(All Films are Presented in French with English Subtitles, followed by a discussion.)
* The film screenings are for Students Only, free of charge, and followed by a discussion. (not open to the public)
Fall 2022
* The film screening is for Students Only.
(Presented in French with English Subtitles, and followed by a discussion.)
The film concentrates mainly on revolutionary fighter Ali La Pointe during the years between 1954 and 1957, when guerrilla fighters of the…
* The film screening is for Students Only.
(Presented in French with English Subtitles, and followed by a discussion.)
Antigone is a 2019 Canadian drama film directed by Sophie Deraspe. An adaptation of the ancient Greek play
* The film screening is for Students Only.
(Presented in French with English Subtitles, and followed by a discussion.)
Two sisters - Tunisian Jews living in a suburb of Paris - navigate tradition and desire. Laura, 19, a serious student of philosophy, tries to live a life of…
Spring 2020
Tuesday, February 25, 2020; 7:30 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theatre
Ciné-Club presents, Chris Marker's La Jetée (1962)
(Presented in French with English Subtitles)
Chris Marker's La jetée is a landmark of science-fiction filmmaking, a 28-minute masterpiece told almost entirely in still frames. An unnamed man is a prisoner in the aftermath of World War III in post-apocalyptic Paris, where survivors live underground in the Palais de Chaillot galleries. Scientists research time travel, hoping to send test subjects to different time periods "to call past and future to the rescue of the present
Ciné-Club presents, Alain Resnais' Toute la mémoire du monde (1956)
(Presented in French with English Subtitles)
A 20-minute long documentary that explores the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, its priceless treasures, and how humanity remembers itself. While the movie beautifully shows off the labyrinthine expanse of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France – its vast collection of books, manuscripts, and documents along with herculean efforts to compile and organize all of its information – the film becomes a rumination on the lengths that humanity will go to keep from forgetting. The film features some gorgeous cinematography by Ghislain Cloquet and a soundtrack by Maurice Jarre.
Tuesday, March 10, 2020; 7:30 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theatre
Ciné-Club presents, Alain Resnais' Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968)
(Presented in French with English Subtitles)
After attempting suicide, Claude is recruited for a time travel experiment, but, when the machine goes haywire, he may be trapped hurtling through his memories.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020; 7:30 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theatre
Ciné-Club presents, Selected Silent Films - Georges Méliès (1900s) & René Clair (1920s)
(Presented in French with English Subtitles)
Georges Méliès was a French illusionist and film director famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was an especially prolific innovator in the use of special effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, and time-lapse photography.
Tuesday, April 14, 2020; 7:30 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theatre
Ciné-Club presents, René Laloux's La Planète sauvage (1973)
(Presented in French with English Subtitles)
This animated tale follows the relationship between the small human-like Oms and their much larger blue-skinned oppressors, the Draags, who rule the planet of Ygam. While the Draags have long kept Oms as illiterate pets, this hierarchy shifts after an Om boy becomes educated, thanks to a young female Draag.
Ciné-Club presents, Chris Marker's Level Five (1996)
(Presented in French with English Subtitles)
A French computer programmer, Laura, inherits the task of making a computer game of the Battle of Okinawa during World War II. She searches the internet for information on the battle and interviews Japanese experts and witnesses. The extraordinary circumstances of the Battle of Okinawa lead Laura to reflect deeply on her own life and humanity in general, particularly the influence of history.
Fall 2019
Wednesday, October 9, 2019; 7:30 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theatre
Ciné-Club presents, Marcel Carné's Le jour se lève (1939)
One of the great works of 1930s poetic realist cinema, Le jour se lève was Marcel Carné’s fourth collaboration with screenwriter and poet Jacques Prévert. In this compelling story of obsessive sexuality and murder, the working-class François (Jean Gabin) resorts to killing in order to free the woman he loves from the controlling influence of another man. (source: criterion.com)
Wednesday, October 23, 2019; 7:30 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theatre
Ciné-Club presents, Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958)
For his feature debut, twenty-four-year-old Louis Malle brought together a mesmerizing performance by Jeanne Moreau, evocative cinematography by Henri Decaë, and a now legendary jazz score by Miles Davis. Taking place over the course of one restless Paris night, Malle’s richly atmospheric crime thriller stars Moreau and Maurice Ronet as lovers whose plan to murder her husband (his boss) goes awry, setting off a chain of events that seals their fate. (source: criterion.com)
Wednesday, November 6, 2019; 7:30 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theatre
Ciné-Club presents, Jean-Pierre Melville's Un flic (1972)
Beginning with a remarkable bank robbery on a deserted beachfront and also featuring a helicopter heist shot in real-time, Un Flic is perhaps Jean-Pierre Melville's perfect synthesis of style and suspense. A wonderfully fatalistic study of loss and deception, and a distillation of Melville's interest in the codes of loyalty and honor, the film marks a fitting epitaph to one of the finest careers in contemporary cinema. (source: kanopy.com)
Wednesday, November 20, 2019; 7:30 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theatre
Ciné-Club presents, François Truffaut's Tirez sur le pianiste (1960)
Part thriller, part comedy, part tragedy, Tirez sur le pianiste relates the adventures of mild-mannered piano player Charlie (Charles Aznavour, in a triumph of hangdog deadpan) as he stumbles into the criminal underworld and a whirlwind love affair. Loaded with gags, guns, clowns, and thugs, this razor-sharp homage to the American gangster film is pure nouvelle vague. (source: criterion.com)
Wednesday, December 4, 2019; 7:30 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theatre
Ciné-Club presents, Jean-Luc Godard's Détective (1985)
A mini-masterpiece, this is a cross between a ‘Grand Hotel’ for the 1980s and film noir: a crumbling Paris hotel houses four groups of people whose paths occasionally cross. One is the group around detective Terzieff, still trying to solve a murder of years ago; another is the entourage of a boxer, Tiger Jones, in training with his manager; another is a couple on the verge of breaking up, and the last is the Mafia. (source: timeout.com)
Spring 2019
Friday, March 10, 2019; 7:30 PM | Jones Hall 100
Ciné-Club presents, Mona Achache's Le Hérrison (2009)
Paloma is a serious and highly articulate but deeply bored 11-year-old who has decided to kill herself on her 12th birthday. Fascinated by art and philosophy, she questions and documents her life and immediate circle, drawing trenchant and often hilarious observations on the world around her. But as her appointment with death approaches, Paloma finally meets some kindred spirits in her building's grumpy concierge and an enigmatic, elegant neighbor.
Friday, March 29, 2019; 7:30 PM, Jones Hall 100
Ciné-Club presents, André Téchiné's Quand on a 17 ans (2016)
Damien lives with his mother Marianne, a doctor, while his father is on a tour of duty abroad. He is bullied by Thomas, whose mother is ill. The boys find themselves living together when Marianne invites Thomas to come and stay with them.
Friday, April 12, 2019; 7:30 PM, Jones Hall 100
Ciné-Club presents, Claude Sautet's La choses de la vie (1970)
In the French countryside on a summer morning, a lorry full of pigs stalls at a crossroads. An Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint swerves to avoid it and crashes into an orchard, hurling the driver onto the grass. As he drifts in and out of consciousness, he revisits the essential things which make up his life. The opening sequence jumps between the period immediately after the crash, and the crash itself.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019; 7:30 PM, Jones Hall 100
Ciné-Club presents, Michael Haneke's Amour (2012)
Georges and Anne are an octogenarian couple. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, also a musician, lives in Britain with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.
Fall 2018
Thursday, October 18, 2018; 7:30 PM | Jones Hall 100
Ciné-Club presents, Christian Carion's En mai, fais ce qu'il te plaît (2015)
In may 1940, the German troops entered France. Frightened by the progress of the enemy, the people of the small village of Pas-de-Calais decide on the recommendations of the prefecture, to give up everything to go on the road, fleeing to the coast. Among them, there is Paul, the village mayor. He led the group, and seeks to maintain a minimum of order and republican spirit in this nomadic life.
Thursday, November 15, 2018; 7:30 PM, Jones Hall 100
Ciné-Club presents, Jacques Tati's Les Vacances de M. Hulot (1957)
Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot follows the generally harmless misadventures of a lovable, gauche Frenchman, Monsieur Hulot (played by Tati himself), as he joins the "newly emerging holiday-taking classes" for a summer vacation at a modest seaside resort. The film affectionately lampoons several hidebound elements of French political and economic classes, from chubby capitalists and self-important Marxist intellectuals to petty proprietors and drab dilettantes, most of whom find it nearly impossible to free themselves, even temporarily, from their rigid social roles in order to relax and enjoy life.
Thursday, November 29, 2018; 7:30 PM, Jones Hall 100
Ciné-Club presents, Éric Rohmer's Conte d'automne (1998)
Magali (Béatrice Romand), forty-something, is a winemaker and a widow: she loves her work but feels lonely. Her friends Rosine (Alexia Portal) and Isabelle (Marie Rivière) both want secretly to find a husband for Magali.
Wednesday, December 12, 2018; 7:30 PM, Jones Hall 100
Ciné-Club presents, Arnaud Desplechin's Un conte de Noël (2008)
The troubled Vuillard family is no stranger to illness, grief, and banishment, but when their matriarch requires a bone-marrow transplant, the estranged clan reunites just in time for Christmas. The film explores family relationships, how some conflicts are resolved, and how relationships constantly evolve between mother and children, lovers, spouses, and siblings in the context of a Christmas family gathering. There are philosophical insights into the complexity of life, and we gain a deeper understanding of each person in the family, the dynamics of the Vuillard family, and how we deal with adversity.
Spring 2018
Monday, February 12, 2018; 7:30 PM | Wilson College Black Box Theater
Ciné-Club presents, Maïwenn's Mon Roi (2015)
Tony is admitted to a rehabilitation center after a serious ski accident. Dependent on the medical staff and pain relievers, she takes time to look back on a turbulent relationship that she experienced with Georgio. Why did they love each other? Who is this man that she loved so deeply? How did she allow herself to submit to this suffocating and destructive passion? For Tony, a difficult process of healing is in front of her, physical work which may finally set her free.
Monday, February 19, 2018; 7:30 PM, Wilson College Black Box Theater
Ciné-Club presents, François Ozon's Huit Femmes (2009)
One morning at an isolated mansion in the snowy countryside of 1950s France, a family is gathered for the holiday season. But there will be no celebration at all because their beloved patriarch has been murdered! The killer can only be one of the eight women closest to the man of the house.
Monday, March 12, 2018; 7:30 PM, Wilson College Black Box Theater
Ciné-Club presents, Paul Verhoeven's Elle (2016)
Michèle seems indestructible. Head of a successful video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business. Being attacked in her home by an unknown assailant changes Michèle's life forever. When she resolutely tracks the man down, they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game-a game that may, at any moment, spiral out of control.
Monday, April 30, 2018; 7:30 PM, Wilson College Black Box Theater
Ciné-Club presents, Céline Sciamma 's Bande de Filles (2014)
Oppressed by her family setting, dead-end school prospects, and the boy's law in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of 3 free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her dress code, and quits school to be accepted into the gang, hoping that this will be a way to freedom.
Fall 2017
Monday, October 23, 2017; 7:30 PM | Wilson College Black Box Theater
Ciné-Club presents, Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan (2015)
Three Sri Lankan refugees pretend to be a family as they try to make better lives for themselves in a Parisian housing project. This film won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Monday, November 20, 2017; 7:30 PM, Wilson College Black Box Theater
Ciné-Club presents, Philippe Lioret’s Welcome (2009)
Kurdish teen Bilal has traveled all the way to the north of France in the hope of reuniting with his girlfriend in England. To get around a legal technicality, he decides to swim across the English Channel -- even though he's unable to swim. Simon Calmat, the local swimming instructor who is struggling with his own impending divorce, agrees to train Bilal for his grueling journey. The two soon form a strong bond that helps them in unexpected ways. This film won several awards at a number of international film festivals, including Berlin.
Monday, November 27, 7:30 PM, Wilson College Black Box Theater
Ciné-Club presents, Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine (1995)
When a young Arab is arrested and beaten unconscious by police, a riot erupts in the notoriously violent suburbs outside of Paris. Three of the victim's peers — Vinz, Said, and Hubert — wander aimlessly about their home turf in the aftermath of the violence as they try to come to grips with their outrage over the brutal incident. After one of the men finds a police officer's discarded weapon, their night seems poised to take a bleak turn. This film won Best Director at Cannes Film Festival along with many other awards.
Monday, December 11, 2017; 7:30 PM, Wilson College Black Box Theater
Ciné-Club presents, Philippe de Chauveron's Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au bon dieu ? (2014)
A Catholic couple from France has their life turned upside down when their four daughters marry men from different races and religions.
Spring 2017
Wednesday, February 8, 2017; 7:00 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theater
Cine-Club presents, Abdellatif Kechiche's, "La Graine et le Mulet" (2007)
At the port of Sète, Mr. Slimani, a tired 60-year-old, drags himself toward a shipyard job that has become more and more difficult to cope with as the years go by. He is a divorced father who forces himself to stay close to his family despite the schisms and tensions that are easily sparked off and that financial difficulties make even more intense.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017; 7:00 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theater
Cine-Club presents, Gérard Oury's, "La Grande Vadrouille" (1966)
Over German-occupied France, a Royal Air Force bomber becomes lost after a mission and is shot down over Paris by German flak. Three of the crew, Sir Reginald, Peter Cunningham and Alan MacIntosh, parachute out over the city, where they run into and are hidden by a house painter, Augustin Bouvet, a puppet show operator, Juliette, and the grumbling conductor of the Opéra National de Paris, Stanislas Lefort.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017; 7:00 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theater
Cine-Club presents, Luis Buñuel's, "Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie" (1972)
A surreal series of dreams centered around six middle-class people and their consistently interrupted attempts to have a meal together.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017; 7:00 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theater
Cine-Club presents, Francois Truffaut’s, "L'Histoire d'Adèle H" (1975)
Adèle, daughter of French author and patriot Victor Hugo, is beautiful, composed, and filled with the same brilliant writing talent as her famous father. However, Adele is driven not by literary aspirations but by love. Impelled by a need that will not be denied, she has run away from home to follow her handsome, womanizing lover
Tuesday, April 11, 2017; 7:00 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theater
Cine-Club presents, Agnés Varda’s, "Cléo de 5 à 7" (1962)
Cleo, a singer, and hypochondriac becomes increasingly worried that she might have cancer while awaiting test results from her doctor.
Tuesday, April 25, 2017; 7:00 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theater
Cine-Club presents, Jacques Tati’s, "Playtime" (1967)
Monsieur Hulot curiously wanders around a high-tech Paris, paralleling a trip with a group of American tourists. Meanwhile, a nightclub/restaurant prepares its opening night, but it's still under construction.
Fall 2016
Tuesday, October 18, 2016; 7:00 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theater
Ciné Club presents, Jean-Luc Godard's, "Masculin, Féminin" (1966)
-A series of vignettes about youth culture in mid-1960s urban France are presented. These vignettes are tied together by a central thread, the story of twenty-one-year-old Paul, who witnesses or overhears many of these happenings. He has just completed his eighteen-month mandatory military service and thus is just beginning the real phase of being what would be considered his adult life.
Tuesday, November 08, 2016; 7:00 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theater
Ciné Club presents, Céline Sciamma's, "Tomboy" (2011)
-A French family with two daughters, 10-year-old Laure and 6-year-old Jeanne, moves to a new neighborhood during the summer holidays. With her Jean Seberg haircut and tomboy ways, Laure is immediately mistaken for a boy by the local kids and passes herself off as Michael. Filmmaker Céline Sciamma brings a light and charming touch to this drama of childhood gender confusion.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016; 7:00 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theater
Ciné Club presents, Jean Renoir's, "La Régle du Jeu" (1939)
-The film is a comedy of manners that depicts members of upper-class French society and their servants just before the beginning of World War II, showing their moral callousness on the eve of impending destruction.
The most expensive French film up to that time, with its original budget of 2.5 million francs increased to over five million. When directing the film, Renoir and cinematographer Jean Bachelet made use of deep-focus cinematography and long shots during which the camera is constantly moving.
Tuesday, December 13, 2016; 7:00 PM | Rocky/Mathey Theater
Ciné Club presents, Joann Sfar's, "Gainsbourg, vie héroïque" (2010)
-The film follows notorious musician Serge Gainsbourg's exploits from his upbringing in Nazi-occupied France through his rise to fame and love affairs with Juliette Gréco, Brigitte Bardot, and Jane Birkin to his later experimentation with reggae in Jamaica. The film also includes many of Gainsbourg's more famous songs, which serve as the soundtrack to the film and often serve as plot elements themselves.