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The Hamilton College French Club is hosting the Tournées Film Festival which includes the screening of five French films that provide a glimpse into French cinematic tradition and the diversity of French culture. The first film, Le Fils de L’Épicier (The Grocer’s Son), will be screened on Sunday, Feb. 7. Screenings will continue every Sunday through March 7, all at 2 p.m., in the Kirner-Johnson Building auditorium. The screenings are free and open to the public.

Professor of French Martine Guyot-Bender recently received a Camargo Foundation Fellowship for spring 2010 to work on a book on film documentaries. She will be spending her sabbatical leave at the Camargo Foundation, in Cassis, France, researching the link between the (stern) subjects of social French documentary and aesthetic choices, with an emphasis on ISKRA, an underground French film producing company started by Chris Marker in 1967. The Camargo Foundation was created by independent filmmaker Jerome Hill.

Members of the Hamilton College Junior Year in France group traveled to Provence on Nov. 13-15. The first stop of the weekend trip was the Roman aqueduct, the Pont du Gard, built between 38 and 52 A.D. Guided by Hamilton Junior Year in France art professor Laurent Lecomte, the students also visited the amphitheater, stadium and baths in Arles, the picturesque town known as well as the setting for a number of Van Gogh’s paintings.

Members of the Hamilton College Junior Year in France recently went to the Sonja Helle Ice Rink at Bercy Stadium in Paris to cheer on Kyle Roulston ’09, the newest member of the Paris hockey team, Les Français Volants. With the help of Norm Bazin, Hamilton’s men’s ice hockey coach, Roulston joined a team that travelled to Europe this past summer looking to place North Americans in the European hockey system. Offered a spot on a team in Bad Tolz, Germany, and in Paris, Roulston jumped at the chance to play in the French capital.

Burgess Professor of French Roberta Krueger has contributed an introductory essay, “Teach Your Children Well: Medieval Conduct Guides for Youths,” in Medieval Conduct Literature: An Anthology of Vernacular Guides to Behaviour for Youths, with English Translations (ed. Mark D. Johnston). It is published for the Medieval Academy of America by the University of Toronto Press.

Associate Professor of English Naomi Guttman and Burgess Professor of French Roberta L. Krueger published their article "Utica Greens: Central New York's Italian-American Specialty" in the Summer 2009 edition of Gastronomica, The Journal of Food and Culture. Based on interviews with local residents, the article traces the history and significance of one of Utica's signature dishes. This article is based on a paper Krueger and Guttman gave last year at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery.

The biennial meeting of the Rousseau Association, held this year in Los Angeles, June 25-28, had as its theme "Rousseau's Legacies." In his paper for this conference, "Saint-Preux Becomes a Woman: Gender-Bending in Rousseau’s La Nouvelle Héloïse" Professor of French John C. O'Neal argues against the depiction of Rousseau as a misogynist by illustrating the profoundly transgendered qualities of the male protagonist in Rousseau's best-selling novel.

Seventeen students and three faculty members in French spent the weekend of April 17-19 in Montreal, Quebec, exploring many aspects of this bilingual city which is only five hours away from Clinton. Students viewed a piece of the Berlin Wall that was given as a gift to Montréal in 1992, for the 350th anniversary of the city. During a guided tour of the old and modern city, students -- who pledged to speak only French during the trip -- were told about the complex history of the area, and how bilingualism affects public and private life.

Professor of French Martine Guyot-Bender contributed "'Les belles images': 'Sottisier,' roman prémonitoire ou récit universel?" to a special issue of German journal of French Comparative Studies, Lendemains, in honor of the 100th anniversary of Simone de Beauvoir's birth in 2008. The article examines the social content of Les belles images (1967), one of de Beauvoir's least-appreciated novels which was, at the time it was published, rebuked by critics and readers and somewhat ridiculed by de Beauvoir herself.

A year ago Professor of French John C. O'Neal learned he had been promoted from "chevalier" (or knight) to "officier" (officer) in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Order of Academic Palms), originally founded by Napoleon in 1808 to recognize meritorious achievements in teaching and research. On May 27, an awards ceremony was held at the French Embassy for Cultural Services in New York City to honor O'Neal and three others, each of whom received a medal from the French cultural counselor, Mme Kareen Rispal. In addition to some of O'Neal's family members and friends, several Hamilton community members were on hand for the event including John and Mary O'Neill, Ben and Laurie Madonia, John Lytle and Sarah Ziegler '05.