Festival Program

Sunday April 11
2:00pm
> note early start!
3:00pm approx
Marcel L'Herbier
L'ARGENT
Silent film with musical accompaniment
by pianist PATRICK MILLER
Alliance Française Reception at intermission in Cinestudio 7:30pm
Jean Renoir
LA RÈGLE DU JEU
Monday April 12
7:30pm
Alain Resnais
Tuesday April 13
7:30pm
Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche
Wednesday April 14
7:30pm
Abdel Kechiche
Thursday April 15
7:30pm
Costa-Gavras
Friday April 16
7:30pm
Luis Buñuel
Saturday April 17
2:30pm
François Truffaut
7:00pm
Closing Reception in Cinestudio
STAVISKY
DERNIER MAQUIS
LA GRAINE ET LE MULET
Z
LE CHARME DISCRET DE LA BOURGOISIE
FESTIVAL COMMITTEE: Karen Humphreys, Christine McCarthy McMorris,
Jean-Marc Kehres, Sara Kippur, Sonia Lee, Peter McMorris, James Hanley.
THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
L'ARGENT DE POCHE
8:00pm
CINESTUDIO at Trinity College 300 Summit Street Hartford Connecticut
F www.aprilinparis.org www.cinestudio.org F 860-297-4237 F
F Tickets $8 or $7 for Cinestudio Friends, Seniors (60+), Students with ID F
F Special Parisien tickets for any 3 shows are $15 F
F Tickets for the closing show and reception
UN CAPITALISME SENTIMENTAL are $10 or $8 reduced rate F
F Friends of Cinestudio - show your card at any Festival screening and
get a free ticket for your companion at that show - one per card! F
Olivier Asselin
UN CAPITALISME SENTIMENTAL
Festival Program
Stavisky
Welcome to April in Paris, Hartford's 11th Annual Festival
of French and Francophone Cinema! This year April in Paris
presents La Règle du Jeu: Money and Class in French Cinema.
This time of economic boon (for some) and bust (for the rest) is a
perfect opportunity to showcase a rich variety of French and
Francophone movies that look at the conflict, humor,
misunderstanding and even violence when 'the rules of the game'
of the social order are broken. These nine films range from 1929
- the silent film L'Argent, based on the novel by Emile Zola
- to the Connecticut premiere of Un Capitalisme Sentimental,
introduced by up and coming director Olivier Asselin.
We would like to thank SONIA LEE, who, as the founder and
director of April in Paris for its first 10 years, inspired us with
her brilliant knowledge - and love - of French and Francophone cinema.
- Karen Humphreys Festival Director.
For more information, call 860.297.4237
or check our website at www.aprilinparis.org
L‘Argent
Money
Marcel L‘Herbier, France, 1928
Directed by Marcel L’Herbier, based on the novel by
Emile Zola. Cast: Pierre Alcover, Alfred Abel, Brigitte
Helm, Mary Glory. April in Paris opens its 11th Festival
with a magnificent silent film accompanied by pianist
Patrick Miller. Director L’Herbier defended his controversial masterpiece as an unshakable obsession “to film
at any cost...a fierce denunciation of money.” The brilliantly filmed story (by Jules Kruger, cinematographer of
Napoleon) uses the machinations of two rival bankers,
Saccard and Gunderman, as the tip of the iceberg of a
society ruled by greed. Saccard (whose secretary is played
by surrealist author Antonin Artaud!) plots to save his
failing bank by sponsoring the solo transatlantic flight of
an aviator, while Gunderman hires a deceitful Baroness
to spy on his rival. The most impressive scenes were shot
in location in the Bourse (Paris’ stock exchange), and an
innovative nighttime sequence in the Place de l’Opéra.
“L’Argent is indisputably one of the great masterpieces of the silent
age” James Travers, Films de France. 165 min.
Please join us in the Cinestudio lobby for an opening reception at intermission, sponsored by
Hartford’s Alliance Française, including delicious French pastries from LA PETITE FRANCE!
La règle du jeu
The Rules Of The Game
Jean Renoir, France, 1939
Directed and written (with Carl Koch) by Jean Renoir. Costume Design: Coco Chanel. Cast:
Nora Gregor, Marcel Dalio, Jean Renoir, Paulette Dubost. Jean Renoir's masterpiece explores
the rules, passions, and hypocrisy of a crumbling class system during one fateful weekend at a country estate. The
controversial opening of the film on the eve of World War
II was in itself an illustration of class warfare: the film was
booed (and banned) by well-to-do patrons, while working
class audiences roared with laughter at the foibles of their
'betters.' Seen today, Renoir's haunting precursor to war
explores how the system of haves and have-nots injures
everyone involved, from the aristocratic Christine (Nora
Gregor) who is boxed in by her role as lady of the house;
to the less well-heeled friend who adores Christine nearly as much as he detests himself (a
brilliant performance by director Renoir). "The truly terrible thing about this world is that
everybody has their reasons." - Jean Renoir, as Octave. La règle du jeu will be presented by
Trinity College Professor Prakash Younger, who will lead a discussion afterward. 110 min.
Alain Resnais, France and Italy , 1974
Director: Alain Renais. Screenplay by Jorge Semprun. Cast:
Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anny Duperey, Charles Boyer.
Don’t miss the chance to see director Alain Resnais’ rarely
shown Stavisky, starring nouvelle vague icon Jean-Paul Belmondo, photographed by Sacha Vierny (Belle de Jour), and
with a musical score by Stephen Sondheim! Belmondo is at
his charismatic best as 1930s truelife swindler Alexandre
Stavisky, who was called “a gentleman among gangsters and
a gangster among gentlemen.” Resnais, whose classic films
include Hiroshima Mon Amour, Night and Fog, and Mon
Oncle d’Amerique, explores Stavisky’s kaleidoscopic identities from theater impresario to crook, political idealist to
Jean-Paul Belmondo
amoral gambler, whose scandalous behavior caused riots
and nearly brought down the French government. Charles
Boyer won the Best Actor Award, Cannes Film Festival. “A fable upon the life of bourgeois society
in its corruption, on the collaboration of money and power, of the police and crime, a fable in which
Alexandre’s craziness, his cynicism, act as catalysts” - screenwriter Jorge Semprun. 120 min.
Dernier maquis
Adhen
Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, France, 2008
Director: Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche. Cast: Abel Jafri, Christian Milia-Darmezin, Sylvain
Roume, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche. Money and religion cause tension between workers and their
boss at a truck yard, in a fascinating look at
multicultural life in the banlieux outside Paris
from the French-Algerian director Rabah AmeurZaïmeche. With wonderfully spare and leisurely
storytelling, Adhen (Dernier Maquis) won the
Special Jury Prize at the Dubai Film Festival. A
group of Muslim African and Arabic workers are
not entirely happy when their boss establishes an
on-site mosque and appoints an Imam for them,
while still denying them a reasonable day's wage.
Realism, raw humor and optimism come together in an offbeat political film that finds that
it is the brotherhood of class, in the end, that wins out over religion. 93 min.
La graine et le mulet
The Secret Of The Grain
Abdel Kechiche, France/Tunisia, 2007
Director: Abdel Kechiche. Cast: Habib Boufares, Hafsia Herzi, Farida Benhetache. A brilliant family portrait about an aging immigrant from Tunisia, who spends his days delivering fish via motorbike in a French coastal village, but dreams of opening his own couscous
restaurant. Director Abdel Kechiche says he started out with the idea of making "a popular fantasy, the kind of story they like to tell
in the projects: the myth of those who 'made
it.'" But as he became more interested in the
father, his children and the rich ambiance of
his French/Tunisian culture, he decided the
film should capture the more subtle drama
of "a real family meal or the beginnings of
an emotion showing through on someone’s
face..." BEST PICTURE, DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY, & ACTRESS, 2008 CÉSAR AWARDS.
La Graine et Le Mulet will be introduced by
Dr. Sonia Lee, Professor emerita of Trinity
College, and founding director of the April in
Paris Film Festival. 151 min.
Z
Costa-Gavras, Algeria and France, 1969
New Print! Director: Costa-Gavras. Based on a story by Vassilis Vassilikos. Cast: Jean-Louis
Trintignant, Yves Montand, Irene Papas. Jean-Louis Trintignant stars as a magistrate who attempts
what appears impossible in a police state: to find
out who was behind the death of an anti-government activist. Shot in Algeria, Z is a thinly-disguised retelling of the events in Greece that led to
a military junta and the assassination of the democratic politician Gregoris Lambrakis. Z captures
the spirit of the 1960s that led to an international
outbreak of revolt against the rich and powerful
ruling classes. Trintignant (equally brilliant as a
Mussolini sympathizer in Bertolucci's classic film
The Conformist) is fiercely intense in his search for what is the first casualty in a fascist society: the truth. "almost unbearably exciting...Z is at the same time a political cry of rage and
a brilliant suspense thriller."- Rogert Ebert. Z will be introduced by Professor Sara Kippur,
Trinity College's Dept of Language & Culture Studies. 127 min.
Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie
The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie Luis Buñuel, France 1996
Directed by Luis Buñuel. Screenplay by Buñuel and JeanClaude Carrière. Cast: Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Bulle Ogier. Luis Buñuel’s
surrealist masterpiece is a hilarious satire on six rich friends
whose numerous attempts to sit down to a civilized dinner
are interrupted by boredom, drugs, revolution, fetishism, and
death. A sly attack on the ruling classes from the military, to
the politicians, to their designer-clad wives, not to mention
the church - in the form of a bishop who likes dressing up
as a gardener for his little seductions... The Jesuit-educated,
Spanish-born Buñuel directed six films in France, including
the notorious silent short Un Chien Andalou (co-directed by
Salvador Dali), Belle de Jour, and Diary of a Chambermaid, of
which Discreet Charm was the most popular, taking home the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. “God and Country are
an unbeatable team; they break all records for oppression and
bloodshed.” - Luis Buñuel. 102 min
L‘Argent de poche
Small Change
Stéphane Audran
François Truffaut, France, 1976
Written and directed by François Truffaut. Cinematography by Pierre-William
Glenn. Music by Charles Trenet. With
Claudio Deluca, Franck Deluca, Sylvie
Grizel, Sébastien Marc, Marcel Berbert
and Corinne Boucart.
A rare chance to see François Truffaut's
only film set entirely in the world of
childhood, where small acts of rebellion
spring up against all-powerful adults:
Oscar, who prefers whistling to speaking; Sylvie, who refuses to go to dinner
without her elephant purse; and Julien,
whose love for movies leads him to a crime of passion. Truffaut's 15th film is a poetic comedy set in the town of Thiers, where he used mainly non-professional actors to magically
capture on screen moments of real life. While Truffaut's films from The 400 Blows to The
Wild Child explore his fascination with childhood, Small Change transports us back into a
lost world of anarchy, imagination, curiosity and possibility. "When humor can be made to
alternate with melancholy, one has a success, but when the same things are funny and melancholic at the same time, it’s just wonderful." - François Truffaut. 104 min. Thanks to Jake Perlin at
Small Change will be introduced by Trinity College President Jimmy Jones.
Un capitalisme sentimental
A Sentimental Capitalism
Olivier Asselin, Canada, 2008
Director: Olivier Asselin. Cast: Lucille Fluet, Alex Bisping, Harry Standjofski. April in Paris
is thrilled to conclude its 11th Annual Festival with director Olivier Asselin, who will be
at Cinestudio to present the Connecticut premiere of his brilliant
new film! Ironic, metaphorical,
musical, funny, political, visually
stunning - Un Capitalisme Sentimental is all that, as well as an
homage to classic movies from a
true cinema fanatic. Lucille Fluet
stars as a woman caught between
art and commerce: One moment,
she's scratching out a living in
her atelier in Paris, the next she's
the toast of the New York Stock
Exchange circa October, 1929.
To quote Paul Verlaine's Art poétique (as the eclectic Asselin does
in his film): "Et tout le reste est litOlivier Asselin
térature." 92 min.
Join us for the Festival Closing Reception and meet director Olivier Asselin from 7-8 pm!
Special Thanks to our friends!
❦ Délégation du Québec à Boston:
Marc Antoine Bédard - Public Affairs Attaché
❦ SODEC (Société de développement des entreprises culturelles):
José Dubeau, Coordonnatrice Affaires internationales à Montréal
❦ Les services culturels à New York:
Delphine Selles-Alvarez - Program Officer, Cinema; Maxime Redon
❦ Mark Silk
❦ Friends of Cinestudio