Clean (France, 2004)

Dir: Olivier Assayas
Starring: Maggie Cheung, Nick Nolte, Béatrice Dalle & Jeanne Balibar;
Best Actress (Maggie Cheung), Cannes Film Festival (2004)

Emily, whose musician partner died of an overdose in Canada, spends six months in prison on drug charges. She gets out with one goal in mind: turn her life around in order to get her son Jay (who is being raised by her in-laws) back. Emily moves to Paris, quits the music scene, goes through a methadone program, and applies for odd jobs to survive. Clean is about the rock scene and drugs, but more importantly, about a person’s ability to change.

Clean showtimes:
10/13, 9:30pm; 10/15, 7:30pm; 10/16, 9:30pm; 10/19, 7:30pm*
*Introduced by Prof. Nancy Blake, UIUC Comparative & World Literature and Cinema Studies

La Face cachée de la lune/The Far Side of the Moon (Canada [Quebec], 2003)

Dir: Robert Lepage
Starring: Robert Lepage;
FIPRESCI Prize, Berlin Film Festival (2004), Best Adapted Screenplay, Genie Awards (2004), Best Film, Namur Festival of Francophile Film (2004)

Springboarding from the 1960s Soviet lunar probe discovery of the “far side of the moon” (never seen from Earth), writer-director Robert Lepage crafts an engaging metaphor of mysterious dualities, juxtaposing sibling rivalry with the US-Soviet space race. Estranged brothers Philippe and André (both played by Lepage) relive childhood disputes as they dispose of the belongings of their recently deceased mother. André, a television meteorologist, has little in common with his older sibling Philippe, a forty-ish doctoral student who has repeatedly failed to defend his dissertation on human narcissism and space exploration. This captivating cinematic journey is a visual delight rendered with touching humour.

Far Side showtimes:
10/14, 5:00pm; 10/15, 3:00pm*; 10/16, 7:30pm; 10/19, 9:45pm
*Introduced by Jane Kuntz, Ph.D. UIUC French

La Petite Jérusalem/Little Jerusalem (France, 2004)

Dir: Karin Albou
Starring: Fanny Valette, Elsa Zylberstein, & Bruno Todeschini
SACD Screenwriting Award, Cannes Film Festival (2005)

La Petite Jerusalem is the nickname of Sarcelles, a low-income housing neighborhood near Paris. Among the high number of Jewish immigrants who live there, a Tunisian family of eight shares a cramped apartment: Laura (a French-born, 18-year-old student), her sister Mathilde, their mother, Mathilde’s husband Ariel, and the couple’s four children. Independent and strong-willed, Laura refuses Ariel’s orthodoxy and her mother’s superstition, throwing herself instead into the study of Kant. The already delicate balance of Laura’s life is upset when she falls in love with Algerian-Muslim immigrant Djamel. Meanwhile, her devout sister Mathilde discovers that her husband is cheating on her, and must confront the conflicting messages she interprets from her faith. The two sisters’ personal crises play out against the backdrop of tensions between Muslim and Jewish communities in the suburb. In her captivating first feature film, Karin Albou sensitively depicts the intimate lives of two women while raising questions of religious interpretation, freedom, sexuality and family relationships.

Little Jerusalem showtimes:
10/13, 7:00pm*; 10/15, 1:00pm; 10/17, 5:15pm; 10/18, 7:00pm
*Introduced by Prof. Brett Kaplan, UIUC Comparative & World Literature and Jewish Studies

Mondovino (France, Argentina, Italy, USA, 2004)

Dir: Jonathan Nossiter
Documentary with winemakers and wine consultants in France, Italy, the USA, England and Argentina

The ultimate film about wine, Mondovino was filmed over a three-year period in France, Italy, the United States, Argentina and Brazil. Juxtaposing mom-and-pop wine growers with conglomerates, old world and new, peasants and millionaires, Jonathan Nossiter, a trained sommelier and wine writer, intertwines multiple family dramas – some of which play like soap operas. Through interviews of amateurs, winegrowers, businessmen, and critics, he uncovers the complex tapestry of conflicts, conspiracies, and alliances that stem from the production, distribution, and consumption of wine in the age of globalization.

Mondovino showtimes:
10/15, 9:45pm; 10/18, 4:30pm; ***10/14 1:00pm, NO STUDENT PASSES Special 21+ screening with wine tasting presented by Sunsinger, Introduced by Dean Tod Treat, Parkland College Academic Services & Special Guest from Sunsinger ***

Rois et Reine/Kings and Queen (France, 2004)

Dir: Arnaud Desplechin
Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Devos & Catherine Deneuve;
Best Actor (Mathieu Amalric), César Awards (2005); Best Film, French Syndicate of Cinema Critics (2005); Prix Louis Delluc (2004)

Arnaud Desplechin once again traverses the uncharted distance between comedy and tragedy with this exhilarating work of intersecting lives and family connections. Invoking everything from Shakespeare and Hitchcock to Moby Dick, the film is a heartbreaking, hilarious melodrama of the intrigues and entanglements of ex-spouses Nora and Ismaël. Ismaël is a disheveled, neurotic musician who descends into a comic nightmare when he is committed to a mental hospital by a mysterious third party. Vivacious art dealer and single mother, Nora is struggling to rise above the calamities of her own romantic life and the looming death of her ailing father by marrying an icy Parisian businessman. With its vivid references to mythology, literature, and cinema, Kings and Queen is an astonishingly original and thoroughly entertaining take on modern relationships.

Kings & Queen showtimes:
10/14, 7:00pm*; 10/16, 4:30pm; 10/17, 9:00pm; 10/19, 4:30pm
*Introduced by Prof. Joan Stolz, Parkland College Fine & Applied Art

Wild Side (France/Belgium 2004)

Dir: Sébastien Lifshitz
Best Feature Film, Manfred Salzgeber Award, Berlin (2004); Special Jury Award, Gijón Film Festival (2004); Grand Jury Award, Outstanding International Narrative Feature, L.A.Outfest (2004)

Stéphanie (birth name, Pierre) is a transsexual prostitute who plies her trade in Parisian discos, parks, and hotel rooms. Stéphanie’s partners Jamel (a 30-year-old North African who also turns tricks) and Mikhail (an illegal Russian immigrant) form a nurturing web of comfort and support which helps Stéphanie gradually make up with her dying mother while coming to terms with her childhood. The trio live in a Paris where they are faced with an uncertain future: they live on the margins of a society that is ill-inclined to accept people like them. The stunning camerawork of Agnès Godard (Beau Travail, Strayed) renders the film deeply melancholic, sensual, and poetic.

Wild Side showtimes:
10/14, 10:15pm; 10/15, 5:30pm*; 10/17, 7:00pm; 10:18, 9:00pm
*Introduced by Prof. Larry Schehr, UIUC French & Comparative & World Literature

Advanced tickets (credit or smart card only): www.boardmansarttheatre.com
Students may redeem passes for advanced tickets at the Boardman’s box office, 126 W. Church. St. Champaign, IL
MTD Bus schedule info (free with I-Card): www.cumtd.com/