Taking the best from La Vie En Rose and Amelie, renowned comic book artist Joann Sfar’s Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is a completely original take on one of France’s greatest mavericks, the illustrious and infamous Jewish singer-songwriter, Serge Gainsbourg (Eric Elmosnino).

Born Lucien Ginsburg to Russian-Jewish parents, Sfar follows him from his precocious childhood in Nazi-occupied Paris, to his beginnings as small time jazz musician and finally pop superstar. Along the way he romances many of the era’s most beautiful women, including Juliette Greco (Anna Mouglalis), Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta) and Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon). Employing a witty surrealistic style and a soundtrack that includes many of the musician’s greatest hits, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is a quintessential time capsule to ’60′s Paris.

Click here for more information about the film.

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life

Wednesday, February 22nd at 7:00pm

The Marquee at Union South

projected on
35mm

The film is free and open to all Students, Staff, Faculty, and their guests. Simply show up at the theater if interested!

For more information, email

Corey Parsons

Director

Wisconsin Union Directorate Film Committee

University of Wisconsin – Madison

The American Association of Teachers of French presents many opportunities to post-secondary educators. AATF-WI is looking for ways to better serve these members in Wisconsin. This workshop will share the opportunities provided by the national and state organizations, a step to be taken to reincorporate post-secondary students in our largest event, the Concours Oral, and an open forum to discuss what support you would like to see from us. You do not need to be an AATF member to attend; our goal is to make you want to be a member before you leave.

9-9:30: What AATF offers
9:30-10: What AATF-WI offers
10-10:30: Changes to the Concours Oral
10:30-11:30: Open Forum
12:00 Lunch (optional) $10 (menu TBA, a vegetarian option will be available)

Please click here to register for this event. Merci !

For more information about the workshop, contact Justin Frieman with AATF-WI.

UW-Madison Institute for Research in the Humanities
Seminar Series
February 6, 2012
3:00 P.M. – 5:00 P.M.
University Club (map)

presented by Aliko Songolo, French and Italian, African Languages and Literature, UW-Madison

Le Rayon Vert (Summer)
by Eric Rohmer (France, 1986, 35mm, 98min, English subtitles).
Cast: Marie Rivière, Vincent Gauthier, Amira Chemakhi

A recently jilted young Parisian woman (Rohmer’s co-writer Rivière) takes a solo vacation but is frustrated in every attempt at human connection. The fifth of Rohmer’s “Comedies and Proverbs” cycle is a brilliant and witty character study of an independent but insecure heroine. “The best film of the year [1986]. A singularly ennobling episode in the history of cinema.”(Andrew Sarris, Village Voice).

Free and open to the public.

Location: UW Cinematheque, 4070 Vilas Hall (map)

In this one-evening course, author, traveler, and food-lover Ronnie Hess presents her journeys in French language and culture and her new culinary travel guide, Eat Smart in France. Learn about French history, language, geography, the culture of food, and how to find the most delicious dining experiences in France.

You must register for this course. Please register here.

Author Ronnie Hess will show you how to find the heart of French culture through its sumptuous cuisine, decipher the menu, know the market foods & embark on a tasting adventure.

Designed for food aficionados and travelers who want to get to the heart of a culture through its cuisine, this richly detailed and well-researched culinary travel guidebook explains how to find the most delicious, authentic, and adventurous eating experiences in France. Author Ronnie Hess shares the secrets she’s uncovered—from restaurant dining to home cooking to fresh market produce and street-vendor fare.

Like other guides in the award-winning Eat Smart series, Eat Smart in France intertwines history, geography, language, and diet. It provides a rich, historical perspective on the origins and varieties of French food and extensive background on regional dishes. Included are two glossaries of terms in French and English:

• Menu Guide demystifies food selection, allowing visitors to order with confidence in restaurants

• Foods & Flavors Guide provides a comprehensive list of foods, spices, cooking styles, and more to make shopping in the colorful outdoor markets easy and fun.

A delicious bonus is a chapter of authentic recipes from food professionals in restaurants and cooking schools, as well as from home cooks, which can be savored as a preview or reminiscence of a visit to France. Also included are chapters of useful phrases and travel and shopping tips.With the Eat Smart guides you can travel the world one sumptuous bite at a time!

Ronnie Hess is an award-winning journalist who has had a long and passionate interest in food, especially French food. She has lived and worked in France as a reporter for CBS News and as an English teacher; her food and travel writing has appeared in national and regional publications. She studied cooking with Liane Kuony at the Postilion Restaurant and School of Culinary Arts in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Eat Smart in France
Distributed for Ginkgo Press
For more information regarding publicity and reviews contact UW Press. 

Slow Food UW would like to formally invite you to this week’s $5.00 Family Dinner Night with the Project1808, Inc. The founder of Project1808, Inc, Dr. Alhaji N’jai, will be the guest chef for the meal. Beyond good eats, expect Live Panafrica DJ Music with DJ Sean T and dancing! In addition, we will be collecting donations on behalf of Project 1808, Inc Sierra Leone. 

Project1808, Inc was started as a personal venture by Alhaji N’jai using graduate school stipends as educational support for small number of students from his hometown Kabala. At the core of Project1808’s sustainable community model is an investment on disadvantaged youths, schools and their communities to form the building blocks, as in LEGO, of healthy communities in Sierra Leone and Africa. We engage and connect students, teachers, and community members through small pointed and targeted projects that address disconnects between learning and community problem solving. Our student-community project focus areas include, but not restricted to water accessibility, sanitation, small scale business, improve food production, renewable energy, and public health. By linking youth education to community needs in the most disadvantaged regions, we want to enhance creativity, innovation and develop next generation of compassionate leaders. Through specific GLocal (Global and Local) partnerships, we bring to practice the concept of thinking globally and acting locally that enhances knowledge exchange, cultural competency, while expanding their world view. Project 1808 is committed to optimizing partnerships between educational institutions locally, within Africa and overseas, particularly with involvement of other African countries.

Guest Chef:Dr. Alhaji Umar N’jai is a Scientist/Toxicologist at Procter & Gamble (P&G) Global Research & Development and Product Safety. Alhaji also Co-hosts WORT 89.9 FM Panafrica Show and is a Research Fellow at University of Wisconsin Madison. He was born in Sierra Leone, West Africa to a family with heritage from Guinea and Senegal. Both his mother and father hail from the rich cultural heritage of Senegal and Guinea that includes Gawlo (Griot) tradition. He was therefore raised and immersed in the deep cultural traditions of these countries. Food, dance, and music are an innate aspect of his life—he has produced/hosted radio shows with world music focus for Kalamazoo college WJMD radio, NPR affiliate WMUK FM 102.1 and for WORT FM PanAfrica Show. Prior to coming to US on a scholarship to Kalamazoo College at the height of Sierra Leone war, Alhaji was involved in community organizing, student mentoring, and community service in Kabala, Sierra Leone. Alhaji had learnt much of his community organizing spirit from his philantrophic parents who were dedicated to helping the poor, the disabled and disadvantaged persons in Ganya town, Sierra Leone. In Keeping with that spirit, Alhaji wanted to make a difference in lives of people in his home community through educational support for youths and addressing local community needs.

What is French camp?

French Camp on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus is a creative and fun way to improve French language skills and make new friends. French camp provides French language immersion, using French only and avoiding translating into English, designed for beginning and continuing French students aged 4-14 years.

The camp is organized by a group of enthusiastic and certified French teachers and native Francophones who provide instruction in the mornings with crafts, skits, music, and field trips. Afternoons are more recreation-focused with games, songs, and conversation.

Find out more.

The Summer French Camp is organized by the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies. Complete information can be found here.

Learn to reach out and educate your community stakeholders — students, parents, administrators, school board members and local media — about the practical uses of French and the need to protect and enhance its place in our schools.

Bloomberg Rankings identifies French as the third-most-important business language in the world after English and Mandarin. And in the last 10 years, the number of francophones in the world has increased by 10% (from 200 to 220 million). But despite these indicators, budgets for public education continue to tighten, French is being squeezed out, and many of you are struggling to keep your programs off the chopping block.

“French continues to be an important language in international business and communication, diplomacy, scientific discovery and achievement,” says Gilles Bousquet, Dean of the UW–Madison Division of International Studies, Vice Provost for Globalization, and Pickard-Bascom Professor of French.

The list of facts supporting the argument for French in our schools is a long one, as you know all too well. Yet many of our administrators, school board members and elected officials remain uninformed or tend to ignore those compelling facts when making budgetary and curricular decisions.

This workshop in January is designed to help you meet those challenges head on and to prepare us all to be more effective advocates for French instruction in Wisconsin.

UW–Madison’s Division of International Studies, Center for Interdisciplinary French Studies, Department of French & Italian and the French House invite you to this a half-day workshop.

Panelists will include:

Strength Through Networking: Making the Case for French
Saturday, January 21, 2012, 9am-1:30pm at
The French House (map)  |  Parking is available in the Lake & Frances St. Ramp. (map)

The program is free to all attendees and will include panel discussions on the stakeholders in this discussion and the resources available to make ourselves heard.

Lunch is provided by the French House and co-sponsored by Vista Higher Education. Lunch will include a presentation by Ritt Deitz on “The Case for French in a Post-Francophile America.”

To register, please email Andrew Irving, Director, The French House.

Tati’s beloved Monsieur Hulot finds himself in a futuristic funhouse of modern architecture and traffic jams as his once familiar Paris progresses uncontrollably. Hulot adapts to his new surroundings like a fish out of water, which, of course sets the stage for his charming and irresistible clumsiness. Utilizing astonishing sets and brilliant sound design, Tati achieves new levels of visual and aural complexity. (USA, 1967, 35mm, 124 min., subtitled)