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Brown to present French Film Festival Feb. 21 through March 3
Brown will present its annual French Film Festival Feb. 21 through March 3,
2002, at the Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main St., Providence. Seventeen French
films will be screened throughout the 11-day festival, which is open to the
public.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Seventeen of the best films recently produced by the
French film industry can be seen by local audiences when Brown hosts its annual
French Film Festival Feb. 21 through March 3, 2002, at the Cable Car Cinema.
Fifteen French language films, all presented with English subtitles, and two
English language films by French directors will be screened during the 11-day
festival, which was founded five years ago.
“The French film industry produces a lot of little jewels that deserve
more attention than they get,” said festival director Richard Blakely, a
visiting assistant professor of French Studies at Brown. “We have a really
good selection this year,” including the acclaimed Maelström
and the well reviewed Fat Girl, Code Unknown and Intimacy.
The French Film Festival is sponsored by various University departments and
programs in addition to support from several community organizations. Assistant
directors and curators for this year’s festival are Brown film archivist
Richard Manning, Jeff Reichert of Cowboy Pictures, and Alexandra Siegler of the
Cannes Film Market and the Toronto International. Susan McNeil is the festival
manager.
Tickets are available at the Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main St., and are $6
per screening for general admission and $4 per screening for students. Passes
are also available for eight screenings at $30 for general admission and $20 for
students. All ticket proceeds provide funding for the festival. For additional
information, send e-mail to [email protected]
or telephone (401) 272-3970.
The French Film Festival schedule:
Thursday, Feb. 21
- 7 p.m. – Fat Girl (À ma soeur!), directed by Catherine
Breillat, France, 2001, 83 minutes. Two sisters – one beautiful, the other
an ugly duckling – experience sexual awakenings during the traditional
family summer vacation.
- 9:30 p.m. – Victor... pendant qu’il est trop tard,
directed by Sandrine Veysset, France, 1998, 90 minutes. Veysset examines the
relationship between Victor, a 10-year-old runaway, and Triche, a prostitute.
Friday, Feb. 22
- 7 p.m. – Roberto Succo, directed by Cedric Kahn, France, 2000,
124 minutes. A cool, stunningly shot account of a man who can kill in quite a
matter-of-fact way and simultaneously nurture a love affair.
- 9:30 p.m. – Trouble Every Day, directed by Claire Denis,
France, 2001, 100 minutes. Denis creates an inimitable view of the contemporary
urban vampire flick, exploring obsessive desires and transgressive fulfillment.
Saturday, Feb. 23
- 12 p.m. – Will It Snow for Christmas? (Y aura-t-il de la neige
à Noël?), directed by Sandrine Veysset, France, 1996, 90
minutes. A gritty, realist take on a woman and her seven children who encounter
exploitation and dysfunction in French farming society.
- 2:30 p.m. – Loin, directed by André
Téchiné, France, 2000, 120 minutes. The on-again/off-again
relationship between Serge, a young truck driver working a route between Europe
and Northern Africa, and Sarah, a Moroccan Jew – a love story set against
the backdrop of illegal smuggling and immigration.
- 7 p.m. – Fat Girl
- 9:30 p.m. – Martha...Martha, directed by Sandrine Veysset,
France, 2001, 97 minutes. Veysset continues her exploration of deeply damaged
families living on the poverty line, a suicidal mother, and a current of
emotional violence running through everyday life.
- 11:55 p.m. – Trouble Every Day
Sunday, Feb. 24
- 12 p.m. – Victor... pendant qu’il est trop tard
- 2:30 p.m. – Martha...Martha
- 7 p.m. – The Milk of Human Kindness (Le lait de la tendresse
humaine), directed by Dominique Cabréra, France, 2000, 93 minutes.
Christelle, having just given birth to her third child and suffering from severe
postpartum depression, runs away from her family and takes refuge in the
apartment of her upstairs neighbor. A sensitive and intimate portrait of a
woman, a family and a community dealing with personal crises.
- 9:30 p.m. – Loin
Monday, Feb. 25
- 5 p.m. – Will It Snow for Christmas?
- 7 p.m. – Maelström, directed by Denis Villeneuve, Canada,
2000, 88 minutes. A fish is the unlikely narrator of this urban folktale about
material worth, personal loss and the possibility of redemption. This haunting
narrative won five Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television GENIE awards,
including Best Picture, as well as Best Canadian Film awards at both the 2000
Montreal and Toronto Film festivals.
- 9:30 p.m. – The Milk of Human Kindness
Tuesday, Feb. 26
- 4:30 p.m. – Roberto Succo
- 7 p.m. – Marie-Line, directed by Medhi Charef, France, 1999,
100 minutes. Actress Muriel Robin received a César nomination for her
captivating performance as Marie-Line, an illegal immigrant working as a chief
cleaner in a mall.
- 9:30 p.m. – Come Undone (Presque Rien), directed by
Sébastien Lifshitz, France, 2000, 100 minutes. The love of Mathieu and
Cédric moves almost dreamlike, flowing back and forth between the
narrative’s past and present.
Wednesday, Feb. 27
- 5 p.m. – Martha...Martha
- 7 p.m. – Code Unknown (Code Inconnu), directed by Michael
Haneke, France/Austria, 2000, 118 minutes. A rare blend of stunning camera
movement, striking acting and directorial
restraint creates a searching and stunning account of separate lives
intersecting in one moment around a bag of pastry. Juliette Binoche gives her
most sublime, believably unglamorous performance to date.
- 9:30 p.m. – Intimacy (Intimité), directed by Patrice
Chéreau, France, 2000, 119 minutes.
Chéreau’s first English-language film, based on a story by English
writer Hanif Kureishi about lost people trying
to find connection in their lives in a London where connection seems
next-to-impossible.
Thursday, Feb. 28
- 5 p.m. – Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m., directed by Claude
Lanzmann, France, 2001, 95 minutes. Based on unused footage filmed in the making
of Shoah (1985), Sobibor centers on an extended interview with Yehuda
Lerner, a Warsaw Jew who was deported at age 16 and ran away eight times,
miraculously avoiding execution until he arrived at the infamous Sobibor death
camp.
- 7 p.m. – Esther Kahn, directed by Arnaud Desplechin,
France/United Kingdom, 2000, 147 minutes; in English. Set in late 19th-century
London, Esther Kahn, daughter of a Jewish immigrant family living in the East
End, pursues an acting career.
- 10 p.m. – Maelström
Friday, March 1
- 4:30 p.m. – Roberto Succo
- 7 p.m. – Time Out (L’emploi du temps), directed by
Laurent Cantet, France, 2001, 132 minutes. Family man Vincent has been fired
– which will anger and disappoint his father, a wealthy, successful
businessman. Rather than disclose the termination, Vincent pretends he is still
working, as Cantet molds an unforgettable portrait of a man disintegrating from
within.
- 9:30 p.m. – Come Undone
Saturday, March 2
- 12 p.m. – L’autre monde, directed by Merzak Allouache,
France, 2001, 95 minutes. Yasmine leaves Paris for Algeria, traveling
through its cities and deserts to follow a trail she hopes will lead to her
missing lover. Along the way she finds a traumatized country and experiences the
violence, generosity, fatalism and hope of its people.
- 2:30 p.m. – Time Out
- 7 p.m. – Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m.
- 9:30 p.m. – Intimacy
Sunday, March 3
- 12 p.m. – Code Unknown
- 2:30 p.m. – Esther Kahn
- 7 p.m. – Marie-Line
- 9:30 p.m. – L’autre monde
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