Penn State French Department sponsors Fall Film Series

Penn State French Department sponsors Fall Film Series

University Park, Pa --- “Recent Films from France” will continue its free series presented by Penn State’s French Department on selected Thursday evenings in 113 Carnegie on the University Park campus. All films are 35 mm original versions and are subtitled in English, and they are open free to the public.

Film co-sponsors include Heinle and Heinle Publishers and Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts, the Esther A. Shultz Undergraduate Enrichment Fund, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities; the Departments of Film, Video and Media Studies, African and African American Studies, History, and Sociology; the Jewish Studies Program and the Rock Ethics Institute.

The fall schedule is:
--Sept. 9: “Amen” by Constantin Costa-Gavras (6:00 and 9:30 p.m.): Based on the true story of SS officer Kurt Gerstein and Jesuit Father Riccardo, the film chronicles the heroic measures each man takes in the face of a variety of challenges to slow or stop the killings of Jews during World War II. The film won the 2002 César award in France for best scenario. The dialogue is a mixture of English, French, and Italian.

--Oct. 21: “Une femme de ménage (The Housekeeper)” by Claude Berri and based on the novel by Christian Oster (6:30 and 9:30 p.m.): The film narrates the story of Jacques, a 50-year-old man on the verge of depression because his wife has just left him. He has a failed affair with Laura, the young housekeeper he has just hired. In his relations with Hélène, a divorced beachgoer, and Claire, who has just broken up with another man, he arrives at a new sense of faith, hope, and trust in life in spite of the loneliness that marks their world.

--Nov 18: “Les Egarés (Strayed)” by André Téchiné and Gilles Taurand and based on the novel by Gilles Perrault (6:30 and 9:30 p.m.). A beautiful young widow flees Paris with her two children, barely escaping a bombing attack by German pilots. Her family and another young refugee attempt to reconstruct communal life in a vacant house during this turbulent and violent period in French history.

For more information, contact the French Department at 814-865-1492.