Alienation in the Age of Connection

The 2011 Tournées French Film at Roger Williams University in collaboration with FLICKERS: Rhode Island International Film Festival

BRISTOL, RI • After five successful years of the Roving Eye International Film Festival (which returns again this year), we are pleased to introduce the Tournées French Film Festival to Roger Williams University and the East Bay (Rhode Island) Community.

The Tournées French Film Festival will present five new important French feature films, (all with English subtitles), along with a selection of shorts films that the Rhode Island International Film Festival will premiere from its partnership with UNIIFRANCE. The films will screen over a three-day period, April 6-8.

All Festival screenings will take place at 4:00 and 7:00 p.m. at the Global Heritage Hall, Room GH01 on the RWU Campus. Screenings will be free to the general public.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT:

Today it has become commonplace to say that we are living in an “age of connection.” According to this utopian narrative, 21st-century technological advances have propelled us headlong into an increasingly shrinking and globalized world; one that is characterized by hyper-connectivity and social fluidity. In a world defined by facebook and the I-phone, we are told, national boundaries are collapsing and cultural differences are blurring; social divisions are becoming a thing of the past.

And yet, it is undeniable that, despite our increasing ability to “connect” across vast expanses of distance and time, this new “global village” has sprung up within a social context defined by the legacies of colonialism, imperialism, and corporate capitalism, producing as many collisions as it has connections. As such, the same old social boundaries still endure; national borders, racial divides, religious tensions and class divisions persist; and in many ways, have only solidified. Indeed, far from breaking down social divides, some argue that the very virtual nature of this brave new world only works to cultivate new forms of distanciation; allowing and even encouraging us to ignore, rather than confront, the difficult social realities that define our contemporary world.

For the past few decades, an array of contemporary French filmmakers have sought to use film as a means to wrest us from the illusions provided by the narrative of global connectivity. Often focusing on protagonists who exist outside dominant culture, or who feel detached from it, these filmmakers have tried to illuminate the realities of social oppression, isolation and alientation; while simultaneously foregrounding the powerful human desire for acceptance, intimacy and belonging.

The 2011 Tournées French Film Festival offers films that continue on in this project. Each film centers on characters who struggle to make social connections in a world that is often constructed to keep them apart.

Aesthetically, these films eschew Hollywood’s affinity for vibrant imagery, hyper-kinetic editing, broad characterizations and closed endings. Long-takes, hand-held-cameras, natural dialogue, complex characters and ambiguous narratives are used to create cinematic experiences that feel like life-as-it-is-lived; these are all films that invite the audience to engage with the world, rather than escape from it.

In addition to our main selection, the 2011 Tournées French Film Festival is also pleased to present a very special screening of Frederick Wiseman’s recent documentary, La Danse, in anticipation of his visit to the Roger Williams Campus this April at the Annual Roving Eye Film Festival. La Danse paints an intimate, behind-the-scenes portrait of the Paris Opera Ballet. It also, like all of Wiseman’s work, provides a searing depiction of an institution and its complex social inner-workings. Ultimately, La Danse stands as a powerful contemplation about the relationship between crass commerce and high art.

Program Directors:

Dr. Roberta Adams, Assistant Dean of Humanities and Performing Arts

George T. Marshall

J. Scott Oberacker

Film Schedule:

35 RHUMS (35 SHOTS OF RUM)

Trailer
Date and Time: Wednesday, April 6 at 7:00 p.m.
Location: Global Heritage Hall, GH 01

DIRECTOR: Claire Denis

SCREENPLAY: Claire Denis & Jean-Pol Fargeau

CAST: Lionel: Alex Descas Joséphine: Mati Diop Gabrielle: Nicole Dogué Noé: Grégoire Colin Ruben: Jean-Christophe Folly Martial: Djédjé Apali

d Running time: 100’

Production: France, 2008

Rating: Not Rated

Films about families and their complications all too often pierce eardrums with shrieks of dysfunction. Amid the din, Claire Denis’s sublime 35 Shots of Rum stands out all the more for its soothing quiet, conveying the easy, frequently nonverbal intimacy between a widowed father, Lionel, and his university-student daughter, Joséphine. An homage to Yasujiro Ozu’s similarly themed Late Spring (1949), 35 Shots is Denis’s warmest, most radiant work, honoring a family of two’s extreme closeness while suggesting its potential for suffocation. 35 Shots is firmly rooted in place, several scenes unfolding in an apartment building in a run-down section of Paris’s 18th arrondissement, home to Lionel and Joséphine; Gabrielle, an ex of Lionel’s who still aches for him; and Noé, nursing a crush on Joséphine. Dyads align, shift, break, and regroup among the foursome, jealousy simmering during an unforgettable scene at a café, in which Noé cuts in on a sweetly dancing Lionel and Joséphine as the Commodores’ “Night Shift” plays. Nonsexual filial devotion is immediately supplanted by heat and desire. Father and daughter’s comfortable life together will need to end—an inevitability that even Lionel recognizes as necessary, no matter how painful.

Home

Trailer
Date and Time: Thursday, April 7 at 4:00 p.m.
Location: Global Heritage Hall, GH 01

DIRECTOR Ursula Meier

SCREENPLAY Ursula Meier, Antoine Jaccoud, Raphaëlle Valbrune, Gilles Taurand, Oliver Lorellle & Alice Winocour

CAST Marthe: Isabelle Huppert Michel: Olivier Gourmet Judith: Adélaïde Leroux Marion: Madeleine Budd Julien: Kacey Mottet Klein

RUNNING TIME 86'

PRODUCTION France, Switzerland, Belgium, 2007

RATING Not Rated

Ursula Meier’s assured feature debut, boosted by the expert cinematography of Agnès Godard, boldly investigates the thin line between sanity and madness, the moments when family closeness becomes claustrophobia. Living at the end of an abandoned four-lane highway, Marthe and Michel enjoy a blissful, if highly unconventional, existence with their three children: a daughter, almost an adult, who spends most of her time sunbathing in a skimpy bikini; a teenage daughter obsessed with scientific trivia; and a rambunctious young son who appears to be the only one with connections outside the tight-knit clan. The family spends their happy isolation playing nighttime hockey and splashing around in the tub together. But their cocooned existence ends when the highway is reopened, becoming a major thruway for endless cars and trucks. Cracks in the family’s stability immediately begin to show, erupting into full-blown paranoia when Michel insists that they brick up the house to protect themselves against the toxins and air pollution they are now exposed to. What begins as a study of idiosyncratic domesticity seamlessly shifts into a portrait of psychological horror—and a cautionary tale about environmental disaster.

PHOTO: New Yorker Films

LE SILENCE DE LORNA (LORNA'S SILENCE)

Trailer
Date and Time: Thursday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m.
Location: Global Heritage Hall, GH 01

DIRECTOR: Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne

SCREENPLAY: Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne

CAST: Lorna: Arta Dobroshi Claudy Moreau: Jérémie Renier Fabio: Fabrizio Rongione Sokol: Alban Ukaj Spirou: Morgan Marinne

AWARDS Best Screenplay, Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne – Cannes Film Festival (2008) Best French Language Film – Lumières Awards (2009)

RUNNING TIME: 105’

PRODUCTION: France, Belgium, Italy, 2007

RATING: R (for brief sexuality/nudity and language) GAUGE 35mm, DVD

The films of Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne make up a body of work that is unrivaled in its realist, deeply humane focus on how those who exist on the margins of society—the poor, criminals, immigrants—must constantly face enormous moral decisions in their struggle for more secure, stable lives in a global economy. Lorna, an Albanian immigrant living in the Belgian city of Liege, shares an apartment with a heroin addict named Claudy. They have a sham marriage that allows her to legally live in the country, where she dreams of opening up a café with her boyfriend. But the mobster who arranged their marriage is now planning to kill Claudy—with Lorna’s help—in a planned overdose so she can marry a Russian who’s willing to pay a steep price for Belgianresidency papers. Though profoundly critical of the punishing, frequently inhumane forces of late capitalism, the films of the Dardenne brothers aren’t simplistic political screeds. Lorna, like all of the Dardennes’ protagonists, isn’t merely a one-dimensional emblem of suffering, but a multifaceted character who must make—and live with—her own decisions.

LA DANSE: LE BALLET DE L'OPÉRA DE PARIS (LA DANSE: THE PARIS OPERA BALLET)

Trailer
Date and Time: Friday, April 8th at 4:00 p.m.
Location: Global Heritage Hall, GH 01

DIRECTOR: Frederick Wiseman

WRITER: Frederick Wiseman

PARTICIPANTS: Brigitte Lefèvre Emilie Cozette Aurélie Dupont

RUNNING TIME: 158’

PRODUCTION: France, 2009

RATING: Not Rated

Frederick Wiseman’s magnificent La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet offers a portrait of suppleness and agility—not just that of the dancers’ bodies but also of the august institution of the title. Like all of Wiseman’s documentaries, La Danse forgoes voice-over and identifying intertitles, allowing for spectators’ full immersion into the action within the walls of the Palais Garnier, the 19th-century, neo-Baroque opera house where the company rehearses and performs. The film also demands that we pay closer attention, with none of nonfiction film’s usual cues to guide us. Roughly two-thirds of La Danse is devoted to rehearsal and performance, shot in deeply satisfying long takes of gorgeous young men and women starting, stopping, listening, questioning, repeating, perfecting. The rest is behind the scenes, and as Wiseman shows empty corridors, the cafeteria, sewing rooms, and the nightly clean-up of the 2,200-seat theater, the stealth star of La Danse emerges: Brigitte Lefèvre, the company’s composed, elegant artistic director. Shown in a meeting discussing the finer distinctions between “benefactors” and “big benefactors,” Lefèvre nimbly tackles the potential messiness—but absolute necessity—of crass commerce fueling high art. When not administrating, Lefèvre seems happiest as a maternal martinet, reminding one new student, “To do is the most important.”

PHOTO: IFC Films

Paris

Trailer
Date and Time: Friday, April 8th at 7:00 p.m.
Location: Global Heritage Hall, GH 01

DIRECTOR Cédric Klapisch

SCREENPLAY Cédric Klapisch C

AST Élise: Juliette Binoche Pierre: Romain Duris Roland Verneuil: Fabrice Luchini Jean: Albert Dupontel Laetitia: Mélanie Laurent Philippe Verneuil: François Cluzet

GENRE Drama DISTRIBUTOR IFC Films

RUNNING TIME 130’

PRODUCTION France, 2007

RATING R (for language and some sexual references)

In Cédric Klapisch’s wistful ensemble film about the City of Light, characters of vastly different backgrounds intersect, providing a sense of the multitudes and complexities contained within one of the world’s greatest metropolises. Cameroonian immigrants try to help their families back home; an imperious manager of a boulangerie begrudgingly approves of her new employee, also from an immigrant family; a middleaged professor woos a student with Baudelaire-inspired text messages. But the beating heart of Klapisch’s love letter to the city is the relationship between Pierre, a former dancer at the Moulin Rouge, and his older sister, Elise, a divorced, overburdened social worker raising three young children. After Pierre discovers that he has a potentially fatal illness, Elise and her brood move into his cramped apartment, taking care of and comforting a man who now fully appreciates the preciousness of life. Though his flat is small, Pierre has an incredible view from his balcony, where he frequently observes the teeming street life below. Regardless of whether you’ve never been to Paris or have visited several times, Klapisch’s stunning compositions of the city will inspire you to book a flight to the French capital right away.

For more information, call (401) 861.4445.

See below for directions to Roger Williams University • Interactive Map of RWU Campus

The Tournées Festival was made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture (CNC), The Florence Gould Foundation, the Grand Marnier Foundation and highbrow entertainment.