Washington and Lee University
The Department of Romance Languages is happy to bring five recent French films to the W&L community. These films are all subtitled and free to the public.
The first film in the series is White Material (2008) directed by Claire Denis and starring Isabelle Huppert as a coffee plantation owner in stubbornly trying to bring in her harvest with a civil war raging around her. The film will be shown at 8:30 PM Tuesday, October 25 in the Stackhouse Theater. Students from the Washington and Lee African Society will organize a discussion following the film.
Trailer site: http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/WhiteMaterial.html
The second film in the series is La Belle Personne (2008) directed by Christophe Honoré. This is a loose adaptation of the 17th Century French novel La Princesse de Clèves by Madame de Lafayette, but set in a contemporary French high school. This film is at 7:00 PM Thursday, October 27 in Stackhouse.
The third film in the French series is Copie Conforme (2010) directed by Abbas Kiarostami and starring Juliette Binoche. Set in a small Italian village in southern Tuscany, it is the story of a love affair that is either just beginning or falling apart. This film is at 7:00 PM Saturday, October 29 in Stackhouse.
Trailer site: http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/CopieConforme.html
The fourth film in the French series is Un Prophète (2008) directed by Jacques Audiard and starring Tahar Rahim as a young illiterate hoodlum who has just been sentenced to six years in French prison and who does whatever it takes to survive. This is a gritty, realistic film and would certainly be rated R. It will be shown at 7:00 PM Tuesday, November 1 in Stackhouse.
Trailer site: http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/UnProphete.html
The final film in the French series is Des Dieux et des Hommes (2010) directed by Xavier Beauvois and starring Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale. Based on a tragic moment during the violent struggle between the government and the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria in the 1990s, this film tells the story of eight Cistercian monks and their relationship with Muslim villagers in the Algerian mountains. It will be shown at 7:00 PM Thursday, November 3 in Stackhouse.
Trailer site: http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/fichesfilms/DesDieuxEtDesHommes.html