|
|
CULTURAL/EVENTS AGENDA
SEPTEMBER 2009
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 culturel pour la région de Chicago / Cultural Agenda for the Chicago area: "LIAISON" |
 |
September 29th: Cocoon at The Empty Bottle - Chicago
Don't miss the first U.S. tour of new French sensation Cocoon, fronted by 20-somethings Mark Daumail and Morgane Imbeaud who perform simple, irresistible and melancholic indie folk music in English. Over 100 000 albums sold in France ! Supported in part by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.
Complete information. |
|
30 SEPTEMBRE : RECEPTION DE L'UNION DES FRANCAIS DE L'ETRANGER DE CHICAGO
A cette occasion, M. Jean-Baptiste Main de Boissière, Consul général de France, interviendra sur le thème des relations U.S-France depuis l'arrivée de Barack Obama.
En savoir plus ou à mailufec@lists.ufechicago.org |
Jean-Baptiste Main de Boissière |
|
| NOT TO BE MISSED IN OCTOBER |
 |
GALA DE L'Union des Français de l'étranger de Chicago
L'UFEC organise chaque année un Gala qui est une occasion de plus de tous nous retrouver et de faire connaissance avec les nouveaux arrivants à Chicago. Le 16 octobre prochain UFEC vous donne rendez-vous à Navy Pier pour embarquer à bord du Mystic Blue et profiter d'une croisière inoubliable. En savoir plus ou à mailufec@lists.ufechicago.org |
|
| OCTOBER 23rd: TOUR DE CHAMPAGNE |
For the fourth year, Tour de Champagne will head to Chicago to delight local wine lovers. Once again this fall, Tour de Champagne will bring together champagne from a variety of prestigious champagne houses like Veuve Clicquot, Bollinger, and Piper Heidsieck; cuisine from some of the city’s most talented chefs and live entertainment. During the evening, guests will also have a chance to peruse a silent auction, which will benefit the Healthy Schools Campaign, and have a chance to win a trip for two to Paris compliments of Air France. VIP ticketholders will enjoy an Après Party with dessert, Cognac and more champagnes... Complete information. |
A celebration of some of finest Champagne France has to offer, paired with culinary treats from the Chicago's finest restaurants
 |
|
MORE EVENTS
Agenda culturel pour la région de Chicago / Cultural Agenda for the Chicago area: LIAISON
Evénements économiques / Economic Events: ECONOMIE/BUSINESS |
September 24-27: Lotus World Music & Arts Festival
Celebration of the beauty and art of cultural diversity. Watcha Clan, an immensely popular group from the south of France, will perform on Friday and saturday . The French group mixes high energy electro pop with musical influences from Africa and Europe. |
 |
 |
September 17th at 7 pm: Gojira with Metallica at Conseco Fieldhouse
Gojira is a French heavy metal band formed in 1996 in Bayonne, France. The band comprises Joe Duplantier on vocals and guitar, his brother Mario Duplantier on drums, Christian Andreu on guitar and Jean-Michel Labadie on bass. Since its formation, Gojira has had no changes in lineup and has numerous studio albums, live album and DVD. The band is known for their environment-related lyrics. For complete information click here. |
|
 |
September 25 - October 1st: Godard Double Feature at the Bijou Theater
Throughout the entire week, patrons can choose to watch both Made in USA and 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her as a double-feature on the same night. |
 |
|
September 28th at 8 pm: The Dø at The Magestic Theater
The Dø is a French-Finnish Paris-based duo formed by musician and soundtrackcomposer Dan Levy and French/Finnish singer Olivia Merilahti. They met while recording the music for the film Empire of the Wolves, and continued to collaborate for the films The Passenger and Camping Sauvage. The Dø’s music can be classified as diverse, incorporating many different genres and styles, including avant-garde noise, hip-hop and classical music. Thus the music could be said to fit into the freak folk-genre.
|
 |
 |
September 18-20 & 25-27: Le silence de Lorna directed by Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne (2008) at the Detroit Film Center
Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) is a young Albanian woman desperate to remain in the Belgian city of Liège. Lorna’s dream is simply to open a modest snack bar together with her boyfriend, but as with everything, there is a price attached. From the brilliant writing-directing team of brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (famed for their Cannes Palme d’Or winners Rosetta and L’Enfant) comes their most emotionally involving, vividly sketched, thoroughly gripping drama to date, featuring a pitch-perfect performance from the superb Arta Dobroshi. Complete information. |
| NOT TO BE MISSED IN OCTOBER |
ANN ARBOR (MI)
Opening October 10 through January 3, 2010: THE LENS OF IMPRESSIONISM: PHOTOGRAPHY AND PAINTING ALONG THE NORMANDY COAST, 1850-1874.
The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) is pleased to announce it will present a landmark exhibition of rare works of art and important new scholarship brought together to explore the provocative relationship between photography and painting along the Normandy coast in mid-19th-century France. |
September 22nd at 8 pm: Phoenix at First Avenue
The French quartet joined the ranks of McCartney, U2, and Coldplay when they were asked to play a third song on a recent SNL and now they're headed back to the U.S. (and Canada) where they'll do a string of shows. |
 |
September 24-27: Global Roots Festival 2009
Cedar presents the 2009 Global Roots Festival. Expanding upon its ten year run of Nordic Roots Festivals, this annual event will now encompass performers from all over the world, each with their own unique take on their "local" music. France will be represented by Watcha Clan. |
 |
Watcha Clan are a fierce posse of musical nomads, their multi-ethnic, multi-groove infusions whip audiences into a dance frenzy, regardless of where in the world W-Clan happen to be on their never-ending tour trail. Along the way they've met talented DJs, fellow musical travelers on dance floor journeys. Friendship and mutual inspiration blossomed,communicated in the languages of dub, ragga, reggae, drum'n'bass and electro, sung to melodies traditional or modern,with arabic and Mediterranean flavorings. Complete information. |
| NOT TO BE MISSED IN OCTOBER |
October 18 through January 10, 2010: Exhibition "THE LOUVRE AND THE MASTERPIECE" at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
This exhibition features works of arts drawn from all eight of the Musée du Louvre's departments, spanning 4,000 years. Organized by the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. |
|
|
 |
Opening September 8th: Le silence de Lorna Directed by Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne (2008) at Tivoli Cinemas
Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) is a young Albanian woman desperate to remain in the Belgian city of Liège. Lorna’s dream is simply to open a modest snack bar together with her boyfriend, but as with everything, there is a price attached. From the brilliant writing-directing team of brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (famed for their Cannes Palme d’Or winners Rosetta and L’Enfant) comes their most emotionally involving, vividly sketched, thoroughly gripping drama to date, featuring a pitch-perfect performance from the superb Arta Dobroshi.
Complete information. |
September 21st: Phoenix at the Slowdown
The French quartet joined the ranks of McCartney, U2, and Coldplay when they were asked to play a third song on a recent SNL and now they're headed back to the U.S. (and Canada) where they'll do a string of shows.
For complete information click here. |
 |
|
September 15th at 7 pm: Gojira with Metallica at the U.S. Bank Arena
Gojira is a French heavy metal band formed in 1996 in Bayonne, France. The band comprises Joe Duplantier on vocals and guitar, his brother Mario Duplantier on drums, Christian Andreu on guitar and Jean-Michel Labadie on bass. Since its formation, Gojira has had no changes in lineup and has numerous studio albums, live album and DVD. The band is known for their environment-related lyrics. Complete information. |
 |
|
| September 26th: The Dø at the Contemporary Arts Center |
 |
MidPoint Music Festival The Dø is a French-Finnish Paris-based duo formed by musician and soundtrackcomposer Dan Levy and French/Finnish singer Olivia Merilahti. They met while recording the music for the film Empire of the Wolves, and continued to collaborate for the films The Passenger and Camping Sauvage. The Dø’s music can be classified as diverse, incorporating many different genres and styles, including avant-garde noise, hip-hop and classical music. Thus the music could be said to fit into the freak folk-genre. The band’s debut record was called A Mouthful and was released in 2008. |
|
 |
September 5-6: And God Created Woman (Et dieu...créa la femme), directed by Roger Vardin (1956)
Roger Vadim’s sultry, sensuous film made Brigitte Bardot a sex symbol and a star and put St. Tropez on the map! Incredibly enough, it has not been available theatrically in the U.S. for many years, so don’t miss this rare opportunity to see it in a 35mm print from France. Bardot plays an amoral young newlywed who takes up with other men after losing interest in her wimpy husband (Jean-Louis Trintignant). Adults only! Thanks to Delphine Selles and Elodie Sobczak, French Cultural Services, New York, and Philippe Chevassu, Tamasa Distribution, Paris. |
 |
September 20th: The Woman in Blue (La femme en bleu), directed by Michel Deville (1973)
A middle-aged man (Michel Piccoli) obsessed with a mysterious woman he spots in a shop one day drops everything to find her again. Even his lover (Lea Massari) helps him search. Unreleased in America, this early film by Michel Deville (Voyage en Douce, Le Lectrice) received its first Ohio showing at the Canton Film Society in October 1981. The story proved haunting and the Schubert music seductive. Thanks to Delphine Selles and Elodie Sobczak, French Cultural Services, New York, and Philippe Chevassu, Tamasa Distribution, Paris. |
 |
September 25 –26 & 27: Le combat dans l'île, directed by Alain Cavalier (1962)
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Romy Schneider, and Henry Serre (Jim in Jules and Jim) star in this never-before-released-in-America New Wave thriller, a major rediscovery! Produced by Louis Malle and set at the time of the polarizing Algerian War, Alain Cavalier’s directorial debut follows the dissatisfied wife of a factory owner as she gravitates away from her mysterious husband (a closeted right-wing militant) toward his sensitive, leftist, bohemian college friend. The beautiful b&w cinematography is by Pierre Lhomme (Army of Shadows ). The title means “The Combat on the Island.” |
|
September 10-November 14: Descent to Revolution at the Bureau of Open Culture
Descent to Revolution features artist collectives and collaboratives that use urban spaces and social spheres as means of production and backdrop. During the course of the exhibition, participating artists visit Columbus in a series of residencies of varying lengths of time to produce projects specific to the urban framework. This production does not take place inside the traditional space of a gallery but in concert with community and physical mediums outside of it. Drawing on the history of postwar collective actions and ideas of French writers and theorists like Jean Baudrillard, Guy Debord and Henri Lefebvre, Descent to Revolution investigates incremental shifts in cultural behaviors stimulated through production of knowledge and conversation, pertinent to contemporary urban contexts. Claire Fontaine is a collective based in Paris. Its readymade name is lifted from the popular French brand of notebooks and school supplies. Claire Fontaine will produce work situated in Columbus and give a talk related to the topic of Jean-François Lyotard’s Libidinal Economy in October (date TBA). Claire Fontaine’s participation and residency was made possible by a grant from Etant-Donnés : The French-American fund for Contemporary Art and the Cutlural Services of the French Embassy. Complete information. |
|
September 17-18 at 7 pm: The Beaches of Agnès, directed by Agnès Varda, 2008 at the Wexner Center for the Arts
Octogenarian French filmmaker Agnès Varda has produced one of the most inventive and lyrical autobiographies ever committed to film in The Beaches of Agnès. |
| A crucial player in postwar French cinema, she is noted for such features as Cleo from 5 to Seven (1962) and was married to another noted director, Jacques Demy (best-known for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg). In The Beaches of Agnès, she grounds her memories in her childhood holidays and wartime exile by the sea, to which she would return in 1954 to shoot her first feature, La pointe courte. Looking back over almost six decades of artistic activity through film clips, photographs, and present-day sequences of her revisiting hallmark locations from her life and career, she presents a lively yet deeply moving meditation on life, loss, and creation. Complete information. |
 |
|
| September 16-19: Sixth Annual Madison World Music Festival |
 |
As in past years, the festival brings extraordinary artists from around the world for free performances, workshops, lectures, and other outreach events. Defying the economic gloom, it offers many opportunities to dance and party as well as enjoy traditional music and marching bands from around the world. Watcha Clan, an immensely popular group from the south of France, will perform on September 19 th . The French group mixes high energy electro pop with musical influences from Africa and Europe. Complete information. |
|
ALLIANCE FRANCAISE DE MILWAUKEE
September 13 from 4-7 pm: Eleventh Annual "Fête du Cercle d'Or Une Guingette à Milwaukee" |
Une Guingette a Milwaukee is being hosted by Mr. Andy Nunemaker at his historic home on Milwaukee's eastside - 2239 North Terrace Avenue - Milwaukee, WI 53202. Enjoy the nostalgic atmosphere of a French guinguette with an evening of French cuisine, wine, dancing and accordian music. A guinguette is an open air cafe and dance hall most popular in Paris in the 1920s. These laid-back establishments have been encapsulated by artists Vincent Van Gogh and Pierre August Renoir.
$125 per person, RSVP by calling Beth at 414-964-3855. |
Bal du moulin de la galette
Auguste Renoir (1876) |
|
| September 18 - October 4: The Barber of Seville at the Skylight Opera Theatre |
| Rossini’s masterpiece, The Barber of Seville, is the lively first installment of Beaumarchais’ much beloved Figaro story. Count Almaviva loves the beautiful Rosina, who is kept a virtual prisoner in the house of her lecherous guardian, Bartolo. Determined to get closer to Rosina, the Count enlists the help of Seville’s most notorious barber, matchmaker, valet, messenger, wigmaker, surgeon, pharmacist, masseur, veterinarian, and general factotum – Figaro, Figaro, Figaro! Masterfully commanding both his razor and his gorgeous shrewdness, |
 |
| Figaro employs tricks and intrigues to help the Count achieve his prize. Luminously crafted, musically ingenious and uproariously hilarious, The Barber of Seville is an energetic tale that shows the meaning of ‘zest for life’ as young love blossoms against the odds. As with all Skylight Opera Theatre productions, this work will be performed in English. Complete information. |
|
 |
September 18-20: Summer Hours (L'heure d'été), directed by Olivier Assayas at the Union Theatre
The divergent paths of three forty-something siblings collide when their mother, heiress to her uncle's exceptional 19th century art collection, dies suddenly. Left to come to terms with themselves and their differences, Adrienne (Juliette Binoche), a successful New York designer, Frederic (Charles Berling), an economist and university professor in Paris, and Jeremie (Jeremie Renier), a dynamic businessman in China, confront the end of childhood, their shared memories, background and unique vision of the future.
Complete information. |
|
24- October 4: 2009 Milwaukee Film Festival
Honoring the French tradition of film-making, the 2009 Milwaukee Film Festival, will screen several French films. |
|
The Alliance Française, whose mission is to share and enjoy the French language and French cultural events, is a community sponsor.
For a schedule of films being screened at the Milwaukee Film Festival which runs September 24- October 4, visit www.milwaukee-film.org. For more about the Alliance Française, see www.afmilwaukee.org. |
|
|
|
