Public Events Sponsored by the France Chicago Center

January 7 through March 23

Smart Museum of Art
5550 S. Greenwood
Museum location and hours

Art Exhibition

LOOKING AND LISTENING IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE

The experience of looking or listening is not historically constant, but rather varies with social settings, technologies, and trends. During the nineteenth century, the habits and fashions associated with looking and listening changed rapidly. The proliferation of mechanically reproduced images (and later, recorded sound); the rise of museums, galleries, and concert halls; and the burgeoning science of psychology all transformed how people encountered the arts. Further, they altered how artists sought to capture the attention of their viewers and listeners. Incorporating a mix of works from the Smart Museum’s collection and selected loans, this exhibition combines prints, paintings, drawings, sculptures, as well as music from nineteenth-century France.

Curators: Martha Ward and Anne Leonard.

January 8

7:00 pm

Max Palevsky Cinema
Ida Noyes Hall
1212 E. 59th St

Admission: $5
Quarter Pass: $26

Film Screening

LOLA
Jacques Demy, 1961, 90min

Demy's debut inexplicably remains a neglected masterpiece of the French New Wave, but it stands up with the best of early Godard and Truffaut, and has more polish and lyricism than either typically displayed. Anouk Aimée plays the title character, a cabaret dancer and single mother in Nantes. While she waits for her child's father to return, she attracts the attention of a bored young man (Marc Michel) and an American sailor (Alan Scott). Demy dedicated his "musical without music" to Max Ophüls, whose Lola Montès, along with von Sternberg's The Blue Angel, is a clear inspiration.

January 14

4:30 pm
SSRB #122
1126 E. 59th St.

Public Lecture

JOSHUA LANDY
(Professor of French & Italian, Stanford)

"Literature, Narrativity, and the Self"

Part of the John U. Nef Lecture Series organized by the Committee on Social Thought

January 15

7:00 pm

Max Palevsky Cinema
Ida Noyes Hall
1212 E. 59th St

Admission: $5
Quarter Pass: $26

Film Screening

THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG
Jacques Demy, 1964, 91min.

This hauntingly beautiful melodrama was Demy's first experiment in "film opera." The dialogue is sung to the gorgeous jazz score of frequent collaborator Michel Legrand. Catherine Deneuve stars as Geneviève, a teenager whose mother owns an umbrella shop in coastal France. After her auto mechanic boyfriend Guy is drafted to fight in the Algerian War, Geneviève discovers she is pregnant. The film made an international star of Deneuve, and the song "I Will Wait For You" has since become a standard. Umbrellas was recently restored, enhancing Jean Rabier's vibrant cinematography.

January 18

4:00 pm
SSRB, room 302
1126 E. 59th St

Modern France Workshop

THOMAS CHRISTENSEN
(Professor, Dept. of Music, Chicago)

"The Sound World of Father Mersenne"

January 28

3:00 pm

Gleacher Center
Room 240
450 N. Cityfront Plaza

Workshop-style discussion of two papers

Organized by the Developmental Psychology Group

STANISLAS DEHAENE
(Collège de France)

"Cultural Recycling of Cortical Maps" and "Distinct Cerebral Pathways for Object Identity and Number in Human Infants"

Contact fcc@uchicago.edu for copies of the readings. Professor Dehaene’s visit to Chicago is made possible with the support from the Florence Gould Foundation.

January 29

4:00 pm
Harper 140
1116 E. 59th St

Organized by the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience

TBA

Professor Dehaene's visit to Chicago is made possible with the support from the Florence Gould Foundation.

January 29

7:00 pm

Max Palevsky Cinema
Ida Noyes Hall
1212 E. 59th St

Admission: $5
Quarter Pass: $26

Film Screening

MODEL SHOP
Jacques Demy, 1969, 90 min.

Demy's only American film ambitiously addresses the anxieties of American youth at the end of the '60s. Gary Lockwood stars as George, a confused young man who's just quit his job and knows that he'll inevitably be drafted. He falls for a mysterious French model named Lola (Anouk Aimée, reprising her role from Demy's first film). Aimée's performance is perhaps even richer here than in Lola, but the true star is the city of Los Angeles. Demy superbly captures the grittiness and poetry of the city, which led the film to be a perfect subject for Thom Anderson's essay film Los Angeles Plays Itself.

January 30

12 noon
TBA

Brown Bag Lunch

Organized by the Department of Psychology

STANISLAS DEHAENE
(Collège de France)

TBA

Professor Dehaene's visit to Chicago is made possible with the support from the Florence Gould Foundation.

January 31

3:30 pm
TBA

Public Lecture

STANISLAS DEHAENE
(Collège de France)

"Symbol Grounding: How the Acquisition of Symbols Affects Numerical Cognition"

Professor Dehaene’s visit to Chicago is made possible with the support from the Florence Gould Foundation.

February 1

4:00 pm
SSRB, room 302
1126 E. 59th St

Modern France Workshop

CAROLINE WEBER
(Barnard College, French Literature)

"What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution."

February 5

12:00-1:20
SS 224
(The John Hope Franklin Room)
1126 E. 59th St

Lunch Lecture

Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to fcc@uchicago.edu if you will be attending.

SISTER REPUBLICS? TRANS-ATLANTIC CONTEXTS OF JACOBIN REVOLUTION IN FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES

featuring papers presented by Matthew Hale (Assistant Professor, Goucher College) and Allan Potofsky (Maître de Conférences, Université de Paris). Discussion to follow.

PAUL CHENEY
(Department of History, Chicago)

"Barnave, L'affaire des Colonies and the Constitutional Monarchy"

(a joint session of the Modern France and Political Theory Workshops)

February 12

7:00 pm

Max Palevsky Cinema
Ida Noyes Hall
1212 E. 59th St

Admission: $5
Quarter Pass: $26

Film Screening

M. HULOT'S HOLIDAY
Jacques Tati, 1953, 86 min

Tati introduced his trademark pipe-smoking persona M. Hulot in this charmingly simple story. The relatively plotless film finds the bumbling Hulot falling into a series of mishaps as he vacations by the sea. Tati's innovative use of sound keeps the movie's dialogue minimal, instead relying on a collage of repeated noises as funny as the masterful slapstick visual gags. He would further refine this technique in subsequent films, particularly Playtime. Even from his first appearance, it's clear that Hulot ranks easily alongside Chaplin's Little Tramp as one of film's greatest comedic characters.

February 15

9:00 am -5:30 pm
Classics 110
1010 E. 59th St.

Conference

RELIGION IN FRENCH LITERATURE AND HISTORY

Keynote lecture by Denis Crouzet (Paris IV-Sorbonne), with papers presented by Brian Sandberg (Department of History, Northern Illinois University), Erik Thomson (Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, U of C), Rebecca Zorach (Art History, U of C), Ellen McClure (Department of Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, University of Illinois, Chicago), Craig Carson (Society of Fellows, University of Chicago), Sanja Perovic (Department of Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, University of Illinois, Chicago), Charly Coleman (Department of History, Washington University, St. Louis) and Tili Boon Cuillé (Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Washington University, St. Louis)

MON ONCLE
Jacques Tati, 1958, 110 min

The Hulot character returns in Tati's rather dark examination of life in suburban Paris, though in a somewhat more peripheral role. Hulot and his adoring nephew have trouble adjusting to the conveniences of a modern household, which consist mainly of gadgets that serve more to show off than to improve life. Hulot's relatives meanwhile try to set him up with a job and a woman, but the lovable character fails to live up to their hopes. Though the satire is pointed and unmistakable, Mon Oncle remains a very funny movie, filled with even more elaborate sight gags than in Hulot's holiday jaunt.

February 19

Application Deadline

More information at http://sitg.uchicago.edu.

For University of Chicago undergraduates planning to apply for the following Summer International Travel Grants, which can be used to study language or conduct research in France:

• Square D Travel Grant
• Foreign Language Acquisition Grant (FLAG)
• Third Year International Travel Grant
• The F. Champion Ward Travel Grant

February 22

4:00 pm
SSRB, room 302
1126 E. 59th St

Modern France Workshop

Lunch provided.

VÉRONIQUE SIGU
(PhD Candidate, RLL)

"Le Roman médiéval dans la Bibliothèque universelle des romans (1775-1789)"

February 26

7:00 pm

Max Palevsky Cinema
Ida Noyes Hall
1212 E. 59th St

Admission: $5
Quarter Pass: $26

Film Screening

PLAYTIME
Jacques Tati, 1967, 126 min

Where Mon oncle addresses dehumanization in suburbia, Playtime paints a nightmarish vision of the modern city with its ultra-sleek yet soulless glass architecture and its American-style consumerism. The ever charming Hulot gets lost within the elaborate set pieces of office buildings, department stores, and restaurants. Tati's exquisitely detailed compositions, originally shot on 70mm film, beg to be seen on the big screen. The film took three years to complete and ultimately disappointed financially. All the same, Playtime is not only Jacques Tati's masterpiece, but perhaps the greatest film ever made.

February 29

1:30 pm
Wieboldt 207
1050 E. 59th St.

Remarks / Reading / Discussion

DOMINIQUE FABRE
Prize-winning writer, author of Ma vie d'Edgar, Fantômes, and Moi aussi un jour j'irai loin.

February 29

4:00 pm
SSRB, room 302
1126 E. 59th St

Modern France Workshop

MIREILLE DOBRZYNSKI
(PhD Candidate, RLL)

"Eric Rohmer and the moralist contract"

March 4

7:00 pm

Max Palevsky Cinema
Ida Noyes Hall
1212 E. 59th St

Admission: $5
Quarter Pass: $26

Film Screening

TRAFIC
Jacques Tati, 1971, 96 min

Monsieur Hulot makes his final appearance in this underseen film, where he attempts to drive a prototype car from Paris to an auto show in Amsterdam. Tati again masterfully blends satire with perfectly choreographed slapstick gags in his critique of our car-obsessed culture. Designed to be more accessible than Playtime in order to rescue Tati financially, Trafic still failed to find an audience. Yet despite the cynicism about the madness of the modern world and despite Tati's personal misfortunes, to the end, Monsieur Hulot remains undeterred, optimistic, and charming as ever.

March 11

7:00 pm

Max Palevsky Cinema
Ida Noyes Hall
1212 E. 59th St

Admission: $5
Quarter Pass: $26

Film Screening

PARADE
Jacques Tati, 1974, 84 min

Tati's final feature, essentially a concert documentary of circus acts with Tati himself as emcee, is his least characteristic and his least-seen film. Shot on video for Swedish television, it's easy to dismiss Parade as slight – which is exactly what most critics have done for decades. Yet that assessment ignores all the subtle complexities of Tati's swan song, which serves as a poignant summation of his career. For in an oeuvre largely about the struggle to remain human in the modern world, to what better place could he lead us to recover our humanity than the whimsically childish circus?

March 14

4:00 pm
SSRB, room 302
1126 E. 59th St

Modern France Workshop

HEDY LAW
(Society of Fellows, Chicago)

"Tout, dans ses charmes, est dangereux: Gesture and Seduction in Grétry’s Céphale et Procris (1773)"

March 17

2:00 pm to
6:30 pm
TBA

Conference

THE DIGITAL ENCYCLOPÉDIE
Jacques Tati, 1971, 96 min

Introduction by Robert Morrissey, with talks given by: Martine Groult, Pierre Caye, and Serge Trottein (all of research group Théories et Histoire de l'Esthétique, du Technique et des Arts at the CNRS), and by Mark Olsen (ARTFL, University of Chicago)