CinéSalon Series

Davy Chou's Cinematic Travels

Tuesdays, May 7–June 25, 2024
4pm & 7:30pm

FIAF Florence Gould Hall
Members can bring a friend for free in May!

French-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou has emerged as a driving force in Cambodian filmmaking. Since visiting the country for the first time at the age of twenty-five, Chou has had a keen interest in the history of Cambodian cinema, as emphasized through his critically acclaimed 2011 documentary Golden Slumbers. He regularly works with emerging talent through his production companies Vycky Films and Anti-Archive.

Chou’s narrative features—marked by a mix of naturalism and dreamy cinematography—have gained international recognition, establishing him as one of the most well-known filmmakers in Cambodia, and beyond. His 2016 narrative debut Diamond Island won the SACD Award at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week section, and his second feature, 2022’s Return to Seoul, was shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and received awards throughout Asia, North America, and Europe.

In this series, featuring films he directed and produced, Chou shares gems of French cinema that have moved and inspired him.


Past Screenings


CinéSalon

Return to Seoul

Retour à Séoul

Tuesday, May 7, 2024
4pm & 7:30pm

FIAF Florence Gould Hall

Members can bring a friend for free in May!


Happy Hour: 5:30-7:30pm

Dir. Davy Chou, 2022, France, Germany, Belgium, Qatar, 117min, DCP, Color
Starring Park Ji-min, Oh Gwang-Rok, Guka Han
In English, French and Korean with English subtitles

On an impulse to reconnect with her roots, twenty-five-year-old Freddie (Ji-Min Park) travels to South Korea—her birthplace before she was adopted and raised in France. The headstrong young woman decides to seek out her biological parents in a country she knows very little about, and the choice steers her life in unexpected directions.

CinéSalon

Bled Number One

Tuesday, May 14, 2024
4pm & 7:30pm

FIAF Florence Gould Hall

Members can bring a friend for free in May!


Dir. Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, 2006, France, Algeria, 97min, 35mm, Color
Starring Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, Meriem Serbah, Abel Jafri, Farida Ouchani, Ramzy Bedia, Sakina Dammene-Debbih
In Algerian and French with English subtitles

Blending real-life inspiration with narrative finesse, Algerian filmmaker Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche plays the lead role of Kamel, an ex-prisoner deported from France after serving his sentence. Kamel arrives back home as an outsider who doesn’t remember the language or local ways, and is a silent observer to a place split between tradition and modernity.

CinéSalon

The Pelican

Le Pélican

Tuesday, May 21, 2024
4pm & 7:30pm

FIAF Florence Gould Hall

Members can bring a friend for free in May!


Rare screening!

Dir. Gérard Blain, 1974, France, 83min, 35mm, Color
Starring Gérard Blain, Dominique Ravix, Daniel Sarky
In French with English subtitles

This 1973 film by—and starring—French director Gérard Blain follows Paul Boyer, a broke jazz pianist who, driven to support his wife and young son, embarks on a counterfeit money scheme. After being imprisoned for nine years, he finds that upon release his wife has remarried and won’t let him see his son, who has all but forgotten him.

CinéSalon

White Building

Tuesday, May 28, 2024
4pm & 7:30pm

FIAF Florence Gould Hall

Members can bring a friend for free in May!


Dir. Kavich Neang, 2021, Cambodia, France, 90min, DCP, Color
Starring Piseth Chhun, Hout Sithorn, Ok Sokha
In Khmer with English subtitles

Cambodian director Kavich Neang’s debut feature follows twenty-year-old aspiring performer Samnang as he grapples with the impending demolition of his sprawling Phnom Penh apartment block, a landmark tenement known as the White Building. Samnang observes as his family and close-knit community become divided on the issue, and slowly comes to terms with the reality that his life will be upended.

CinéSalon

Shorts Program: A Day in the Country & Sunshine for the Poor

Partie de campagne & Du soleil pour les gueux

Tuesday, June 4, 2024
4pm

FIAF Florence Gould Hall


A Day in the Country (40min) | Dir. Jean Renoir

French director Jean Renoir puts his humanist, nature-drenched spin on the tender, comedic Guy de Maupassant story, which follows the unexpected romantic fallout of an urban family’s French countryside day trip.

Sunshine for the Poor (55min) | Dir. Alain Guiraudie

A young woman and a shepherd, both from different worlds, encounter each other and unexpectedly spend a day criss-crossing the Causses’ high plains looking for some of the shepherd’s animals that have wandered off.

CinéSalon

Golden Slumbers

Le Sommeil d'or

Tuesday, June 4, 2024
7:30pm

FIAF Florence Gould Hall


Dir. Davy Chou, 2011, Cambodia, France, 100min, DCP, Color
Starring Yvon Hem, Dy Saveth, Liv Sreng, Ly Bun Yim
In French and Khmer with English subtitles

Nearly 400 films were made in Phnom Penh between 1960 and 1975, and only 30 of the films survive today. The Khmer Rouge burnt the films or allowed them to decay along with many of the country’s studios and cinemas. Director Davy Chou, the grandson of one of the most important film producers of the ‘Golden Age’ of Cambodian cinema, uses this film to help reconstruct the Phnom Penh cinematographic legacy.

CinéSalon

Earth Light

Le Claire de terre

Tuesday, June 11, 2024
4pm & 7:30pm

FIAF Florence Gould Hall


Rare screening!

Dir. Guy Gilles, 1970, France, 98min, DCP, Color
Starring Patrick Jouané, Edwige Feuillère, Annie Girardot
In French with English subtitles

In director Guy Gilles’ 1970 drama, twenty-year-old Pierre lives an unremarkable life in Paris with his piano teacher father, who he struggles to connect with. Spurred by the inspiration to upend his bleak routine, Pierre travels to his homeland of Tunisia to learn about his mother, who died when he was a child.

CinéSalon

Synonyms

Synonymes

Tuesday, June 18, 2024
4pm

FIAF Florence Gould Hall


Dir. Nadav Lapid, 2019, France, Germany, Israel, 121min, DCP, Color
Starring Tom Mercier, Quentin Dolmaire, Louise Chevillotte
In French and Hebrew with English subtitles

Yoav, a young Israeli who arrives in France barely speaking the language, is committed to forgetting about his home country and becoming a Frenchman. On his first night in Paris, Yoav is robbed throws himself on the mercy of a bourgeois French couple.

CinéSalon

Trouble Every Day

Tuesday, June 18, 2024
7:30pm

FIAF Florence Gould Hall


Dir. Claire Denis, 2001, France, Japan, 101min, 35mm, Color
Starring Vincent Gallo, Béatrice Dalle, Tricia Vessey
In French with English subtitles

Acclaimed director Claire Denis’ film follows newlyweds Shane (Vincent Gallo) and June (Tricia Vessey) on their Parisian honeymoon, though it’s just a front for Shane’s search to reconnect with the mysterious wife (Béatrice Dalle) of a neuroscientist (Alex Descas) with whom he was once obsessed. Shane becomes embroiled in a violent, bloodthirsty mystery that transforms him—and his marriage.

CinéSalon

Diamond Island

Tuesday, June 25, 2024
4pm & 7:30pm

FIAF Florence Gould Hall


7:30pm screening followed by a Q&A with Davy Chou

Dir. Davy Chou, 2016, France, Germany, Cambodia, 101min, DCP, Color
Starring Sobon Nuon, Cheanick Nov, Madeza Chhem, Mean Korn
In Khmer with English subtitles

Eighteen-year-old Bora leaves his village for employment on the construction sites of Diamond Island, an ultra-modern and upscale riverfront project emblematic of Cambodia’s future. He’s inducted into the fold with his fellow workers and finds his long-lost older brother, who introduces him to the area’s wealthy urban youth, and all the temptations that come with their lifestyle.