Spring 2008 Film Series

Show times at 4pm and 7pm

January 28 Paris, je t’aime

Coen Brothers, Walter Salles, Gus Van Sant, etc, 200, 120 min.
Rated R

Twenty five-minute personal films about love in Paris by renowned international directors such as Gerard Depardieu, Alexander Payne, and Wes Craven. This lovely crafted picture postcard shows the various atmospheres, lifestyles and neighborhoods of the world’s most romantic city and stars actors such as Willem Dafoe, Juliette Binoche, Nick Nolte, Gena Rowlands, Catalina Moreno, and Natalie Portman.

February 11 The Namesake

Mira Nair (India/USA), 2006, 122 min.
Rated PG 13

The Namesake is the story of the Ganguli family whose move from Calcutta to New York evokes a lifelong balancing act to meld to a new world without forgetting the old. Though parents Ashoke and Ashima long for the family and culture that enveloped them in India, they take great pride in the opportunities their sacrifices have afforded their children. Paradoxically, their son Gogol (Kal Penn) is torn between finding his own unique identity without losing his heritage.

February 18 Killer of Sheep

Charles Burnett (USA), 1977, 83 min. [Black History Month]

Selected by the National Society of Film Critics as one of the 100 Essential Films of all time, Killer of Sheep was rarely seen till now. Depicting the Los Angeles ghetto of Watts through the eyes of a sensitive dreamer numbed by the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse, the movie’s episodic vignettes and evocative soundtrack portray a world of economic exclusion, muted hopes, and moments of transcendent joy.

February 25 Away from Her

Sarah Polly (Canda), 2007, 110.
Not Rated

A happily married couple separate for the first time in nearly 50 years when Fiona (a luminous Julie Christie) is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and enters a nursing home. Fiona appears to forget her marriage when she develops a romance with a fellw patient as her devastated husband watches. Based on the Alice Munro story “The Bear Came over the Mountain.”

March 3 Once

James Carney (Ireland), 2007, 85 min.
Rated R

In this charming musical, and Irish street musician and a Czech street hawker fall in love during a busy week in Dublin as they compose, rehearse and record a series of songs that mirror and are inspired by their burgeoning romance. The actors wrote the tunes they perform in this Sundance-award-winning film.

March 10 Dreaming Lhasa

Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam (UK/India), 2005, 90 min.
Not Rated

Karma, a Tibetan filmmaker from New York, journeys to the Dalai Lama’s exile headquarters in northern India to make a documentary about political prisoners. One of her interviewees is Dhondup, an ex-monk with a mission to fulfill his mother’s dying wish. Karma falls for him, gets drawn into his quest and soon finds herself pulled deeper into India’s exiled Tibetan community in this poignant drama.

March 17 Moolaade

Ousmane Sembene (Senegal/France), 2004, 124 min.
Rated R

The last film of the pioneer of African cinema (who died last year) is about, and against, the custom of female circumcision, practiced in many Muslin lands (although Islamic law forbids it). Does that make you think you do not want to see it? Think again. Moolaade is a wonderful embracing and life-affirming film which celebrates the strength of women in modern day Africa.

March 31 Blame it on Fidel

Julie Gavras (France), 2006, 99 min.
Not Rated

Blame it on Fidel is a charming comedy of manners, class, and politics, elevated by a remarkable performance from lead child actor Nina Kervel. Anna, a 9 year-old girl, grows up during the early 70’s in a quiet, upper middle-class family. Suddenly her life is thrown into chaos when her parents become political activists. Julie Gavras, offspring of famed Greek-born filmmaker Constantin Costa-Gavras, makes an assured feature-directing debut with Blame It on Fidel.

April 7 Border Cafe

Kambuzia Partovi (Iran/France) 2005, 105 min.
Not Rated

A young widow takes over her late husband’s truck stop cafe, keeping hiden in the kitchen so as not to cause a scandal in Iran’s conservative society. But her brother-in-law, out of familial obligation wants to take her as a wife and will stop at nothing to shut the place down.  Like Baghdad Cafe transported to an Iranian border town, this film features vibrant performances and delightful characters, making it one of the most enjoyable and original films to come out of Iran in recent years.

April 14 Army of Shadows

Jean-Pierre Melville (France) 1969, 145 min.
Rated R

Army of Shadows is a classic film about a cadre of Gaullist rebels in their struggle against the Nazi occupation of France. Both Melville and Joseph Kessel, on whose novel the movie is base, were involved with the French Resistance and the film draws heavily from their wartime experiences. Although it was released for the first time in the U.S. in 2006, Army of Shadows was the best reviewed film of that year.

Season Tickets Available

Enjoy this collection of ten international classics for the season ticket price of $20.00. Use your season ticket at either the 4:00pm or 7:00pm show. Tickets purchased at the door are $3.00 per feature ($2.00 for all UL Lafayette students with school ID). Refreshments available at every show. The Bayou Bijou is located in the Student Union at 600 McKinley St.

Deadline for ordering season tickets is Monday, February 11, 2008. To get tickets mail in the Bayou Bijou Order Form with money, stop by the Information Desk in the Student Union between 9:00am-3:30pm Monday thru Thursday or at the door January 28 & February 11. For more information call 337-482-6940.