Cinema class schedule: February 4, February 25, March 11, March 25 , April 15, and April 29.
A full breakdown of the films is below. Register now before the class fills up!
This Zoom class on French and Francophone cinema and film offers a diverse mix of classic and contemporary French language films. The instructor, Manon Bellet, is a passionate and knowledgable cinephile of francophone film.
In this course, after watching French language films, we will examine their directors and actors, analyze the themes and language, and learn vocabulary and expressions related to a specific film and to cinema in general. Each class includes an open discussion in French and English.
This course provides a deeper understanding and analysis of French language films in a relaxed environment on Zoom. Because the class is virtual, the students are asked to watch the film (in French with English subtitles) before the lesson.
Topic for this semester: Early, Rare Short Films of the French New Wave
Starting in the mid-1950s, a group of talented young filmmakers presented a radically new vision of French cinema. Dubbed the “Young Turks” by Cahiers du Cinéma co-founder André Bazin, they overturned the studio-based industry of the day, creating films that were modern, political... and funny. The group included François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Éric Rohmer, and more. The short films in this collection represent the dawn of the New Wave— the earliest works of its most emblematic auteurs. Produced between 1957 and 1965, these shorts are not just stepping stones on the way to the famed New Wave features, but classics that stand on their own.
Pierre Braunberger, the visionary producer of these films, was an iconoclast and film lover, and among those who broke with French post-war cinema. He supported the New Wave filmmakers, guiding them in their work and financing their early efforts. These films are the first forays of a movement that would revolutionize the world of French film and influence cinema around the world for decades to come.
February 4
Paris, A Winter's Day (Paris, un jour d’hiver), Guy Gilles, 1965, 9 min
This is a love letter to living in Paris — even on a bitterly cold winter’s day. Interspersed with shots of the city, we hear from Parisians, including a group of boys on the joys of pelting passers-by with snowballs, and a 73-year-old who has lived his whole life in Paris and would not have it any other way. The film is also a beautifully shot meditation on film and memory, built around Chris Marker’s observation that “Nothing is more beautiful than Paris, if not the memory of Paris.”
500 Francs (Les cinq cent balles), Melvin Van Peebles, 1961, 12 min
Set to a percussive, syncopated soundtrack, this early Melvin Van Peebles short is a small-scale tale of obsession, greed and violence. In a run-down neighborhood, a boy notices a 500-franc note in a sewer. His improvised efforts to pull it up through the grate fail, and when a poor young man comes along to try his luck, the boy’s jealousy leads to a series of ultimately ineffective attacks. Finally, he makes one last quixotic attempt to get his hands on the precious banknote.
The Fifteen-Year-Old Widows (Les veuves de 15 ans), Jean Rouch, 1966, 24 min
In this short, Jean Rouch turns his anthropological eye to bourgeois teenage girls in Paris, in the summer of 1964. Billed as an essay, THE FIFTEEN YEAR OLD WIDOWS may have been intended as a condemnation of a vacuous bourgeois existence—complete with horse farms and private swimming pools—but today it is more illuminating as a time capsule of the era’s attitudes towards young women.
February 25
Ô Saisons, Ô Châteaux, Agnès Varda, 1958, 21 min
This early Agnès Varda short looks at the castles of the Loire Valley — and the unusual histories and personalities behind them. Punctuated by first-person accounts, excerpts from well-known poems, and stylish re-creations, the film juxtaposes stunning images of the castles and their unique architecture with the lives of those who work and live on the grounds and nearby.
The Botanical Avatar of Mademoiselle Flora (L'Avatar botanique de Mlle Flora), Jeanne Barbillion, 1965, 14 min
In a small French town, Flora (Bernadette Lafont) has a six-week fling with a soldier. But this is no passionate affair. Her lover, the cartoonish Charles (Louis Mesuret), ignores her advances, insists she watch as he drinks bowl after bowl of the expensive coffee she prepares for him, and berates her if lunch is not made on time. Increasingly depressed, Flora is drawn to nature, and finds she has a much greater affinity for plants than for people.
All the World's Memory (Toute la mémoire du monde), Alain Resnais, 1956, 21 min
This recently restored early short by French New Wave director Alain Resnais, pays homage to the National Library of France. At the intersection of artistic and informative, ALL THE WORLD’S MEMORY is a unique look at the effort to catalogue as much knowledge as possible in one of the world’s great libraries.
March 11
The Overworked (Les Surmenés), Jacques Doniol Valcroze, 1958, 24 min
A morality tale about the dangers of modern urban life. Catherine (Yane Barry), a champion young typist from small-town France, heads to Paris to be with her fiancé (Jean-Pierre Cassel)— who also happens to be her new boss. Co-written by François Truffaut, THE OVERWORKED is notable for its breakneck pacing, mirroring the perils of modern life, and Barry’s performance as the ingenue, trying to find her way in the metropolis.
The Goumbé of Young Revelers (La Goumbé des jeunes noceurs), Jean Rouch 1966, 27 min
In this short film by Jean Rouch, we meet the Goumbé of Young Revelers, an Ivory Coast group whose bylaws include requirements for monthly parades, writing songs and coming up with new dance moves. The film deftly moves between club meetings and the daily lives of goumbé members—a longshoreman, a tailor, a clerk—providing a snapshot of life in Abidjan and culminating with a celebratory music and dance filled “meeting.”
All the Boys Are Called Patrick (Charlotte et Véronique ou Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick), Jean Luc Godard, 1957, 19 min
Charlotte (Anne Colette) and Véronique (Nicole Berger) are roommates who share a tiny flat with a single bed. Over the course of an afternoon, both are separately accosted by a pick-up artist named Patrick, who manages to fast-talk them into dates — until a poorly timed kiss torpedoes his plans.
March 25
A Story of Water (Une histoire d’eau), Jean Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, 1958, 12 min
As the spring melt floods the streets of a town outside Paris, a student (Caroline Dim) faces one obstacle after another while trying to get to the Sorbonne. Eventually, she meets up with a dashing young driver (Jean-Claude Brialy) who is at first more enamored of his Ford sedan than of her. This is a delightful short driven by the lead character’s stream-of-consciousness narration as she and her newfound beau navigate flooded streets and fields.
Fool's Mate (Le coup du berger), Jaques Rivette, 1957, 29 min
An early film from the six-decade career of hugely influential French director and critic Jacques Rivette. FOOL’S MATE is a tautly paced short drama that unfolds like a chess match, with moves and counter-moves as each side tries to outwit the other. The digital restoration highlights the film’s exquisite cinematography.
April 15
The Little Café (Le petit café), François Reichenbach, 1963, 12 min
A slice-of-life film shot in a small-town cafe/hotel in Northern France. Older men smoke, drink beer and read the paper; young lovers gaze into each other’s eyes, and regulars play cards, while the owner blusters on the phone with potential banquet customers. Meanwhile, from behind the counter, the quiet woman who does the work of ensuring the place runs smoothly keeps watch—and occasionally sneaks a glance at the newspaper herself.
In Memory of Rock (À la mémoire du rock), François Reichenbach, 1963, 11 min
IN MEMORY OF ROCK captures the power, promise, and fear generated by the early days of rock n’roll. It is also a fascinating study in the juxtaposition of image and music. Outside an arena, a crowd of young people gather for a concert, the camera lingering on them as we hear a Boccherini minuet. Inside, rising French rock stars Eddy Mitchell, Vince Taylor, and Johnny Hallyday gyrate in leather jackets and cowboy boots to pounding drumbeats.
Janine, Maurice Pialat, 1962, 17 min
During a desultory night on the town—playing pool, buying the paper, eating fries—two men talk about their experiences with women. One of them (Hubert Deschamps) disparages his ex-wife, “the queen of whores,” who he admits to beating with his fists. The other (Claude Berri) is enamored of the prostitute he was with earlier in the evening, and thinks he might marry her. Without realizing it, both men are talking about Janine, a woman whose essential humanity they fail to see because of their own projections.
The Song of Styrene (Le chant du Styrène), Alain Resnais, 1958, 13 min
When the young Alain Resnais was asked by the Péchiney plastics giant to make a short documentary on polystyrene, “that noble, entirely man-made matter,” Resnais sensed a rapport between Alexandrine verse and CinemaScope. With text by Raymond Queneau and music by Pierre Barbaud, THE SONG OF STYRENE is a beautiful, surrealist film.
April 29
Mississippi Mermaid (La sirène du Mississippi), François Truffaut, 1969, 128 min
Pantheon director François Truffaut’s adaptation of Cornell Woolrich’s "Waltz into Darkness," MISSISSIPPI MERMAID stars the iconic Jean-Paul Belmondo as a wealthy plantation owner on Réunion Island who falls madly in love with his mail-order bride (the stunning Catherine Deneuve), despite the fact that she is not quite what she seems—and is, in fact, a lot worse. This tale of obsessive love features music by Antoine Duhamel.