Songs My Brothers Taught Me takes place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (South Dakota). It shows the life of Lakota Indians today. The film’s website has concise information about the Lakota people who acted in the film, and a director’s statement. The trailer provides plenty of images which can challenge pupils’ images of Native … Continue reading “Native American Film in Class”
Brooklyn is a beautiful coming-of-age story set in 1950s rural Ireland and Brooklyn, New York. A tale of immigration, family duty and love, it was a modern classic as a novel and now a film. Irish author Colm Tóibín* set half the novel in his home town of Enniscorthy, on Ireland’s south-eastern tip, sleepy, rural … Continue reading “Brooklyn”
In 2016, Britain is commemorating the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare. Kick off the celebrations with the most recent film adaptation of “the Scottish play”, Macbeth, starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard as the ambitious couple who will stop at nothing to gain and keep power. But how accurate is Shakespeare’s portrayal of … Continue reading “Macbeth: Fact and Fiction”
The film Race tells the story of Jesse Owens’ victories at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Read more about the film in our article. Jesse Owens’ extraordinary achievements are a great topic both in collège and lycée, where it fits well into a Mythes et héros theme. Biographies This video from the film’s website mixes real … Continue reading “Jesse Owens Webpicks”
It’s not often that you get two national treasures, a lot of laughs and a genuine social debate in one film. The Lady in the Van stars Dame Maggie Smith as a homeless woman who installs herself and her van uninvited in the driveway of playwright Alan Bennett. The Lady in the Van does what … Continue reading “Maggie Smith: The Lady in the Van”
If there was a prize for the best film title of the year, it would definitely go to Race, the story of Jesse Owens’ victories at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. That single word manages to embody the many facets of a story which encompasses sport, politics and the triumph of the human spirit. The film … Continue reading “Race”