The Tournées Festival, now in its fifth year, will bring seven French-language films to Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus.
Image caption: Denis Lavant in Leos Carax's "Holy Motors"
The screenings are all free and open to the public. All films are in French with English subtitles.
The movies include a physical comedy, thrillers, a behind-the-scenes documentary on a fabled restaurant, and Leos Carax's art-house favorite Holy Motors.
Feb. 20—The Fairy, 7:30 p.m., Hodson 110: A sublime, inventive celebration of the sight gag. The night porter of a cheap hotel meets an eccentric redhead who claims to be a fairy and grants him three wishes. It will be presented by Paris-based film critic and journalist Sabrina Bouarour, a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins' Humanities Center. Watch trailer
Feb. 22—Step up to the Plate, 3 p.m., Hodson 110: Paul Lacoste's hypnotic documentary on the passionate, obsessive quest for gastronomic perfection of father-and-son master chefs Michel and Sébastien Bras. Watch trailer
Feb. 23—Polisse, 3 p.m., Hodson 110: An intense, immersive drama based on real cases of the Paris police unit that investigates crimes against children. Polisse brings together a brilliant ensemble cast as it follows 10 officers reacting to overwhelming brutality. Watch trailer
Feb. 25—The Minister, 7:30 p.m., Gilman 50: Pierre Schoeller's study of political ambition about a high-ranking French politician who reels from crisis to crisis, plagued by surreal nightmares involving naked women devoured by alligators. It will be presented by April Wuensch, who teaches a popular course on contemporary French culture and politics at Johns Hopkins.
Feb. 26—Holy Motors, 7:30 p.m., Gilman 50: Leos Carax's visually astonishing story of a man, played by the extraordinary Denis Lavant, who continually reinvents himself, jumping in and out of a dozen different lives in a single day. It will be presented by Johns Hopkins French professor Derek Schilling. Watch trailer
Feb. 27—Beloved, 7:30 p.m., Hodson 110), Christophe Honoré's moving musical that follows the loves of Catherine Deneueve, Chiara Mastroianni, and Ludivine Sagnier from the 1960s to the 21st century. It will be presented by journalist Sabrina Bouarour, who is studying the musicals of Jacques Demy and Vincente Minelli. Watch trailer
March 2—Rust and Bone, 3 p.m., Hodson 110: Jacques Audiard's visceral drama of two fractured lives—Ali, a burly, stoic bruiser down on his luck, and Stéphanie (Marion Cotillard), a former whale trainer who has lost her legs in a horrific accident. After the movie there will be a discussion led by Linda Delibero, director of the Film and Media Studies program. Watch trailer
The Tournées Festival is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S., the Centre National de la Cinématographie et de l'Image Animée, the Florence Gould Foundation, Campus France USA, and Highbrow Entertainment. Festival sponsors include the Johns Hopkins' Department of German and Romance Languages & Literatures, Film & Media Studies, and the Center for Advanced Media Studies.
For more details visit the festival website.
Posted in Arts+Culture
Tagged film, film and media studies
