The Cultural Services of the French Embassy are pleased to announce the French Film Series “Once Upon a Time: From Books to Movies.” Classic tales from France come to the big screen through the eyes of French directors, from master Jean Renoir to contemporary voice Christophe Honoré.
June 13 | 7:00 p.m
Embassy of France – La Maison Française
Beauty and the Beast/La Belle et la Bête
by Jean Cocteau
1946 – France – 75 min
The only gift the daughter of a rich merchant asks from her father, when he returns from a long journey, is a red rose. Her sisters laugh at her, but once this unexpected wish is granted, everything becomes enchanting. A man is changed into a beast, the house has spells cast upon it, and, in the end, Prince Charming appears to delight Beauty.
In French with English subtitles.
Online registration is required for this free admission screening.
June 27 | 7:00 p.m
Embassy of France – La Maison Française
Sophie’s Misfortunes/Les Malheurs de Sophie
by Christophe Honoré
2015 – France – 144 min
From her castle, young Sophie can’t resist the temptation of the forbidden and what she loves most of all is to get up to no-good with her cousin Paul. When her parents decide to go to America, Sophie is delighted. A year later, she’s back in France with her horrible stepmother, Madame Fichini.
But Sophie will be able to count on her two friends, model little girls, and their mother, Madame de Fleurville to escape from her stepmother’s clutches.
In French with English subtitles
Online registration is required for this free admission screening.
July 11 | 7:00 p.m
Embassy of France – La Maison Française
The Human Beast/La Bête Humaine
by Jean Renoir
1938 – France – 96 min
Based on the classic Émile Zola novel, Jean Renoir’s La bête humaine was one of the legendary director’s greatest popular successes—and earned star Jean Gabin a permanent place in the hearts of his countrymen. Part poetic realism, part film noir, the film is a hard-boiled and suspenseful journey into the tormented psyche of a workingman.
In French with English subtitles.
Online registration is required for this free admission screening.
July 25 | 7:00 p.m
Embassy of France – La Maison Française
The Horseman on the Roof/Le Hussard sur le toit
by Jean-Paul Rappeneau
1995 – France – 135 min
Angelo, the handsome Italian officer with a face like an angel, runs along the alleyways and across the sun-beaten rooftops, gallops down the sunken trails of the fields. Towards what? For what? The story takes place in 1832 during a cholera epidemic that has laid waste to Provence, leaving a mass of corpses with blue, hideously grimacing faces in its wake. Yet Angelo finds time to tend to the innocent victims with his last reserves of energy. He also finds time to love, calmly and serenely, the young Pauline de Théus, who is looking for a mysterious husband who may already be dead…
In French with English subtitles.
Online registration is required for this free admission screening.