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MFL Events
European Languages Week, September 2007
This week aims to raise awareness of the importance of all language learning and the day itself - Wednesday - is celebrated throughout the UK and in 45 countries across Europe.
A number of events were organised to mark European Languages Week 2007. The week began with on Field Day with a talk by Mrs. Charlesworth on the films of Almodovar, and pizza lunch in Exeter and a trip to the Picturehouse cinema to see his latest film ‘Volver’. On Tuesday Year 7 pupils had a French breakfast and this was followed by a European lunch for all with menus in French, German and Spanish. The sixth form took the Chapel service on Wednesday on the theme of promoting European languages and also to advertise Childrens’ Hospice SW and Hospiscare the charities supported by Ivan and Sue Godfrey. Thursday was Home Clothes Day and Year 8 were treated to a French breakfast. Later that day Ivan and Sue Godfrey gave an illustrated lecture on their fund raising trek of the G10 from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and we were able to donate the £500 raised from Home Clothes day to their chosen charities.
This year’s programme looks exciting with more French breakfasts and a European lunch, a Chapel service by the sixth form, a Euro quiz in the 6th form bar on Wednesday evening and an illustrated lecture by Belgian doctor Dr. Freddie Declerck and a Euro theme fancy dress for the Junior Social on Saturday. We are also keeping a close eye on the developments in the Rugby World Cup.
Production of "Le Petit Prince" on Thursday 23rd March.
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Mercredi 1 mars
In a deep need for an esoteric escape from Blundell’s School, the French Department undertook a mystical trip to Exeter’s welcoming cinema, the Picture House, in order to see the film "Hidden". As in all French films, one can barely understand what it was about at the end of it, and this particular one is no exception.
Haneke’s astonishing psychological drama/thriller exploring guilt and responsibility and centred on an average middle-class French couple delivers a master class in dramatic exposition married to a tremendously patient mise en scène. Georges and Annes (the two main characters) receive anonymous videotapes of their home being monitored from across the street. The mystery gradually envelops their life and as Georges stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the grim relevance of the tapes and their accompanying drawings, his wife begins to slowly unravel in the face of his implacability.
It’s a story of French intercultural relations and pain. It’s a puzzle of complicated lies and truths, of agony and despair. Yes, it’s another French film.
That is why, on Wednesday, March the 1st, the French crusaders in search for mysticism and unknown returned (in a fairly dangerous way, with Mrs Wright face in face with snow and darkness) to the normal English life of Blundell’s.
Arcadie Cotruta
Synopsis
Georges, journaliste littéraire, reçoit des vidéos
- filmées clandestinement depuis la rue - où on le voit
avec sa famille, ainsi que des dessins inquiétants et difficiles
à interpréter. Il n'a aucune idée de l'identité
de l'expéditeur.
Peu à peu, le contenu des cassettes devient plus personnel, ce
qui laisse soupçonner que l'expéditeur connaît Georges
depuis longtemps.
Ce dernier sent qu'une menace pèse sur lui et sur sa famille, mais comme cette menace n'est pas explicite, la police lui refuse son aide...
Critiques
- Caché déroule une logique de polar infernal, pour cueillir le spectateur au moment où il ne s'y attend plus (...) Thriller admirablement maîtrisé (...) Les acteurs sont les rouages essentiels de la machine lancée à fond de train par le cinéaste. (Le Nouvel Observateur)
- Ce qui l'intéresse [M. Haneke] n'est pas tant de raconter une histoire, mais de distiller le malaise. Ce qu'il fait avec maestria (...) Certes, ces thèmes ne sont guère très attrayants, mais la façon dont Haneke, grand manipulateur, les assemble est passionnante, nous envoyant à la figure notre quotidien poisseux, nos petites lâchetés et nos grandes angoisses. (Le Figaroscope)