The French section of the Department of Classical & Modern Languages,
The Student Activities Board, The Louisville Film Society, The Alliance Française of Louisville,
The Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society
and The French American Cultural Exchange present 

The 2013 Tournées
French Film Festival

at UofL

January 31 – March 1
Floyd Theater, 3rd Floor of the Student Activities Center
University of Louisville 

FREE and open to the public
All films in French with English subtitles 

(*) Post-screening discussion led by Wendy Yoder (French professor, President of Alliance Française de Louisville)
Based on the 1622 novel of the same name by Madame de Lafayette, Bertrand Tavernier’s supple, gripping historical epic unfolds during the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598), which pitted Catholics against Protestants and ravaged the nation. The film centers on Marie de Mézières, who, though in love with one man, the Duke de Guise, is married off by her politically calculating father to the Prince of Montpensier.

A wonderful celebration of France’s national motto—liberty, equality, fraternity—Le Havre is also something of a paean to World War II Resistance dramas. Le Havre centers on Marcel Marx, a once-famous Parisian writer now making his living shining shoes in the northern port town of the title. Marcel divides his time between drinking with his neighbors at the local bar and caring for his ill wife, Arletty. But he soon serves a much nobler purpose when he comes to the aid of Idrissa, a young illegal immigrant from Gabon.

Besotted teenagers Sullivan and Camille struggle, as all couples must, with a painful push-pull dynamic, heightened by the decision of the young man—who’s not quite ready to commit—to leave Paris and travel in South America. As a heartbroken 15-year-old, Camille spirals into a paralyzing depression; gradually she grows stronger, discovering an avid interest in architecture, which she studies with an older professor who becomes her lover.

A mysterious poacher—who may be the Devil, an avenging angel, or perhaps Christ himself—is the central figure of Bruno Dumont’s transcendent look at sinners and saints. Possessed with supernatural powers, he engages in several near-wordless rituals, committing mostly acts of beneficence. But he’s also capable of carrying out horrific violence. Deliberately ambiguous, Outside Satan asks us to consider the repercussions of evil committed in the name of good and vice versa.

A sensitive portrait of childhood just before pubescence, Tomboy astutely explores the freedom of being untethered to the rule-bound world of gender codes. Laure, a gangly, short-haired kid about to go into fourth grade has just moved to a suburban apartment complex with her family a few weeks before the school year starts. The clan’s relocation provides Laure an opportunity for re-invention. Childhood, the film intimates, is full of ambiguities, of sorting out what you are drawn to and what repels you.

For more information, please contact Dr. Matthieu Dalle, PhD, m.dalle (@) louisville.edu, (502) 852-6115

 The Tournées Festival is made possible with the generous support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US, the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée, the Florence Gould Foundation, Campus France, and Highbrow Entertainment.