Tournées Film Festival: Barbara

Thursday / February 6, 2020 / 7 p.m.
Landis Cinema, Buck Hall

This passion project initiated by the inimitable Jeanne Balibar is inspired
by Barbara, an under-appreciated figure in the English-speaking
world, but possibly the best-loved chanteuse to follow in the wake
of Edith Piaf. As a singer-songwriter, Barbara brought a dark lyricism
to French airwaves, reaching millions of listeners through her music
and her outspoken activism, notably during the outbreak of the AIDS
crisis. Fittingly for such a genre-defying artist, this film inspired by
her life and music is anything but a traditional biopic: writer-director
Mathieu Amalric wisely avoids the pitfalls of that staid format through
a fragmented, comically meta approach. Barbara, the film, follows
the travails of Brigitte, an actress cast to play the lead in a biopic of
Barbara under the direction of the oddball Yves Zand (played with
gusto by Amalric). As the actress and the character gradually begin
to merge, the border between real life and film starts to blur. This
musical love letter to performers and cinema is as much a dazzling
tribute to Jeanne Balibar’s unique acting—she received the 2018 Best
Actress César for her performance as Brigitte/Barbara—as it is to the
melancholy genius of Barbara.

Free for all! No ticket required.

The Tournées Festival is made possible by the FACE Foundation, Africana Studies, the Departments of Foreign Languages & Literatures, Film & Media Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and the International Student Association.