Press release, January 18, 2005

Note: locations and times for Desplechin roundtable events have been changed since the initial press release.

Stanford’s Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages Announces French Film Series with Directors Nicolas Philibert and Arnaud Desplechin, and West Coast Premiere of Desplechin’s Kings and Queen

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Stanford, January 18 —The Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages is pleased to announce a series of screenings, discussions, and seminars with some of the most influential figures in French cinema today. The series begins on February 22 and 23 with screenings of the documentaries Être et avoir (To Be and To Have) and Le Pays des sourds (Land of the Deaf), featuring discussions and seminars with the director, Nicolas Philibert. On February 28 and March 1, Arnaud Desplechin will present two of his latest films, Leo, en jouant “Dans la compagnie des hommes” (Leo Playing “In the Company of Men” - 2003) and the West Coast premiere of Rois et reine (Kings and Queen - 2004), which has not yet been released in the United States. The screenings will be followed by a discussion with director Desplechin and critic Jean-Michel Frodon, the director and editor in chief of Cahiers du Cinéma, who will also present a lecture and round table on the “French Cultural Exception” the same day.

All films are in French with English subtitles, and discussions will be in English. All events are free and open to the public. The events are part of the second year of the ongoing series From Script to Screen: Conversations on Contemporary French Cinema.

The program is as follows:

PART I: Conversations on Contemporary French Cinema with Nicolas Philibert

• Tuesday, February 22
  Screening of Être et avoir (To Be and To Have), followed by a discussion with director Nicolas Philibert, 6:30-9 p.m., Cubberley Auditorium. Link to map.
  
• Wednesday, February 23
  "Visions of Films,” an interview of Nicolas Philibert by Kristine Samuelson and Cécile Alduy, followed by a screening and discussion of his film Le Pays des Sourds (Land of the Deaf), 5-8 p.m., Memorial Auditorium. Link to map.

Part II: Conversations on Contemporary French Cinema with Arnaud Desplechin

• Monday, February 28
  • Reception with Arnaud Desplechin and Jean-Michel Frodon, 4:15-5:30 p.m., Building 260, Room 216. Link to map.
  • Screening of Leo, en jouant “Dans la compagnie des hommes” (Leo Playing “In the Company of Men”) and discussion with director Arnaud Desplechin, 6:00-9:00 p.m., Cubberley Auditorium. Link to map.
    
• Tuesday, March 1
  • Roundtable on Contemporary French Cinema: Seminar by Arnaud Desplechin, followed by “The French Cultural Exception," a lecture by Jean-Michel Frodon, Editor in Chief of the Cahiers du Cinema, 2:30-5:00 p.m., Building 370, Room 370 (note new time, starting one hour earlier for the seminar). Link to map.
  • West Coast Premiere of Rois et reine (Kings and Queen), followed by a discussion with director Arnaud Desplechin and Jean-Michel Frodon, 6:00-9:00 p.m., Cubberley Auditorium. Link to map.

This year’s series is sponsored by the Research Unit in the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages at Stanford; the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture (as part of their “Tournées” program); TV5, the International French-Language Network; the Stanford Film Studies program; the Program in Documentary Film and Video, and the STEP and TNE programs in the School of Education at Stanford.

Details of the program are appended to this press release. More information can also be found at http://dlcl.stanford.edu/research/frenchfilm.html.

For more French films in the Bay Area, please visit the Alliance Française.

Contacts:
For information on From Script to Screen, please contact:
Cécile Alduy, Assistant Professor, Department of French and Italian
alduy@stanford.edu

Mireille Le Breton, Ph.D. student, Department of French and Italian
mireille@stanford.edu

For information on the DLCL Research Unit, contact:
Ann Gelder, Academic Research and Program Officer
agelder@stanford.edu
(650) 725-8620

http://dlcl.stanford.edu/research/frenchfilm.html.

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Film Details:

PART I: Conversations on Contemporary French Cinema with Nicolas Philibert

Tuesday, February 22
Screening of Être et avoir (To Be and To Have), followed by a discussion with director Nicolas Philibert, 6:30-9 p.m., Cubberley Auditorium.

Named Best Documentary at the European Film Awards in 2002; awarded the prestigious Louis Delluc award in 2002, Être et avoir (To Be and To Have--2002) is the documentary portrait of a classroom in rural France (Auvergne). In the one-room school of Saint-Etienne-sur-Usson, in the mountains of the “Massif Central,” thirteen children, ranging in age from about 4 to 12 are educated by a single dedicated teacher, Georges Lopez. As they learn sums and adjectives with their teacher’s help, they also discover how to help each other under very peculiar conditions. Philibert films their daily life, capturing moments of intimacy and unexpected humour, teaching us how to better live together.

Wednesday, February 23
"Visions of Films,” an interview of Nicolas Philibert by Kristine Samuelson and Cécile Alduy, followed by a screening and discussion of his film Le Pays des sourds (Land of the Deaf), 5-8 p.m., Memorial Auditorium.

What does the world look like for the thousands of people who are constrained to a world of silence? The award-winning 1992 documentary film Le Pays des Sourds (Land of the Deaf) brings to light and life the riches and values of the deaf community. In slice-of-life mode, the film narrates the experiences of Jean-Claude, Abou, Claire, and Florent, who are deaf since birth, and catches their feelings, dreams and thoughts as they express themselves in sign language. The force of the film liess in being at times poetical, humorous or touching, as it brilliantly reveals the land of signs, reminding us that a look and a touch can mean so much.

Part II: Conversations on Contemporary French Cinema with Arnaud Desplechin

Monday, February 28
Screening of Leo, en jouant “Dans la compagnie des homes” (Leo Playing “In the Company of Men”) and discussion with director Arnaud Desplechin, 6-9 p.m., Cubberley Auditorium.

In Leo, en jouant “Dans la compagnie des hommes” (2003), men of power wage a war against each other using the stock exchange, financial plots, and international banking operations as their weapons. The film--a free adaptation of a play by Edward Bond--oscillates between thriller and tragedy to tell the story of Leo, who plunges into the dark waters of financial struggles between two businessmen, one of whom is his father-in-law. Leo must learn how to survive in the merciless world of the arms industry.

Tuesday, March 1
West Coast Premiere of Rois et Reine (Kings and Queen), followed by a discussion with director Arnaud Desplechin and Jean-Michel Frodon, editor in chief of the Cahiers du Cinema, 6-9 p.m., Cubberley Auditorium.

Screened during the official selection at the 61st Mostra of Venice in 2004; recently receiving the 2004 prestigious Louis Delluc award, Rois et reine (Kings and Queen- 2004) presents two parallel stories: on the one hand Nora Cotterelle’s celebration as she is about to get married, and on the other, the fall of Ismaël Vuillard, mistakenly confined to a psychiatric hospital from which he will depart a new but diminished man. The two stories meet, when Nora asks Ismaël to adopt her son, Elias… Starring internationally acclaimed actors Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Devos, and Noemy Lvovsky, this drama reminds us how we can sometimes become kings and queens of our own destiny.

Mathieu Amalric in Rois et Reines

Still from Rois et Reines

Cécile Alduy, chair

Margaret Cohen, co-founder