Olivet College’s Fall 2009 French Film Festival 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. Tues. Oct. 20: The Class (Dir. Laurent Cantet ) The winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes was Laurent Cantet’s unsparing, unsentimental film about a teacher and his students at a diverse Parisian junior high school. In an unusual example of art imitating life, the film was based on the best-selling book by real-life teacher François Bégaudeau, who also wrote the screenplay and stars in the movie as himself. Working with a cast of non-professional actors, Cantet filmed his “class” for over a year; the result is a hybrid documentary/narrative work that is wholly convincing. The Class is alive with spirited performances; viewers are also treated to a privileged perspective on discussions between teachers and parents, as well as among the teachers in their private meetings and amongst themselves. The Class raises deep, disturbing questions about the motives and prospects of its characters. As François attempts to teach the French language to his multi-ethnic students, many of whom hail from former colonized countries, he offers both the opportunity and the threat of modern cultural assimilation. No one is above reproach in this difficult and important new film, which is sure to spark spirited and thoughtful debate among viewers in post-film discussions. Wed. Oct. 21: The ROMANCE OF ASTREA AND CELADON (Dir. Eric Rohmer) Each remarkable new film by legendary auteur director Eric Rohmer, now approaching his 90th birthday, breaks new cinematic ground, and The Romance of Astréa and Celadon is as exciting and innovative as any of Rohmer’s earlier work during the French New Wave. This time, his movie is based on Honoré d’Urfé’s 17th-century novel, a romance set among the charming young shepherds and shepardesses—as well as the nymphs, fairies, and druids that dwell among them on the Forez plain in 5th-century Gaul. Celadon’s parents do not approve of his love for Astrée, so he feigns a public affair with another young woman to protect their bond. When Astrée rejects him, believing his love for the other to be a betrayal, Celadon throws himself into the river to commit suicide. Astrée believes him dead, but the nymph Galathée and her maidens rescue Celadon from the water in yet another twist that makes this film’s circling and enchanting plot reminiscent of Shakespeare plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet. The Romance of Astrea and Celadon is an exquisite, enthralling, thoroughly cinematic exploration of love, freedom, and honor set in idyllic French pastures, where romance grows like roses on a vine. Thurs., Oct. 22: The Witnesses (dir. André Téchiné) Battles, both literal and metaphorical, have dominated André Téchiné’s last three films: Strayed (2003) saw Emmanuelle Béart and her children fleeing German planes in 1940; Changing Times (2004) featured Gerard Depardieu trying to win back romantically intransigent Catherine Deneuve at any cost. In the director’s bold The Witnesses, set in 1984–85, the body itself becomes a battleground. Or, as Adrien, a gay physician spearheading AIDS research, says to Sarah, a straight female friend, “You’re in love and I’m at war.” Within the film’s foursome—Sarah is a novelist who has a child with vice cop Mehdi, who begins a torrid affair with Manu, a country bumpkin who befriends Adrien while cruising in a park his first night in Paris—dyads will form, split, and recoalesce, particularly after Adrien discovers KS lesions on Manu’s chest. Like Wild Reeds (1994), Téchiné’s film about two young men falling in love during the Algerian War, The Witnesses brilliantly combines the personal and the political, and is one of the rare films about the early years of the AIDS crisis. Beyond gay versus straight, Techiné’s film is equally committed to exploring other opposites: rich vs. poor, male vs. female, Muslim vs. non-Muslim. Fri. Oct. 23: Fear(s) of the Dark (various directors) Six leading graphic artists and cartoonists turn their personal terrors into reality in this nightmarish animated anthology. Stylistically connected, the stark black-and-white imagery adds a layer of the surreal to the already disturbing subject matter. As reality crosses over into the unknown, these six interlocking stories bring to life fears of the dark, injections, pursuit and more. One by one, a noble man unleashes his angry dogs on peasants and city-dwellers; a young Japanese girl suffers from the cruelty of her peers and deals with her own demons; a young student quickly moves in with an overbearing girlfriend who ultimately uses his body as a breeding ground for strange creatures; a man enters a dark and empty house to escape a snow storm… Narrated by well-known French comedians, these stories raise goosebumps that only recede when Nicole Garcia tells a much more light-hearted story in a humorous and harried voice.
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