International Cinema Calendar

As the semester gets underway, we as French students are faced with the daunting task of getting our French cultural activities (CA) done for our respective classes.  Over the course of this semester I'm going to try and do my best to come up with ideas that could possibly be used to fulfill these activities.  Now as a note I am in no way an authoritative voice when it comes to CAs.  In all cases ask your teacher if a certain activity will work.

My first suggestion is the International Cinema (IC).  This is one of the coolest things at BYU in my opinion.  Not only do you get to watch foreign movies in a plethora of languages, but they're also shown for free.  On top of that they're not just old school weird foreign films; there are often newer films, and most of the time they are award winning films (Some great examples are 'Joyeux Noel', 'Slumdog Millionaire', 'Of Gods and Men').  Each week the IC shows three films from three different languages at a variety of times.  It's not always easy to remember the schedule of films, or even what's showing.  To help you I'm going to compile this semester's French films show-dates into one easy to follow list.  

Here it is:

(All descriptions are taken from the IC schedule)

January 31 - February 4

Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot [Mr. Hulot's Holiday] (1953)
"Monsieur Hulot goes on a holiday to a seaside resort, but accidents and misunderstandings follow him where ever he goes. The peace and quiet of the hotel guests doesn’t last very long with Hulot around, because although his intensions are good, things always end catastrophically."

February 21 - February 25
L'Illusionniste [The Illusionist] (2010)

"When an older, but persistent French illusionist travels to Scotland to perform a show, he meets a young girl who changes his outlook and opens his eyes to the magic of life."

March 13 - March 17

Play Time (1967)

"Monsieur Hulot has to contact an American official in Paris, but gets lost in the maze of modern architecture filled with the latest technical gadgets.  Caught in the tourist invasion, Hulot roams around Paris with a group of American tourists, causing chaos in his usual manner."

Silences of the Palace (1994)

As Alia, the daughter of a beautiful servant Khedija, grows up in the Kings Palace at the end of the French colonial rule in Tunisia, she is horrified to discover the sexual favors required of her mother and other servants."

March 20 - March 24

Germania Anno Zero [Germany Year Zero] (1948) 

"Edmund, a young boy who lives in the destructed Germany after World War II, has to work to help his family survive.  One day he meets a man who used to be his teacher, and finds out that war changes people in unsuspecting ways."

March 27 - March 31

Palsa [Palsan] (1946)

"Six vignettes follow the Allied invasion from July 1943 to winter 1944, from Sicily north to Venice, depicting fragile national communication and postwar reconstruction, both physically and psychologically"

So that is the list for the semester.  I hope you found it helpful, and that it will help you stay on top of the IC's busy movie schedule.

On a side note...does anyone have any good/memorable/cool cultural activities that they've done in the past?  Comment below!

Source: BYU International Cinema