This month, we will be screening 3 short films in French with English subtitles.

Some scenes might upset viewers.

Le Vampire by Jean Painlevé (Heritage film)

To illustrate the vampire’s kiss, Jean Painlevé films a Brazilian bat draining a guinea pig of its blood. He shows us how it feeds on fresh blood, detailing every stage of the process. By incorporating excerpts from Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922), Painlevé playfully blends subtle allusions to the myths surrounding the vampire into his scientific account, with this bloodthirsty South American bat as their source. Here, the sheer horror emanating from the animal gives the film something fascinating, cruel, and barbaric, heightened by music borrowed from Duke Ellington.

Les Dents du bonheur by Joséphine Darcy Hopkins

Eight-year-old Madeleine accompanies her beautician mother to a new client’s home where she meets Eugénie, Constance and Émeraude who invite her to the basement to play a cruel board game.

Les liens du sang by Akim Atoui

When Ali and Leila visit their mother, who has just been discharged from the hospital, they have some revelations to share with her. Upon arriving, they are stunned to discover that she is now living with Elyo, a medical assistance robot. In the company of this strange machine, the family meal quickly turns into a reckoning. Sensing that its owner is in distress, Elyo intervenes to put an end to the source of the attacks—whatever the cost.