Cultural/Events Agenda

CULTURAL/EVENTS AGENDA
June 2007

ILLINOIS
Chicago

June 8: UFEC 30th Anniversary Gala Dinner "Chicago Blues"
Join the Union des Français de l’étranger à Chicago in celebrating their 30th anniversary at the Annual Dinner Gala. Enjoy cocktails and a gourmet dinner while Shirley Jones and her blues band entertain throughout the evening. Sofitel Water Tower Hotel, 20 E. Chestnut St. To RSVP online click (here). Reservations must be completed before May 29th. $130/members, $145/non-members. Send payment to: UFEC, P.O. Box 11492, Chicago, IL 60611. For further information: (312) 420-2760 or gala@ufechicago.org.

June 9: "Volupté": Exhibition of watercolors, mixed media, ceramics and oil paintings by a consortium of Chicago-based French artists: Florence Faure, Marie-Pier Guillaud, Laurence Lignel, Laurie Shaman and Chantal Philipon-Ceged.June 9-10 and 15-16. Opening and closing receptions: June 9 and 16 from 4:00 to 10:00 pm . Atelier A Propos, 4001 N. Ravenswood, 5th Floor, No. 505. Tel: 773-327-8547.

INDIANA
Indianapolis
June 10- November 30: Ehxibition: "Dior : King of Couture"
Celebrated as the "King of Couture," Christian Dior revolutionized the Paris fashion industry in the period immediately after World War II and became one of the most important designers of the 20th century. This exhibition, which includes more than 20 gowns drawn from IMA's permanent collection and loaned from private collectors, provides insight into a designer who considered couture an art on par with architecture and painting. Indianapolis Museum of Art.

June 30 - December 9: Exhibition: "L'Ancien Régime: Life at the French Court"
The glittering society of Versailles was a popular subject in prints in 17th- and 18th-century France. For the estimated 1,000 courtiers who kept rooms at the château, a dizzying schedule of amusements was offered each season—fêtes, masquerade balls, outdoor theater performances and concerts, fireworks displays—with no expense spared. Arranging these entertainments and parties was important business, overseen by an official bureaucratic department of the king’s household—called the Menus Plaisirs du Roi—which employed a small army of artists, architects, and craftsmen to execute the elaborate undertakings. The prints in this show, drawn from the permanent collection capture the splendor of the Ancien Régime. Many of the printmakers, such as Charles Nicolas Cochin II, Jean-Michel Moreau, and Jean Le Pautre, were commissioned by the kings to commemorate the most important of these celebrations and fêtes, with a desire to propagate, both at home and abroad, the grandeur of their reigns. Indianapolis Musuem of Art.

South Bend
June 7-16: Cinema: Films at the Browning cinema
- June 7-8: "Flanders" by Bruno Dumont. André Demester shares his time between his farm and walks with Barbe, his childhood friend. He loves her secretly and painfully, accepting from her the little that she can give him. Along with the others his age, Demester leaves home to be a soldier in a war in a far off land. Barbarity, camaraderie and fear turn Demester into a warrior. As the seasons go by, Barbe, alone and wasting away, waits for the soldiers to return.
- June 14-16: "Into Great Silence" by Philip Gröning (see above for film description).
Debartolo Performing Arts Center, University of Notre Dame.

KANSAS
Salina
June 1-7: Cinema: "Into the Great Silence" by Philip Groning
See above for film description. Salina Art Center. Tel: 785.827.1431.

MICHIGAN
Detroit
June 17: Fondue feast and Fauré:
Join the Alliance Française of Detroit for this Fondue Feast and Chamber Music Concert at the Melting Pot Restaurant, 888 W. Big Beaver, Troy (at Crooks - City Center building). Attendees will gather at 1:00 p.m. for socializing (open bar) and then be treated to a chamber music concert by member Nadine Deleury cellist and Andrew Wu violinist, both with the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra. Selections by Fauré and other French composers are featured. The luncheon will start about 2:30 starting with your choice of California, Mushroom or Chef’s Salad; your choice of Teriyaki marinated sirloin steak or tiger shrimp entrée followed by Swiss and Cheddar cheese fondues. Please use the reservation form on reverse side and Bon Appétit! $30/members, $35/ non-members. Send name, phone number and check to: Alliance Française of Detroit, (checks payable to Alliance Française of Detroit, 30316 Stellamar, Beverly Hills, MI 48025.

June 19: Concert: Manu Chao
Saint Andrews Hall, 431 East Congress. Doors: 7:00 pm, Show: 8:00 pm. Click (here) to order tickets.

June 25-July 1: Cinema at the Detroit Film Theatre

June 25: "The Rocket": directed by Charles Biname
For francophone Quebecers, Maurice “Rocket” Richard holds a singular place in Canadian history. He overcame the National Hockey League’s disdain for working-class Québécois players to become a hockey phenomenon, and made the Montreal Canadiens virtually unbeatable

in the 1950s. Richard came to symbolize something more than just hockey excellence when, after decking a referee, he was banned from playing in the 1955 Stanley Cup playoffs. The verdict was seen by Québécois as a slap in the face from English Canada, and led to a night of rioting that proved a turning point in Quebec’s Quiet Revolution. Charles Biname’s superb film biography The Rocket swept the 2006 Canadian Genie Awards, and is being presented by the Consul General of Canada in Detroit free to DFT audiences as part of the 2007 Cinema Canada program.

June 28, 30 & July 1: "Angel" directed by Luc Besson
Incompetent Parisian schemer and petty hood André (Jamel Debbouze) is at the end of his rope–irreversibly in debt to a local gangster, with no one to turn to, his only solution is to drown himself in the Seine. But when he finally jumps it’s to save Angela (Rie Rasmussen), a beautiful and mysterious stranger

who’s taken the plunge ahead of him. As this unlikely duo form a bond, André begins to discover that not all debts are financial—and that sometimes hope is found in the unlikeliest of places. The new film from France’s Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element) is one of his most stylish and sweetly surprising: a love letter to both Paris and to the Hollywood traditions that inspired him. In French with English subtitles.
Detroit Film Theatre.

Grand Rapids

June 2: Cinema: "Avenue Montaigne" directed by Danièle Thompson
A young woman named Jessica comes to Paris from the provinces and lands a job waiting tables at a chic bistro on fabled Avenue Montaigne,

the city's nexus for art, music, theatre and fashion. Jessica's customers include a popular TV actress who is courting a Hollywood director (Sydney Pollack) for her first film role; a wealthy art collector; and an illustrious classical pianist. Because Jessica doesn't know how celebrated these individuals are, her guileless and completely unintimidated engagement in their lives has a transforming effect on them-and ultimately on her. Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts.

MINNESOTA
Minneapolis/St. Paul

June 9: Concert: Keren Ann with Martha Scanlan
Two women with big voices making large waves in the music world converging on The Cedar for a magical night of songs that straddle landscapes both cosmopolitan and rural, exotic and down-home, emotional and earthy.

Keren Ann is a recording artist, singer, songwriter, and producer based largely in Paris, New York and Israel. She plays guitar, piano and clarinet and engineers and writes choir and musical arrangements. Keren Ann's fifth solo album, the eponymous Keren Ann, has just been released in the United States. The Cedar, 416 Cedar Ave. South. Tel: 612.338.2674.

June 16: Lecture: Discover France and Paris artfully
Join the Alliance Française of Minneapolis/St. Paul for this exciting look at France. Grande Salle of the Alliance. $8/Members AF, $10/non-members. RSVP: 612.332.0436.

Through June 23: Cinema: Michel Gondry: The Science of Dreams
Art and film come together easily in the vividly imaginative mind of Michel Gondry. Question and answer with Michel Gondry and Jonathan Rosenbaum to follow screening. Walker Art Center.

June 29 - July 5: Cinema: "Bamako" Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako
Over the course of a few days, a trial pitting African civil society against such international financial institutions as the World Bank and the IMF has set its stage inside the

domestic courtyard of a home in Bamako, the capital city ofMali. Judges have been appointed, witnesses have been summoned and lawyers from both sides have arrived armed with passionate, scathing, and uncomprimsing accusations. Is the World Bank guilty of not following its mandate to serve mankind -of crimes of inhumanity and cynicism- or is Africa to blame for her suffering? The trial's examination of Africa's debt to the World Bank, which threatens Africa's sovereignty and continues to alienate and deprave her people, provides a surreal contrast to the everyday life shared by the families whose homes encase the courtyard. As numerous trial witnesses (schoolteachers, farmers, writers, etc.) air bracing indictments against the multinational economic machinery that haunts them, life in the courtyard presses forward. Oak St. Cinema. Tel: 612.331.3134.

Through June 30: Cinema: Michel Gondry’s Short Films
The program includes Gondry’s poignant short film The Letter (La Lettre) (1998) and his animated Three Dead People (2004). Walker Art Center.

MISSOURI
Columbia

June 10-13: Cinema: "Into Great Silence" by Philip Gröning
Gröning originally approached the Carthusian brotherhood in 1984, requesting permission to film in a 17th century monastery high in the French Alps. Sixteen years later, they got back to him. The director was there from winter to

winter as an unobtrusive observer: He immerses us in the contemplative, solitary state that the monks enjoy. They spend much of their waking hours in individual cells, contemplating God, yet a more blissed-out group of men you'd be hard pressed to find. Silence finds beauty in subtraction and in slowing time down to a spot where religious faiths converge on the inarticulate. Ragtag Cinemacafé.

Kansas City
June 9-September 9: Exhibition: Manet to Matisse: Impressionist Masters from the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection
The Marion and Henry Bloch Collection is one of the finest of its kind, featuring such great Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early modern artists as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse. The Bloch Collection is characterized by works of rich color and scintillating brushwork, representing a fascinating overview of the richness of avant-garde French painting from the mid-19th to the early-20th century. The Impressionists, and their avant-garde heirs, were radical in their own time, reacting against the French Academy’s established rules for painting. The works in the Bloch Collection highlight these artists’ pioneering interest in the painting of modern life in contrast to the academic preference for religious and history painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Tel: 816.751.1ART.

St. Louis
June 17 - September 16: Exhibition: Symbols of Power: Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style, 1800-1815
Symbols of Power: Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style, 1800-1815 , is the first comprehensive survey of the decorative arts of the Empire style. Drawing extensively from French collections, this exhibition brings to St. Louis more than 140 extraordinary works and includes bronze, furniture, jewelry, porcelain, silver, textiles, and wallpaper as well as drawings, paintings, and sculpture. Saint Louis Art Museum. Tel: 314.721.0072.

June 21: Fête de la Musique
Join the Alliance Française of St. Louis for this annual event celebrating the French Music Festival! Listen to talented classical and light classical music performers. $15/members, $25/guests. For reservations: 314.432.0734.

NEBRASKA
Lincoln
June 8 - July 5: Films at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center
- June 8-21: "Into the great silence" (see above for film description)

- June 29-July 26: "La vie en rose": From the slums of Paris to the limelight of New York, Edith Piaf's life was a battle to sing and survive, live and love. Raised in poverty, Edith's magical voice and her passionate romances and

friendships with the greatest names of the period- Yves Montand, Jean Cocteau, Charles Aznavour, Marlene Dietrich, Marcel Cerdan and others - made her a star all around the world. But in her audacious attempt to tame her tragic destiny, the Little Sparrow - her nickname - flew so high she could not fail to burn her wings.

- June 29-July 5: "Private fears in public places": Nominated for eight César awards in its native France, PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES is an intelligent, adult look at loneliness in the twenty-first

century. Directed by French master Alain Resnais (LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR), the film examines the interrelated lives of six main characters who are trying desperately but failing at making real, long-lasting connections.
Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

OHIO
Cincinnati

June 14 & 16: Opera: Faust by Charles Gounod
A deal with the devil... In the early morning hours, he sat behind his desk and contemplated ending it all right there. So many years of faithfully studying and writing.

So much sacrifice and struggle. Had he learned nothing? His desperation turned to fury. In a frenzy, he raged against love, sentimentality, and faith, blurting out, "Come to me, Satan!" Immediately he realized what he had done, but it was too late. Satan appeared and offered him anything he desired, including youth and the hand of a beautiful and pure maiden. Dr. Faust accepted. This is where the story begins. Cincinnati Opera. Music Hall, 1243 Elm St. Tel: 513.241.2742.

Cleveland
June 9-17: Films at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque

- June 9-10: "The earrings of Madame de..."directed by Max Ophüls
A new 35mm print of one of the most elegant, subtle, and sophisticated films ever made! A pair of earrings that continually changes hands figures prominently in this drama

of adultery set in fin de siècle Paris. Danielle Darrieux, Charles Boyer, and Vittorio De Sica play the wealthy, privileged lovers, and their glittering high society trappings are rapturously captured by Ophüls' signature gliding, swirling camerawork.
But don't be seduced; powering this swooning, sensuous merry-go-round is the machinery of tragedy.

- June 15-17: "Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle" directed by Jean-Luc Godard
A new 35mm color & scope print of a long-out-of-release Godard classic! It's a Brechtian movie in which a suburban Paris housewife (Marina Vlady)

goes into the city from time to time and prostitutes herself in order to afford the consumer goods she needs for her
middleclass lifestyle. But the "her" of the film's title is not this woman, but Paris, and Godard captures the city in a time of physical change and psychic unease - just before the explosions of 1968.
Cleveland Institute of Arts Cinematheque. Tel: 216.421.7450.

Columbus

May 12-August 12: Exposition: "Chris Marker Staring Back"
Legendary French filmmaker, writer, and multimedia artist Chris Marker has assembled almost 200 black-and-white photographic portraits spanning six decades for Staring

Back. You’ll be able to study faces Marker has seen in his global travels—and also those that have witnessed his own observant gaze. Images of the political demonstrations he’s witnessed and participated in are central to the exhibition, interspersed with images associated with Marker’s inimitable films, including La jetee, Sans Soleil, and The Case of the Grinning Cat, among others. Although some of the portraits depict well-known individuals (such as Simone Signoret and Akira Kurosawa), most are of unidentified citizens to whom Marker and his camera were drawn in the course of his progress through Asia, South America, Scandinavia, Africa, Russia, and elsewhere. Wexner Center for the Arts.

WISCONSIN
Madison

June 9: Concert: Madeleine Peyroux
An exciting concert as part of the Isthmus Jazz Fest on the Terrace, Madeleine Peyroux is one singer you should not miss this summer! With her smoke-and-whiskey voice, Peyroux has often been compared to the late, great Billie Holiday. Time magazine pronounced her groundbreaking

first album Dreamland "the most exciting, involving vocal performance by a new singer this year." Tickets: start at $18, UW-Madison students $10. University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Union, 800 Langdon Street. Tel: 608.262-2201.

Milwaukee
June 2: Class: The Impressionists and “Pissarro: Creating the Impressionist Landscape” at the Milwaukee Art Museum
Join the Alliance Française of Milwaukee for a new art appreciation class. Camille Pissarro’s transformation from a traditional French landscape painter to a major Impressionist unfolds in a one-of-a-kind exhibition of his pivotal works at the Milwaukee Art Museum. To highlight this Pissarro Exhibit, Amy Brabender is teaching in both English and French at the Alliance Française.This workshop includes a two hour class about the Impressionists and a visit of the Pissarro Exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum. More than fifty paintings which chart Pissarro’s shift from formal salon compositions to his daring impressionist ventures will be discussed.$55/AF members; $65/non-members. RSVP: 414.964.3855 or bonjour@afmilwaukee.org. Class: June 2 from 10 am - 12 noon. Museum visit: June 9 from 10 am - 12 noon.

Camille Pissarro
Hoarfrost at Ennery, 1873.
Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France, Bequest of Enriqueta Alsop in memory of Dr. Edouardo Mollard, 1972

June 9 - September 9: Exhibition: Pissarro: Creating the Impressionist Landscape
This exhibition will explore the remarkable transformation of Camille Pissarro's landscape paintings over the course of an important decade in his career, from 1864 to 1874.

During this time, he moved from being a student of the Barbizon school to becoming one of the leaders of the emerging Impressionist movement. This critical period of his evolution as an artist laid the groundwork for an entire generation of painters, many of whom were influenced by his experimental techniques and vision. The exhibition will include approximately 50 paintings, ranging from his Salon compositions from the 1860s to a selection of his entries for the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. Through these canvases, visitors will be able to see the development of Pissarro's painting technique, palette, and subject matter during a brief, yet intense period of his long and fruitful career. Milwaukee Art Museum. Tel: 414-224-3200.

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CULTURAL/EVENTS AGENDA June 2007

CULTURAL/EVENTS AGENDA
June 2007