Travelling through cinema
Though the organisers had faced a number of obstacles in making the festival a reality, the effort finally paid off.
“We were not sure about the venue till yesterday but finally everything worked out,” said Deirdre Fernandes Dominic, Head, Department of French. She along with the students had reached a consensus about the theme of the festival ‘Family’ and had decided on the movies together. “French cinema is one of the courses in the module. So we thought why not have an event on it,” said Deirdre.
Journee Cinema, started out with a talk by movie critic Raghavendra on world cinema in general and on French cinema.
“He mentioned details about the history of cinema and how it is divided in Russian, German, Japanese and French cinema. Since people are reading less now, movies have become a good medium to tell stories,” said Richa Tomar, a student of French from the college.
The first movie of the day was C.R.A.Z.Y, a 2005 French-language Canadian film directed and co-written by Jean-Marc Vallée. The movie was the sensitive yet very entertaining story of Zachary Beaulieu (Marc-André Grondin), the second youngest son of a family with five sons.
The story follows the life of Zachary from the time he was a young boy and only
beginning to realise his homosexual tendencies till the point his orthodox father finally accepts him as a gay man. It spoke of many issues like drug addiction, self-identity and homosexuality.
But more than anything else, it is about family and the strong bond that joins them. The movie kept everyone glued to their seats and there were often bouts of uncontrollable laughter in the auditorium.
The movie ended with a thundering applause from the students. The next movie screened was Persepolis, a 2007 French animated film which spoke of the journey of a young girl against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The next was Conte de Noel, a film about a dysfunctional family which gathers together for Christmas only to learn that the mother has leukemia.
The last movie to be screened was La Cage aux Folles, which was also remade as Birdcage in English.
The comedy was about a gay couple and the farcial adventures that they encounter when their son brings home his fiancée’s ultra-conservative parents to meet them.
The festival was a hit among the students. “I usually catch international movies in ‘World Movies’ on TV and enjoyed these screenings a lot,” said Shalini Raja, a student of Mount Carmel College.