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CULTURAL/EVENTS AGENDA SEPTEMBER 2008 This agenda presents a selection of French or French-related events in the Midwest. For a complete calendar of events for the French and French-speaking associations in your area, please visit their respective web sites. Agenda cultural pour la région de Chicago / Cultural Agenda for the Chicago area: "LIAISON" |
| ILLINOIS |
| CHICAGO |
Manon by Jules Massenet opens September 27 at Lyric Opera of Chicago, featuring French soprano Natalie Dessay and Jonas Kaufmann. Complete information - 20 N. Wacker Drive. Tel: 312-332-2244. www.lyricopera.org |
| DATES A RETENIR EN OCTOBRE : Samedi 4 octobre à 15h00: Pique-nique et réunion annuelle pour les membres du Groupe professionnel francophone de Chicago et leurs invités. info@gpfchicago.org Dimanche 12 octobre : Bank of America Chicago Marathon Vendredi 17 octobre : Gala annuel de l' UFEC . Le Sofitel Water Tower swinguera dans l'ambiance de Chicago in the Roaring 20s! Information. |
| INDIANA |
| NOTRE DAME |
| September 7-October 19: Images from the Era of the French Revolution
Scholz Family Works on Paper Gallery - Snite Museum - University of Notre Dame. This exhibition was organized to accompany the conference New Paradigms for Revolutionary Studies: French-American Colloquium, October 6-8, 2008. The keynote address will be presented in the Annenberg Auditorium, located in the lower level of the Snite Museum. This exhibition of drawings in the Scholz Family Works on Paper Gallery and paintings in the permanent installation of the 18th-Century Gallery, will provide visitors with an opportunity to view some artworks created by French artists during the stormy years of the revolutionary period. The conference which has inspired this exhibition is the collaboration of a team of scholars from the University of Provence, the University of Toulouse, Indiana University South Bend and the University of Notre Dame. Speakers and participants will come from Europe, Japan and the USA. More infromation. October 6-8: New Paradigms for Revolutionary Studies: French-American Colloquium Sponsored as part of an ongoing collaboration by a team of scholars from the Université de Provence, the Université de Toulouse, the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University South Bend, this workshop is an opportunity for Francophone and Anglophone scholars in literature, history, and art to collaborate in creating the paradigms that will shape future research in revolutionary studies. http://www.nd.edu/~colloque/ |
| IOWA |
| CEDAR RAPIDS |
| September 25: Concert Lo Còr de la Plana Lo Còr de la Plana (pronounce "Loo cooar day la plan") is a male ensemble from the quarter of La Plaine in Marseille. Six singers accompanied by percussion instruments (bendirs and tamburello), "picaments" on their feet and "bataments" on their hands. Founded in 2001, the formation has launched into the systematic re-invention of popular Occitan heritage. With unrivalled passion they sing all repertoires, from the most religious to the most unfettered, the repetitive to the occasional (quite often at the same time ! .Legion Arts - Cedar Rapids |
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| DES MOINES |
| September 19, 2008 - January 4, 2009: Yan Pei-Ming : Life Souvenir The Des Moines Art Center will present the first one-person museum exhibition in the United States for the Chinese artist Yan Pei-Ming, who divides his time among studios in Shanghai as well as Paris and Dijon, France. Yan is considered one of the foremost Chinese artists working today, creating large, vibrant, expressionistic paintings and watercolors. His subject matter often includes self-portraits and portraits of family members or political figures, such as Mao and American presidents. Yan's work merges traditional Chinese visual traditions with contemporary Western formal approaches, such as Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. This exhibition is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue and organized by Jeff Fleming, director. Complete information. |
| MICHIGAN |
| ANN ARBOR |
| September 20, 2008-January 3, 2009: The Infinite Landscape: Master Photographers from the UMMA Collection In anticipation of UMMA's reopening in early 2009, this exhibition will present some of the most compelling landscape images from the Museum's own renowned collection. Since the dawn of photography, practitioners have used the medium as a tool to make sense of our surroundings and create meaning within the larger world. From a selection of classic views by such artists as Ansel Adams, Harry Callahan, and William Henry Fox Talbot to the contemporary sublime of Michael Kenna, these images reflect 19th- and 20th-century European and American artists responding to the natural environment. Among the other photographers included are Eugene Atget, Walker Evans, William Jackson, Andre Kertesz, Josef Sudek, and Minor White. The exhibition will also showcase several new acquisitions on view for the first time by Edward Curtis, Peter Henry Emerson, Karl Struss, and Edward Steichen. University of Michigan Museum of Art - 1301 South University Avenue - http://www.umma.umich.edu/view/ |
| GRAND RAPIDS |
| Flims @ Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts Grand Rapids Opens September 5: Water Lilies Teenaged angst is beautifully explored and revealed in this remarkable debut by director Céline Sciamma. Friendship, rivalry, and crushes—both heterosexual and same-sex—abound among the members of a synchronized swim team. Floriane (Adele Haenel), a shapely blonde, is cool and brazen. She makes the introverted and boyish Marie (Pauline Acquart) her confidante, at the expense of Marie's best friend Anne (Louise Blachère). Opens September 26: Man on Wire On August 7, 1974 a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York's twin towers, then the world's tallest buildings. After nearly an hour dancing on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation and brought to jail. Petit spent eight months in New York planning the execution of the coup. Aided by a team of friends and accomplices, he had to find a way to bypass the WTC's security; smuggle the heavy steel cable and rigging equipment into the towers; pass the wire between the two rooftops; anchor the wire and tension it to withstand the winds and the swaying of the buildings. |
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| KALAMAZOO |
| September 2008-August 2009 : "The French in North America / Les Français en Amérique du Nord - An Enduring Presence" A series of symposia, lectures, and other public programs to be held in 2008-2009 at Western Michigan University. |
| The French have left an enduring legacy in North America, beginning in the sixteenth century and continuing through today. The purpose of this series of events is to examine the motivations, conditions, and effects of French activities, policies, and practices in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean. Perspectives will be drawn from multiple disciplines in order to frame a fuller understanding of the French place in contemporary economic, political, social, and cultural relations. Co-sponsored by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy - Chicago http://international.wmich.edu/content/blogcategory/200/451/ |
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September 6-October 19: "Marc Chagall: The Early Etchings" |
| MISSOURI |
| KANSAS CITY |
| September 13, 2008-January 18, 2009: "Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America and the Railway, 1830-1960" No industrial development has had such a sudden and transforming effect as the steam railroad. Within a few years of trains' first use ca. 1830, their speed increased to at least three times that of road coaches, and the volume of passenger and freight traffic far surpassed any other form of transport. This exhibition shows how artists responded to the railroad, especially in Europe and the United States. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, artists concentrated on feats of railroad engineering, the railroad as a focus for human drama, as a setting to explore light and atmosphere and as a symbol of reflective states of mind. Not until after the First World War did artists begin to celebrate the railroad as a mechanical marvel. Nelson Atkins Museum of Art - Bloch Building, Galleries L13 and L14 - Complete information. |
| September 27 - October 5: "Tartuffe" by Molière In 1664, they laughed, they howled, they snickered and they gasped, and then they banned the play from public performance. Come see what all the excitement and controversy was (and is) about. Molière’s comic masterpiece Tartuffe — coming to the Spencer Theater — for your consideration and absolute delight! -- Theodore Swetz, director. Helen F. Spencer Theatre, University of Missouri - Kansas City - Complete information. |
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| STE GENEVIEVE LES AMIS / FRENCH HERITAGE SOCIETY ANNOUNCE: |
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Saturday, September 20 at 10:30am: Rededication Ceremony for Beauvais-Amoureux House Restoration with featured speaker: French Consul General Jean-Baptiste main de Boissière : "Prospects for Transatlantic Relations: Between the U.S. and France, Between the U.S and the European Union". Complete information. |
| NEBRASKA |
| Films at Mary Riepma Ross Lincoln Nebraska Fri, Sep 12 - Thu, Sep 25: The Last Mistress by Catherine Breillat Controversial director Catherine Breillat (ROMANCE, FAT GIRL) delivers her most ambitious film yet with The Last Mistress. Adapted from the novel by Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, the film is set in 19th-century France, when the world was a seemingly much more innocent place. Underneath the surface, however, lurk infidelities and other dark secrets. Ryno de Marigny (Fu'ad Ait Aattou) is about to marry the beautiful and sweet Hermangarde (Roxane Mesquida). He is so devoted to her that he has decided to make a clean break from his ongoing affair with the tempestuous Vellini (Asia Argento). Fri, Sep 26 - Thu, Oct 9:
Tell no one by
Guillaume Canet |
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| OHIO |
| CLEVELAND |
| September 6- November 2: GODARD FROM 1960-1967 French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard virtually sprinted through the 1960s, making one groundbreaking, irreverent, pop-infused movie after another. The most innovative and intellectual member of the French New Wave directed 18 features and at least 11 shorts during the decade; he seemed never to stop to take a breath. |
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| Film at Cleveland Cinematheque September 13-14: Before I Forget / Avant que j'oublie - (France, 2007) by Jacques Nolot. One of the most acclaimed foreign films of the year! Writer-director Jacques Nolot stars as a 60ish, HIV-positive, gay gigolo who suddenly finds himself little more than a poor, ailing, lonely old "homo" when his long-time benefactor dies after 30 years of lavish support. "One of loveliest, most direct and most devastating pictures about aging that I've ever seen." -Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com Cleveland theatrical premiere. |
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| COLUMBUS |
| Films at Wexner Center for the Arts Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 7:00PM: The Gates Introduced by codirector Antonio Ferrera (Antonio Ferrera, Albert Maysles, 2007). The Gates by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude delighted visitors from all over the world when it was installed in Central Park in February 2005-26 years after it was first proposed in 1979. |
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| OBERLIN |
| Until December 23, 2008: Aux Barricades! French Protest Posters from May '68 Allen Memorial Art Museum Art incited riots when in May 1968 student and worker uprisings calling for social and economic reform led to pitched street battles and caused a general strike that paralyzed France. Innovative posters with snappy slogans and stark layouts created by the demonstrators were put up around Paris and the provinces. The AMAM is pleased to be able to exhibit twenty-four works, loaned by the Naples Museum of Art (Naples, Florida), in conjunction with the 40th anniversary commemorative events being planned by Oberlin College's department of French and Italian. Complete information. |
| WISCONSIN |
| MADISON |
| September 12-20: MADISON WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL The fifth annual Madison World Music Festival will be held from September 12-20, 2008, in the Memorial Union and other venues. Again this year, all events are free and open to the public. http://uniontheater.wisc.edu/worldmusicfest/ |
| Films at Cinematheque Madison Sept 12 at 7:30 p.m.: The Earrings of Madame de... by Max Ophüls With Danielle Darrieux, Charles Boyer, Vittorio de Sica Fin-de-siècle Paris is the setting of Ophüls's sumptuous story of high-society romance and heartbreak, which follows a pair of diamond earrings as they are passed between lovers and middlemen before ending up in their original owner's possession. Lauded for its stellar performances, dazzling mise-en-scène, and virtuoso long-take cinematography, The Earrings of Madame de… may be, according to Andrew Sarris, "the greatest film of all time." |
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| Saturday, September 6 at 7:30 p.m - UWM Guitar Series: Concert Pierre Bensusan. Peck School of the Arts French guitarist, vocalist and composer Pierre Bensusan is an acknowledged master of finger-style guitar, a musician whose art transcends his time and his instrument. Bensusan's compositions may start with folk melodies, but he develops these ideas into compositions of astonishing complexity, creating beautiful and sensuous sounds with a sense of orchestration that goes far beyond what is generally thought of as guitar music. A true world musician, Bensusan's music traverses regions and centuries, fusing cultures in unique ways to represent our world in its current state. Information. |
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| MILWAUKEE |
September 4-14: MILWAUKEE LGBT FILM/VIDEO FESTIVAL One of the community's longest running film festivals celebrates its 21st anniversary with an international array of the finest and newest in films and videos by and about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. The screening-packed eleven days of features, documentaries, and shorts opens at the Oriental Theatre with the local premiere of Tom Gustafson's Were the World Mine Co-Sponsor : Cultural Services of The French Embassy - Chicago |
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The New World (La Nouveau Monde) (Etienne Dhaene, France, in French with English subtitles, video, 90min., 2007) A universal and modern family story, The New World is a poignant, charming and funny account of one lesbian couple's struggle to invent a new model of parenthood. Program |
| Water Lilies (Naissance des pieuvres) (Céline Sciamma, France, in French with English subtitles, 35mm, 85min, 2007) A special presentation of one of the year's best films--and one of the best films ever about teenage girls. Lesbian filmmaker Céline Sciamma has made a film about synchronized swimmers that has a remarkable gravity. Her three heroines are 15 year olds of differing social standing in the strict hierarchy of high school, each a secret agent working alone on special assignments of desire. Ruthlessly opportunistic, and trying to avoid detection, they juggle loyalties as needed. Program |
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Before I Forget (Avant que j'oublie) (Jacques Nolot, France, in French with English subtitles, 35mm, 105min., 2007) An artfully matter-of-fact look at an aging hustler and how he copes with the insufficiencies and threatened indignities of his advancing years. In one of the season's most critically acclaimed films, director and star Jacques Nolot unveils the most radical gay body you will see this year. More/Show time. |
| September 11, Noon to 1 p.m.:
Lecture: "Fifteenth-Century French Authors, Alain Chartier and Martin le Franc, and Their Relationships with Breviaries and Manuscripts" Dr. Steven Millen Taylor, Professor of French-Foreign Languages and Literatures Haggerty Museum of Art - Marquette University |
Films at Union theater - University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee A weekend of films by Jean-Luc Godard Two newly restored 35mm prints of essential films by Jean Luc-Godard. All screenings are free. Complete program. |
| Fri., Sept. 26- 7pm ; Sat., Sept. 27 - 5 & 9pm ;
Sun. Sept. 28 - 7pm :
Contempt (Le Mépris) New 35mm print! (Jean-Luc Godard, France, in French, English, German and Italian w/ Eng st., 103 min., 35mm, 1963). Jean-Luc Godard's subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is a star-studded Cinemascope epic. Contempt stars Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter torn between the demands of a proud European director (played by legendary director Fritz Lang), a crude and arrogant American producer (Jack Palance), and his disillusioned wife, Camille (Brigitte Bardot) as he attempts to doctor the script for a new film version of The Odyssey. Fri., Sept. 26- 9pm ; Sat., Sept. 27 -3 & 7pm ; Sun. Sept. 28 - 5pm: Vivre Sa Vie (My Life to Live) New 35mm print! (Jean-Luc Godard, France, in French w/ Eng st., 85 min., 35mm, 1962) Faced with a failed relationship, a dead-end job, and potential homelessness, young Parisienne Nana Kleinfrankenheim (Anna Karina) turns to "the life"—that is, prostitution. A simple tale told in twelve Brechtian tableaux, Vivre sa vie is one of Godard's most deeply felt films, anchored by Karina's astonishing lead performance and Nouvelle Vague favorite Raoul Coutard's breathtaking cinematography of street-level Paris. |
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