Events

To whom it may concern,

Our brilliant theatre production, GODOT ACTE 3 just closed at the Glicker-Milstein Theatre, Barnard College in New York, on February 16th. As its title suggests, it is a thought-provoking continuation of Samuel Beckett's masterwork /Waiting for Godot/, written by contemporary Swiss playwright and scholar Sylviane Dupuis. It is directed by Noemie NDiaye (PhD candidate in theatre at Columbia University), and translated and produced by Pascale Crépon (Lecturer in the Department of French at Columbia University).

This production was a critical success, and, since the show is ready and fully produced, we are now looking for cultural institutions and venues that would be interested in celebrating the 60th anniversary of the creation of /En attendant Godot/ (1953-2013) by inviting us to perform our homage. We are a non-profit group, which means that we would perform for free, as long as we don't have to pay for the rental of theatre. The performance runs in French (with

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2013

Screenings presented in cooperation with Unifrance, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the IFC Center.

Location: IFC Center, 323 Sixth Avenue at West 3rd Street
Tickets: $15. General Public / $10. with NYU i.d. (these screenings only)

Saturday, March 2, 1:00 p.m.

Boudu Saved from Drowning (Boudu sauvé des eaux)
Jean Renoir, 1932, France, 84 min.
French with English subtitles

A new digital restoration of Renoir’s innovative early work. Boudu (the irrepressible and unforgettable Michel Simon), a Parisian tramp, tries to end it all with a plunge into the river, only to be saved by a well-meaning bookseller.

Sunday, March 3, 1:15 p.m.
Monday, March 4, 8:30 p.m.

Journal de France
Raymond Depardon & Claudine Nougaret, 2012, France, 100 min. French with English subtitles

Raymond Depardon’s self-portrait (co-directed by his longtime collaborator and sound engineer Claudine Nougaret) takes a surprising point of view on the great documentarian’s life—not only a

Inspired by the true story of the first giraffe to visit France, Zarafa is a sumptuously hand-animated and stirring adventure set among sweeping vistas of parched desert, windswept mountains and open skies. Under the cover of night a small boy, Maki, loosens the shackles that bind him and escapes into the desert night. Pursued by slavers across the moon-lit savannah, Maki meets Zarafa, a baby giraffe – and an orphan, just like him - and he vows to protect the giraffe. Wandering alone in the desert, the two are taken under the protection of the Bedouin prince Hassan. Hassan brings them to Alexandria for an audience with the Pasha of Egypt, who promptly orders them to deliver the exotic animal as a gift to King Charles of France. 

And so Maki, Zarafa and Hassan take off with the aerialist Malaterre in a hot-air balloon across the Mediterranean – an unbelievably beautiful ride through the pink-skied, honey-hued expanses of Northern Africa, the bustling port of Marseilles, and over the sn

WORLD PREMIERE - ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION
Jean-François Laguionie’s inventive and breathlessly beautiful tale has received unanimous critical praise since it made its US premiere at NYICFF 2012 (under the French title, Le Tableau) and we are thrilled to present the first-ever screening of the new English language version. 

In this wry parable, a kingdom is divided into the three castes: the impeccably painted Alldunns who reside in a majestic palace; the Halfies who the Painter has left incomplete; and the untouchable Sketchies, simple charcoal outlines who are banished to the cursed forest. Chastised for her forbidden love for an Alldunn and shamed by her unadorned face, Halfie Claire runs away into the forest. Her beloved Ramo and best friend Lola journey after her, passing between the forbidden Death Flowers that guard the boundaries of the forest (in one of the film’s most radiantly gorgeous scenes), and arriving finally at the very edge of the painting – where they tumble through

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE - The pint-sized child hero Kirikou returns in the new feature from world-renowned animator/director/storyteller Michel Ocelot, who NYICFF audiences should be well familiar with fromKirikou and the Sorceress, Azur & Asmar, and Tales of the Night. 

This third film in the Kirikou trilogy weaves together a collection of short-form fables, mixing traditional storytelling and mythology with bits of humor and wit, backed by an upbeat musical score from Malian, Togolese and French artists. Ocelot’s vibrant use of color is everywhere on display – a black panther creeps into the village at night against impossibly deep blue skies, firelight sets off shadows against thatched huts, a Bedouin boy wrapped from head to toe in azure robes blazes like a sapphire against the tawny desert sand – while a village elder introducing each story lends an Arabian Nights quality to the film. Throughout, Kirikou is called upon to save his village from perils both supernatural and human,

US PREMIERE - NYICFF is thrilled to kick off our 2013 festival with the extraordinary new film from the producers of Kirikou and the Sorceress, Triplets of Belleville and The Secret of Kells. Fresh from standing ovations at Toronto and Cannes, Ernest & Celestine joyfully leaps across genres and influences to capture the kinetic, limitless possibilities of animated storytelling. Rarely has so much charm, warmth, intelligence, and wit been packed into a film that audiences of all ages can enjoy. Deep below snowy, cobblestone streets and tucked away amongst winding tunnels, lives a civilization of hardworking mice, terrified of the bears who live above ground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer – and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for grumpy troubadour Ernest, the two form an unlikely bond and are soon living together as outcasts, creating la vie boheme in a winter cottage. But it isn’t long before their friendship is put on trial by their respective bear-f

EAST COAST PREMIERE - Deep in the woods, among towering trees and dense meadows, lives Pumpkin, a burly, ogre-like man, who towers like a giant over the tiny boy who is his only child. Raised like an animal since birth and knowing only he ways of the wild, the boy has been forbidden to venture beyond the edge of the forest to the place his father calls “The World Beyond.” So the nameless boy spends his days in isolation, honing his slingshot skills, eating small creatures, and confiding in his only friends: the half-human, half-animal spirits that occupy the strange forest that is his home. 

One day his father is injured, and the boy has no choice but to leave the woods in search of help. Entering a neighboring village, he befriends a young girl, Manon, and for the first time in his life begins to experience the wonders that human contact and civilization have to offer. Yet village life is not as harmonious as it first appears – and after discovering the truth about his family’s past,

Friday, March 1, 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
INSTITUTE OF FRENCH STUDIES COLLOQUIUM

Masculinité(s) et virilité: contextes métropolitains et situations coloniales aux XIXe et XXe siècles

Worshop organised by Edward Berenson (IFS) and Christelle Taraud (NYU Paris)

In English and French

CHRISTELLE TARAUD
Visiting Professor, NYU; author of Sexe et colonies. Virilité, homosexualité et tourisme sexuel au Maghreb (1830-1962)

VENITA DATTA
Wellesley College; author of Heroes and Legends of Fin-de-Siècle France: Gender, Politics, and National Identity

EDWARD BERENSON
NYU; author of Heroes of Empire: Five Charismatic Men and the Conquest of Africa

During the first half of the 19th century, the idea of colonialism as the production of real men and as a space for masculine and national regeneration was developed in all the colonial metropoles. Based on the then-developing idea of Social Darwinism, they believed that Europeans were engaged in a “struggle for life” and that this fight would “naturally” lead

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE - NYICFF proudly presents the North American premiere of this fascinating and remarkable animated autobiography that traces the unconventional upbringing of filmmaker Jung Henin, one of thousands of Korean children adopted into Europe after the end of the Korean War. 

A series of gorgeously animated, sepia-toned vignettes – some humorous and some poetic – track Jung from the day of his adoption as he meets his new (blond) siblings, through elementary school, and into his teenage years, when his emerging sense of identity begins to create fissures at home and to inflame the latent biases of his adoptive parents. Throughout this all, Jung finds release in drawing – and the film we see is really the ultimate expression of what started as the doodles of a boy stranded between two cultures. The filmmaker tells his story using his own animation intercut with snippets of super-8 family footage, archival film, and new footage documenting his first trip to Korea. The re

Comment enseigner la grammaire en classe de FLE ? Friday, March, 1st 5:30 to 8:30 pm Skyroom

Presenter: Nicolas Jérôme Formateur au Département de français du Programme des Langues et de la Communication aux Nations unies (New York). D.E.S.S. Ingénierie de formation linguistique : diffusion des langues / cultures et francophonie(s) Ancien étudiant à Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle

Action : grammaire !

Depuis les approches communicatives, l’enseignement / apprentissage des langues préconise une didactique de la grammaire orientée vers la sémantique et la conceptualisation, suggestions largement reprises par l’approche par tâches ou perspective actionnelle. De la même manière, le Cadre européen commun de Référence pour les Langues recommande de développer chez l’apprenant une compétence générale appelée « savoir-apprendre », notamment à travers les stratégies de réception. L’objectif de cet atelier est d’analyser les différentes étapes de la conceptualisation grammaticale, de définir le concept

Monday March 4th at 6:30pm 

Conference by Historian Robert Paxton “France 1940-1944: Between Collaboration and Resistance.” In the auditorium. Free and open to all