Singerman to Speak

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 8, 2006
Dr. Chad Stebbins
(417) 625-9736

 

JOPLIN (SNS) - Dr. Alan Singerman, teacher of French language, literature, civilization, and film at Davidson (N.C.) College since 1982, will deliver two lectures on French cinema at Missouri Southern State University on Thursday, Sept. 14. Both presentations are free and open to the public.

 

* Dr. Singerman will present “French Cinema: What Do You Know About It?” at 9:30 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 14 in Webster Hall Auditorium at MSSU.

 

* Dr. Singerman’s second lecture, “Social Alienation in Contemporary French Cinema,” will begin at 11 a.m. in Webster Hall Auditorium.

 

The French share the distinction for the invention of cinema at the end of the 19th century. France was the most important producer of films in the first 15 years of world filmmaking before yielding to the Americans during World War I. French cinema again took center stage in the 1930s with the “Poetic Realism” movement and then took the film world by storm with the New Wave in the 1950s and 60s after weathering the German Occupation in the 1940s. This presentation includes a discussion of the high (and low) points, with emphasis on some masters and masterpieces along the way.

 

For the past 20 years French cinema has become increasingly interested in the phenomenon of marginal existence, individuals who are forced to or choose to live on the fringes of society. Agnès Varda’s Vagabond (1985), for instance, offers the portrait of a female vagabond in the south of France. Matthieu Kassowitz’s Hate (1995) chronicles one day in the violent existence of three young disaffected youth. What do these films tell us about the relationship between individuals, or whole communities, and contemporary society? What do they tell us about ourselves?

 

In a related activity, the French film The Dreamlife of Angels (La Vie revee des anges, 1998, Erick Zonca) will be shown at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14 in Cornell Auditorim in Plaster (formerly Matthews) Hall. The film is free and open to the public.

 

Dr. Alan Singerman has taught French language, literature, civilization, and film at Davidson (N.C.) College since 1982. He has studied in Paris, Strasbourg, Freiburg (Germany), and Montpellier, where he received a master’s degree in film studies while directing Davidson’s study abroad program. His most recent work is a textbook on French cinema, Apprentissage du cinéma français. Livre de l’étudiant, which Focus Publishing has now also published in English under the title French Cinema: The Student's Book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

.