International Film Series and Albertine Cinémathèque Festival of New French & Francophone Cinema
Only 40 universities in the U.S. were chosen to receive the grant from the FACE (French-American Cultural Exchange) Foundation to hold the Albertine Cinémathèque Festival on its campus this year. The Baldwin Wallace French and Francophone Studies program is honored to be one of the grantees and the only university selected in the state of Ohio.
All films are free and open to the public and will be shown in Marting Hall, Room 114.
Friday, February 16, 2024
L'INNOCENT (THE INNOCENT) - 5 P.M.
Louis Garrel/France/100 min./2022/French/Comedy/Not Rated
Part crime thriller, part family farce, Louis Garrel's "The Innocent" shows with panache and pathos the dangerous lengths two men go and the outlandish lies they tell for the women they love.
Garrel stars as Abel, a museum educator and widower whose mother, Sylvie (Anouk Grinberg), marries Michel (Roschdy Zem), one of her drama pupils in the local penitentiary. Once on parole, Michel attempts to start a legitimate life for Sylvie's sake but soon reverts to his old ways, with the suspicious Abel continually — and ineptly — spying on his stepfather until roped into one of the ex-con's schemes. Complicating matters is Clémence (Noémie Merlant), the brazen coworker who convinces Abel to break out of his emotional and romantic shell by taking part in Michel's planned heist.
Directing from his own screenplay (as co-written by Tanguy Viel and Naïla Guiguet), Garrel explores the comedic results of playacting's intrusion into real life as well as real life's comedic tendency to transform us into what we never thought we could be, but perhaps always were. Janus Films
Trailer
Presented as part of the Albertine Cinémathèque program.
Opening Reception - 7 p.m.
Join us in Marting Hall’s Treuhaft Lounge for light refreshments.
CORSAGE - 7:30 P.M.
Marie Kreutzer/Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, France/113 min./2022/German, French/Drama, History/Not Rated
Faced with a future of strict ceremony and royal duties, Empress Elisabeth of Austria rebels against her public image and comes up with a plan to protect her legacy. IFC Films
Trailer
Presented as part of the Albertine Cinémathèque program.
Saturday, February 17, 2024
NINOSCA - 5 P.M.
Peter Torbiörnsson/Sweden/103 min/2019/Spanish, Swedish/Documentary/Not Rated
Swedish director Peter Torbiörnsson met 12-year-old Ninosca and her family amid the civil war. He began to visit regularly, tracking her coming of age, love, marriage, and pregnancy. As the girl becomes a woman, problems start to mount up owing to societal structures.
Ninosca was born into a family of leftist Sandinista revolutionaries in Nicaragua's rural mountains, and the film follows her into adulthood over 40 years. What begins as a fascinating snapshot of Nicaragua's politically volatile '80s develops into an intimate depiction of the disintegration of Ninosca's marriage and her struggle to financially support her children.
When Ninosca finds the inner strength to break from subjugation to violent machismo, she challenges her restricted life as her husband's maid and victim of domestic violence. She heads to Spain in search of a good job. Perhaps this way, she can return and fulfill her dream — a coffee plantation of her own.
"Shot over 40 years, an epic about one woman's struggle for independence requiring her to face her past in the macho-culture of Central America." — Carmen Gray, MODERN TIMES REVIEW Pragda
RECEPTION - 7 P.M.
Join us in Marting Hall’s Treuhaft Lounge for light refreshments.
RETOUR A SEOUL (RETURN TO SEOUL) - 7:30 P.M.
Davy Chou/ France, Germany, Belgium, Qatar, Cambodia/119 min./2022/French, Korean/Drama/Rated R
After an impulsive travel decision to visit friends, Freddie, 25, returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. Freddie suddenly finds herself embarking on an unexpected journey in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new and unexpected directions. Sony Pictures Classics
Trailer
Presented as part of the Albertine Cinémathèque program.
Sunday, February 18, 2024
RAN DONG (THE BREAKING ICE) – 1 p.m.
Anthony Chen/China, Singapore/97min/2023/Mandarin, Korean/Drama, Romance/Not Rated
In cold wintry Yanji, a city on China's northern border, young urbanite Haofeng, visiting from Shanghai, feels lost and adrift. By chance, he goes on a tour led by Nana, a charming tour guide who instantly fascinates him. She introduces him to Xiao, a personable but frustrated restaurant worker. The three bond quickly over a drunken weekend. Confronting their individual traumas, their frozen desires slowly thaw as they seek to liberate themselves from an icy world.
"Raw and lingeringly sensitive … The Breaking Ice sticks with you because it doesn't lead its characters out of the maze; it just melts down the walls between them." — David Ehrlich, IndieWire.
Official submission of Singapore for the 'Best International Feature Film' category of the 96th Academy Awards in 2024. Strand
JOYLAND– 3 P.M.
Saim Sadiq/Pakistan/126 min/2022/Urdu, Punjabi/Drama LGBTQ/Not Rated
The debut feature from writer-director Saim Sadiq, "Joyland" explores the many sides of love and desire in a patriarchal society.
Gentle and timid, Haider (Ali Junejo) lives with his wife Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq), his father and his elder brother's family in Lahore, Pakistan. Following a long spell of unemployment, Haider finally lands a job at a Bollywood-style burlesque, telling his family he is a theater manager when, in actuality, he is a backup dancer.
The unusual position shakes up the steadfast traditional dynamics of his household and enables Haider to break out of his shell. As he acclimates to the new job, Haider becomes infatuated with the strong-willed trans woman Biba (Alina Khan), who runs the show — an unforeseen partnership that opens his eyes and ultimately his worldview in ways both unexpected and intimate.
Winner—Un Certain Regard Jury Prize and Queer Palm at 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Pakistan's submission to the 95th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. Oscilloscope
Trailer
Friday, February 23, 2024
SAINT OMER - 5 P.M.
Alice Diop/France/120 min./2021/French/Drama/PG-13
Saint Omer court of law. Young novelist Rama attends the trial of Laurence Coly, a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. But as the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake Rama's convictions and call into question our own judgement. Super
Trailer
Presented as part of the Albertine Cinémathèque program.
Reception - 7:30 P.M.
Join us in Marting Hall's Treuhaft Lounge for light refreshments.
LA BIBLIOTECA DEL MONDO (UMBERTO ECO: A LIBRARY OF THE WORLD) - 8 P.M.
Davide Ferrario/Italy/80 min./2022/Italian/ Documentary/Not Rated
A documentary immersion into all things Eco, Davide Ferrario's film takes us on a tour of Umberto Eco's private library, guided by the author himself.
Combining new footage with material he shot with Eco in 2015 for a video installation for the Venice Biennale, Ferrario documents this incredible collection and the man who amassed it. As Eco leads us among the more than 50,000 volumes and his family reflects on his legacy, we also gain insight into the library of the mind of this vastly prolific and original thinker.
"A timely epistemological rumination on the difference between knowledge and information, the relationship between memory and technology." — Slant Cinema Guild
Saturday, February 24, 2024
ERNEST ET CÉLESTINE: LE VOYAGE EN CHARABIE (ERNEST AND CELESTINE: A TRIP TO GIBBERITIA) - 5 P.M.
Julien Chheng, Jean-Christophe Roger/ France/80 min./2022/French/Animation, Adventure, Comedy/Not Rated
Ernest and Celestine return in this delightful and joyous follow-up to their first Academy Award®-nominated adventure, which introduced a bear and mouse as the unlikeliest of friends.
Ernest remains an ursine troubadour dedicated to a life of music and art, and his constant grouchiness is softened by the creative whims of his mouse friend Celestine. When she accidentally breaks his beloved violin, they must take a long voyage to Ernest's country of Gibberitia, home to the only artist who can repair it.
But when they arrive, they are shocked to discover that all forms of music have been banned in Gibberitia for many years, and a land once known across the world for its incredible musicians has fallen silent. It is up to Ernest and Celestine and their new friends, including a mysterious masked outlaw, to bring music and happiness back to the land of bears. GKIDS
Reception - 6:30 P.M.
Join us in Marting Hall's Treuhaft Lounge for light refreshments.
HAUT ET FORT (CASABLANCA BEATS) - 7:30 P.M.
Nabil Ayouch/ France, Morocco/101 min./2021/Arabic/Drama /Not Rated
Director Nabil Ayouch ("Razzia," "Horses of God") drew on his own experience opening a youth cultural center in Casablanca for this story of a former rapper named Anas who takes a job teaching hip hop in an underprivileged neighborhood. Despite differences in identity, religion and politics, Anas encourages his students to bond together and break free from the weight of restrictive traditions in order to follow their passion and express themselves through the arts.
Featuring a dynamic ensemble of first-time actors, many of them students of the real-life cultural center where the film was shot, "Casablanca Beats" is a vibrant and inspiring coming-of-age hip hop musical with a decidedly feminist edge. Mixing intimate yet high-stakes drama with infectious musical sequences, the film transports audiences to a lively and contemporary Casablanca, far from the clichés about the Arab world.
Morocco's official submission to the 94th Academy Awards® offers a refreshing dose of youthful inspiration alongside a powerful message about the liberating power of self-expression. Kino Lorber
Trailer
Presented as part of the Albertine Cinémathèque program.
Sunday, February 25, 2024
COLETTE ET JUSTIN (COLETTE AND JUSTIN) - 1 P.M.
Alain Kassanda/France/89 min./2022/Lingala, French/Documentary/Not Rated
Born in Kinshasa and living in Paris, filmmaker Alain Kassanda embodies the classic immigrant dual identity: in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he is seen as French, while in France, he is seen as Congolese. Determined to understand the colonial legacy from which he comes, Kassanda convinces his grandparents—Colette and Justin—to sit for a series of interviews. Together, they watch old news footage, remember a visit from the Belgian king and recall what life was like as part of the nascent Black bourgeoisie who served the colonial administration.
But "Colette and Justin" is more than a film about family reminiscences. Kassanda uses a wealth of black-and-white archival footage to tell the story, superimposing his own thoughts and his grandparents' voices over the visuals—in effect, using the colonizers' images against them. (He generally avoids footage of the horrors, focusing instead on daily life.)
Kassanda, we learn, has two heroes: Justin and inaugural Congolese president Patrice Lumumba, who was murdered by secessionists in collusion with Belgium. In the course of making "Colette and Justin," he realizes their lives were intertwined far more deeply than he had realized.
"Colette and Justin" begins with one man's search to understand himself and his roots. But ultimately it is an evocative, poetic and thoughtful meditation on the intersection of political and family history, and the multi-generational destructive reach of colonialism. “How do you depict the impact of colonisation, decolonisation, a civil war and a destructed economy in one film? Director Alain Kassanda decided to portray his grandparents, who were both born in what was then called Zaire, and lived through all of these traumatising times. The result is a deeply personal, sometimes poetic, sometimes harrowing (hi)story of oppression, revolution, betrayal, disillusionment and love.” — Business Doc Europe
“Connects Congolese history to family history … a thoughtful debut.” — The Film Verdict
“Powerfully re-employs Belgian colonial footage and photographs for anti-colonial purposes … explores the complexities and ambiguities of the colonial reality … a crucial recovery of long-suppressed history.” —Documentary MagazineWorld Premiere, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2022 Gilda Vieira De Mello Award, FIFDH Geneva 2023 U.S. Premiere, 30th African Film Festival (New York) 2023 Tempo Documentary Festival (Stockholm, Sweden) 42nd Festival International Jean Rouch (Paris, France)
Icarus Films
Trailer
Presented as part of the Albertine Cinémathèque program.
Closing Reception - 2:30 P.M.
Join us in Marting Hall's Treuhaft Lounge for light refreshments.
CHOCOLAT - 3 P.M.
Claire Denis/France /105 min./1988/French/Drama/PG-13
Claire Denis drew on her own childhood experiences growing up in colonial French Africa for her multilayered, languorously absorbing feature debut, which explores many of the themes that would recur throughout her work.
Returning to the town where she grew up in Cameroon after many years living in France, a white woman (Mireille Perrier) reflects on her relationship with Protée (Isaach De Bankolé), a Black servant with whom she formed a friendship while not fully grasping the racial divides that governed their worlds. Janus Films
Trailer
Presented as part of the Albertine Cinémathèque program.
Sponsors
The Baldwin Wallace University International Film Series is a student organization funded by the Student Government. We are grateful for the support of the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, French 311, The Francophone World Service-Learning Collaborative, and the following sponsors: French Club, German Club, Spanish Club, the Middle Eastern Culture Club, Asian Student Alliance, African Diaspora Society, Chinese Club, Italian Club, Allies, and History Club.
The Festival of New French and Francophone Cinema is sponsored by Albertine Cinémathèque, a program of FACE Foundation and Villa Albertine, with support from the CNC/Centre National du Cinema and SACEM/Fonds Culturel Franco-Américain.
