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BASTILLE DAY CELEBRATION

bastille day

60th St. between Fifth & Lexington Aves.
Sunday, July 10, free, 12 noon – 5:00 pm
www.bastilledaynyc.com
fiaf.org

On July 14, 1789, a Parisian mob stormed the Bastille prison, a symbolic victory that kicked off the French Revolution and the establishment of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Ever since, July 14 has been a national holiday celebrating liberté, égalité, and fraternité. In New York City, the Bastille Day festivities are set for Sunday, July 10, along Sixtieth St., where the French Institute Alliance Française hosts its annual daylong party of food, music, dance, and other special activities. There will be a Wine, Beer, Cocktail, and Cheese Tasting in FIAF’s Tinker Auditorium at 12 noon, 1:30, and 3:00 ($25), as well as luxurious ninety-minute Champagne & Chocolate Tastings in Le Skyroom at 12:30 and 3:00 ($75) featuring delights from G. H. Mumm, Piper-Heidsieck, Drappier, Brimoncourt, Billecart-Salmon, La Caravelle, Neuhaus, La Maison du Chocolat, Valrhona, MarieBelle, and Maman Bakery. The annual raffle ($5 per ticket) can win you such prizes as trips to Paris and New Orleans, concert tickets, beauty treatments and gift baskets, lunches and dinners, and more. Food and drink will be available from Babeth’s Feast, Barraca, Booqoo Beignets, Dominique Ansel Bakery, Éclair Bakery, Epicerie Boulud, Financier, Bec Fin, Le Souk, St. Michel, Tipsy Scoop, François Payard Bakery, Mille-feuille, Oliviers & Co., Ponty Bistro, and others. Taking the stage will be cast members from An American in Paris (12:30), CanCan dancers led by Sarah O’Dwyer (1:15 & 2:15), a French puppet show by Samantha Grassian (1:30), the Hungry March Band (2:30), the Sheridan Fencing Academy (3:15), and Myriam Phiro’s Accordion Trio (4:00). The festivities also include a roaming French Mime for Hire (Catherina Gasta), a photobooth, a book signing with Marc Levy (A Spin on the Horizon, 1:00), the annual Citroën Car Show (1:00 – 5:00), a live screening of the UEFA Euro final between France and Portugal (3:00), and more. Vive la France!

BURNING BRIGHT — NEW FRENCH FILMMAKERS: THE LAST HAMMER BLOW

Thirteen-year-old Vicgtor (Romain Paul) has to pull off quite a balancing act in Alix Delaporte’s poignant THE LAST HAMMER BLOW

CINÉSALON: THE LAST HAMMER BLOW (LE DERNIER COUP DE MARTEAU) (Alix Delaporte, 2014)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, July 5, $14, 4:00 & 7:30 (later screening introduced by Mathieu Fourne)
212-355-6100
fiaf.org
www.palacefilms.com

For their work in Alix Delaporte’s 2010 drama, Angèle et Tony, Clotilde Hesme, as Angèle, won the César for Most Promising Actress and Grégory Gadebois, as Tony, was named Most Promising Actor. For his film debut in Delaporte’s 2014 follow-up, the gentle, tender-hearted The Last Hammer Blow, playing at FIAF on July 5, teenager Romain Paul, portraying Victor, the illegitimate son of characters played by Hesme and Gadebois, won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor at the Venice International Film Festival. (Hesme and Gadebois also both starred in the French television series The Returned.) Victor is a sullen thirteen-year-old soccer phenom living with his mother, Nadia (Hesme), in a lonely trailer park. They have run out of money as Nadia battles cancer and considers selling their home and moving in with her estranged parents. When Victor’s father, famous conductor Samuel Rovinski (Gadebois), arrives to lead a performance of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony at the local opera house, Victor confronts him, but Rovinski at first denies that he has a son. But Victor persists in visiting the maestro, all the while not telling his mother that he is being considered for a spot in a prestigious soccer program. In addition, his hormones start raging as he begins noticing that one of his neighbors, Luna (Mireia Vilapuig), is blossoming into quite a beautiful young girl. The various parts of his life converge suddenly, putting him in a precarious position as he is forced to make some difficult decisions.

The Last Hammer Blow is a touching, sensitively told coming-of-age tale, anchored by a breakout performance by Paul, who imbues Victor with a mixture of compassion and ennui, keeping him at an even keel no matter what he faces. Hesme (Love Songs, Mysteries of Lisbon) is heartbreaking as a mother running out of options, and Gadebois (One of a Kind, Une femme dans la Révolution) excels as a bold, strong man who can’t just wave his conductor’s baton and make the past go away. Delaporte’s second film is a character-driven study filled with a poignant humanity that avoids melodrama and cliché in favor of honesty and genuine surprise. Claire Mathon (Angèle et Tony, Mon roi, Two Friends) earned her first of three Lumières Award nominations for her evocative cinematography, and Evgueni and Sacha Galperine’s soundtrack is bittersweet and subtle, especially in the shadow of the grand Mahler symphony. The Last Hammer Blow is screening at 4:00 and 7:30 on July 5 in FIAF’s CinéSalon series “Burning Bright: New French Filmmakers”; the later screening will be introduced by Mathieu Fournet of the French Embassy. The series continues Tuesday nights in July with Arnaud Viard’s Paris, Love, Cut, Thomas Salvador’s Vincent, and Jean-Charles Hue’s Eat Your Bones.

CREATIVE ENCOUNTERS: IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY?

Michel Gondry details a series of animated conversations with Noam Chomsky in brilliant documentary

CinéSalon: IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY? AN ANIMATED CONVERSATION WITH NOAM CHOMSKY (Michel Gondry, 2013)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, May 17, $14, 4:00 & 7:30
Series continues Tuesdays through May 31
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

As it turns out, Michel Gondry’s exciting documentary, Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? An Animated Conversation with Noam Chomsky, is animated in more ways than one. The fifty-year-old French director initially set out to go toe-to-toe with the controversial octogenarian linguist and philosopher, but he realized early on that the battle was lost. So when editing the series of interviews he had with Chomsky over the course of several months in 2010, he decided to illustrate the film with animated cartoon drawings, only occasionally showing the live-action Chomsky, often in a small box or circle within a colorfully rendered scene. After an attempt to impress Chomsky — the author of such books as Syntactic Structures; Cartesian Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought; Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar; and The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory — with his own views on image and representation, Gondry becomes embarrassed. “As you can see,” he says while the handwritten words appear on the screen, “I felt a bit stupid here. Let me explain: I think I couldn’t get my point through to Noam. Misuse of words and heavy accent aggravated my attempt.” Chomsky and Gondry go on to explore such concepts as generative grammar, language acquisition, and psychic continuity as Gondry, the director of such offbeat films as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, Human Nature, and Be Kind, Rewind, makes his endearing, often childlike drawings, a genius counterpoint to Chomsky’s cool and calm super-intellectualism.

Michel Gondry comes up with a unique way to depict Noam Chomsky in IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY?

Gondry does get Chomsky to open up a little about his personal life, especially his relationship with his late wife, and they wisely avoid politics. The film eventually takes a hysterical turn when Gondry realizes that he better finish it soon, since it’s been three years since he conducted the talks with Chomsky and he wants to make sure he finishes it before Chomsky dies. In the end, Gondry manages to level the playing field as the two men diagram the title question. Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? is an absolute treat, a fun and fascinating examination of human intelligence, the creative process, the manipulative relationship between director and viewer, and the essence of film and storytelling itself. Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? is screening May 17 at 4:00 and 7:30 in FIAF’s “Creative Encounters” CinéSalon series, with the later show introduced by film journalist and professor Anne-Katrin Titze. The festival continues every Tuesday in May with Claire Denis’s Jacques Rivette, the Night Watchman and Chantal Akerman’s One Day Pina Asked…

CREATIVE ENCOUNTERS: THE KIDNAPPING OF MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ

Michel Houellebecq plays himself in satirical black comedy

Michel Houellebecq plays a version of himself in Guillaume Nicloux’s satirical black comedy

CinéSalon: THE KIDNAPPING OF MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ (L’ENLÈVEMENT DE MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ) (Guillaume Nicloux, 2014)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, May 10, $14, 4:00 & 7:30
Series continues Tuesdays through May 31
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

In 2010, French writer, actor, poet, and filmmaker Michel Houellebecq won the prestigious Prix Goncourt for his novel The Map and the Territory. The controversial Houellebecq — who has been accused of plagiarism, misogyny, and inciting racial hatred — then went missing in 2011, failing to show up for a book tour in Belgium and the Netherlands. As it turns out, the novelist merely forgot about the readings and claims he was unreachable at the time, by either phone or e-mail. But writer-director Guillaume Nicloux tells a far more entertaining story in the absurdist black comedy The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq, which imagines that he really was taken hostage and held for a never-specified ransom. Even better, Nicloux got Houellebecq to play himself in the film, spoofing his image as an intellectual recluse. The fictionalized Houellebecq is taken captive by Mathieu (Mathieu Nicourt), Max (Maxime Lefrançois), and Luc (Luc Schwarz), who eventually bring him to a country house owned by elderly couple Ginette (Ginette Suchotzky) and Dede (Andre Suchotzky), where Houellebecq is almost always handcuffed and chained to his bed at night. His kidnappers engage him in literary discussions, talk about bodybuilding, bring him books to read, drink wine and smoke cigarettes with him, and even procure female accompaniment (Marie Bourjala) when he asks for it. The real Houellebecq (Platform; H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life) plays his fictionalized self with a deadpan comic turn worthy of Buster Keaton, never letting on whether anything that is happening is even the slightest bit true to who Houellebecq actually is. Nicloux (The Nun, Valley of Love) keeps the audience guessing all the way about the characters and their motives, but don’t expect any simple answers or trite resolutions. The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq is screening May 10 at 4:00 and 7:30 in FIAF’s “Creative Encounters” CinéSalon series, with the later show introduced by Albertine Books deputy director Tom Roberge, who has admitted to his “slavish devotion to Michel Houellebecq.” The festival continues every Tuesday in May with Michel Gondry’s Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?, Claire Denis’s Jacques Rivette, the Night Watchman, and Chantal Akerman’s One Day Pina Asked…

CREATIVE ENCOUNTERS: THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS

Agnès Varda takes an unusual approach to autobiography in THE BEACHES OF AGNES

CinéSalon: THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS (LES PLAGES D’AGNÈS) (Agnès Varda, 2008)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, May 3, $14, 4:00 & 7:30
Series continues Tuesdays through May 31
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

“The whole idea of fragmentation appeals to me,” filmmaker, photographer, and installation artist Agnès Varda says in the middle of her unusual cinematic autobiography, the César-winning documentary The Beaches of Agnès. “It corresponds so naturally to questions of memory. Is it possible to reconstitute this personality, this person Jean Vilar, who was so exceptional?” She might have been referring to her friend, the French actor and theater director, but the exceptional Belgian-French Varda might as well have been referring to herself. Later she explains, “My memories swarm around me like confused flies. I hesitate to remember all that. I don’t want to.” Fortunately for viewers, Varda (Jacquot de Nantes, The Gleaners and I) does delve into her past in the film, sharing choice tidbits from throughout her life and career, in creative and offbeat ways that are charmingly self-effacing. Using cleverly arranged film clips, re-creations, photographs, and an array of frames and mirrors, the eighty-year-old Varda discusses such colleagues as Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, and Alain Resnais; shares personal details of her long relationship with Jacques Demy; visits her childhood home; rebuilds an old film set; speaks with her daughter, Rosalie Varda, and son, Mathieu Demy; talks about several of her classic films, including La Pointe Courte, Cléo from 5 to 7, and Vagabond; and, in her ever-present bangs, walks barefoot along beaches, fully aware that the camera is following her every move and reveling in it while also feigning occasional shyness. Filmmakers don’t generally write and direct documentaries about themselves, but unsurprisingly, the Nouvelle Vague legend and first woman to win an honorary Palme d’or makes The Beaches of Agnès about as artistic as it can get without becoming pretentious and laudatory. The film is screening May 3 at 4:00 and 7:30, kicking off FIAF’s “Creative Encounters” CinéSalon series, comprising five unique documentary portraits. (By the way, the FIAF award Varda won in 2013 was from the International Federation of Film Archives for her work in film presentation and restoration, not from the French Institute Alliance Française.) The festival continues every Tuesday in May with Guillaume Nicloux’s The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq, Michel Gondry’s Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?, Claire Denis’s Jacques Rivette, the Night Watchman, and Chantal Akerman’s One Day Pina Asked…

EDM ANTHEMS — FRENCH TOUCH ON FILM: GIRLHOOD

Karidja Touré is extraordinary as a teenager desperate to make a better life for herself in GIRLHOOD

GIRLHOOD (BANDE DE FILLES) (Céline Sciamma, 2014)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, April 26, $14, 4:00 & 7:30
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org
strandreleasing.com

FIAF’s two-month CinéSalon series “EDM Anthems: French Touch on Film” comes to a poignant conclusion April 26 with Céline Sciamma’s sensitive, gripping, award-winning Girlhood. In her outstanding film debut, Karidja Touré earned a César nomination as Most Promising Actress for playing Marieme, a sixteen-year-old girl who is trying to find a workable path to a worthwhile adulthood but is continually thwarted by socioeconomic and cultural issues. Marieme wants to go to college, but a guidance counselor tells her that her grades aren’t good enough and that she should instead choose a vocational school. She’s clearly bright, but she has to spend much of her time taking care of her younger sisters while her mother works as a cleaning lady and her lazy older brother, Djibril (Cyril Mendy), plays video games and keeps a tight watch on the women in the family. Distressed by her options as a young black woman in France, Marieme starts hanging out with a gang of tough girls led by Lady (Assa Sylla), who christens Marieme “Vic” for victory. Vic, Lady, Adiatou (Lindsay Karamoh), and Fily (Mariétou Touré) battle other small gangs, head to the city to steal fancy clothing, and flirt with the local boys in the Parisian suburbs of Bagnolet and Bobigny. Vic is attracted to Ismaël (Idrissa Diabaté), a friend of Djibril’s who is hesitant to get involved with her, but the two soon start a kind of relationship. Amid gang fights, drug dealing, neighborhood gossip, and romantic entanglements, Vic desperately searches for her identity and refuses to give up on her dreams.

Sciamma never takes the easy way out in this fresh and potent coming-of-age story. Girlhood is beautifully photographed by Crystel Fournier, who also shot Sciamma’s Water Lilies and Tomboy, using a vibrant palette to illuminate the girls’ strong emotions. The pulsating electronic soundtrack by Para One, aka Jean Baptiste de Laubier, adds to the emotional upheavals experienced every day by the characters. Karidja Touré and Assa Sylla have a terrific chemistry; the film really comes alive when they are together, through good times and bad. And despite the serious subject matter, Sciamma also lets things get loose and crazy, like when the four girls dance to Rihanna’s “Diamonds” in a hotel room. Girlhood doesn’t go out of its way to make any overt political statements about race, poverty, or the aftermath of colonialism; instead it is an intelligent, deeply moving story of one girl who is unwilling to sacrifice her power and settle for less than what she wants. The film is screening at FIAF on April 26 at 4:00 and 7:30, with the later showing introduced by DJ Bearcat.

EDM ANTHEMS — FRENCH TOUCH ON FILM: YOU AND THE NIGHT

A group of strangers gather for an orgy in Yann Gonzalez’s YOU AND THE NIGHT

YOU AND THE NIGHT (LES RENCONTRES D’APRÈS-MINUIT) (Yann Gonzalez, 2013)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, March 15, $14, 4:00 & 7:30
Series continues Tuesdays through April 26
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

An orgy doesn’t go quite as planned in Yann Gonzalez’s dark, lurid, and silly directorial debut, You and the Night. The erotic tragicomedy evokes the films of Derek Jarman along with Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and, primarily, Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus as seven characters gather one evening for a night of debauchery in the name of love, desperate to fill the gaps in their sad lives. “It’s our secret vice. A little break from the eternal, maddening class struggle,” the Star (Fabienne Babe) tells a pair of cops who show up looking for a runaway boy. The party is hosted by trans gypsy maid Udo (Nicolas Maury); the other guests are Ali (Kate Moran), an older woman joined by her younger lover, Matthias (Niels Schneider); the Stud (soccer star Éric Cantona), who boasts of his enormous manhood (and then proves it); the Teen (Alain Fabien Delon, son of French screen idol Alain Delon), who has not developed his own identity yet; and the Slut (Julie Brémond), who can’t wait to do anyone and everyone. Over the course of the night, they share their dreams, relate their pasts, and search for love, set to a score by French electronic band M83, which is led by Anthony Gonzalez, Yann’s brother. The movie’s supposed to be dreamy and poetic, but instead it’s cold and artificial, often bathed in an unfeeling blue light that furthers the distance between the characters and the audience. It’s often hard to tell what’s supposed to be “real” and what’s meant to be tongue-in-cheek, although Béatrice Dalle’s cameo as a whip-touting commissioner is, well, it just is. You and the Night is screening in FIAF’s “EDM Anthems: French Touch on Film” series on March 15 at 4:00 and 7:30; the series continues on Tuesdays through April 26 with such other films as Mia Hansen-Løve’s Eden, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, and Céline Sciamma’s Girlhood, which are either set in the club scene or feature EDM-based soundtracks.