French Film Series: A Way with Words

February 18        La tête en friche (My Afternoons with Margueritte)

Adapted from Marie Sabin-Rogers’ novel of the same name, this charming comedy looks at the unlikely bond between the illiterate Germain and the 95-year-old woman Margueritte, whom he meets on a park bench in a small French town.

Germain’s rocky relationship with his aging mother and his lack of  education are formidible hurdles, but he has a hunger for knowledge that the  cultured and articulate Margueritte is eager to feed.

March 19            Le prénom (What's in a Name?)

Vincent, a successful forty-something, is about to become a father for the first time. He is invited to dinner at the charming apartment of his sister, Elisabeth, and brother-in-law, Pierre, where he catches up with his childhood friend, Claude. Whilst waiting for Anna, his younger spouse who is always running late, his fellow guests happily bombard him with questions on his fast approaching fatherhood... But when his hosts ask Vincent what name he has chosen for his future offspring, his response plunges the family into chaos.

April 10              Quay d'Orsay (The French Minister)

Arthur was recently hired by the imperiously named, high-ranking diplomat Alexandre Taillard de Worms, a man who speaks in orotund outbursts. These thickets of words, which grow more hilarious and nonsensical as the film progresses, combine egregious clichés, lofty quotations from the sages of ancient Greece, and impenetrable bureaucrat-speak.

As Arthur scrambles to figure out just what, exactly, his highly capricious boss wants from him, he must also contend with the petty office squabbling of his territorial colleagues and their bids for power; mean-while, the overweening Alexandre quite literally creates chaos wherever he goes.

 —Kenji Fujishima, Slant Magazine

May 2                  Le brio

Neïla Salah grew up in Creteil, and dreamed of becoming a lawyer. Enrolled at the renowned Assas Law School in Paris, on her first day she runs up against Pierre Mazard, a professor known for his provocative behavior and misconduct.

To redeem himself, he agrees to prep Neïla for a prestigious public speaking contest. Cynical and demanding, Pierre might become the mentor she needs... But to do that, both of them will have to rise above their prejudices.