The Seventh Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival, presented by TV5MONDE, celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1930s through the 1990s, offering a comprehensive overview of French cinema.
The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations. This year features recent restorations of eight works, including an extended director’s cut of Patrice Chéreau’s historical epic “Queen Margot”; a New York-set film noir (“Two Men in Manhattan”) by crime-film maestro Jean-Pierre Melville, who also co-stars; a short feature (“A Day in the Country”) by Jean Renoir, on a double bill with the 2006 restoration of his masterpiece, “The Rules of the Game”; and the wild comic adventure “That Man from Rio” with New Wave icon Jean-Paul Belmondo and the tragically short-lived Françoise Dorléac. The fest also features a quartet of other newly restored films – Robert Bresson’s “A Man Escaped,” Leos Carax’s “Boy Meets Girl,” Eric Rohmer’s “A Tale of Winter,” and Jacques Tati’s “Mon Oncle” – and the 2002 restoration of Jean Cocteau’s timeless version of “Beauty and the Beast.”
Seventh Annual Classic Robert French Film Festival
Presented by TV5MONDE
Sponsored by Jane M. & Bruce P. Robert Charitable Foundation
A co-production of Cinema St. Louis and Webster University Film Series
When: March 13-15, 20-22, and 27-29
Where: Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium, 470 E. Lockwood Ave.
How much: $12 general admission; $10 for students, Cinema St. Louis members, and Alliance Française members; free for Webster U. students
More info: www.cinemastlouis.org, 314-289-4150
Every program features introductions and discussions by film scholars and critics. The discussions will place the works in the contexts of both film and French history and provide close analyses. All films are in French with English subtitles. For descriptions of each film, visit www.cinemastlouis.org.
The Festival opens this evening with Beauty & The Beast. All Films have been added to the MOMMA calendar which can be found in the footer of this website.
7:30 P.M. FRIDAY, MARCH 13
Beauty and the Beast/La Belle et la Bête
Jean Cocteau, 1946, 93 min., B&W, 2002 restoration
With Andrew Wyatt, film critic for St. Louis Magazine’s Look/Listen arts-and-entertainment blog
