Emmanuel Bourdieu, Poison Friends

How many philosophy professors become filmmakers? In France, at least one. Emmanuel Bourdieu, the son of a famous French sociologist, has pretty much given up his Sorbonne day job to make movies - with a philosophical twist. His new Poison Friends, which screened at the New York Film Festival, takes a cue from Les Liaisons Dangereuses, only instead of focusing on the sexual hijinks and jealousies of upper-crust 18th-century aristocrats, Bourdieu's Cannes winner (Critics' Week Grand Prize) considers literature students as they exit college for life's realities - and deceptions. Bourdieu began as a screenwriter (Esther Kahn, Place Vendôme) before helming the 2001 prize-winning short, Candidature.

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