2002
French Film Series
February 5th Ridicule
(France) — 1996, by Patrice Leconte, with Charles Berling, Judith Godreche, Fanny Ardant. In 1783, six years before the Revolution, wit was the ultimate weapon in Louis XVI's court. Cruel and hurtful, wit ridiculed the enemy or the competitor, and Ridicule was the cause of all emotional and physical ruin. In Patrice Leconte's remarkable portray of this society, Gregoire Ponceludon de Malavoy (Charles Berling), a modest country engineer, will have to venture inVersailles and use his wit to try to convince the King of the importance of financing his plans to save his countrymen of The Dombes, a region then infested by mosquitos. Ridicule won the Cesar for the best film in 1996.February 19th Le Grand Blanc de Lambarene
(Cameroon) — 1995, by Bassek Ba Kobhio. In Le Grand Blanc de Lambarene, Bassek Ba Kobhio presents the Noble Prize winner Albert Schweitzer with a new perspective. Shot on the site of Schweitzer's hospital in Gabon, the film does not show the famous doctor as a saint of the colonial era, but as a self-absorbed man who refused to see the people around him and their culture. He spoke many European languages but never bothered to learn the native tongue of the people he treated. He had a great interest in European music but never tried to learn about African music. In brief, Schweitzer, his life and his hospital are shown as a sadly missed opportunity for Europen and African cultures to meet and to grow.March 5th Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain
(France) — 2001, by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, with Audrey Tautou. Amelie, an innocent and naive girl in Paris, with her own sense of justice, decides to help those around her and along the way, discovers love. This original comedy made people talk all around the world in 2001 and is a must-see.March 19th Le Confessional
(Quebec) — 1995, by Robert Lepage, with Lothaire Bluteau, Kristen Scott Thomas, Patrick Goyette. In this thriller inspired by Hitchcock's "I Confess," two brothers embark on a search for their roots, leading them both back to the Catholic church in Quebec City where Hitchcock shot his 1953 film. This family drama presented as a tense thriller is the first film from Robert Lepage and was well received by both the critics and the public in 1995.
All films shown at 7:30 pm in HU B39.
(basement level theater)Sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures' French Studies Program
For more information, contact Professor Brière at 442-4103.
Email: [email protected]
