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French film festival and symposium set for March 25-April 3

A festival of French films and a symposium titled “European Cinema and Cross Atlantic Currents” will be held March 25-April 3 on the Texas State campus.

The festival and symposium, organized by the Department of Modern Languages, will feature five films as well as presentations and discussions led by more than two dozen Texas State faculty and students. Both programs are free and open to the public. No registration is necessary. More information is available from Dr. Carole Martin, Department of Modern Languages, cm25@txstate.edu, (512) 245-2489.

The festival is 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, highbrow entertainment, agnès b. and the  Franco-American Cultural Fund.  Additional organizers include the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE), the Mitte Honors Program, the Multicultural Student Affairs, the College of Liberal Arts, the University Print Shop, and the Cool Mint Café.

French Film Festival and Symposium Schedule 

Download the festival poster

                                                                

Opening Night—Tuesday March 25/6:30 pm/Alkek Teaching Theater
Paris je t'aime (Paris I Love You)
Moderator: Ulrich Bach (Texas State University / German)
“Offers an interesting perspective on how foreign directors (the Coen brothers, Wes Craven, Gus Van Sant, etc.) see Paris.” With stellar actors Steve Buscemi, Juliette Binoche, Gérard Depardieu, Ben Gazzara and Catherine Deneuve.

Thursday March 27 / 6:30 pm / Alkek Teaching Theater
Caché (Hidden)
Moderator: Rebecca Bell-Metereau (Texas State University / English)
“A psychological thriller that masterfully brings the viewer into the story.” Directed by Michael Haneke, with Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil.

Monday March 31 / 6:30 pm / Alkek Teaching Theater
La Moustache (The Moustache)
Moderator: Michael Harney (University of Texas-Austin / Spanish)
A Cannes Film Festival Award for this film starring the best of the new generation of French actors, among whom Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric and Hippolyte Girardot.

Tuesday April 1 / 6:30 pm / Alkek Teaching Theater
Les Amants réguliers (Regular Lovers)
Moderators: Diann McCabe (Texas State University / Honors) and Yasmine Beale-Rosano-Rivaya (Texas State University / Spanish)
“Takes place in 1968, a key year in French cultural and social history…the director, who was twenty at the time, gives a unique perspective of what he remembers from this period.”

Thursday April 3/9:00am/Southwestern Writers Gallery/Alkek Library 7th
Welcome Coffee to the Symposium: "European Cinema and Cross Atlantic Currents"

9:30-10:30 Student Session: Crossing Boundaries I
Moderator, Carole Martin (Texas State University / French)

• Presentation on the Festival Films
Sarah Butler, Karin Cunningham (Texas State University / French)
• Round Table on Bergman’s Trilogy
Matt Abedi, Jordan Albracht, Shawn Bates, Ian Eskander, Kara Sweidel (Texas State University / Honors)

10:30-10:45 Coffee Break

10:45-12:30 Session 2
Crossing Boundaries II: From National to Transnational Perspectives
Moderator, Antonio Gragera (Texas State University / Spanish)

• "Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Encounters: The Mature Cinema of Patrice Leconte", Jennifer Forrest (Texas State University / French)
• "La rive gauche de la Seine contre la rive droite du Tibre: Godard's French New Wave versus Fellini's Italian Neo-Realism," Moira Di Mauro-Jackson (Texas State University / French)
• "Fernando Solanas and French Co-Productions in Argentina," Tanya Weimer (Texas State University / Spanish)
• "The Transnational Career of a Post-War German Diva," Ulrich Bach (Texas State University / German)

12:30-1:30 Lunch / Department of Modern Languages Reading Room Centennial Hall 2nd Floor

1:30-3:00 Session 3
Crossing Boundaries III: From Literature to Film
Moderator, Yasmine Beale-Rosano-Rivaya (Texas State / Spanish)

•"Jean Cocteau´s Orpheus: A Surrealist View on Ovid and Virgil," Ane Gamechogoicoechea Llopis (Texas State University / Spanish)
• "Remakes: Mid-Century Spanish Women Poets and the Gendering of Film Imagery," Sharon Ugalde (Texas State University / Spanish)
• "When Fairy Tales Come True: Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth as Filmic Rescripting," Maria Elena Solino (University of Houston / Spanish)

3:00-3:15 Coffee Break

3:15-4:20 Session 4
Crossing Boundaries IV: From Dream Work to Realms of Memory
Moderator, Diann McCabe (Texas State University / Honors)

• "Filmscape and Dreamscape in the Films of Ingmar Bergman," Jeffrey Gordon (Texas State University / Philosophy)
• "Meditations on Time and Memory in Chris Marker's La Jetée
and Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty,'' James Housefield (Texas State University / Art History)

4:30-5:20 Keynote
Crossing Boundaries V
Moderator, Cathy Jaffe (Texas State University / Spanish)

"Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven as Touristic Narrative," Michael Harney (University of Texas-Austin / Spanish)

5:30-6:30 Reception

Closing Film—Thursday April 3 / 6:30 pm / Alkek Teaching Theater
Chats Perchés (The Case of the Grinning Cat)
Moderator: James Housefield (Texas State University / Art History)
Chris Marker, the famous documentarist, “examines Paris’ changing social climate -- from the pro-American feelings generated shortly after Sept. 11, the anti-Bush and Iraq War demonstrations…to the defeat of right-wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen.”