NEW YORK, May 12, 2014 — 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 and the City of New York Parks & Recreation. Since its inception in 2008, the festival has expanded the reach of French film and brought classic and contemporary movies to local communities.

This year, screenings will take place every Friday from May 30 to August 1, and the finale screening will be on September 4 at Columbia University, in partnership with the Columbia Maison Française. 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 play tunes before each screening.

Having met with great success, Films on the Green has expanded to reach hundreds of new viewers in the US. Films on the Green @ MIT shows screenings on university’s campus and began in Boston in 2013, and Films on the Beach in Miami debuted this April and is screening two vintage classics of French cinema and two animated films.“Masculin Masculin”: 2014 films themeA play on the 1966 Godard film title Masculin Feminin, “Masculin Masculin” presents a gamut of colorful male figures in French film—lovers, heroes, gangsters, and rebels. From love to war, and from neuroses to humor, this year’s festival offers the most memorable of the masculin in classic love stories, thrilling film noir, and deadpan French comedies.

Jean Gabin, one of the most popular French actors from the 1930s to 60s, stars as Lieutenant Maréchal in Grand Illusion by Jean Renoir. In the 1963 cult film Les Tontons Flingueurs, the understated film star Lino Ventura plays an ex-gangster who is forced to take the helm of an organized crime group.Then come more rebels, seducers, and deviants—Les Grands Hommes. The intense Alain Delon portrays a playboy con artist-turned-murderer alongside Maurice Ronet in Purple Noon. The sexy star of Breathless Jean-Paul Belmondo reveals a whimsical side of the French masculin in Le Magnifique, a slapstick spoof of spy movies.Prolific and popular French actors also grace the screens this season. A deft comedian, Fabrice Luchini plays conservative Monsieur Joubert in The Women on the 6th Floor, a film about a man whose life is turned upside down by two vibrant Spanish maids upstairs. Vincent Lindon stars as the psychologically complex protagonist in The Moustache, a thriller that pushes us to wonder about conspiracy, sanity and the destabilizing power of mid-life crises.  France’s most wanted movie star, Vincent Cassel, makes an electric breakthrough appearance in La Haine, a film masterminded by Mathieu Kassovitz. Finally the famed face of French-cinema Gérard Depardieu stars alongside Bernard Blier and Jean Carmet in Buffet Froid, a cliffhanger that’s chock full of twists and mystery.Along with familiar French actors, this year’s festival welcomes in new talent. The charming Raphaël Personnaz shines in The French Minister, a tale of a young diplomat who is thrown into the coded world of a dogmatic and explosive French Foreign Minister.

And Vincent Macaigne, a trailblazer of the fresh new wave of French cinema, takes the lead as a 30-something Parisian who stumbles into love in the indie film 2 Autumns, 3 Winters.2014 Films on the Green Festival ScheduleMay 30 – Central Park: Purple Noon by René ClémentJune 6 – Washington Square Park: Les Tontons Flingueurs by George LautnerJune 13 – Washington Square Park: Buffet Froid by Bertrand BlierJune 20 – Tompkins Square Park: The Women on the 6th Floor by Philippe Le GuayJune 27 – Tompkins Square Park: La Haine by Mathieu KassovitzJuly 11 – Riverside Park, Pier I: The Moustache by Emmanuel CarrèreJuly 18 – Riverside Park, Pier I: Grand Illusion by Jean RenoirJuly 25 – Transmitter Park (Greenpoint, Brooklyn): Le Magnifique by Philippe de BrocaAugust 1 – Transmitter Park (Greenpoint, Brooklyn): 2 Autumns, 3 Winters by Sébastien BetbederSept. 4 – Columbia University (at 116th St): The French Minister by Bertrand TavernierThe Cultural Services of the French Embassy, FACE and the City of New York Parks & Recreation would like to thank Films on the Green’s official sponsors: Air France, BNP Paribas and TV5 Monde.

About

The Cultural Services of the French Embassy provides a platform for exchange and innovation between French and American artists, intellectuals, educators, students, the tech community, and the general public. Based in New York City, Washington D.C., and eight other cities across the US, the Cultural Services develops the cultural economy by focusing on six principal fields of action: the arts, literature, cinema, the digital sphere, French language and higher education. www.frenchculture.orgFACE (French American Cultural Exchange) is an American nonprofit organization, chartered by the state of New York and dedicated to nurturing French-American relations through innovative international projects in the arts, education, and cultural exchange. In partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, FACE administers grant programs and projects in the performing and visual arts, cinema, publication and translation, secondary and higher education. www.facecouncil.org

Media Contact:

Emilie Cabouat-Peyrache – + 1 (212) 439-1417 – emilie.cabouat@diplomatie.gouv.frFrenchculture.org – @franceinnyc – facebook.com/frenchculture

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