Anastasia was cursed to die young, but three fairies recast the horrible spell. At age six, she would fall into a deep sleep that would last 100 years, to waken as a beautiful teenager. This “Sleeping Beauty” fairytale has a unique twist displayed in the French film “Sleeping Beauty.”

“Sleeping Beauty” is the first of five movies to be screened in The Tournées Festival of New French Films, sponsored by the French American Cultural Exchange. The festival returns for its third year at Northern Kentucky University. Screenings being March 28 and continue through the end of April.
The festival will be held in the Griffin Hall Digitorium.

“It is a pretty spectacular room,” said John Alberti, director of NKU’s cinema studies program and a festival organizer. The room has a large screen with a video projector, surround sound and theater-style seating.

“It is not only a chance for NKU students to get to the Digitorium,” Alberti said. “It is also for people from the community to get to see this great exhibition space.”
The committee chose the five films based on aspects about French culture that would appeal to students and the wider community, diversity in topics, and whether the films have received favorable reviews by critics.

The series has learning opportunities for both French and non-French speaking people. Each film features English subtitles.

Caitlin Harrah, sophomore and president of the French club, says the films help with speaking skills. “It is a good exercise for your brain,” she said. Last year she attended all five films.
Katherine Kurk, French professor and interim chair of the Department of World Languages and Literature, was a festival organizer. Kurk believes the films “allow us to enter these other cultures and to feel about these people, these situations on intrinsic human levels.”

This year Harrah will be presenting the film “Hadewijch” with Kurk. “I think the student learns to analyze the film,” Kurk said. “After he or she had learned that, [they] could pick out key things that they could in turn teach the audience.”

Having the students involved not only gives them the chance to better their educational experience but also allows the community to be informed. “We think that is a bigger resource than our buildings,” Alberti said. “We like to show off our students to the broader community.”

The French club, English graduate students and the English honor society will host bake sales to precede each evening’s showing.

Each film will screen twice weekly: Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. and Thursday at 7 p.m. Admission is free for students with a valid NKU ID card and $5 for everyone else. Parking is available in the Kenton Drive garage for $3. Parking tickets will be validated at the event.

The first film, “Sleeping Beauty,” directed by Catherine Breillat, will show on March 28 and 19. The next film to play is “Inspector Bellamy,” directed by Claude Chabrol, on April 4 and 5. The third film, “White Material,” directed by Claire Denis, will show on April 11 and 12. The fourth film, “Hadewijch,” directed by Bruno Dumont, will show on April 18 and 19, and the last film to show is “The Father of my Children,” directed by Mia Hansen-Love, on April 25 and 26.