Tu vas souvent au cinema? Or, for English readers — do you often go to the movies? If you responded “oui” to both questions, you’re in luck, because the Tournées Festival is heading to Boca.
Organized by the FACE (French American Cultural Exchange) and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the Tournées Festival is part of a program that gives universities grants to bring contemporary French cinema to American college students.
Every Thursday, from Jan. 31 to Feb. 28, FAU will screen a collection of five French films, with introductions and discussions by professors from the School of Communications and the Department of Languages. Dr. Stephen Charbonneau, who will be introducing Le Havre and The Kid with a Bike, looks forward to the discussion as an opportunity “to talk about films outside the classroom and a chance to interact with not just the students, but the community as well.”
Many of the films such as Free Men and The Kid with a Bike were shown early last year at Living Room Theaters before, in case you missed them the first time. One film, however, that stands out in the collection is Film Socialisme, a recent work from director Jean-Luc Godard who pioneered the French New Wave movement and inspired a generation of directors, from Scorsese to Tarantino.
The films were selected with the themes of conflict and peace in mind, since the Festival is part of this semester’s Peace Studies cultural events program. Dr. Carla Calargé, who helped get the Tournées Festival to FAU for a third time (the first two being held during spring 2011 and spring 2012), aims to add a unique mix into the FAU campus life by introducing students to “recent French films that otherwise they might not be able to watch or not know of.”
Dr. Calargé, however, also wants to make sure that students are not only watching movies, but that they leave with more insight about the world around them. “The fact that there will be an FAU professor running the discussion for each film is designed to make them experience films as texts they can analyze and reflect upon,” said Calargé.
The Tournées Festival will be every Thursday from Jan. 31 to Feb. 28 at the PA 101 Performing Arts building, next to the University Theatre. The screenings are free and open to the public.
Tournées Festival Catalogue:
Here is a look at the films playing at the Tournées Festival — get ready for a whole lot of drama:
LE HAVRE | LE HAVRE (Drama/Comedy)
Thursday, Jan. 31 at 6 p.m. in PA 101
Aki Kaurismäki, 2011 / 93 min.
Introduction and discussion by Dr. Stephen Charbonneau (School of Communications & Multimedia Studies)
In the port town of Le Havre, Marcel Marx is an elderly writer who has given up on his prospect of writing in favor of a quiet life as a shoeshiner and spends the rest of his days taking care of Arletty, his ill wife, and drinking with neighbors at his favorite bar. But when he discovers Idrissa, a young illegal immigrant from Gabon, he starts to feel a sense of importance as he and his neighbors hide him from the police.
LES HOMMES LIBRES | FREE MEN (Drama/War)
Thursday, Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. in PA 101
Ismaël Ferroukhi, 2011 / 99 min.
Introduction and discussion by Dr. Gerald Sim (School of Communications & Multimedia Studies)
Free Men tells the story of a little-known chapter in the French Resistance during World War II involving Muslim agents who provided North African Jews with false identification papers. Younes, an illiterate Algerian immigrant, is arrested by the French police for selling black market goods, but avoids jail time by spying for them. However, when he befriends Salim Halali, a Jewish singer, he becomes involved in an anti-Nazi resistance group as a defender of freedom.
WHITE MATERIAL | WHITE MATERIAL (Drama/War)
Thursday, Feb. 14 at 6 p.m. in PA 101
Claire Denis, 2008 / 102 min.
Introduction and discussion by Dr. Carla Calargé (Department of Languages, Linguistics, and Comparative Literature)
In an unnamed African country, a white farmer named Maria Vial is the owner of a struggling coffee plantation. As a civil war breaks out in the area, Maria refuses to leave the plantation alone and wants to continue harvesting her crops and is put on edge as the war comes closer and closer to her doorstep.
FILM SOCIALISME | FILM SOCIALISME (Drama)
Thursday, Feb. 21 at 6 p.m. in PA 101
Jean-Luc Godard, 2010 / 101 min.
Introduction and discussion by Dr. Manjunanth Pendakur (School of Communications & Multimedia Studies)
Godard’s Film Socialisme is comprised of three different parts: the first movement, set on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea, explores the lives of several different passengers on the ship, from a Russian detective to a former UN official. The second part involves two children having their parents appear before the “tribunal of their childhood” to question liberty, equality, and unity. The final piece explores important sites in areas such as Palestine, Naples, Odessa, and Barcelona.
LE GAMIN AU VÉLO | THE KID WITH A BIKE (Drama)
Thursday, Feb. 28 at 6 p.m. in PA 101
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2011 / 87 min.
Introduction and discussion by Dr. Stephen Charbonneau (School of Communications & Multimedia Studies)
A young boy named Cyril escapes from foster care to search for his father who abandoned him and a lost bike. However, as caretakers start to catch up with him, Cyril is given some assistance thanks to a random act of kindness from Samantha, a town hairdresser who takes him under her wing.
