Academics
2012 CinéCola Film Festival
The First Annual CinéCola: Columbia Community French & Francophone Film Festival
With five films co-sponsored by the Tournées Festival and hosted by
Columbia College.
Tuesday, October 23, 7pm ~ Columbia Museum of Art (click for directions)
Maman est chez le coiffeur (Mommy is at the Hairdresser’s)
Léa Pool, 2008 / 97 min.
Teenage Élise discovers that the sudden departure of her mother completely disrupts the family. Élise decides to take control of her family, in an eloquent attempt to save them. With the assistance of flourishing nature around her, she stands on the threshold of an incomparable summer.
Discussion leader – Léa Pool, Swiss-Canadian Director and Dr. Daniela Di Cecco, Associate Professor of French and French Program Director, USC. Reception sponsored by the Alliance Française of Columbia to follow.
**SWISS-CANADIAN DIRECTOR, LEA POOL WILL BE PRESENT FOR PRELIMINARY AND POST-SCREENING DISCUSSION!**
Co-sponsored by the Columbia Museum of Art, the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, USC, the French Program, USC
The Gender and Women’s Studies Program, CC, The Québec Delegation of Atlanta, and the Alliance Française of Columbia.
Monday, November 5, 7pm ~ USC, Gambrell Hall Auditorium (room 153) Click here for campus map.Les hommes libres (Free Men)
Ismaël Ferroukhi; 2011 / 99 min.
A fascinating look at a little-known chapter in the French Resistance during World War II, Ismaël Ferroukhi’s second film highlights the courage of a group of Muslim agents who provided North African Jews with false identification papers and assassinated Vichy informants. Free Men focuses specifically on the political awakening of Younes, an illiterate Algerian immigrant who makes his living selling goods on the black market and in order to avoid prison, he agrees to serve as a spy for the police.
Discussion leader: Dr. Jeanne Garane, Associate Professor of French, USC.
Presented as part of the Tournées Festival. Co-sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Columbia College.
Thursday, November 8, 7pm ~ Cottingham Theatre, Columbia College. Click here for campus map. Le hérisson (The Hedgehog)
Mona Achache ; 2009 / 98 min.
Nimbly adapted from Muriel Barbery’s 2006 international best seller, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Mona Achache’s first film follows two parallel storylines: one featuring a morbid little girl, the other a mysterious middle-aged widow janitor. Scrawny, bespectacled, and highly intelligent 11-year-old Paloma is disgusted by the futility of her bourgeois existence and plans to kill herself on her next birthday. Mme Michel prefers to keep secrets to herself, which will be revealed through deep bonds not only with the new resident Mr. Ozu but also Paloma.
Discussion leader: Dr. Christine Hait, Professor of English, Columbia College.
Presented as part of the Tournées Festival. Co-sponsored by the Division of Modern Languages and Literatures, French Program.
Tuesday, November 13, 7pm ~ Belk Auditorium, 005 BA (Close/Hipp) Building, USC. Click here for campus map. Les émotifs anonymes (Romantics Anonymous)
Jean-Pierre Améris; 2010 / 80 min.
Angélique is a supremely gifted chocolatier, but she’s so self-effacing that any compliment sends her into great distress. Jean-René, the owner of the Chocolate Mill, is so uncomfortable around others that he’s afraid to answer his own telephone. Neither suspects that the other suffers from the same ailment—a predicament leading to very funny results during their first date. Will they overcome their social fears?
Discussion leader: Dr. Coco Mann, Assistant Professor of French, Columbia College.
Presented as part of the Tournées Festival. Co-sponsored by the South Carolina chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French.
Monday, November 19, 7pm ~ Cottingham Theatre, Columbia College. Click here for campus map. Le Havre
Aki Kaurismäki: 2011 / 93 min.
A wonderful celebration of France’s national motto—liberty, equality, fraternity—Le Havre is also something of a paean to World War II Resistance dramas. Le Havre centers on Marcel Marx, a once-famous Parisian writer now making his living shining shoes in the northern port town of the title. Marcel divides his time between drinking with his neighbors at the local bar and caring for his ill wife, Arletty. But he soon serves a much nobler purpose when he comes to the aid of Idrissa, a young illegal immigrant from Gabon.
Discussion leader: Dr. Ute Wachsmann-Linnan, Associate Professor of Art History, Columbia College.
Presented as part of the Tournées Festival. Co-sponsored by the Diversity Committee, Columbia College
Tuesday, November 27, 7pm ~ Belk Auditorium, 005 BA (Close/Hipp) Building, USC. Click here for campus map. L'affaire Farewell (Farewell)
Christian Carion: 2009 / 112 min.
Based on the little-known true events that helped bring down the Soviet Union, Farewell tells the story of Sergei Grigoriev, a KGB colonel disillusioned with Communism under Brezhnev, who leaks highly classified documents to a French spy. Sergei faces the far-reaching consequences of espionage at home, where his wife condemns his perilous political activity and he clashes constantly with his West-obsessed teenage son, who is ignorant of his father’s political deception.
Discussion leader: Dr. Jeff Persels, Director of the European Studies Program, USC.
Presented as part of the Tournées Festival. Co-sponsored by the European Studies Program, USC.
The Tournées Festival was made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S. and the Centre National de la Cinématographie et de l’Image Animée. Florence Gould Foundation, CampusFrance, Grand Marnier Foundation, highbrow entertainment. www.facecouncil.org