Bienvenue to NMWA’s French Film Series!

Posted by: Broad Strokes on: March 2, 2012

In: Education | Public Programs
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Mesdames et Messieurs,

In conjunction with Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections, NMWA is excited to present a French-inspired film festival—pour vous!

Look for a new film on the first Sundays of March and April, a double feature on Saturday, May 5, and the last installment Sunday, May 6.

On March 4, passion, intrigue, and betrayal set the scene for Glenn Close and John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons (119 min., Rated R). The film chronicles the paths of love and lust, innocence and manipulation, as everything is risked for love and power in pre-RevolutionaryFrance.

The April 1 film satiates literature fans, with the adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic novel A Tale of Two Cities (128 min., not rated). Traveling from her native England to revolutionary France, Lucie Manette (Elizabeth Allan) ignites the salacious and stealthy scheming of two men in love with her.

“Let them eat cake!” Words spoken by an ill-fated French queen…or were they? Two interpretations will be shown on Saturday, May 5 in a Marie Antoinette double feature. With Norma Shearer in the title role, Marie Antoinette (149 min., not rated) is based in part on a 1933 biography by Stefan Zweig. With addition to lavish sets and costumes, director Sophia Coppola portrays the queen as a teenager unprepared to shoulder the burden of the crown in the 2006 version of Marie Antoinette (123 min., PG-13). Where does history end and myth begin? Join us for one film or both, and decide for yourself!

Concluding the festival on Sunday, May 6, Les Miserables (134 min., PG-13) features Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush in the iconic roles of Jean Valjean and Javert. This celebrated political and familial story is set against the dramatic backdrop of the 1832 French student uprising, the June Rebellion.