Third Annual Paris to Plymouth French Language Film Festival Free at PSU March 6-8

Published Date

PLYMOUTH — Five contemporary French language films (three French and two Quebecois) will be shown over three days as the third annual Paris to Plymouth French Film Festival comes to Plymouth State University March 6-8.
All films will be shown in Hyde Hall Room 120 (on the corner of Merrill and Langdon Streets) and are in French with English subtitles. Screenings and discussions are free and open to the public.
Plymouth's Six Burner Bistro will host a French-themed three-course, fixed-price meal ($24/person) at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7, prior to the 7:30 p.m. film. Reservations are required and may be made by telephone to (603) 536-9099.
The film schedule includes:
— 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 6, Tomboy, directed by Céline Sciamma, 82 minutes.
A sensitive portrait of childhood just before pubescence, Tomboy, the second film by writer-director Céline Sciamma, astutely explores the freedom of being untethered to the rule-bound world of gender codes.
— 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 6, Monsieur Lazhar, directed by Philippe Felardeau, 95 minutes.
In Montreal, an elementary school teacher dies abruptly and Bachir Lazhar, a 55-year-old Algerian immigrant, hired to replace the deceased, finds himself in an establishment in crisis, while going through his own personal tragedy.
— 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7, Les femmes du 6éme étage (The Women on the Sixth Floor), directed by Philippe Le Guay, 104 minutes
In 1960s Paris, a conservative couple's lives are turned upside down by two Spanish maids during this social comedy that pits the propriety of a well-to-do French family with the earthiness and humor of the Spanish cleaning ladies who work in their apartment building.
— 6 p.m. Friday, March 8, Le hérisson (The Hedgehog). Directed by Mona Achache 98 minutes
Nimbly adapted from Muriel Barbery's 2006 international best seller, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Mona Achache's first film follows two parallel storylines: one featuring a morbid little girl, 11-year-old Paloma; the other a mysterious middle-aged widow, Renée Michel, the concierge of the luxury Left Bank apartment building where Paloma and her family live.
— 8 p.m. Friday, March 9, J'ai tué ma mere (I Killed My Mother), directed by Xavier Dolan, 100 minutes
A semi-autobiographical story about Dolan as a young homosexual at odds with his mother, the film attracted international press attention when it won three awards from the Director's Fortnight program at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.