McDaniel College presents French Film Festival
Colleen McCarrick
Staff Reporter
From its mysterious opening scene to the buried secrets eventually revealed at the end, the thriller Ne Le Dis A Persoone/Tell No One kept the audience on the edge of its seat for its entirety. The film was a suspenseful and mysterious story that teased the intellect, shocked the senses, intrigued the mind, and offered astonishing answers?all in the French language.
The showing of Ne Le Dis A Personne/Tell No One marked the opening of the McDaniel College’s second annual Tourn?es Festival. Tell No One is just one of the five French films that will be showing over the course of the next three weeks.
Tell No One begins with a scene from a secluded lake where Alex’s childhood sweetheart and recent wife, Margot, is brutally murdered. Eight years pass and Alex receives an anonymous email: when he clicks on the inserted link, he sees a woman’s face standing in the crowd, being filmed live. Alex is in shock: he is looking at Margot’s face. The message warns “Tell no one. They ‘re watching.” When two more corpses are unearthed at the lake Alex finds himself on the run, both from the police and from a group of killers. Alex is desperate to uncover the secrets and find out if his wife is really still alive.
For those students who haven’t seen many foreign movies, Tell No One came as quite a surprise. McDaniel freshman Eddie Ezekiel enjoyed the movie immensely: “I haven’t watched any French movies before but it was certainly a good strong film by itself, whether it was in French or not.”
Students agreed that the film combined a perfect balance of suspense, mystery and action.
This is Dr. Motard-Noar’s second year organizing the Tourn?es Festival on campus. Last summer, McDaniel faculty came to Motard-Noar and encouraged her to apply for a grant through the French government to showcase several French movies. Motard-Noar eagerly applied and voilia the grant was accepted.
The Tourn?es Festival is a program of FACE (French American Cultural Exchange) which is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture. The grant from FACE covers the copyright and legal fees for the presentation of five French films.
This years’ Tourn?es Festival introduces notable French films such as Tell No One, Persepolis, Inside Paris, Franz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work, and Blame It On Fidel. Motard-Noar said she tried to “choose films that have a balanced program?not just all thrillers or all romances.”
The selection of films covers a variety of genres and appeals to different sections of campus. The Festival will showcase dramas, thrillers, an animated cartoon film and a documentary.
The Film Festival is open to all McDaniel students as well as the Westminster community. Among the fifty or so audience members at Tuesday’s showing, Motard-Noar said she recognized several people from the community who have taken advantage of this opportunity. The Tourn?es Festival has also been advertised in several of the Carroll County schools so that teachers are invited to bring their students to this event.
The event offers a unique and valuable opportunity for French students to immerse themselves in the French language and culture outside of the classroom. Motard-Noar greatly encourages her students to attend so they can experience for themselves the wonder of the French cinema. After all, it just like going to a cinema in Paris!
But for most students, watching an entire movie in French can certainly be a bewildering experience. But thanks to English subtitles, non-French speaking students can enjoy the film too. Most students found that watching the film with subtitles was an easy task.
“It didn’t bother me at all. Even with the subtitles I didn’t have trouble concentrating,” said McDaniel freshman Lauren Hamby.
Eddie Ezekiel thought felt “a little disconnected from the movie” but agreed that overall the language barrier did not lessen the movie experience.
Motard-Noar thinks that some students come to the film intrigued simply because they have never seen a foreign film before. “I hope students come because they are looking for a new experience, something they have never had before,” said Dr. Motard-Noar. The Tourn?es Festival offers the chance for all students to expand the study of French culture and language.