THOUSAND OAKS, CA. – California Lutheran University’s free French film festival will return for a fourth year from Sept. 22 through Oct. 20.
The Tournées Festival: French Films on the CLU Campus will feature five movies shown at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Preus-Brandt Forum. All films are subtitled in English. They explore the themes of integrity, compassion and diversity.
“Coco avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel)” - Sept. 22
Anne Fontaine’s exploration of the world’s greatest fashion designer focuses on Coco Chanel during the Belle Époque. The 2009 film, which won a César award in 2010, opens in 1893 when 10-year-old Coco and her sister are unceremoniously dumped at an orphanage and ends a few years before the Chanel empire is launched.
“Lili et le Baobab (Lili and the Baobab)” - Sept. 29
In this 2006 film, freelance photographer Lili is documenting new infrastructures in her town’s sister community in Senegal. The village turns out to welcome her. As she focuses her camera on the villagers and their profoundly communal existence, her photography becomes a means of communication and a salve for her own isolation.
“Les Plages d’Agnès (The Beaches of Agnes)” - Oct. 6
This 2008 film is a cinematic and poetic autobiography of Agnès Varda’s life through locations she fondly remembers. The director feels that inside every human being is a landscape. “If you open me up, you’d find beaches inside,” she comments before our journey to beaches and neighborhoods from her native Belgium to Venice, Calif.
“Paris” (2007) - Oct. 13
In Cedric Klapisch’s 2007 love letter to the City of Light, the action focuses on a former dancer, his sister and her children. “There are enough intersecting characters from different classes and backgrounds …to evoke the city as a complex, healthy organism, whose parts are all connected,” The New York Times said.
“Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge (The Flight of the Red Balloon)” - Oct. 20
Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien and based on the French short “The Red Balloon,” this 2007 film tells the story of a French family through the eyes of a Chinese student. Suzanne, played by Juliette Binoche, hires the student to care for her son. Soon, the student and son share an imaginary world in which a red balloon follows them.
The Tournées Festival: French Films on the CLU Campus is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture. The Florence Gould Foundation, the Grand Marnier Foundation and highbrow entertainment are sponsors of the free festival.
The forum is south of Olsen Road between Mountclef Boulevard and Campus Drive.
For more information, contact Karen Renick of the French Department at renick@callutheran.edu or go to http://www.callutheran.edu/events .
