BURLINGTON, VT - To celebrate National French Week, Champlain College will present a weekend series of five recent French feature films from Nov. 4-6. National French Week is an annual celebration of French language and French-speaking cultures organized by the American Association of Teachers of French. All the films have English subtitles, will be followed by a discussion. The showings are free and open to the public.

Now in its fifth year at Champlain, the college is one of 100 American Colleges and Universities selected to participate in the French American Cultural Exchange's grant program. The Tournées Festival Screenings at Champlain College are made possible with support from other sponsors including the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the Centre national de la Cinématographie, the Florence Gould Foundation, the Grand Marnier Foundation, highbrow entertainment, and the Franco-American Cultural Fund.

The series is co-sponsored by Champlain College's Division of Communications & Creative Media, Office of Diversity & Inclusion, and the Student Government Association. Champlain College faculty member, Antoine J. Polgar, will be providing introductions and facilitating post-screening discussions. According to Polgar, "French cinema adds an important dimension to the teaching and understanding of French language, culture and civilization."

The film selection covers a wide range of themes including love, war, terrorism, immigration, racism, and social etiquette. The films are directed by a mix of men and women and have a range of motion picture ratings.

French Cinema at Champlain College Schedule & Synopsis
Co-sponsored by Office of Diversity & Inclusion, SGA Division of Communications & Creative Media
The
Tournées Festival Champlain College - Alumni Auditorium. Free Admission, Open to the Public

Friday - Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. Screening of Of Gods & Men (France, 2010, rated R, 122 min.)
Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist group, fear sweeps though the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. They must decide whether to leave or stay. Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay. This film is based on the life of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 until their kidnapping in 1996.
An award-winning drama directed by Xavier Veauvois, starring Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale.
Trailer: http://www.sonyclassics.com/ofgodsandmen/

Saturday - Nov. 5, at 1 p.m. Screening of The Illusionist (Belgium, 2010, rated PG, 80 min.)
An aging French magician finds himself out of work and is forced to travel to find a stage on which to perform his act. He meets Alice, a teenage girl with a capacity for childish wonder. She loves The Illusionist like she would a father; he loves her as he would a daughter. Their ensuing adventure, taking place in the 1950s, changes both their lives forever. The original script, written by Jacques Tati, was adapted by Sylvain Chomet to create this animation dramedy.
Trailer: http://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/

Saturday - Nov. 5, at 3 p.m. Screening of Potiche (France, 2010, not rated, 106 min.)
A trophy wife proves capable of much more than acting as an adornment for her egotistical husband in director Francois Ozon's adaptation of the hit French play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy in 1977. Their children having long since grown up and moved out, submissive housewife Suzanne Pujol, played by Catherine Deneuve, spends most of her days catering to her ornery husband, Robert (Fabrice Luchini), the owner of his family's prosperous umbrella factory. But Robert is hardly a savvy businessman, so when his workers protest their poor working conditions by going on strike, the stress leads him to suffer a massive heart attack. This provides Suzanne with the perfect opportunity to finally show her true value, and with a little help from the mayor (and her former lover), Maurice Babin, the much ridiculed trophy wife manages to get the factory back up and running so efficiently that the exasperated, trash-talking workers are forced to eat their words. Later, Robert makes a full recovery, and resorts to unethical tactics to wrest back control of the factory. But Robert's hasty grab for power sparks a bitter battle of wills with his unusually shrewd wife, who isn't about to give up her newfound leadership role without a fight. Trailer: http://potichemovie.com/

Saturday - Nov. 5, at 7 p.m. Screening of White Material (France, 2009, rated R, 103 min.)
Master filmmaker Claire Denis returns with this evocative African-set film starring the electrifying Isabelle Huppert, a woman fighting to save her family plantation, and way of life, in the face of rising civil unrest. Featured in the Venice, Toronto, New York and Los Angeles film festivals, WHITE MATERIAL is a visceral, potent and very personal rumination on a society turned upside down. In an unnamed African country in the throes of volatile regime change, Maria Vial (Huppert) is trying to sustain the failing coffee plantation she runs with her ex-husband André (Christophe Lambert), but he has other plans. The country is tenuously under the control of a rebel militia whose leader (Isaach De Bankolé) is on the run. With the regular army preparing to regain control, French forces have moved out, warning the remaining white residents that they're on their own if they stay behind. However, Maria refuses to be driven off the land, continuing to run the farm as impending tragedy looms. Trailer: http://www.ifcfilms.com/videos/white-material2