A week-long Contemporary French Film Festival sponsored by the French Department will take place in October, featuring five films in French with English subtitles. Admission is free and open to the public. Most screenings will take place in Blaustein Humanities Center, Room 210, beginning at 7 p.m.; Tuesday's screening of "Mustang" will take place in Olin 014.
Film Studies and French department faculty members will be introducing the films before each screening, and closing receptions follow, to which all are invited.
"The Contemporary French Film Festival seeks to bring some of the strongest French films of the last 2 to 3 years to Connecticut College. This year’s selection features films set in Paris, Turkey, Algeria, and New York, and range in subject from the life of fashion designer and icon Yves Saint Laurent to the Algerian War (rarely treated directly in the French Cinema); from race relations in France to the situation of girls facing arranged marriages in Turkey. They speak to the strength and diversity of a vibrant and globalized French cinema," said James Austin, associate professor of French.
The schedule is as follows:
Monday, Oct. 17
“Yves Saint Laurent"
A lush film about the life of fashion designer and icon Yves Saint Laurent, from his roots in Algeria and his time at Dior, to the creation of his own fashion house with partner Pierre Bergé, his struggles during the sex-and-drug fueled 1970s, and his towering success.
Introduced by James Austin, associate professor of French.
Tuesday, Oct. 18
“Mustang”
In a village in northern Turkey, Lale and her four sisters are walking home from school, playing innocently with some boys. This sets off a scandal that has unexpected consequences. The family home is progressively transformed into a prison; instruction in homemaking replaces school and marriages start being arranged. The five sisters who share a common passion for freedom find ways of getting around the constraints imposed on them.
Introduced by Nina Martin, associate professor of film studies and chair of the Film Studies Department. (In Olin 014)
Wednesday, Oct. 19
“Loin des hommes” - “Far From Men”
The 2014 film is set in 1950s Algeria, where a school teacher agrees to deliver an admitted murderer to a French court for trial.
Introduced by , assistant professor of English.
Thursday, Oct. 20
“Mon amie Victoria” - “My friend Victoria”
A 2014 drama about Victoria, a black 8-year-old orphan, who is taken in by a white bourgeois family for a night. Years later, she has a brief affair with the youngest son of the host family and bears his child.
Introduced by , visiting assistant professor of French.
Friday, Oct. 21
“Phantom Boy”
This animated noir feature film from 2015 stars a super-powered boy helps a wheelchair-bound policeman in his attempt to bring down a mob kingpin.
Introduction by Ben Williams, visiting assistant professor of French. A reception to celebrate the close of the Contemporary French Film Festival will be held immediately following the screening of the film. All are warmly welcome.
For more information, contact James Austin, jfaus@conncoll.edu or the French Department, 860-439-2560.