CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State University is hosting a five-week French film festival, starting on Monday Jan. 16.
Free and open to the public, the event is sponsored by OSU's Memorial Union Programs and the Cine-Club. It will feature a different film starting at 7 p.m. each Monday through Feb. 13 in OSU's Club Escape located in Snell Hall. For information, contact MU Programs at 541-737-6872.
The festival opens with "Le Placard" (The Closet). The R-rated 2001 production is a satire on political correctness in the corporate world.
The unrated Jan. 23 film, "Amen," is based on the true story of Nazi SS officer Kurt Gerstein and examines the role of government and religion in World War II death camps.
The Jan. 30 screening features "Les Choristes" ("The Chorus"), a 2005 PG-13-rated production about a music teacher's efforts to supervise children in a school for juvenile delinquents in post-World War II France.
"Les Invasions Barbares" ("The Barbarian Invasions") will screen on Feb. 6. The 2003 R-rated film traces the last days of Rémy, a truculent, hedonist, and ex-radical professor in his 50s, who is dying of cancer. His son, Sébastien, who lives in London and with whom he has had little contact for years, is called to be at his side.
The final film of the series on Feb. 13, "Un Long Dimanche de Fiancailles" ("The Very Long Engagement"), is a 2004 R-rated feature focusing on a young French woman, Mathilde, who embarks on an extraordinary journey to find her fiancé following World War I.
The OSU French film festival is funded in part by The Tournees Grant. The grant program was launched in 1995 to help universities bring contemporary French cinema to campus.
Tournees distributes $75,000 in grants annually and the program is made possible by support from the French Ministry, the Centre National de la Cinematographie, the Grand Marnier Foundation, the Florence Gould Foundation and the French-American Cultural Fund.
Machelle Kennedy, 541-737-6872