The 22 Annual Festival of French and Francophone cinema is back, exploring how movies tell us stories from epic to profoundly personal, bittersweet comedy to Greek tragedy. This year we have an exciting line-up of nine films, ranging from a 1928 silent movie accompanied by pianist Patrick Miller to the newly released film Antigone on Saturday Closing Night. Please join us then for a reception and a chance to meet the lead actor, Nahéma Ricci, who will lead a Q&A after the film!
—Karen Humphreys, Festival Director

Sunday, April 3, 2:00 pm
Le Mystère de la Tour Eiffel (The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower)
Julien Duvivier | France | 1928 | 129 min.
Getting the chance to see a silent French film from 1928 in a cinema is as rare as a rainbow in snow, especially accompanied by pianist Patrick Miller of The Hartt School. His music transports the audience to a different place and time. German surrealistic horror films of the 1920s strongly influenced director Julien Duvivier (Pépé le Moko, Un Carnet de Bal). Le Mystère features a circus worker cheated out of his inheritance by his doppelganger. But the thief is plagued by an ominous black hooded sect, culminating with a nail-biting pursuit on the Eiffel Tower—a mere 40 years old in an ancient city. “All stories are more or less fairytales, and removing speech makes everything more universal.” —Filmmaker Guy Maddin

Sunday, April 3, 7:30 pm
Les Diaboliques (Diabolique)
Henri-Georges Clouzot | France | 1955 | 117 min.
Now recognized as one of the greatest directors of the
1950s, Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Raven, Quai des Orfevres, The Wages of Fear) was vilified for telling stories about an unpredictable world where anyone can murder under the right circumstances. Based on the novel by Pierre Boileau and inspired by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock,
the film looks at the murky loyalties at a decrepit boarding school owned by a frail Venezuelan woman named Christina (Vera Clouzot). Her husband is the Headmaster, who not only bullies Christina and the students but is having an affair with a teacher (played by the legendary Simone Signoret.) The
two women come together to plan his murder, but even the best plans go wrong. “This icily brilliant suspense thriller...is satisfying, elegant and nasty.” —Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian