FREE FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL

Stonehill College presents the Tournées French Film Festival from March 26 through April 9.  

The films explore how North African soldiers who assisted the Allied cause during the World War 2 were discriminated against, the nature of crime in modern France, a coming-of -age fable involving a Jewish youth and a Muslim neighbor, and poverty and colonial responsibility. Taken together, they provide insight on the nature of society and culture in contemporary France.

Organized by Laetitia Iturralde, a professor in the Foreign Language Department, the films are open to the Stonehill community and to the public.  Admission is free, and each film will have English subtitles.

All movies will be shown at 7 p.m. in Room 105 of the Martin Institute for Law and Society. For a directions and a map of the campus, please visit here.

The films are: 

Wednesday, March 26
INDIGÈNES (2006) 
(Days of Glory)
by Rachid Bouchareb

Days of Glory is a French drama film that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.  This war movie, described as a North African Saving Private Ryan, deals with discriminatory treatment of French Africans (Indigènes or "natives"), which is still an issue today and has led to a change in government policy.  The film portrays the recruitment of these soldiers and their participation in the World War II campaigns in Italy and France.

Monday, March 31
LE PETIT LIEUTENANT (2005)
by Xavier Beauvois 

Categorized as "a gripping police noir," Le Petit Lieutenant tells the story of Antoine, an ambitious young cop from the provinces who joins a plainclothes crime unit in Paris. Antoine spends his days eagerly awaiting his first assignment, drinking with his fellow detectives, and developing an unlikely relationship with his superior, a veteran policewoman with a troubled past. But when the body of a drifter is found murdered along the Seine, a seemingly routine investigation suddenly turns violent and forever changes all their lives.

Wednesday, April 2
MONSIEUR IBRAHIM ET LES FLEURS DU CORAN (2003)
by François Dupeyron 

Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran is a dramatic monologue starring Omar Sharif as Monsieur Ibrahim.  Set for the most part against the backdrop of a Paris ghetto circa the early 1960s, it is a coming-of-age fable.  The story is told by Moïse, a Jewish boy growing up in Paris in the 1960s. Abandoned by his mother, Moïse lives with his father.  But the person who becomes the real parent in his life, the one looking out for him and teaching him the lessons of life, is the neighborhood grocer, Monsieur Ibrahim.

Monday, April 7
BAMAKO (2006) 
by Abderrahmane Sissako

Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, the movie takes place in Bamako, the capital of Mali.  Amid the city's daily life, a court trial is taking place.  Two sides argue whether the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- or perhaps corruption -- are guilty of the current financial state of many poverty-stricken African countries.  

Wednesday, April 9
DE BATTRE MON COEUR S’EST ARRÊTE (2005) 
(The Beat That My Heart Skipped) 
by Jacques Audiard 

Based on the 1978 American movie Fingers, The Beat... stars Romain Duris (L'Auberge Espagnole) as Tom, a 28 year old hoodlum who works the shady side of real estate -- evicting poor families from slums.  The son of a small-time gangster, he seems set to follow in his father's footsteps.  It is a violent and vicious life, and Tom’s only release is music,  a connection perhaps with his dead mother, who was once a great concert pianist.

 A chance encounter with his mother’s former manager, Mr. Fox, reawakens Tom’s interest in piano playing and he sees an alternative future for himself.  He engages a Vietnamese music student to help him perfect an audition piece.  However, it seems as if the grim reality of his present life may thwart his ambitions.

Issued 03/06/08