The annual French Film Festival is returning for a fifth year at the Wilshire Auditorium and will be runing from Thursday through next Saturday.
This exiting cultural blend began a five years ago when Dan Willoughby, the dean of the Humanities Division, received an article from the French-American Cultural Exchange offering grants to colleges to start French FIlm Festivals on their campus, and it has become an spring staple since.
The Humanities Division staff has been working hard on making the festival a hit, and have been satisfied with their success throughout the years so far.
Each year this festival brings french cinema, culture and history to the local audience, and it has become a fun learning opportunity for Fullerton College.
The film festival is also being incorporated as a part of some of the Fullerton College learning experience.
The films will be screened conveniently on weeknights beginning at 7:30 pm. The festival will kick off with its first film Thursday, with an exiting military thriller Forces Speciales (Special Forces).
- Thursday, March 6, 2014 – FORCES SPÉCIALES (SPECIAL FORCES)
Good military thrillers are hard to find, but Special Forces is one of the best. While covering the war in Afghanistan, journalist Elsa Casanova is taken hostage by the Taliban and faces execution, while the Special Forces unit sent to rescue her ends up in a life-or-death chase of their own. A timely and compelling story with amazing cinematography, this film will have you on the edge of your seat.
- Friday, March 8, 2014 – INDOCHINE
This classic movie is set in 1930, when French colonial rule in Indochina is ending. A wealthy French woman (Catherine Deneuve) who owns a rubber plantation, raises a Vietnamese princess as if she were her own daughter. Subsequently, they both fall in love with a young French army officer, which will change their lives significantly. This is a romantic and emotionally wrenching love story set against a tense historical backdrop.
- Thursday, March 13, 2014 – MERCI POUR LE CHOCOLAT
The intricate plot of this psychological thriller wends its way in a playful yet suspenseful manner through the elegant homes of several affluent French-Swiss in Lausanne, Switzerland. The story follows a famous pianist, Andre Polonksi, his wife Mika,a chocolate heiress who is never without a menacing cup of hot chocolate, and a radiant young pianist who believes herself to be Polonski’s long lost daughter.
This film is a delectable mystery, dipped in darkest Swiss chocolate.
- Friday, March 14, 2014 – LES CHORISTES (THE CHORUS)
When he takes a job teaching music at a school for troubled boys, Clément Mathieu is unprepared for its harsh discipline and depressing atmosphere. But with passion and unconventional teaching methods, he’s able to spark his students’ interest in music and bring them a newfound joy! However, as a result, he finds himself butting heads with the school’s overbearing headmaster. A moving film with an unforgettable musical score which is suitable for the whole family.
- Saturday, March 15, 2014 – THE INTOUCHABLES
When Driss, an ex-con from the projects, is hired to take care of an eccentric French aristocrat named Philippe, his job quickly becomes an unpredictable adventure. Speeding a Maserati through Paris, seducing women, and paragliding over the Alps are just the beginning as Driss turns the world of upper-class Parisian society upside-down. As this unlikely duo overcome adversity of every flavor in this true story, they also shatter their preconceptions of love, life, and each other. An uplifting film which extracts humor from even the most poignant and challenging situations that life can throw at a person.