pursue their separate passions. Nadia tries to reconnect with her
twin sister, Aïcha, who lives in Tangiers. Aïcha has distanced herself and
refuses to see Nadia. Sami attempts to reconcile his relationship with Bilal
with his love for Nadia. Antoine tries to win over Cécile and reignite the
passion she once felt for him. While at first she thought he was crazy and
immature, Cécile feels restless and begins to question her life. When a
terrible accident sends Antoine into a coma, Cécile stays at his bedside in
Tangiers while Natan moves to Casablanca.
4/15/07
– Jacques Audiard, De Battre mon coeur s’est arrêté (The Beat That My Heart
Skipped) (2005)
In
this stylish reinterpretation of James Toback’s 1978 cult neo-noir film Fingers, Jacques Audiard has combined equal parts Bach and rock, in
a groundbreaking Gallic transformation of a thoroughly American genre:
gangster-seeking-redemption film. Twenty-eight-year-old Thomas (Romain Duris)
appears destined to follow in the footsteps of his slumlord father. Tom is a
sleazy real estate manager who expels squatters from low-rent buildings. An
unexpected encounter with the agent of his late mother who was a classical
musician reignites a long-buried desire for life as a concert pianist. When the
agent proposes an audition, Tom finds a special teacher and propels himself back
into his almost forgotten world of classical music, even as he continues to
strong-arm deadbeats and other thugs under pressure from his father. As the
conflict between his parents’ widely disparate spheres intensifies, Tom feels
his longing to be a musician undermining his place in the shadows of the Paris
underworld. Will he find liberation? This City of Lights thriller has a richly
orchestrated mélange of menace, yearning, and grace. Awards:
Best Film Music, Berlin Film Festival (2005)
4/22/07
– Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne, L’Enfant
(The Child) (2005)
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)
ADMISSION
IS FREE. All films are in French with English subtitles. Except for Sembene’s Mooladé,
which will be screened at 7 p.m. in Brownson Hall, Room 8, the other films will
be screened a 7 p.m. in Pius X Hall of the Music Building.
The Tournées Festival was made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture (CNC). Sponsors include The Florence Gould Foundation, the Grand Marnier Foundation and the Franco-American Cultural Fund.
For more information, please contact Binita Mehta at mehtab@mville.edu
This
festival is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the
French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture (CNC).