French Film Festival
2018 French Film Festival
Presented by Holyoke Community College
All films are in French with English subtitles. All films are at 7:00 PM in the Leslie Philips Theater in the Fine & Performing Arts Building and admission is free.
Tues., March 20: Quand on a 17 ans / Being 17 (2016), André Téchiné (1h56) Beautifully set in a little town in the Pyrénées Mountains, this film tells a coming-of-age and coming-out story which subtly explores the confusion, fear, and violence of two high schoolers who experience unfamiliar feelings. With Sandrine Kiberlain.
Wed., Wed., March 21: Dernières Nouvelles du Cosmos/ Latest News from the Cosmos (2016), Julie Bertuccelli (1h25) This documentary draws us into the world of Hélène, a 30-year-old severely autistic woman who writes poetry with laminated letters. It prompts us to contemplate the nature of creativity and communication as well as the hidden potential in people of all abilities.
Tues., March 27: Voir du Pays/ The Stopover (2016), Delphine Coulin et Muriel Coulin (1h42) Two young French female soldiers spend time with their unit at a resort hotel on Cyprus recovering from a military operation gone terribly wrong in Afghanistan. Their story offers insights into the long-range consequences of asymmetric, globalized war.
Wednesday, March 28: Fatima (2015) Philippe Faucon (1h20) Loosely based on a true story and featuring a superb performance by real-life cleaning lady Soria Zeroual, Fatima tells the story of a middle-aged, divorced Algerian woman living in a French suburb, cleaning houses and offices from dawn to dusk to provide her spirited teenage daughters with a better future.
Tuesday, April 3: Panique (1947), Julien Duvivier (1h30) Panique, which is recognized today as a treasure of French film noir, was the first of several adaptations of Mr. Hire's Engagement by Belgian crime writer Georges Simenon. The thriller provides deep insights into the mentality of the lynch mob and into the pessimistic world view prevalent after World War II.
Wednesday, April 4: Ma vie de Courgette/ My Life as a Zucchini (2015), Claude Barras (1h06) Though bravely realistic, My Life as a Zucchini is an unexpectedly uplifting look at childhood tragedy. The film is imbued with a real-life sense of childhood wonder, both through its inventive animation and its commitment to exclusively telling the story from the children's perspective.
The festival is presented in collaboration with the HCC Foreign Languages Department and the Tournees Film Festival and made possible with the generous support of French American Cultural Fund (FACE), Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S., Centre National du Cinéma et de l'image Animée (CNC), Florence Gould Foundation and Highbrow Entertainment.
For more information, please contact Sabine Charton-Long at schartonlong@hcc.edu.
