NEW YORK, April 29, 2016— Films on the Green is a free outdoor French film festival produced annually in New York City parks by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, FACE Foundation and the City of New York Parks & Recreation.The festival’s 2016 theme, “A summer in Paris”, offers a striking portrait of the City of Lights, its urban landscape, and cultural diversity. A selection of classic, New Wave, and contemporary films by directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda and Céline Sciamma will showcase the city’s aesthetic, cultural, and cinematic history from a dramatically unconventional angle through stories of love, romance, adolescence, female identity, and urban life in Parisian and its surrounding suburbs.
2016 Films on the Green Festival ScheduleAll films are shown with English subtitles. Screenings begin at 8:30pm, except the Columbia screening, which begins at 7:30pm.
June 7 – Central Park (79th street and Fifth Avenue): Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard, preceded with The Red Balloon by Albert Lamorisse
June 10 – Washington Square Park: The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe by Yves Robert
June 17 – Washington Square Park: Air of Paris by Marcel Carné
June 24 – Transmitter Park (Greenpoint, Brooklyn): Subway by Luc Besson
July 1 – Transmitter Park (Greenpoint, Brooklyn): The 400 Blows by François Truffaut
July 8 – Riverside Park, Pier I (at 70th Street): April and the Extraordinary World by Christian Desmares & Franck Ekinci
July 15 – Riverside Park, Pier I (at 70th Street): Un Flic by Jean-Pierre Melville
July 22 – Tompkins Square Park: Cleo from 5 to 7 by Agnès Varda
July 29 – Tompkins Square Park: Boyfriends and Girlfriends by Eric Rohmer
Sept. 8 – Columbia University (at 116th St): Girlhood by Céline Sciamma
Screenings will take place every Friday from June 10 to July 29, with the opening screening on Tuesday, June 7 and the final screening on Thursday, September 8 at Columbia University, in partnership with the Columbia Maison Française.
2016 theme: A Summer in ParisTen classic and contemporary films featuring some of the best French actors, directors, and musicians such as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Luc Besson, Eric Rohmer, Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Catherine Deneuve, Michel Legrand, and Vladimir Cosma present the diversity of Paris, its inhabitants, landscapes, and cultures. Classic and modern French love stories shine throughout the film selection which captures Paris’ urban development and its transformation across decades, offering viewers a fresh, modern, lively, and diverse snapshot of Paris.
The festival will kick off with Godard’s iconic Breathless, which depicts a French-American romance starring the charming Jean Seberg and French heartthrob Jean-Paul Belmondo.Uncommon panoramas and vivid shots of Paris afford viewers unique perspective into the historical and contemporary architecture and evolving landscape of the City: in Luc Besson’s rarely-screened Subway, the camera plunges underground into the Parisian metro to chase gangsters through the wild labyrinth.
In the steampunk animation April and the Extraordinary World, created by the producers of the Academy Award-nominated Persepolis, viewers enter an alternate, imaginary Paris, illustrated with Jacques Tardi-inspired drawings. Parisian landmarks also punctuate the film series: the Champs-Élysées is front and center in the film noir Un flic, starring Catherine Deneuve and Alain Delon, and views of the historic market Les Halles are part to Air of Paris, starring Jean Gabin. Cleo from 5 to 7, a masterpiece by director Agnès Varda, tracks a crazed singer in real time as she meanders through 1960s Paris.
In that film, cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina mark the time period as vividly as the landscape. And The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, a seminal 1970s comedy, gives viewers a glimpse into the then- brand new Orly Airport in Paris while a love affair embroiled with espionage, surveillance, and mistaken identity unfurls.Albert Lamorisse’s exquisite Academy Award-winning short film The Red Balloon offers poetic views of Paris as it traces a young boy who is chasing a red balloon through the streets of the city, and Truffaut’s The 400 Blows also depicts a Parisian child who undergoes emotional experiences with oppressive teachers and aloof parents and wanders the city streets.
In Boyfriends and Girlfriends, celebrated director Eric Rohmer captures the uneven cityscape of the outskirts of Paris’ banlieue (suburbs) as a backdrop for compelling love stories. The powerful coming-of-age drama Girlhood presents an uncommon picture of the relationship between Paris and its suburbs as it follows its protagonist Marieme, who is part of an all-girl gang in the projects of Paris.
The film, which opened the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, is directed by Céline Sciamma (Water Lilies, Tomboy).Since its inception in 2008, Films on the Green has expanded the reach of French film and brought classic and contemporary movies to local communities. Started in the community gardens of lower Manhattan and Harlem, this much-loved summer festival now shows ten films at six major locations: Central Park, Riverside Park, Tompkins Square Park, Washington Square Park, Columbia University, and Transmitter Park (Brooklyn). As an added bonus, DJs from NYU’s WNYU 89.1 FM, and Hunter College’s WHCS radio stations, play tunes before each screening.The Cultural Services of the French Embassy, FACE Foundation and the City of New York Parks & Recreation would like to thank Films on the Green’s 2016 official sponsors: Air France, BNP Paribas and TV5 Monde.Screeners and photos available upon request.
AboutThe Cultural Services of the French Embassy promotes the best of French arts, literature, cinema, digital innovation, language, and higher education across the US. Based in New York City, Washington D.C., and eight other cities across the country, the Cultural Services brings artists, authors, intellectuals and innovators to cities nationwide. It also builds partnerships between French and American artists, institutions and universities on both sides of the Atlantic. In New York, through its bookshop Albertine, it fosters French-American exchange around literature and the arts. www.frenchculture.org
FACE Foundation is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting French-American relations through innovative cultural and educational projects. In partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, FACE promotes artistic, literary and educational exchange and collaboration between creative professionals from both countries. With additional corporate, foundation, and individual support, FACE administers grant programs in the performing and visual arts, cinema, translation, and secondary and higher education, while providing financial sponsorship to French-American festivals and other cultural initiatives. FACE focuses on new and recent work of living artists and the promotion of bilingualism and the French language. FACE Foundation (French-American Cultural Exchange) is a 501(c)(3) organization chartered by the state of New York. www.face-foundation.org
NYC Parks is the steward of approximately 29,000 acres of land — 14 percent of New York City — including more than 5,000 individual properties ranging from Coney Island Beach and Central Park to community gardens and Greenstreets. We operate more than 800 athletic fields and nearly 1,000 playgrounds, 550 tennis courts, 66 public pools, 48 recreational facilities, 17 nature centers, 13 golf courses, and 14 miles of beaches. We care for 1,200 monuments and 23 historic house museums. We look after 650,000 street trees, and two million more in parks. We are New York City’s principal providers of recreational and athletic facilities and programs. We are home to free concerts, world-class sports events, and cultural festivals. www.nycgovparks.org
Media Contact:
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