UNCA Hosts Fifteen-Week French Video Festival

Fifteen popular films from six decades will take center stage at UNCA’s French Video Festival through May. The movies will be shown in VHS format with English subtitles. The older movies are of great cinematic, though of lesser technical, quality. All together, the collection represents a terrific overview of the rich French film heritage. All screenings will be held at 7:30 p.m. in UNCA’s Karpen Hall room 127. All showings are free and open to the public.

* Jan. 17: "Marius" (1931) The first installment of Pagnol’s bittersweet epic of barmen and fishmongers on Marseille’s waterfront.

* Jan. 24: "Pepe le Moko" (1937) Jean Gabin stars as a gangster safe from the police as long as he doesn’t venture out of the Algiers Casbah.

* Jan. 31: "Le Crime de M. Lange" (1935) An innocent in a printing factory rescues the workers from the clutches of the malevolent Jules Berry.

* Feb. 7: "La Grande Illusion" (1937) One of the great (anti-) war pictures, with nary a battle scene but brilliant ensemble performances.

* Feb. 14: Le Jour Se Leve (1939) A masterpiece of poetic realism and a sobering reflection on Valentine’s Day.

* Feb. 21: "Le Dernier Metro" (1980) Catherine Deneuve tries to protect her Jewish husband, a theatre director, from the Nazis.

* Feb. 28: "Les Enfants du Paradis" (1945) A celebration of the French theatre’s glories, made under the Nazi occupation. Note: this film is over three hours long and will begin at 6 p.m.

* March 14: "La Ronde" (1950) The merry-go-round of love in a glittering fin-de-siecle Vienna.

* March 21: "Les Jeux Interdits" (1952) A little girl and boy are smarter than their elders in surviving admist the horrors of war.

* March 28: "Mon Oncle" (1958) The irrepressible comic director Jacques Tati deconstructs the frist fruits of the high-tech era.

* April 4: "Les Quatre Cents Coups" (1959) Director Francois Truffaut’s poignant memoir of his days of truancy in Montmartre

* April 11: "A Bout de Souffle" (1960) The American Jean Seberg in director Jean-Luc Godard’s homage to American B-movies.

* April 18: "Ma Nuit Chez Maud" (1969) Pascal, Marx and Mozart in a brilliant take on games people play.

* April 25: "Chocolat" (1988) In 1950s Cameroon, a young French girl learns from a native "houseboy" the joys and limits of colonial friendship.

* May 2: "Milou en Mai" (1990) A jovial family reunion around a matriarch’s funeral at the height of France’s May 1968 social unrest.

For more information, call J. Paul McDonald, UNCA associate French professor and festival coordinator, at 828/251-6272.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. J. Paul McDonald, UNCA Associate French Professor, 828/251-6272
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant, 828/251-6526