Sponsored by: The Lafayette College Departments of Foreign Languages & Literature, History and Religion, the Dean of Intercultural Development, The Landis Center, and Minority Engineers and Scientists
When: Wednesdays: September 26– October 31, 2011 at 7 PM
Where: Oechsle Hall 224 with the exception of Hors Satan (SOcotber 17) which will be held in the Kirby auditorium (104)
………………………….Free admission, all films are subtitled in English
FEATURE FILMS
La Princesse de Montpensier
Wednesday, September 26
7 PM
Based on the 1622 novel of the same name by Madame de Lafayette, Bertrand Tavernier’s supple, gripping historical epic unfolds during the French Wars of Religion (1562–98), which pitted Catholics against Protestants and ravaged the nation. The film centers on Marie de Mézières, who, though in love with one man, the Duke de Guise, is married off by her politically calculating father to the Prince of Montpensier, whose own father proves just as scheming. Even more men pine for the great beauty: the Duke d’Anjou and the Count de Chabannes, the prince’s former tutor, who watches over Marie when her husband is called to fight. Matching the intensity of the stunning battles fought on vast hillsides are the more intimate struggles and interpersonal clashes taking place behind closed castle doors: between headstrong Marie and her father, between the rivals for her affection—and, most touchingly, between the gentle Count de Chabannes, a man of God, and the barbarity of the world
http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/ThePrincessOfMontpensier.html
Un Prophète
Wednesday, October 3 in Oechsle Hall, 224
Malik, the 19-year-old French-Arab criminal vividly portrayed by Tahar Rahim enters prison as an uneducated naïf. But by the time he leaves jail, he will know how to read—and how to kill. Jacques Audiard’s intricate study of the bloody rules and rituals behind bars never once glorifies the shocking violence that becomes a rite of passage for Malik, who, friendless, feels he must do the savage bidding of a ferocious Corsican crime boss in exchange for protection. Instead, the director (sometimes referred to as the “French Scorsese”) examines prison as its own specific social system, its corruption, cronyism, and racism a reflection of France at large. As Malik begins to defy the Corsican overlord and make decisions of his own, he becomes drawn to another Muslim inmate who teaches him how to read and write. For as much as we cheer Malik’s small victories on his slow road to redemption, he remains a deliberately ambiguous hero— one who will always have copious blood on his hands.
Credits & Trailer: http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/UnProphete.html
Il y a longtemps que je t’aime
Wednesday, October 10 in Oechsle Hall, 224
The women-in-prison film has a long, glorious and tawdry history; what’s more difficult to pull off is the story of a lady sprung from the slammer. In his helming debut, director-screenwriter Philippe Claudel, a novelist and professor of literature, crafts a solid woman’s picture that, as a wonderful star vehicle for Kristin Scott Thomas, suggests a kinship with Warner Bros. weepies from the 1940s. First seen rather conspicuously without makeup, her skin color resembling three-day-old institutional grub, Scott Thomas plays Juliette Fontaine, a former physician who’s just completed a 15-year jail sentence for murdering her young son (though the reason for her incarceration isn’t revealed until the final act). Her younger sister, literature professor Léa, takes her in, anxiously trying not to upend the snug comfort of her middle-class clan with this new addition. As she reacclimates to civilian life, Juliette slowly thaws, becoming closer with her nieces, but her calm is punctuated by believably spiky outbursts. Scott Thomas gives a remarkably deft performance, being careful not to outact Zylberstein, who particularly shines during a seminar discussion about Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. Throughout, Claudel and his cast smartly reimagine melodramatic conventions, creating a film that fully earns its moments of emotional excess.
Credits & Trailer: http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/ihaveloveyousolong.html
Hors Satan
Wednesday, October 17 in Kirby Hall Auditorium
A mysterious poacher—who may be the Devil, an avenging angel, or perhaps Christ himself—is the central figure of Bruno Dumont’s transcendent look at sinners and saints, one of the themes explored in his previous film, Hadewijch (2009). An unnamed man engages in several near-wordless rituals: He knocks on a door, receives a sandwich, prays, then sets out on a long walk with a young woman. Set in the Nord-Pasde- Calais region in northern France, where Dumont grew up, Hors Satan is a film of extraordinary widescreen compositions; it was shot by the director’s frequent collaborator, the cinematographer Yves Cape. Like many of Dumont’s movie, Hors Satan concerns landscape—the dunes, marshes, hills, and valleys of this hamlet near the English Channel—as much as it does spirituality. Possessed with supernatural powers, Dewaele’s character, as we discover, commits mostly acts of beneficence. But he’s also capable of carrying out horrific violence. Deliberately ambiguous, Hors Satan asks us to consider the repercussions of evil committed in the name of good and vice versa.
Credits & Trailer: http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/HorsSatan.html
Tomboy
Wednesday, October 24 in Oechsle Hall, 224
A sensitive portrait of childhood just before pubescence, Tomboy, the second film by writer-director Céline Sciamma, astutely explores the freedom of being untethered to the rule-bound world of gender codes. About 20 minutes elapse before we learn the real name and biological sex of Laure, a gangly, short-haired kid about to go into fourth grade. Her family has just moved to a suburban apartment complex a few weeks before the school year starts. The clan’s relocation provides Laure an opportunity for re-invention, introducing herself to her playmates as Michaël —an identity that gives her the liberty to go shirtless and wrestle with the other boys, attracting the attention of crushed-out Lisa. Sciamma shows a real gift for capturing kids at play, filming the August afternoons devoted to soccer and water battles as their own otherworldly time zone. But the director doesn’t present an uncomplicated view of childhood: Laure/ Michaël, beginning to reciprocate Lisa’s smitten feelings, lives in anxiety of being found out as much as she revels in being a boy. Extremely empathic, Tomboy isn’t simply an earnest plea for tolerance: Childhood itself, the film intimates, is full of ambiguities, of sorting out what you are drawn to and what repels you.
Credits & Trailer: http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/Tomboy.html
A Separation
Wednesday, October 31 in Oechsle Hall, 224
A Separation (in Persian: جدایی نادر از سیمین Jodái-e Náder az Simin, “The Separation of Nader from Simin”) is a 2011 Iranian drama film written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, starring Leila Hatami, Peyman Moaadi, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat, and Sarina Farhadi. It focuses on an Iranian middle-class couple who separate, and the conflicts that arise when the husband hires a lower-class caretaker for his elderly father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.
A Separation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, becoming the first Iranian film to win the award. It received the Golden Bear for Best Film and the Silver Bears for Best Actress and Best Actor at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, becoming the first Iranian film to win the Golden Bear.[It also won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.[5] The film was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award, a rare occurrence for a foreign language film.
Support for the Tournées Festival is provided by The French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs / The Centre National de la Cinématographie /The Florence Gould Foundation / The Grand Marnier Foundation / highbrow entertainment. www.facecouncil.org
Local media sponsor: WDIY