French Film Festival scheduled

This year's annual French Film Festival will feature one movie—"A la folie ... pas du tout" ("He loves me, he loves me not"), with Audrey Tautou, star of the award-winning "Amélie"—and a film excerpt on and music by composer Hector Berlioz.

Dr. Joan Easterly, a professor of French and film studies and a member of the Alliance Française, the world's largest French teaching association, will introduce the films.

"'He loves me, he loves me not' is a thriller that tells one story from two points of view," said Easterly, "that of Angelique, a young artist, and that of Toic, a married physician with whom she is madly in love. Hearts and roses are motifs throughout the film, but these romantic symbols turn sinister as the superbly crafted plot unfolds."

Subtitled in English, the film is rated PG-13 for "thematic elements and some obsessive behavior," according to the Internet Movie Database. "He loves me" will show on Oct. 29 at 2:30 p.m., Oct. 30 at 3 and 5 p.m. and Oct. 31 at noon. All showings are in the Goins Auditorium.

High school students are specially invited to attend the 5 p.m. "He loves me" showing on Oct. 30, then to stay for maestro Serge Fournier's presentation on Berlioz at 7 p.m.

Fournier, conductor of the Oak Ridge Symphony and Chorus, will present an excerpt of the film "Berlioz and French Music From the 17th to the 20th Century" and symphony recordings. Fournier will speak in both French and English, says Easterly. He has conducted orchestras throughout the world, as well as serving as assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. He also spent 15 seasons as the music director of the Toledo Symphony.

Fournier will be introduced by Laurent Zunino, president of the Alliance Française of Knoxville. In addition to the "French Music" film excerpt, a short film on Berlioz himself is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. This is the bicentennial of the French composer's birth. All events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Joan Easterly at 694-6499.