French culture is becoming a bit more accessible in the coming weeks with the arrival of the Tournées Festival, a free series of French films showing at the Schwartz Center for the Arts.
This is the third year the Wesley College Department of Literature and Languages has sponsored the film festival, which has grown but still has room for more fans.
“I think that our core audience is there for the films, and each year we’re adding a few more to our audience. We’d like to add more, of course,” said Dr. Linda De Roche, professor of English and American studies and interim dean, Wesley New Castle.
Although they’re French films, the stories are easily relatable to viewers. “The Class” (“Entre les murs”) is a hybrid narrative/documentary look at a year in the life of a teacher and his students at a diverse Paris junior high school. The non-professional cast of actors includes the real-life teacher, who plays himself. The movie won the 2008 Palme d’Or, the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival.
“The opportunity for them to look inside a classroom in another country could really be a learning opportunity,” De Roche said.
Another story familiar to some will be “A Girl Cut in Two” (“La fille coupée en deux”), a contemporary re-telling of the turn-of-the-century scandal and murder case involving Evelyn Nesbit, Harry Thaw and Stanford White. In “A Girl Cut in Two,” a flirtatious TV weather reporter named Gabrielle is the object of two men’s affections: a famous elderly novelist and her spoiled young suitor Paul, a pharmaceutical heir.
Some resist foreign films, De Roche said, and they’re missing out. Once they get into the rhythm of reading subtitles, it doesn’t take away from the film. Plus, seeing them on the big screen is easier.
“It’s not like renting a DVD and trying to read the subtitles on your television,” De Roche said.
The series serves multiple purposes. It encourages interest in French culture as well as giving to the community.
“I really feel, and I know that the college does as well, that Wesley wants to be a good neighbor. And we feel an obligation to contribute to the community,” De Roche said. “It’s also an opportunity to bring to Dover the sorts of films that don’t usually come here.”
