French Film Festival
Holyoke Community College French Film Festival March 21 – April 12
Holyoke Community College, in collaboration with Amherst Cinema, presents a French Film Festival March 21 through April 12.
All films are in French with English subtitles. Admission to all events is FREE for HCC students, faculty and staff with a valid ID, and there is no admission fee for the general public to films shown on the HCC campus.
Please go to the Amherst Cinema website for ticket prices for films shown there.
Locations and showtimes vary, as indicated:
Tuesday, March 21, 7 p.m., Amherst Cinema (28 Amity St., Amherst)
Dans la Cour (In the Courtyard)
2014 / Pierre Salvadori
As troubling as it is amusing, In the Courtyard is a well-crafted picture about Antoine (Gustave Kervern), who walks away from his life as a rock singer and takes a job as the live-in custodian of a modest Paris apartment building; with Catherine Deneuve.
Wednesday, March 22, 11 a.m., Holyoke Community College Leslie Phillips Theater
La Cour de Babel (School of Babel)
2013 / Julie Bertucelli
School of Babel follows a year in a Paris schoolroom for children who have recently immigrated to France and must adapt themselves to a new culture and language. This documentary is a powerful antidote to fear and suspicion and an inspiring source of hope for France and the world.
Wednesday, March 29, 11 a.m., Holyoke Community College, Leslie Phillips Theater
Les Combattants (Love at First Fight)
2014 / Thomas Cailley
Set in a coastal town in southwest France, Love at First Fight follows the unlikely attraction that develops between Arnaud (Kévin Azaïs), a mild-mannered woodworker and carpenter, and Madeleine (Adèle Haenel), a doomsday-obsessed graduate student preparing for an elite army unit.
Tuesday, April 4, 7 p.m., Amherst Cinema (28 Amity St., Amherst)
Mon Amie Victoria (My Friend Victoria)
2014 / Jean-Paul Civeyrac
My Friend Victoria shifts the action of a Doris Lessing short story from London to contemporary Paris. Telling the story of a young African woman (Guslagie Malanda) and her uneasy relationship with a wealthy white family, the film provides an unusual and welcome insight into the situation of foreigners in France today.
Wednesday, April 5, 7 p.m., Holyoke Community College, Kiitredge Center 301
Bande de Filles (Girlhood)
2014 / Céline Sciamma
Set in the impoverished suburbs that ring Paris, Girlhood focuses on Marieme (Karidja Touré), a sixteen-year-old who assumes responsibility for her two younger sisters while their mother works the night shift. She falls in with a triad of tough girls, all played by charismatic first-time performers, who boost Marieme's confidence.
Wednesday, April 12, 7 p.m., Holyoke Community College Kittredge Center 301
Pierrot le Fou
1965 / Jean-Luc Godard
Arguably the masterpiece of Godard's glorious first period, Pierrot le Fou follows the whirlwind romance between wealthy Ferdinand (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and his babysitter Marianne (Anna Karina), followed by their escape to the south of France with gangsters on their trail.
The festival is presented in collaboration with the HCC Foreign Language Department, HCC Student Clubs and Activities and with a grant from the FACE Foundation, supporting French-American Cultural Exchange in education and the arts.For more information, please contact Sabine Charton-Long at schartonlong@hcc.edu
