Movie night with wine and cheese

Several times a year we hold this event which brings you closer to the French language and culture through films. This is a great cultural event, complementing your educational experience at Alliance Française. It is also a great occasion to meet other members and students and practice your French outside of the classroom. Of course, you do not have to be a student of Alliance Française to attend Cinè Soirée, (but we hope you are a member !) Feel free to invite friends, francophiles and film lovers...

Allons au Cinèma! Let's go to the movies!

Nouveaux DVD's Available In Our Library:

Le Petit Nicolas, de Laurent Tirard

Gainsbourg, de Joann Sfar  

 Les aventures de Tintin 

PAST EVENTS

Ciné Soirée

Movie & Dinner

Friday Nov 18, 2011 | Dinner @7pm | Movie @ 7:45pm

$13 for AF and Alif Members. $15 for non-members. For children 10 years old and under $6 for members and $7 for non-members

Location: Alif Institute 3288 Marjan Dr, Atlanta, GA 30340

RSVP: info@alifinstitute.org or at 770-936-8770

Showing: Monsieur Ibrahim et Les Fleurs du Coran (for Adults) and Happy Feet (for Children)

This event is presented by Alif Institute with the collaboration of Alliance Française d'Atlanta

Friday, October 28th at 7pm

Yves Saint Laurent "His life and Times" and "5 Avenue Marceau 75116 Paris"

Few would have guessed that Yves Saint Laurent idolized beatniks, and even secretly desired to become one. But already known for his impeccable taste and proper upbringing, the fashion designer was reticent to change too much from what brought him fame-haute couture.

Two feature documentaries about the man who re-imagined women’s fashion. "His Life and Times" is an intimate biography featuring extensive interviews with the reclusive designer. "5 Avenue Marceau 75116 Pari"s is a behind the scenes look inside Saint Laurent’s legendary atelier during the creation of his final Spring line. Together they form "a timeless portrait of an artist at work - a celebration of human endeavor." (Los Angeles Times)

Cineaste Tunisienne

Thusday, September 29, 2011 at 7 pm

Film Screening & Discussion
with award winning
Tunisian Filmmaker
Dr. Sonia Chamkhi

Thursday , September 29, at 7PM
Reception at 7:00 & film begins at 7:30
at Alliance Française d’Atlanta
$10 for AF and Alif members
$15 for non-members
Free for Students, Staff, and Faculty of
Clayton State University &
Georgia State University
RSVP 404 875 1211 admin@afatl.com -Free Parking

About the film: Borderline, “Wara El Blaik” - 25 min ( French & Arabic with English subtitles)
A Love story. It tells months of happiness snatched from a man’s and a woman’s misery and deprivation. Both come from the rural exodus and fate make them meet at the crossroad of the big city...Saadia works as a helper in a house, Mokhtar is the caretaker in a building still in construction. Their encounter is for both the discovery of love..

About the Speaker:
Dr. Sonia Chamkhi, author, director, holds her doctorate in Cinema and Audivisual/Television and she teaches Image Design and Audiovisual practice at the “Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts” in Tunis and at the School of Arts and Cinema (EDAC). A playwright and fiction writer, she contributed in the adaption of several Tunisian long films. She is the author of New Tunisian Cinema, Alternative Routes (Sud Editions, 2002). She wrote and co-directed short films of which Douz, the Door of the Sahara (documentary, 38 min, video) and “Nesma Wa Rih”-Normal- Fiction, 20 Min, 35 mm). Author of Leila, the Lady of Dawn (Elyzad/Claire Fontaine-2007). She 2007 she directed with DIGIMAGE company “Wara El Blaik” - Borderline (fiction, 25 min), which is her first individual film.

Co-Sponsored by Clayton State University, Georgia State University Middle East Institute & The Alif Institute, an Arab-American non profit educational cultural enrichment center.

Les Lutins du Court Métrage/The Leprechauns of Short Films

Thursday, September 15th from 5:30pm to 10pm

The days are getting shorter....and so are the films!

Since 1998, Les Lutins have made it possible for a wide audience to watch award winning short films on big screen, discovering new talents who make the cinema of tomorrow. They promote the unknown and show the unseen letting their spectators experience a new possibility of going to the movies.

Come and join us for a FREE french Cinéma evening under the stars to kick off our fall/winter season of cultural programs.

Enjoy a happy hour from 5:30pm to  7:30pm films will begin at dusk (aprox 7:15 )

 On the outdoor terrace of Colony Square, Plaza Level,

(at the top of the escalator leading to the Alliance.)

AFRICA BELLE FILMS

April 15th, 7pm $10 admission: Ça Twiste À Poponguine

Enjoy a film that chronicles the influences French and American culture have on a costal Senegalese town. Hailed as "A sort of 'African Side Story', deliciously light with moments of real grace" by Liberation (French Newspaper)

April 21st, 7pm $10 admission: Ceux de la Colline

This film follows real men and women living in an impoverished gold town, recklessly determined to find the gold that will change their lives. Their desperate quest for fortune and elusive happiness are documented and reveal that the gold rush is relentless.

May 6th, 7pm $10 admission: Karmen Geï

Like every Carmen, Karmen Geï is about the conflict between infinite desire for freedom and the laws, conventions, languages, the human limitations which constrain that desire. Yet Karmen Geï is the first African Carmen and, arguably, the first African filmed "musical." Accordingly, director Gaï Ramaka has completely replaced Bizet's score and the usual staging with indigenous Senegalese music and choreography that truly brings the plot to life.

May 12th, 7pm $10 admission: La Vie est Belle

This film, starring Soukous music legend Papa Wemba, tells the "rags to riches" story of a poor country musician who seeks fame in Kinshasa's vibrant music industry. The Congolese faith in Systeme-D or debrouillardise, fending for yourself to survive in the face of overwhelming obstacles is lively illustrated in this story of struggle and triumph.

Wed, April 13  7pm

Déchaînées

Raymond Vouillamoz,  

2009, 90 min   

French w/ English subtitles

19 year old Lucy is doing an internship at a Swiss TV network. In the archival footage  she finds a picture of a woman who is the spitting image of herself. Lucy discovers that the woman in the picture was not only a famous women’s rights activist, but was also her grandmother  who was strangely erased from the family history. Lucy’s situation becomes even more difficult when she learns that she is pregnant by her ex-boyfriend.

Déchaînées was awarded best Swiss movie in 2009 and is being screened on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the female suffrage in Switzerland.

view trailer 

Film Screening and Talk: Nuit de la Publicité

Friday, March 11th 2011, 7pm

The Night of the Ad (La Nuit de la Pub)

"A major annual rendezvous, an explosive cocktail of rock-concert, football match and fair" (Le Monde - French Newspaper)

The Night of the AdEaters is a show that now runs in more that 40 countries
worldwide dedicated to showing the production of advertising among 60
different nationalities on the Big Screen and in a crazy atmosphere!
Come and share this unique moment with us.
Screenings, wine, lectures and discussions led by Anne Saint Dreux.
In partnership with la Maison de la Pub in Paris

From the first film produced by the Lumière Brothers to the most sophisticated special effects, from French advertisements to the most distant creations, the “Nuit de la Pub” proposes a trip in time and space.
A convivial event during which the “Maison de la Pub” proposes an uninterrupted projection of advertising films edited by themes. A unique chance to discover -or rediscover- the path taken between the advertisement of yesteryear and the advertisement of today, and to better understand how the advertising message has changed into a true spearhead for contemporary society.

Featured Topics Include:

Is there a strategy of emotion?
Emotion is a part of advertising history: the staging of emotion. There is the emotion of the spectator faced with advertising history: the sense of emotion. There is the socio-cultural background of the television viewer as well as his own affective state which makes him a more or less vulnerable subject.
Age, health, mental state, environment, and individual susceptibility are several factors which vary and are difficult to quantify.
Emotion, therefore, does not have a common denominator. There are, however, constants which advertising knows very well how to handle... in order to manipulate us?

America
America has imposed its image on the world of images. From the Marlboro cowboy to the Winston golden boy and the Coca-Cola teenagers, advertising has adopted the America’s values while adopting its brands.
The films presented include: America in the 1970s, Pepsi, inspired by "Hair" and hippies, (giving us a series of documentary films,) Lee, Nike, Coca-Cola, Pioneer, Levi's, Pepsi.

Around the world with 80 ads
To each his own ad. This trip around the world will help us discover how countries as diverse as Germany, Brazil, Australia, Scandinavia, Spain, Poland and others view advertising. Unedited films and curiosities contribute to this unusual journey.
Among the films presented : Coke (Japan), Important Issues (England), Danone (Portugal), Mercedes (Germany), Barilla (Italy), Orangina (Spain), Cacharel (Brazil), Adidas (Poland), Nike (Canada), Coke and Pepsi (comparative advertising/USA).

Perfume
Chanel, Dior, Saint-Laurent, Givenchy... true national gems of international renown. Perfume loves advertising and advertising returns the favor by ascribing two golden rules to it: elegance and sophistication.
Among the films presented: Rive Gauche - Paris/Saint-Laurent, Ysatis/Givenchy, Magie Noire/Lancôme, Fidji/Laroche, Shalimar/Guerlain, N° 5, - N°19/Chanel, Cacharel, Joy/Patou.

Lecture and Film Screening with Khadija Al-Salami

As Yemen's first woman film-maker, Khadija Al-Salami has made over 20 award winning documentaries for TV stations in France and Yemen. She has co-written a book with her husband, "The Tears of Sheba," about her experiences growing up in Yemen. She currently serves as the Press Counselor and Direction of the Communication and Cultural Center at the Embassy of Yemen in Paris.

Friday, February 11, 2011 at Alliance Française d'Atlanta

About the films:
A Stranger In Her Own City - 30 min- 2006
A captivating hilarious film following 13-year-old Nejmia who refuses to wear a veil, plays in the streets with boys, rides a bicycle and scooter, and generally does whatever she likes. She is cursed, ridiculed, and threatened, but her truly indomitable spirit perseveres with incredible good humor and a sense of perspective. This film won first prize at the Berlin Film Festival and selected in the Best of New York International Children's Film Festival.
Amina 53 Min - 2006
At the age of 11, Yemenite Amina al-Tuhaif was married in an arranged union to a man many years her senior, at 14, she was sentenced to death when a court found her guilty of murdering her husband.
Amina was screened in competition at the 2006 Dubai Film Festival

Co-Sponsored by the Alif Institute, an Arab American non profit educational and cultural enrichment center and Georgia State University's Middle East Institute

Francophonie Film Festival

Movies shown at the High Museum of Art:

Welcome (France)

Friday March 19th,2010 7 p.m.

Welcome is a 2009 movie directed by Phillippe Lioret.

This movie is centred on the friendship between a swimming instructor and a 17-year-old Iraqi Kurd bent on swimming the channel to be reunited with his girlfriend in London.

Ce film a pour thème l'amitié entre un maître nageur et un jeune garçon iraqien kurde de 17 ans. Le garçon a décidé de traverser la manche a la nage afin de retrouver sa petite-amie a Londres.

J'ai tué ma mère (Québec)

Friday March 19th, 2010 9 p.m.

I Killed My Mother is a French Canadian film, released in 2009.

Written and directed by Xavier Dolan, it is an exposé on the complexity of the mother- and-son bond.

Ce film, écrit et réalisé par Xavier Dolan, décrit la complexité du rapport mère-fils.

Movies shown at At the Midtown Arts cinema:

La Prophétie des Grenouilles (France)

Saturday March 20th, 2010 Afternoon

La Prophétie des grenouilles is a 2003 French cartoon by Jacques-Rémy Girerd.

It's a catastrophe! A flood has hit our planet and an unusual group of people are all that remains. Led by Ferdinand, a modern day Noah, this little group have managed to defy the furiously raging elements. People and animals alike are dragged through this incredible whirlpool of an adventure.

C'est une catastrophe! Notre planète est touchée par une innondation et seul un groupe d'invidus atypiques semble avoir survécu. Mené par Ferdinand, un Noé contemporain, ce petit groupe va devoir defier des élèments naturels déchainés. Etres humains, aussi bien qu'animaux vont être entrainés dans cette décoiffante et folle aventure.

Formidable (Belgique)

Sunday March 21st, 2010 7 p.m.

Formidable is a 2007 movie by the Belgian director Dominique Standaert.

This movie tells the sinking of two sweet derelicts slightly pathetic whose meeting will help to resurface.

Ce film raconte le naufrage de deux tendres paumés un peu pathétiques, que leur rencontre va aider à faire surface.

Le goût des jeunes filles (Haiti/Quebec-Canada)

Monday March 22nd 2010

Le goût des jeunes filles is a 2004 movie directed by John L'Ecuyer.

Against the backdrop of poverty, fear and the brutal dictatorship of Haiti in 1971, 15-year-old Fanfan just wants to experience life for himself with his streetwise friend Gégé. Having lived a somewhat sheltered life with his protective mother, Fanfan experiences a bizarrely terrifying incident involving a Tonton-Macoute. As a result, he decides to hide out at his beautiful neighbor's house for the weekend. There, he is trapped between his fear of being caught and the fulfilling of his deepest fantasy. Based on the Book Le Gout des Jeunes Filles by famous Haitian novelist Dany Laferrière.

Haiti, 1971. Surprotégé par sa mère, Fanfan, un jeune garçon de quinze and, aimerait bien pouvoir profiter un peu de la vie. À l'insu de celle-ci, il décide de sortir de chez lui pour aller se promener en ville avec son ami Gégé, un petit délinquant. À la suite d'un incident impliquant un Tonton-Macoute, Fanfan se réfugie chez sa belle voisine, Miki, une prostituée. Pendant tout un week-end, Fanfan est déchiré entre la peur de se faire arrêter, le désir de traverser la rue pour aller réconforter sa mère et le bonheur d'enfin découvrir l'univers de Miki et de ses belles amies. Avec comme toile de fond la pauvreté et la peur infligées par un régime de dictature impitoyable, Fanfan nous raconte son histoire.

Retour à Gorée (Switzerland)

Tuesday March 23rd, 2010

Retour à Gorée is a 2008 swiss movie directed by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud.

This movie tells us the journey of the African singer Youssou N’Dour following the steps of the black slaves and the music they invented: The jazz.

Ce film raconte le périple du chanteur africain Youssou N'Dour sur les traces des esclaves noirs et de la musique qu'ils ont inventée : le jazz.

Mon frère se marie (Switzerland)

Wednesday March 24th, 2010

Mon frère se marie is a 2006 swiss movie directed by Jean-Stéphane Bron.

Vinh ,who was adopted twenty years before by a swiss family, is going to get married. His biological mother, who lives in Vietnam, decides to come and meet the family who raised her son.

Vinh, adopté 20 ans plus tôt par une famille suisse, va se marier. Sa mère naturelle, restée au Vietnam, decide de faire le voyage et rencontrer la famille qui a élevé son fils.

Archives:

Cinéma/ Musique

Saturday, December 5th 2009 at the Rich Theatre, High Museum at 8pm

Ciné Follies Jazz Ladies

Jazz Ladies is a program of great vintage jazz shorts from the collection of Jo Milgram, (1916 – 2005), a French jazz enthusiast who became friends with many American musicians who passed through Paris during the 1930s and thereafter. He began collecting jazz films in 1970 and amassed one of the finest collections in the world. This program, which is being circulated by the Alliance Française in collaboration with the Cinematheque of Dance in Paris, features performances by Valaida Snow, Dorothy Dandridge, Sarah Vaughan, Tessie Maize, Ethel Waters, Ella Fitzgerald, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, and many other equally stellar talents. (Running time 90 minutes.) This program is co-sponsored by the Alliance Francaise in Atlanta.

Our featured film for July...

Friday July 31st
Opening Night/AF Night
Q&A with the Director/Producer Chai Vasarhelyi

Regal Tara Theater
2345 Cheshire Bridge Rd 30324-3758

(Films provided by the French Cultural Service in Atlanta and the French Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs, with the exception of Life outside of Pearl.)

Our featured film for July......

Friday, July 17th, 7pm

Life Outside of Pearl

Jazz Combo at 7, film to start at 8 pm

In partnership with The Haitian Alliance, Inc.

The feature film "Life Outside of Pearl" is about a lower-middle class Haitian-American family assimilating into a new culture, while maintaining their ethnic identity.

The family patriarch presents a proud exterior earning a living as a taxi cab driver trying to keep his adulterous affair, a secret.

His wife is aware of his indiscretions but chooses to deny her own needs to keep her home and family intact. Jean, the couple’s teenage son is smart, but naively decides to postpone college to pursue dreams of opening a computer shop in the neighborhood.

Jean uses illegal means to raise capital for the shop, conflict occurs, and he gets involved over his head with less than savory friends. Sister finds love with her new boyfriend only to have her romantic fairy tale life shattered by catching her father with another woman.

Marco, the handsome family cousin is a local police officer trying to balance his life on the street with family involvement.

Each family member’s personal issues intersect and climax when they learn that Jean has been shot by his cousin while breaking the law. Secrets are exposed, changes must be made and the family unit is ultimately strengthened by facing its weaknesses.

With an all star cast- Jimmy Jean Louis, Rudolphe Moise, Carole Demesmin, Freddie Robinson, Natacha Noel and Anthony Stevenson- this drama/action/comedy film is a sure crowd pleaser!!

Goethe Institute
Colony Square, Plaza Level
1197 Peachtree St. NE
Atlanta GA 30361

Our featured film for June....

Monday, June 22nd, 7 p.m. at Imperial Fez

2285 Peachtree Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30309

Feast and Film at Fez- Ciné Soirée Maghrebine

Délice Paloma—Nadir Mokneche

(In French with English subtitles)

Madame Aldjéria, with her team, fixes up other people’s problems in exchange for cash. She doesn’t hesitate to dirty her hands in order to survive in a country where no holds are barred. Paloma, her new recruit, catches everyone’s eye, beginning with Riyad, Aldjéria’s son. Madame Aldjéria is in on a deal close to her heart: buying the Caracalla Thermae. But this is one deal too much, too grandiose; because of it she loses her son and her freedom.

Film and Five Course Moroccan Dinner

Sponsored by Imperial Fez, in partnership with American Moroccan Association

The selection for the Month of May...

Friday, May 29th 7 p.m.

Toi et moi/Me and you

A film by Julie Lopes Curval

In French with English subtitles

Wine and Cheese Reception at 7:00 and movie starts at 7:30

Editor of the photo romance section of “You and Me” magazine, Ariane has a tendency to transpose the love lives of herself and her sister, Lena, onto the pages – albeit with some extra flourishes. However, their lives are not exactly romantic: Ariane clings on to Farid, who wants nothing to do with her, while Lena has grown bored with her companion, François. But what if Ariane let herself go and fell in love with Pablo, the handsome Spaniard who is working her building? And what if Lena let her heart beat for Mark, the remarkable violinist she has just met?

Director(s): Julie Lopes-Curval. Screenplay: Julie Lopes-Curval and Sophie Hiet. Cast: Marion Cotillard, Julie Depardieu, Jonathan Zaccaï, Eric Berger, Sergio Peris-Mencheta and Tomer Sisley. Distributor: Pyramide Distribution. Runtime: 94 min. Year: 2006.

For the Month of April, we are pleased to announce the return of our popular monthly French film soirées

April's featured presentation is a romantic comedy by Pierre Jolivet

Je Crois que je l'aime/I think I love Him (romantic comedy)

Friday, April 17th, 7 pm

(Wine and Cheese Reception at 7:00 and movie starts at 7:30)

In French with English subtitles. 90 minutes.

Riche industriel divorcé, Lucas 43 ans, est irrésistibliment attiré par Elsa, 38 ans, une céramiste reputée à qui il a commandé une fresque pour le hall de son enterprise. Mais échaudé par une récentce déconvenue amoureuse, il demande au detective privé de sa société, Roland Christin, de découvrir pour quelles raisons cette jolie femme est toujours célibataire. Le detective va, sans le moindre scrupule, mettre en oeuvre les méthodes d’espionnage les plus modernes. Mais gare à Lucas si Elsa l’apprenait…

Forty-three-year-old Lucas, a rich, divorced industrialist, is irresistibly attracted to thirtyeight-year-old Elsa, a renowned ceramist whom he's commissioned to create a fresco for his office foyer. But, still smarting from a recent disappointment in love, he asks Roland Christin, a private detective from his company, to discover the reasons why this lovely woman is still single.....

Many thanks to all our students, members and friends who attended the Francofilm Festival at the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema March 21-26th

Friday, October 22nd: Cinematic Tribute to Coco Chanel

The BUZZ (what the critics are saying about October's movie)

“This refreshing alternative to the usual potted biopic provides an absorbing look at a singular, steely determination as it was forged and annealed, long before it made itself known to the world.”

- Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
...
This Anna Fontaine directed film stars Cesar nominated Best Actress Audrey Tatou and is rated PG-13

Friday, November 19th: "A film of singular grace"

The BUZZ (what the critics are saying about November's movie)

It's hard to describe this film - which the 71-year-old Omar Sharif came out of retirement to star in and persuaded François Dupeyron to direct. It's a delicate thing, gossamer light, yet unforgettable. To tell its story is to break a butterfly upon a wheel. It is a a movie about tolerance, about friendship, about real commitment, full of wisdom and simplicity.

Rated R for some sexual content

Théâtre du Rond-Point, Cultural Services of the French Consulate in Atlanta, Emory University's Department of French and Italian, Alliance Française d'Atlanta with the participation of Théâtre du Rêve present:

Musée haut, musée bas (2008, 97 minutes)

In this wickedly funny comedy, Jean-Michel Ribes takes on a sacrosanct cultural institution, all the while taking care to put fun (s'amuser) back in museum (musée). This play was performed with a cast of over 40 of the best comedians in France.

Thursday, December 9, 7:00 pm

Xu (2007, 81 minutes)

Xu is work that plays with language, creating a dictionary naming all of life's little "worries," while making use of every trick of the actor's trade--mime, song, tap-dance, trampoline--and even Japanese Noh drama.

Friday, December 10, 5:00 pm

La Symphonie du hanneton (2005, 76 minutes)

Singing, dancing, flying off the trapeze, playing the violin and the saxophone, turning into a rhinoeros, a dragon...These are just some of the ingredients of a show inspired by fairy tales and invented by the very talented James Spencer Thierrée, born to a circus family and a now celebrated stage artist who producs worldwide.

Friday, December 10, 7:00pm

All three plays were produced and performed at the Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris. All screenings are free and open to the public.