Ciné Club Alliance into French cinema

Alliance Française de Kotte Colombo re-launched the Ciné Club Alliance recently, in collaboration with BCIS, BMICH and the Institute Français Film Library. A film is being scheduled for every last Wednesday of the month at the BCIS Auditorium, BMICH at 6:00 p.m. The films shown will cover works from contemporary French cinema, grand classics, and youth films in multitude of genres. These films are shown free of charge on a first come first served basis.

According to the management, this week’s French movie is scheduled to be ‘Betty’. In this engrossing character study, French new wave director Claude Chabrol presents a complex narrative based on a novel by famous novel writer Georges Simenon, in which two women form a dependent bond on a rainy evening.

Rescuing the broken-down Betty (Marie Trintignant) from a seedy suitor, glamorous Laure (Stéphane Audran) brings her back to her hotel, where the bedraggled woman recounts a sordid past through flashbacks filled with abandonment, alcohol and anxiety.

Chabrol manages brilliantly to pay homage to Simenon’s work and its atmosphere by delicately and smoothly alternating scenes of the past and present. The sharp depiction of the upper class creates discomfort because it sounds very true.

Through this film, Claude Chabrol reveals the deep voice and profound gaze of Marie Trintignant, a French actress, unique in her own way.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

In Colombo, the Alliance Française de Kotte, supported by the Embassy of France and the Foundation Alliance française in Paris, opened its doors in May 2010. It is the only Alliance Française in our capital city, which responds to these criteria and can offer certificates and international diplomas recognised worldwide.

Alliance Française de Kotte is a cultural institute, which not only teaches French language, but also is fully committed in promoting French culture in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the students have the unique opportunity to learn the French language and receive the much-needed cultural exposure as well.

With the Alliance Française de Kotte in Colombo, there are four other official Alliances in Sri Lanka: Kandy, Jaffna, Matara, and Galle and one in Malé, in the Maldives. In 2012, the network of Alliances taught French language to more than 2,500 different students.