Allez Au Cinéma: Learning French Through Filmmaking

At Smith, students and faculty like to do things differently. Like learning about filmmaking by taking a French class.

This past semester, a student-led crew from the Five Colleges has been shooting an original film on campus under the guidance of Oriane Morriet, a visiting lecturer in French studies at Smith.

Other locations for “The Pursuit,” a 15-minute film billed as an international coming-of-age story, have included train stations in Hartford, Conn., and Worcester, Mass.

The film project originated last fall in Morriet’s special studies workshop, where Smith students wrote the screenplay—about a boy in search of his mother—in French, then translated it into English. The project, which has continued this semester, has drawn 20 students from the Five Colleges—including half a dozen Smithies—along with professors from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Hampshire College.

Funding for the film came from Smith’s Committee on Faculty Compensation and Development, the French studies program and the Bradley Fund, Morriet said.

“The Pursuit” will be screened on Saturday, May 16, at 4:30 p.m. at the French studies and comparative literature reception in the Lewis Global Studies Center. Producers also plan to submit the film to film festivals.

Morriet said producing an original movie offered an unusual intensive-language experience for students.

“It was really difficult for students to write a script in French and be colloquial,” she said. “Also, film is not the same in the United States as in France. We have what we call cinéma d’auteur,” the notion of film as the creative vision of the director.

“Film in France is more artisanal,” than in Hollywood, added Morriet, who is the Visiting Lecturer from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. “So we were also learning about that.”

For Mia Ruf ’15, an aspiring screenwriter, it was a welcome surprise to be creating a film in French class.

Noe Perry-Greene and Eric Johnson act out a scene from “The Pursuit” during a shoot on campus.

“It was an interesting way to learn about screenwriting,” said Ruf, who graduated from Smith in January with a degree in English and has stayed in Northampton to finish work on “The Pursuit.”

“I wanted to write my thesis on French film, which is how I got in touch with Oriane,” Ruf added. “The aesthetic we’re going for in this film is really more French than American. It has an art-house feel, like a story imagined by a kid.”

On a recent Saturday morning, the parking lot behind the Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts was transformed into a set for “The Pursuit.” As student crew members zipped around adjusting lights and screens, two actors sat patiently inside a green pickup truck, waiting for the cameras to roll. Another group of actors, all students from the Smith College Campus School, stood off to the side awaiting the start of their scene.

“Okay, we’ve got sun!” called out director Ben Floss, a student at Hampshire College, as some clouds parted overhead and filming began. “You two can start rocking out!”

“That was awesome!” Floss declared, a minute or so later to the actors who had been shaking their heads to a hard rock tune from the truck radio. “We’ve got it.”

When asked what she has learned from being involved in the film, Ruf pointed to the collaborative nature of screenwriting.

“You have to be flexible and willing to compromise, but also willing to argue your point,” she said. “If I want to go into the film business, a lot of it involves roundtable writing. And it really does matter if you have good writing for a film.”

One of the best things about the Smith-led movie project has been its manageable scale, Ruf noted.

“It’s a small enough project so that we all can have control over the process,” she said. “This experience has been invaluable.”

Filming at Union State in Hartford, Conn., are (from left) cinematographer Samuel Lusted, Smith student Aisha Amin ’17 and Harshman Singh of UMass.