The 5th Annual Tournées French Film Festival will debut five contemporary French films at the Wettaw Bldg. 88, Rm. 130 at Northern Arizona University on Feb. 19 and 20.
This will be the last year of the Tournées Film Festival grant.
The recently released films, chosen by Cinema Studies students at NAU, will be premiering for the first time on a big screen in Flagstaff. They include “Welcome,” “Panique au village” (A Town Called Panic), “Barbe bleu” (Bluebeard), “L’ennemi intime” (Intimate Enemies), and “Cliente” (A French Gigolo).
The French Film Festival was made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the French Ministry of Culture, NAU College of Arts and Letters, the School of Communication, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Cline Library.
NAU has received the Tournées film festival grant for five consecutive years. This will be the final year of the grant. The Tournées French Film Festival is a program overseen by the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE). The program gives grants to universities to bring new French film festivals to campuses across the country.
The films will be screened in French with English subtitles. The films are free and open to the public. Parking is available off-campus and in the parking lot P7 near the Wall Aquatic Center.
Feb. 19, 12 p.m. “Welcome,” directed by Philippe Lioret, 2008, 110 min., NR
Both a study of a budding friendship and a compassionate look at the perils faced by illegal immigrants, Philippe Lioret’s “Welcome” centers on Bilal, a 17-year-old Iraqi Kurd who is stuck in Calais, in Northern France, and Simon, a recently divorced swimming teacher. Acting veteran Lindon and first-time performer Ayverdi beautifully play off each other as Simon and Bilal slowly start to form a tender surrogate father-son connection.
Feb. 19, 3 p.m. “Panique au village” (A Town Called Panic), directed by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar, 2009, 75 min. NR
The giddy, chaotic pace in Aubier and Patar’s first feature, a marvelous fantasia made using meticulously detailed stop-motion animation and a cast of 1,500 plastic-toy figures, never lets up for a second. Gleefully defying all logic, “A Town Called Panic” finds its heroes, Horse, Cowboy, and Indian, living together harmoniously, with Horse partial to taking long, soapy hot showers. Seemingly inspired by the manic energy of the Marx brothers and old Warner Bros. cartoons, “A Town Called Panic”, which originated as a cult-favorite TV show, is ultimately in a class of its own, its playful, nonstop anarchy bound to appeal to children and adults alike.
Feb. 19, 7 p.m. “Barbe bleu” (Bluebeard), directed by Catherine Breillat, 2008, 80 min., NR
Director Breillat slyly subverts Charles Perrault’s gruesome 1697 fairy tale about a monstrous aristocrat who marries and murders a series of wives. By inserting semiautobiographical scenes of two sisters in the 1950s who are fascinated with this grisly narrative, Breillat creates a clever framing device to explicate a centuries-old story—and tease out its significance in the contemporary world.
Feb. 20, 12 p.m. “L’ennemi intime” (Intimate Enemies), directed by Florent-Emilio Siri, 2006, 108 min., NR
Set in 1959, Siri’s film is a harrowing depiction of Algeria’s war for independence, the contradictory title referring to the fact that less than ten years after French and Algerian soldiers fought together against the Nazis, they were battling each other. Siri’s filmmaking finesse never detracts from “Intimate Enemies’” deeper significance as an unforgettable statement on the absolute futility of war—a message that powerfully resonates today.
Feb. 20, 3 p.m. “Cliente” (A French Gigolo), directed by Josiane Balasko, 2007, 105 min., NR
Poised, confident, attractive 50-ish divorcée Judith (Nathalie Baye, in an expert performance) runs a home-shopping TV show with her sister, Irène. While Irène dreams of finding Mr. Right, Judith favors the no-strings attachment of paying gigolos for sex. Consistently funny, “A French Gigolo” is nonetheless seriously committed to exposing sexual double standards.