Princeton French Film Festival | Why French Cinema? Masterclass

As part of the second edition of the Princeton French Film Festival, you’re invited to an exceptional masterclass led by one of the most prominent film critic of our times.

A Princeton alumnus (class of 1980), Richard Brody began writing for The New Yorker in 1999 and has contributed articles about the directors Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and Wes Anderson. Since 2005, he has been the movie-listings editor at the magazine; he writes film reviews and a blog about movies. He is the author of the book Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard and is at work on a book about the lasting influence of the French New Wave. You can read Brody’s article on his page on The New Yorker.

The French cinema has an international status far greater than its commercial one, because the French cinema symbolizes the idea—or the ideal—of the cinema as an art. The French New Wave embodied that notion in the form of a movement that seemed almost like the cinematic equivalent of a political revolution. But that movement is now more than sixty years old—half the distance from today to the birth of movies—and its luminaries have all passed away, yet its films and its personalities retain a great measure of power and influence. To what extent does the history of French cinema still feel contemporary and necessary, what aspects of its current-day productions extend that history, why does the French cinema (whether its realities or its myths) continue to inspire filmmakers and critics internationally? And, for that matter, what is French about the French cinema? (written by Richard Brody)

Free and open to everyone upon registration, this event will take place on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 12:00 PM in Princeton University’s East Pyne 010 Room located in East Pyne Hall (downstairs).

Check out the Festival’s whole schedule on our website.

Sponsored by:
Princeton University: Graduate Student Government Board; Department of French & Italian, Department of African American Studies; Campus Conversation on Identity; Gender + Sexuality Resource Center; Center for Collaborative History; Department of English; Lewis Center for the Arts; Program in Contemporary European Politics & Society; Department of Art & Archeology; Princeton Center for Language Study; Forbes College; Department of Comparative Literature; Department of Music; Davis International Center . Cultural institutions: Princeton French Center for Excellence; Albertine Cinémathèque (a program of FACE Foundation and Villa Albertine, with support from the CNC / Centre National du Cinema, and SACEM / Fonds Culturel Franco-Américain); Délégation Générale du Québec à New York; Princeton Accueil. Educational institutions: French American School of Princeton; The Lawrenceville School (Language Department); Alliance Française de Princeton