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Film Series - Fall 2006
The French and Francophone Film SeriesFor the detailed program of screenings, scroll down or click here.
Québec Cinema Week (Nov. 6-10)
Organized by the Center for Canadian Studies. Click here.
Movies in this series are screened at 8:00 pm, unless otherwise noted.
All films are screened at the Griffith Film Theater, Bryan Center, on the West Campus of Duke University, Durham. 35mm films will be screened in French with English subtitles. All films are open to the public and free, unless otherwise noted.
This program is organized with support from the Center for European Studies, the Center for Documentary Studies, and in collaboration with the Film/Video/Digital Program. Very special thanks to Hank Okazaki.
For more on this and other film series, please visit the Screen/Society site and their French/Francophone page.
| Monday, Sept. 4 L'enfant In The Child, Jérémie Rénier plays Bruno, a dysfunctional 20-year-old who spends his days thieving and dealing in all sorts of substances, licit and illicit. His girlfriend Sonia, 18, has just given birth to their son, Jimmy, but Bruno does not seem ready to assume any paternal responsibilities. True to their trademark, the Dardenne brothers have cooked up another interesting brew of the personal and the political. This movie won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. |
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Monday, Sept. 11 Après vous Pierre Salvadori's meandering comedy offers the pleasure of watching the great French actor Daniel Auteuil squirm delicately through the role of the world's most overzealous, uptight good Samaritan. His character, Antoine, manages a snooty Parisian restaurant where wine is the thing. His life changes the night he saves a stranger by dashing into a park and cutting the noose as he is about to hang himself. With Louis (José Garcia), the would-be suicide, protesting every step of the way, Antoine makes it his personal mission to fix everything wrong in Louis's life.[...] — Stephen Holden, The New York Times |
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Thursday-Friday, Sept. 14-15 !!! Special showtimes: 7:00 and 9:30 pm !!! Free for students (Hidden) (M. Haneke, 2005) Georges, who hosts a TV literary review, receives packages containing videos of himself with his family -- shot secretly from the street -- and alarming drawings whose meaning is obscure. He has no idea who may be sending them. Gradually, the footage on the tapes becomes more personal, suggesting that the sender has known Georges for some time. Georges feels a sense of menace hanging over him and his family but, as no direct threat has been made, the police refuse to help... In collaboration with Freewater Presentations. |
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Monday, Sept. 25 De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté(The Beat that my Heart Skipped) (J. Audiard, 2005) Twenty-eight-year-old Tom (Romain Duris) seems destined to follow in his father's footsteps as a Parisian property shark, lost in a sleazy and sometimes brutal milieu. But a chance encounter with his late mother's music agent leads him to believe that he can become, like his mother, a concert pianist. In earnest, he starts preparing for the audition with the help of a beautiful, young virtuoso pianist who has just arrived from China. She doesn't speak a word of French; music is their only exchange. But pressures from the ugly world of his day job soon become more than he can handle. |
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Monday, Oct. 2 Mondovino Wine has been a symbol of Western civilization for thousands of years. Never has the fight for its soul been as desperate. Never has there been so much money and pride at stake. But the battle lines are not what you'd expect: local versus multinational, simple peasant versus powerful captains of industry. In the world of wine, it is never the usual suspects. |
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Monday, Oct. 16 L'esquive 2 screenings: 1 pm and 8 pm The second film of Kechiche draws its restless energy from its setting in the Parisian projects, recently the scene of widespread rioting by marginalized young second-generation immigrants. Tunisian-born Kechiche gets inside the head of a shy teenager (Osman Elkharraz), who overcomes the taunts of his friends to act in a school production of a classic 18th century play, if only to perform opposite the girl of his dreams. L’Esquive swept the French César Awards, winning Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Female Newcomer (Sara Forestier). |
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Movies in this series are screened at 8:00 pm.
All films are screened at the Richard White Aditorium, on the East Campus of Duke University, Durham. DVD's will be screened with English subtitles. All films are free and open to the public.
This program is organized with support from the Program in Women's Studies, the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies, and in collaboration with the Film/Video/Digital Program. Very special thanks to Hank Okazaki.
For more on this and other film series, please visit the Screen/Society site and their African cinema page.
Monday, Oct. 23 Abouna In N’Djamena, the dry, dusty capital of Chad, an errant father abandons his family, an event quite common in this poor country. When he fails to show up to referee their soccer match, 15-year-old Tahir and his younger brother, Amine, set out to look for him, though it soon becomes clear that he is gone for good. The boys’ mother, feeling abandoned and unable to cope, places them in the care of a Koranic school far from home. Unhappy in the authoritarian and sometimes brutal environment, the boys plan to escape and search for their father, until Tahir falls in love with a mute local girl. |
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Monday, Oct. 30 Madame Brouette Mati, a divorced mother of a young daughter, makes a living selling bric-a-brac from a wheelbarrow and dreams of opening a snack bar. But she falls for the charms of Naago, a policeman, and it's only when the Tajaboom festival (at which women and men switch roles) arrives that her opportunity for escape emerges. |
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Monday, Nov. 13 Nha Fala Before leaving for Europe to pursue her studies, Vita, a young African woman promises her mother that she will never sing. A family legend has it that any woman in her family who sings is cursed and will die. In Paris, Vita meets Pierre, a young musician and falls in love. Full of joy, she lets herself go and sings. Vita is horrified by what she has done, but Pierre, overwhelmed by her talent, convinces her to make a record. The record is an overnight success. Fearing her mother will learn that she broke her promise, Vita decides to return home… To die! Aided by Pierre, Vita stages her own death and resurrection, showing family and friends that anything ispossible, if you have the courage to dare. |
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Monday, Nov. 20 Traces, empreintes de femmes The wall paintings of the Kassenas women in Burkina Faso, near the border with Ghana, are famous for the beauty of their patterns and the harmony of their colors. In looking at this subject, Katy Lena Ndiaye has chosen to compare and contrast tradition with modernity, seen through the intertwined portraits of three old women and their "grand-daughter", whom they are initiating in their ancestral art. She has made a film whose aesthetic is fully under control, a genuine portrait of an artistic community preoccupied with the issue of how to hand down traditions, of education and memory in an Africa undergoing fundamental change. |
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