{"id":2210,"date":"2017-01-23T13:30:34","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T18:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/humanities\/?page_id=2210"},"modified":"2017-01-23T13:30:34","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T18:30:34","slug":"tournees-french-film-festival-spring-2017","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/humanities\/tournees-french-film-festival-spring-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourn\u00e9es French Film Festival Spring 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

FILM 1: \u00a0Farewell My Queen\/Les adieux \u00e0 la reine<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

2\/21\/2017 (Tuesday)<\/p>\n

4pm, Chafee 271<\/p>\n

Running time: 100\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beno\u00eet Jacquot\u2019s nimble, lush adaptation of Chantal Thomas\u2019s 2003 novel about the chaos at Versailles on the eve of the 1789 revolution is told not through the vantage point of the monarchs but through the eyes of Sidonie, the besotted reader to Marie Antoinette. Compressed to four tumultuous days (July 14\u201317) and taking place almost entirely within the actual royal palace,\u00a0Farewell, My Queen<\/em>\u00a0tracks its protagonist relentlessly. The camera is often positioned just a few inches behind Sidonie as she scrambles down corridors, sometimes tripping, as she tries to make sense of the rumors she hears among other courtiers and rushes to read a few pages of Rousseau to Her Majesty. \u201cYour love of the queen makes you blind to her caprice,\u201d one of Louis XVI\u2019s historians tells Sidonie\u2014and the pleasure of Jacquot\u2019s film is in watching various strains of discreet yet heated, deluded passionate attachment performed. Itchy Sidonie may thrill, however demurely, to the queen\u2019s applying rosewood water to her mosquito bites, but she will seethe in silent jealousy as she watches, unnoticed, Marie Antoinette interlace fingers with and coo over her most prized pet, Gabrielle de Polignac\u2014who makes la\u00a0reine<\/em>\u00a0lose her mind before she loses her head.<\/p>\n

FILM 2:\u00a0School of Babel\/La cour de Babel<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

2\/22\/2017 (Wednesday)<\/p>\n

3pm, Fogarty 214<\/p>\n

Running time: 89\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

School of Babel<\/em>\u00a0follows a year in a Paris schoolroom for children who have recently immigrated to France. Using a surprisingly intimate fly-on-the-wall style, Julie Bertucelli\u2019s documentary gives us unforgettable glimpses into the lives of tweens and teens from Mauritania, Serbia, Venezuela, Romania, Senegal, Libya, Ireland, Brazil, and China, children who have come to France for reasons ranging from studying violin at the Paris conservatory to escaping genital excision. The film\u2019s triumph is in its remarkably succinct manner of creating complex portraits of the children and capturing the diversity of their experience. While\u00a0School of Babel<\/em>is full of incidental insights into French immigration policy and various headline-grabbing sociopolitical situations, the focus remains squarely in the classroom and on the children as individuals wrestling with a new language and a new culture (their heroic teacher primarily remains an off-screen presence). The film builds to a powerful climax when it comes time for the children to tearfully say goodbye to each other and their teacher; while their sadness is heartbreaking, it is also an uplifting sign that shared experience trumps cultural difference. In an age of resurgent uneasiness with all that is foreign,\u00a0School of Babel<\/em>\u00a0is a powerful antidote to fear and suspicion and an inspiring source of hope for France and the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FILM 3:\u00a0Mustang<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

2\/28\/2017 (Tues)<\/p>\n

4pm, Chafee 271<\/p>\n

Running time: 94\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some have called Mustang the \u201cTurkish Virgin Suicides.\u201d While Deniz Gamze Erg\u00fcven\u2019s extraordinary debut has striking thematic similarities to Sofia Coppola\u2019s film, its spirit of revolt is all its own. Erg\u00fcven goes beyond evoking the mystery and marvels of the world of adolescent girls to decry the denial of women\u2019s rights the world over. Mustang begins at the point when the childhoods of five orphaned sisters in the Turkish countryside come to an abrupt end: when their grandmother and uncle learn they have been seen splashing around in the sea with boys, they lock them up inside the house. From there, things only get worse: medical virginity checks, arranged marriages, suicide\u2026 But the film holds our interest and carries our hope through the unrelenting rebellion of the youngest sister, Lale, who will not accept to be deprived of attending her favorite soccer team\u2019s game, just as she will not stand to watch yet another sister be forced into a stranger\u2019s arms. Lale\u2019s long-planned escape from oppression and the sisters\u2019 unbreakable bonds and explosive liveliness in the face of a repressive society are the giddy counterbalances to a sobering account of a state of affairs that holds true for millions of young women. As such,\u00a0Mustang<\/em>, a French co-production and nominee for the 2015 Academy Award for best foreign film, is not only a profoundly enjoyable viewing experience, but an essential one.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

FILM 4: \u00a0Chicken with Plums\/Poulet aux prunes<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

3\/1\/2017 (Wed)<\/p>\n

3pm, Fogarty 214<\/p>\n

Running time: 93\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As they did with\u00a0Persepolis<\/em>\u00a0(2007), co-directors Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Parronaud once again magically translate a graphic novel by the former to the big screen. Unlike\u00a0Persepolis<\/em>, which was entirely animated,\u00a0Chicken with Plums<\/em>, set in Tehran in 1958, is mostly live action. But the flesh-and-blood actors\u2014including a heartbreaking Mathieu Amalric as Nasser-Ali Khan, a gifted violinist so miserable that he wills himself to die\u2014appear before wondrously hyper-stylized sets, a mise-en-sc\u00e8ne that imbues\u00a0Chicken with Plums<\/em>\u00a0with the power of a parable. As Nasser-Ali takes to his bed, where he plans to expire, the film recalls the source of his sorrow, stretching all the way back to his childhood. The talented musician\u2019s unhappy marriage to schoolteacher Faringuisse is recounted, as well as his distant relationship to his two young children (whose own fates are presented in droll flash-forward). Soon the real reason for Nasser-Ali\u2019s anguish becomes clear: the rupture of his first\u2014and only\u2014great love affair, with a beautiful woman called Ir\u00e2ne. Her name assumes subtle allegorical significance in this deeply melancholic film, suggesting that she represents not only a lost love but a country misled.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FILM 5:\u00a0Far from Men\/Loin des hommes<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

3\/7\/2016 (Tues)<\/p>\n

4pm, Chafee 271<\/p>\n

Running time: 101\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Algeria, 1954. The War of Independence is rumbling into being. In a remote one room schoolhouse in the Atlas Mountains, Daru (Viggo Mortensen), the son of Spanish settlers, teaches Algerian children French. One day, local French police officers appear with Mohamed (Reda Kateb), an Algerian accused of murder, and charge Daru with escorting him to trial in the closest city while they continue to fight the growing insurrection. David Oelhoffen\u2019s film starts off as an archetypal Western\u2014two men thrown against each other as they traverse a barren landscape\u2014but when Daru and Mohamed find themselves stuck between French troops and the rebel army, it turns into a gripping meditation on the fate of individuals tossed to and fro by sociopolitical forces beyond their control. Freely adapted from Albert Camus\u2019s short story\u00a0The Guest<\/em>\u00a0(from the collection\u00a0Exile and the Kingdom<\/em>),\u00a0Far from Men<\/em>\u00a0has the classic sheen of the films of Hollywood\u2019s Golden Age: big moral questions projected onto vast landscapes, steely performances from its two stars, and, most importantly, a universality grounded in the specific. While\u00a0Far from Men<\/em>\u00a0is essential viewing for its insight into a conflict whose effects continue to be felt, it is first and foremost a universal story of civilians faced with the absurdity of war.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FILM 6: \u00a0Chocolat<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

3\/8\/2017 (Wed)<\/p>\n

3pm, Fogarty 214<\/p>\n

Running time: 105\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With the release of her beautiful debut feature\u00a0Chocolat<\/em>\u00a0in 1988, director Claire Denis appeared as a fully-formed, major talent who used stunningly composed wide shots, associative sequences of images, and an offbeat eye for detail to evoke the complex moods of Africa in the last decade of French colonial rule. Based on the director\u2019s own childhood as the daughter of a French administrator in Africa,\u00a0Chocolat<\/em>\u00a0is seen through the eyes of a French district officer\u2019s little girl in a remote part of Cameroon. When a French plane crash-lands nearby, the district officer takes in its passengers, a group of colonial administrators and entrepreneurs who soon bring to light the many tensions underlying the family\u2019s apparently sleepy existence, not least of which is the subtly conveyed but deeply sensual attraction between the mistress of the house and the handsome black houseboy, Prot\u00e9e. While the film is as hushed and languid as the plains surrounding the district office, it is full of searing portraits of colonial life, with characters who appear for a single scene but whose memory hovers over the entire film like the implicit promise of the change to come. Shot entirely on location,\u00a0Chocolat<\/em>\u00a0established Claire Denis as one of the least didactic yet most revealing chroniclers of the European presence on the continent, a reputation that would be confirmed by her later films\u00a0Beau Travail\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0White Material<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FILM 1: \u00a0Farewell My Queen\/Les adieux \u00e0 la reine 2\/21\/2017 (Tuesday) 4pm, Chafee 271 Running time: 100\u2019   Beno\u00eet Jacquot\u2019s nimble, lush adaptation of Chantal Thomas\u2019s 2003 novel about the chaos at Versailles on the eve of the 1789 revolution is told not through the vantage point of the monarchs but through the eyes of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-2210","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/humanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}