Salve Regina hosting annual French Film Festival March 26 to April 6
Six thought-provoking films, with subjects as wide-ranging as Versailles in the final days of the Ancien Regime to life in contemporary Paris for immigrant schoolchildren, will be featured when Salve Regina hosts its annual French Film Festival March 26 to April 6.
All films will be screened in the Bazarsky Lecture Hall. Salve Regina students, faculty and staff receive free admission to all screenings and events with a valid University ID. For all others, festival passes to all films and events are $35, Sunday films with receptions are $15 and weeknight films are $10.
Tickets and festival passes are available online or at the door. For more information, call (401) 341-2197 or email frenchfilmfestival@salve.edu.
For full film descriptions and trailers, visit salve.edu/french-film-festival. The following films will be featured during the festival:
La cour de Babel/School of Babel
4 p.m. Sunday, March 26
Julie Bertucelli’s documentary follows a year in a Paris schoolroom for children who have recently immigrated to France. In an age of resurgent uneasiness with all that is foreign, “School of Babel” is a powerful antidote to fear and suspicion and an inspiring source of hope for France and the world. A wine and cheese reception will follow the film.
Valley of Love
7 p.m. Tuesday, March 28
Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert play a divorced couple of famous actors who meet in Death Valley after receiving a letter from their dead son, a recent suicide, promising that he will reappear in the desert at a specific time and place. A discussion will follow the film.
Hippocrate/Hippocrates, Diary of a French Doctor
7 p.m. Thursday, March 30
“Hippocrates” combines the human drama that surrounds medical emergencies with a hard-hitting look at the situation of beleaguered French hospitals through the experiences of a young medical student.
Loin des homes/Far From Men
3 p.m. Sunday, April 2
Adapted from Albert Camus’s short story “The Guest,” the film is set against the backdrop of the beginnings of the Algerian war of independence, but is first and foremost a universal story of civilians faced with the absurdity of war. A coffee and pastry reception will precede the film at 2 p.m.
Chocolat/Chocolate
7 p.m. Tuesday, April 4
This year’s classic selection was the debut feature of now-acclaimed director Claire Denis, based on her own childhood as the daughter of a French administrator in Africa. A discussion will follow the film.
Les adieux a la reine/Farewell, My Queen
7 p.m. Thursday, April 6
Benoit Jacquot’s film about the chaos at Versailles on the eve of the 1789 revolution is told through the eyes of Sidonie, the besotted reader to Marie Antoinette.
