On their first day at university, Eloi and Alexandre meet Andre—good-looking, impossibly brilliant and instantly singled out by students and faculty alike as a star. Soon Andre is dominating their every move, telling them how to think and what they should do with their lives. Then, one day Andre is gone, said to be off doing research on James Ellroy at an American University. For his second film, Emmanuel Bourdieu (screenwriter for both Arnaud Desplechin and Nicole Garcia) offers a fascinating journey into a world in which the life of the mind is a perpetual emotional joust. With Andre, brilliantly played by newcomer Thibault Vinçon, Bourdieu has created a revealing portrait of an academic vampire who sucks the life out of everyone in his way. Actress Natacha Regnier will be present for this screening.