February 1: Chocolat / Claire Denis / 1988 / 109 min

Introduction: Joshua Schreier (Vassar College, Department of History)

Respondent: Matthew Amos (Bard College, French Studies)

Based on Denis’s childhood, Chocolat is told through the eyes of a French officer’s daughter in a remote part of Cameroon. After surviving a plane crash in this remote location, a group of colonial administrators and entrepreneurs expose the many tensions underlying the family’s outwardly sleepy existence. As hushed and languid as the plains of Cameroon, the film is full of searing portraits of colonial life.

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This Tournées Film Festival is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S., the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC), the French American Cultural Fund, Florence Gould Foundation and Highbrow Entertainment. This festival is also supported by a generous Humanities New York Action Grant (humanitiesny.org).

The festival is cosponsored by the Department of Film, the Women’s Studies and International Studies Programs, the Dean of Faculty and the VSA French Club.

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