Art Event #8

"French Cinema"
DATE & PLACE VIEWED: Tuesday April 16, 2009 in Arts 240 at 6PM

Dr. Remi-Fournier Lanzoni was the lecturer at this event. He was the author of "From Crime Scene to Popular Screen: The Millieu in the Cinema of Henri Verneuil". This event's schedule included a lecture for about an hour, from about 6-7PM, and then a screening of the French thriller film, "Tell No One". During the first part, Dr. Remi-Fournier Lanzoni went through a powerpoint about all the various aspects of French cinema. He mentioned a lot about the use of chiaroscuro, especially in crime cinema. Dramatic lighting was utilized, especially in the film noir type plots. The lecture was more of an exploration of film noir genres through the years, as well as a touch on other genres that aren't really "film noir", but are more of tributes to that particular genre. Different genres altogether, may still include elements of film noir, but are not classified in that film genre category.

During the second part of the event, we watched the film "Tell No One" which was, to my surprise, very very good. I would recommend it to anyone. It was a crime film that included much suspense. I appreciated how this whole event was very French oriented. The one in charge of the event was a French professor here, but I forgot her name. I've always been interested in learning French, and being at this even made me want to learn the language even more.

In terms of how this event relates to our class, I suppose the category of "film noir" can contribute as an artistic style that can be included in people's work. The whole use of dramatic and emphasized lighting, chiaroscura, shadows and a strong sense of competition sounds like something interesting that can be played around with in the artwork that we do in this class, be it through photoshop or even flash with the animations that we're doing. With my social issue topic being incareration alternatives, and crime being a major factor associated with incarceration, perhaps I can put that "film noir" feeling to good use.