The distinction between good and evil may seem self-evident. Yet Nietzsche taught us to venture “beyond good and evil”, to free ourselves from the moralist lurking within us. It is in this spirit of intellectual freedom and adventure that the 14th season of the Université Populaire du Cinéma will explore the fascinating relationship between cinema and morality.

Does a good film have to be morally exemplary? Should it champion the Good? Offer a life lesson or encourage empathy? Should it explore the full spectrum of morality, in all its diversity and ambiguity? Make us experience the paradox of heightened passions and the emotions they stir within us? Should it respect certain boundaries, or invite us to experience immorality itself? And finally, do we expect a film to reflect established values, or to create new ones?

Caught, in short, between the moral imperative to fight evil and the pleasures of nonconformity, cinema itself is put to the test…