French Culture

Blame it on Voltaire, September Cinema at the Maison Française

2010-09-10T19:10:40Z

Blame it on Voltaire (La Faute à Voltaire), Abdellatif Kechiche, 2000, 130 min. A young Tunisian arrives in Paris to look for a better future and adapts to the reality of immigration through various encounters.
September 30, 7:30 pm

Maison Française
Columbia University
Buell Hall, 2nd Floor
515 West 116th Street Mail Code 4990
New York, NY 10027
Phone: 212 854-4482
E-mail: info@maisonfrancaise.org

…………………………………………..

Cinema at the Maison Française: Movies are screened Thursdays at 7:30 pm in the East Gallery, followed by a moderated discussion in French. Attendance is free for members and Columbia University students and faculty, $7 for non-members. Unless indicated otherwise, films are in French with English subtitles.

This event is part of the Conferences and Seminars program at the Maision Française.For fuller descriptions of the events, please visit www.maisonfrancaise.org

Maison Française of Columbia University
Founded in 1913, the Maison Française of Columbia University is the oldest French cultural center established on an American university campus. Unless otherwise indicated, events below will take place at the Maison Française, in Buell Hall at Columbia University.

Boy Meets Girl, September Cinema at the Maison Française

2010-09-10T19:04:30Z

Boy Meets Girl , Leos Carax, 1984, 100 min. Alex and Mireille, two drifting souls, meet on a desperate night in Paris. A reflection on art and fiction in Carax's first film. September 23, 7:30 pm

Maison Française
Columbia University
Buell Hall, 2nd Floor
515 West 116th Street Mail Code 4990
New York, NY 10027
Phone: 212 854-4482
E-mail: info@maisonfrancaise.org

…………………………………………..

This event is part of the Conferences and Seminars program at the Maision Française.For fuller descriptions of the events, please visit www.maisonfrancaise.org

Liberté-Oléron, September Cinema at the Maison Française

2010-09-10T19:01:10Z

Liberté-Oléron , Bruno Podalydès, 2000, 107 min. While on vacation at the beach with his family, Jacques buys a boat out of boredom, which will change the course of the summer. September 16, 7:30 pm

Maison Française
Columbia University
Buell Hall, 2nd Floor
515 West 116th Street Mail Code 4990
New York, NY 10027
Phone: 212 854-4482
E-mail: info@maisonfrancaise.org

…………………………………………..

This event is part of the Conferences and Seminars program at the Maision Française.For fuller descriptions of the events, please visit www.maisonfrancaise.org

Gilles Deleuze et le Cinéma François Dosse

2010-09-10T15:38:39Z

François Dosse is an intellectual historian and professor at the IUFM Créteil, the Institut d'études politiques de Paris, and the Centre d'histoire culturelle des sociétés contemporaines de l'université Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. He is the author of numerous books including a two-volume history of structuralism. His most recent book is Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari: Intersecting Lives, published by Columbia University Press in June 2010. Partial support for this event is provided by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

………………………………………….

Maison Française
Buell Hall, Mail Code 4990
Columbia University
515 West 116th Street
New York, NY 10027

Date: Wednesday, September 22

Time: 4 pm—6 pm

This event is part of Conferences and Seminars program of the Maision Français
The lectures are free and open to the public. For fuller descriptions of the events, please visit www.maisonfrancaise.org

Translating The Second Sex, Conference

2010-09-10T14:58:07Z

Widely regarded as the “Bible of feminism,” Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe (1949) is a complex interdisciplinary analysis of the Western notion of “woman” and the power of sexuality. Newly translated and unabridged in English for the first time, The Second Sex (2010) is as relevant today as it was sixty years ago. In this panel discussion, translators Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier will describe their efforts to render The Second Sex in a manner faithful to its context in existentialist philosophy, their struggle to publish the work, and its reception by the critics.

Conferences and Seminars is a program of the Maision Française
The lectures are free and open to the public. For fuller descriptions of the events, please visit www.maisonfrancaise.org

This event is co-sponsored with the Barnard Center for Translation Studies, the Barnard Center for Research on Women, Columbia Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the Center for Critical Analysis of Social Difference, and the Columbia University Law School, Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. Funding is provided by the Mellon Foundation.

Date: Monday, September 13, 7 pm
Event Location: Event Oval, The Diana Center, Barnard College

School Partnerships and “Appariements”

2010-09-09T19:51:44Z

IF YOUR SCHOOL IS LOCATED IN A STATE OR SCHOOL DISTRICT where American and French educational authorities already have an officially established partnership (Memorandum of Understanding – MOU) or an unofficial partnership (“un rapport privilégié”), then please fill out THIS FORM and send it to the Cultural Services department of YOUR REGIONAL FRENCH CONSULATE. Our offices will forward on your request to the competent authorities based on your school's location and the pre-existing MOU or unofficial partnership:

Existing MOUs

Connecticut – Académie de Toulouse
Delaware –Académie de Créteil
Georgia – Académie de Nancy-Metz
Indiana – Académie de Strasbourg
Kentucky – Académie de Dijon
Louisiana – Académie de Rennes
Maine – Académie de Nantes
Missouri – Académie de Lyon
Nebraska – Académie de Besançon
Ohio – Académie de Rouen
Oklahoma – Académie d'Amiens
South Carolina – Académie de Clermont-Ferrand
Utah – Académie de Grenoble
Washington – Académie de Nantes
Wisconsin – Académies de Bordeaux & Aix-Marseille

Unofficial Partnerships

Chicago Public Schools – Académie de Paris
New York – Académie de Montpellier
Washington, D.C. – Académie de Créteil

IF YOUR SCHOOL IS NOT LOCATED IN AN AMERICAN STATE OR SCHOOL DISTRICT that has a pre-existing partnership with educational authorities in France then there are a number of online resources you can use to find a potential partner school in France (please see the “Useful Links” section below).

You may also fill out THIS FORM and e-mail it back to the Educational Affairs Department of the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. at: scule.washington-amba@diplomatie.gouv.fr. We will do our best to accommodate your request.

Please remember that your request will be sent to France. It usually takes between 2 and 3 months to receive an answer, so please be patient! The benefits of such a partnership are well worth the wait!

What is an “Appariement” ?

An appariement creates an official, state-approved link between an American school and a French school, and can help establish working relationships between the students, teachers and administrators of each school. For example, schools can use the partnership to establish a penpal program for students, encourage the electronic exchange of ideas among teachers and administrators ( by e-mail, video conferencing, etc.), or organize travel exchange programs for students, teachers and/or administrators. “Appariements” often supplement pre-existing partnerships.

Benefits of an “Appariement”:

Facilitates academic and administrative exchanges: penpal programs for students, electronic communication between teachers/administrators, travel to visit partner school, academic exchanges for students, teachers and administrators

Allows the French school to receive regional financial support that is contingent, in part, on the official status of the partnership

Helps alleviate travel insurance problems in case of student or teacher exchanges

Procedure :

1. The French school must send an official “appariement” request to the American school. The request must go through both the French school's Académie (school district) and the French Embassy. The request invites the American school to establish an official partnership with the French school, and asks the American school to confirm its participation by letter.

2. The American school confirms by letter that it is willing to establish an official partnership with the French school, and mails this letter to the French Embassy.

Useful links :

Official texts about “appariements” (in French):
• http://eduscol.education.fr/cid47410/appariements.html

How to find a partner French School:
• http://www.education.gouv.fr/cid1013/un-relais-dans-les-academies-les-dareic.html
• http://www.primlangues.education.fr/php/correspondre_cooperer.php
• http://www.momes.net/amis/groupesamis4.html
• http://www.francparler.info/pa/annonces.php?pa=2
• http://www.franceworld.com/fw3/pa_l.php3?Lang=fr&ta=4&cat=
• http://www.etwinning.fr/index.php?id=27
• Facebook page : French-U.S. Academic Exchanges

True Stories about Successfull School Exchanges
LANCASTER HIGH SCHOOL (Wisconsin, USA) AND THE LYCEE BAUDELAIRE (Roubaix, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France): A STORY OF FRIENDSHIP…

Remarque à l'attention des écoles françaises
à la recherche d'un établissement américain partenaire

SI VOUS RECHERCHEZ UN ETABLISSEMENT PARTENAIRE AUX ETATS-UNIS nous vous recommandons de consulter les informations très complètes mises à disposition par l'ambassade des Etats-Unis à la page.

Nos services peuvent également vous aider à trouver une école américaine partenaire. S'il existe une convention de partenariat éducatif ou des relations privilégiées entre votre académie d'origine et un état ou district scolaire américain, votre demande sera adressée aux autorités compétentes dans l'état ou le district concerné.

S'il n'existe aucune forme d'accord préalable entre votre académie et les autorités éducatives américaines, nous nous efforcerons de répondre à votre demande en utilisant nos réseaux de partenaires locaux.

Dans tous les cas, merci de nous adresser votre demande par courrier électronique accompagnée du formulaire suivant à scule.washington-amba@diplomatie.gouv.fr

Attention, cette démarche est indépendante de la procédure de demande d'appariement qui doit être obligatoirement adressée à nos services par la DAREIC de votre académie d'origine.

Ecoles américaines à la recherche d'un établissement partenaire en France :

Date de
publication
……………………….

Sept 08
2010

Nom de
l'établissement
……………………….

Douglas HS
download pdf

Thomas Jefferson HS
download pdf

Type
d'établissement
……………………….

Public
High School

Lieu
ville / état
……………………….

Douglas,
Massachusetts

Alexandria,
Virginia

Jacques Tati's My Uncle at Film Forum

2010-09-09T14:32:25Z

A new 35mm restoration of My Uncle (1958), a rarely seen alternate version of the Jacques Tati classic Mon Oncle, will run at Film Forum from Wednesday, September 8 through Thursday, September 16 (8 days). Showtimes daily are 1:00, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45 & 10:00. (No screenings on Tuesday, September 14).

"Slapstick Heaven!"
– Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

“Entire sequences appear in one version but not the other, and scenes are shot and edited for different effect… In the end, My Uncle seems as much a gentle rebuke of the English-speaking audience as a friendly gesture toward it. Tati [uses dialogue] here to draw a line of demarcation, another border between the old world and the new, between a waning Europe and an economically emerging United States. For Tati, a supreme visual artist, language is just another part of the image.”
– Dave Kehr, The New York Times

“Unforgettably funny, wonderfully observed, and always technically brilliant. Insane gadgets slam and roar, high heels click like metronomes, and even a depressed dachshund in a tartan overcoat obligingly submits to Tati's meticulous direction.”
– Time Out (London)

Jean-Chirstophe Valtat on Tour

2010-09-09T13:59:32Z

Born in 1968, Jean-Christophe Valtat has published a book of short stories, Album (Léo Scheer, 2003), and two novels for Gallimard: Exes (1997) and 03, (2005), which was published in the USA by Farrar Strauss & Giroux, in June 2010. His latest novel, Aurorarama, written in English, was published by Melville Publishing House in August 2010. Educated in the Ecole Normale Superieure and the Sorbonne, he teaches Comparative Literature in the Blaise Pascal University in Clermont-Ferrand. His field of research includes the relationship between visionary writing andnew technologies.

September 23—September 30, 2010
All events are free and in English.

Aurorama and O3
September 23, 7pm
Jean-Christophe Valtat at NYU with Lorin Stein & Mitzi Angel Jean-Christophe Valtat discusses his novels Aurorarama and 03 with Paris Review editor Lorin Stein and Mitzi Angel, the translator of 03. The Event is at NYU's Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, 58 W. 10th St.

NYU's Lilian Vernon Creative Writers House
58 West 10th St.
New York, NY
212.998.8850
www.newyorkinfrench.net

Aurorarama Launch Party at The Clover Club!
September 24, 7pm
Jean-Christophe Valtat to read, sign and party in celebration of the publication of his new novel Aurorarama at Brooklyn's fabulous Clover Club.

210 Smith St.
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718.855.7939
www.cloverclubny.com

Valtat and Bruce Benderson in Conversation at NYU's Maison Française
September 29, 7pm
Jean-Christophe Valtat will speak about his new novel Aurorarama and the challenges of writing in two languages with Prix de Flore-winning author Bruce Benderson.

NYU Maison Française
16 Washington Mews
NY, New York 10003
212.998.8750
www.nyu.edu

Valtat Thrills McNally Jackson
September 30, 7pm
Jean-Christophe Valtat will give an electrifying reading from his new literary steampunk novel Aurorarama. Wine and cheese to follow.

52 Prince St. (b/t Lafayette & Mulberry)
New York, NY 10012
212.274.1160
mcnallyjackson.com

Bonjour,

2010-09-08T15:30:02Z

September in Houston is well known for storms and bad weather so enjoy the rare sunny days in Hermann Park and take pictures of Bernar Venet sculptures. In order to win the photo contest organized by Houston Center for Photography and the Texan French Alliance for the Arts, send your pictures of your experience of the exhibit before September 30. The photo contest is open to photographers of all ages and skills, see details of for participation on this page. See you in the park!

Then stop by the MFAH and admire the amazing exhibit about German impressionism. The exhibit called "A Variation of Impressionism" features three major German Impressionists landscape painters influenced by French impressionism: Liebermann, Corinth and Slevogt. The museum offers commented tours, see MFAH website's for more information.

“Tales of Hoffmann” the last creation of Opera in the Heights, is one of the most famous French opera in the world. This action-packed opera was written by Jacques Offenbach and is sung in French. To know more click here

Last but not least for those who will have the opportunity to be in Paris this fall, don't miss out the Mercury Baroque's debut in France. For the first time the famous Texan orchestra will present 5 performances of Armide at Théâtre de Gennevilliers. The revival of this Lully's masterpiece is the product of the encounter between Pascal Rambert, French stage director and Antoine Plante, Mercury Baroque artistic director.

Dominique Chastres, Cultural Attaché in Houston for three years returned to Paris and will be replaced by Patrice Vanoni.

Join us on our social network TexasInFrench.

Le Service Culturel

Spatial City: An Architecture of Idealism

2010-09-08T00:46:46Z

DETROIT—MOCAD is pleased to announce that Spatial City: An Architecture of Idealism, a major touring exhibition of contemporary art drawn from the French Regional Contemporary Art Funds (Frac), will open on Friday, September 10, 2010 and will remain on view through December 30, 2010. Spatial City brings together an international, multi-generational array of artists—with an emphasis on artists living in France—whose work contends with idealism, utopian thinking and, in counterpoint, the cynicism that follows failed revolution and the retreat of optimism in the face of pragmatic reality.

This is the first exhibition of the Frac collections in the United States, and it will tour the Midwest throughout 2010. Curator Nicholas Frank (Inova, Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) originated the concept and exhibition. Participating curators are Allison Peters Quinn (Hyde Park Art Center), Luis Croquer (Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit - MOCAD), Eva González-Sancho (Frac Bourgogne), Yannick Miloux (Frac Limousin) and Marie-Cécile Burnichon (Platform- (Regroupement des Fonds régionaux d'art contemporain – the association of the Frac). The project and tour were developed in partnership with Platform and Polly Morris (formerly of Inova) and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.

About the Exhibition
Spatial City is an art exhibition inspired by the theoretical architecture of Yona Friedman. Friedman's ideas, disseminated in the aftermath of World War II, have influenced subsequent generations. French thinkers and conceptual artists have responded to his designs as philosophical constructs worthy of exploration, explication and confrontation. While Yona Friedman's “utopia réalisable” informed the framework of the show, the selection of artwork reflects the cycling and recycling of optimism and cynicism in postwar culture. Artists in the exhibition are responding to society's complex problems: the failed utopian social experiments that resulted in the dehumanizing conditions of Brutalist architecture, the rise and fall of totalitarian states, the tensions resulting from post-colonial immigration, and the destruction of the environment in the name of progress.

“Spatial City is a show about idealism,” according to Nicholas Frank. “If idealism can be seen as having a structure—an architecture, because it is a made thing—we can imagine it as a more or less dialectical engine moving between poles of optimism and cynicism. Architecture informs this exhibition not as a practice but as a way of regarding the world.” He continues, "Spatial City's potential will be fully realized in Detroit where Luis Croquer will expand on the exhibition's themes and ideas. Detroit, like Milwaukee and Chicago, is a Midwestern city struggling to sustain hope for its future during very difficult times, and it provides a potent background for the work in this exhibition and the ideas it explores.”

Works in the exhibition are drawn from the following Frac collections : Alsace, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Basse-Normandie, Bourgogne, Bretagne, Centre, Champagne-Ardenne, Corse, Franche-Comté, Haute-Normandie, Ile-de-France/Le Plateau, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Lorraine, Nord-Pas de Calais, Pays de la Loire, Poitou-Charentes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Réunion, and Institut d'art contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes.

There will be a catalog to accompany the exhibition, edited by Polly Morris with Marie-Cécile Burnichon. The catalog will feature photos from each institution's installation, along with critical essays, artist biographies and checklists of the work in the exhibition.

French Language Proficiency Test!

2010-09-07T22:27:22Z

Are you looking for an official assessment of your proficiency in French? If so, then consider taking the DELF-DALF exam! Eight testing centers are now open in the U.S. The next testing session is in December 2010.

The DELF and DALF are diplomas awarded by the French Ministry of Education to attest to the French-language skills of non-French candidates. Language skills are evaluated according to the Council of Europe' s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The test taker is issued the diploma that corresponds to his or her language level: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 or C2.

Please note that holders of the DELF B2 or DALF diplomas are exempt from language entrance examinations for French universities.

Please visit the CIEP's website, to find out more information about the DELF-DALF diplomas.

The DELF-DALF exams are available in the following testing centers:

ATLANTA, GA: Alliance Française
BOSTON, MA: French Cultural Center - Alliance Française
CHICAGO, IL: Alliance Française
NEW YORK,NY: French Institute - Alliance Française de New York (FIAF)
PASADENA, CA: Alliance Française
PHILADELPHIA, PA: Rosemont College
PORTLAND, OR: The Gilkey International Middle School
SAN FRANCISCO, CA: Alliance Française

For complete contact information, please visit: www.ciep.fr