News & Events
A French Film Series
October 28
Peau d'âne (1970) by Jacques Demy
“[Jacques] Demy's movie makes for an evocative globe-paperweight tableau of its place and time, and a concise demonstration of the disquietude inherent in classic fairy tales. That the story involves the marriage-lust of a grieving king (Cocteau axiom Jean Marais) for his luscious daughter (Catherine Deneuve) is only the tale's wacky Freudian nut; around them gallops a soft parade of costume-ball silliness, frog-spitting hags, blue-skinned servants, talking yellow roses, out-of-body rendezvous, and fastidious gownery." - Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice
November 4
Cleo de 5 à 7 (1962) by Agnès Varda
"Agnes Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7, the first fully-achieved feature by the woman who would become the premiere female director of her generation, dazzled when it opened, and looks even more timely today in its tackling of the fashionable subject of female identity as a function of how women see and are seen by the world. Its appearance in 1962 signaled Varda’s participation in the collective burst of talent that made the early sixties one of the most exciting and creative periods the cinema has ever known." - Molly Haskell
November 11
Le Rayon Vert (1986) by Eric Rohmer
“Eric Rohmer has always had a particular talent for transforming even the most inconsequential stories into fascinating portraits of the difficulties of choice and the moral complexity of making decisions…. What's so striking about Rohmer's wonderful film is its simplicity. Following his tearful, bored and uncertain heroine through a succession of teeming holiday resorts and isolated country walks, Rohmer constructs a fascinating picture of isolation and loneliness that's eminently ponderous - but thoroughly engrossing. Partly this is because of the excellent performances (all of which are improvised). Yet it's also because this film of inaction addresses some of the fundamental issues of modern life.” - Jamie Russell, BBC
November 18
Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (1962) by Jean-Luc Godard
"Vivre sa vie is amongst Godard's and the nouvelle vague's most intimate, moving, sustained and revealing works. The complex alternation between inside and outside, documentary and fiction, distanciation and involvement, actor and character, and what this asks of its audience, is the film's most profound achievement." - Adrian Dansk, Senses of Cinema
"A perfect film! One of the most extraordinary, beautiful, and original works I know of." - Susan Sontag
December 2
Emporte-moi (1999) Léa Pool
"Propelled by a captivating, wrenching performance by Karine Vanasse as Hanna, a 13-year old girl adrift in a sea of powerful emotions in Montreal in 1963, the heartfelt 'Set me Free' is simultaneously an insightful family portrait, a homage to the French New Wave and a testament ot the potential of film to shape and redeem life."- Lawrence Van Gelder, The New York Times
December 9
La Cérémonie (1996) by Claude Chabrol
“Underscoring the extent to which good help is hard to find, 'A Judgment in Stone' is a character-driven tragicomic treat in which a well-to-do family hires a hard-working but withdrawn young maid to tend their isolated manse, with unforeseen results. Perfectly at home with the material and his experienced cast , director Claude Chabrol achieves a delicious intermingling of the benign and sinister that will be welcome in international arthouses.” - Lisa Nesselson, Variety
Soirée Ciné is a student-run committee that organizes weekly screenings of French films. Like the screenings themselves, the committee is open to all interested students. No knowledge of, or experience with, French is required; however, a love of French cinema is a must!
Contact Lindsay Cook, licook@vassar.edu, for more information.
Soirée Ciné is generously sponsored by the Department of French and Francophone Studies.
Posted Wednesday, October 21, 2009