newsletter movies

Mesrine: Killer Instinct|Mesrine : l'instinct de mort

Directed by Jean-François Richet, 113 minutes, France/Canada/Italy,
Music Box Films, 2008. With Vincent Cassel, Cécile de France, Gérard Depardieu, Gilles Lellouche.

'Mesrine: Killer Instinct' - the first of two parts - charts the outlaw odyssey of Jacques Mesrine (Vincent Cassel), the legendary French gangster of the 1960s and 1970s who came to be known as French Public Enemy No. 1 and The Man of a Thousand Faces. Infamous for his bravado and outrageously daring prison escapes, Mesrine carried out numerous robberies, kidnappings and murders in a criminal career that spanned continents until he was shot dead in 1979 by France's notorious anti-gang unit. Thirty years after his death, his infamy lives on.
Mesrine was helped along the way by beautiful and equally reckless Jeanne Schneider (Cecile de France), a Bonnie to match his Clyde. Mesrine made up his own epic, between romanticism and cruelty, flamboyance and tragedy. Both a thriller and a biopic, 'Mesrine: Killer Instinct' explores the man behind the icon.

Angelika Film Center, 18 W. Houston Street, New York, NY 10012, (800) 326-3264 | AMC Theatres Empire 25, 234 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036, (888)262-4386

Link

Change of Plans|Le code a changé

Directed by Danièle Thompson, 100 minutes, France, IFC Films, 2009. With Karin Viard, Dany Boon, Marina Foïs, Patrick Bruel.

CHANGE OF PLANS is a delicious comedy of manners from acclaimed Oscar- and César-nominated writer/director Danièle Thompson (Avenue Montaigne). The film centers around a summer dinner party where ten acquaintances, each attempting to mask their own personal troubles, come together for an evening of food, wine and friendship. It’s not long before the couples begin revealing their dissatisfaction with their partners and it becomes obvious that they are planning or having affairs. The all-star ensemble cast includes Dany Boon (Micmacs), Emanuelle Seigner (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Karin Viard (Paris), and Marina Hands (Lady Chatterley).

IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10014, (212)924-7771 | Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, Broadway Between 62nd and 63rd, New York, NY 10023, (212) 757-2280

Link

Army of Crime |L'armée du crime

Directed by Robert Guédiguian, 139 minutes, France, Lorber Films, 2009. With Simon Abkarian, Virginie Ledoyen, Robinson Stévenin.

In Robert Guédiguian’s taut, internationally acclaimed thriller, set during the French Resistance, Armenian poet Missak Manouchian (Simon Abkarian) and his French wife (Virginie Ledoyen) lead a ragtag assortment of volunteers — Jews, Poles, Hungarians, Italians, Spaniards and Armenians — in an assassination plot against the German occupiers and their French allies.

Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011, (212) 255-8800

Link

Making Plans for Lena|Non ma fille, tu n'iras pas danser

Directed by Christophe Honoré, 108 minutes, France, Le Pacte, 2009. With Chiara Mastroianni, Marina Foïs, Louis Garrel.

Recently liberated from her job and husband, Lena (Chiara Mastroianni) heads home to Brittany for the holidays, hoping to enjoy at least a temporary escape from all she’s gone through in Paris. But no such luck: from practically the moment she’s back, she’s confronted with unwanted advice, character analysis that borders on character assassination, and a few other unexpected surprises. His most successful film yet in France, Christophe Honoré has made a wonderfully sprawling portrait of a family that veers from painful to funny to painfully funny, expertly capturing all the feints and digs that often pass for conversation when families get together. Chiara Mastroianni has never been better, radiating a deceptive calm at the center of this emotional storm, while Marie-Christine Barrault as her mother and Marina Foïs as her sister are the loving obstacles to her actually having any semblance of rest and relaxation.

IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10014, (212)924-7771

Link

Directed by Radu Mihaileanu, 119 minutes, France/Italy/Romania/ Belgium/Russia, The Weinstein Company, 2009. With Aleksei Guskov, Dmitri Nazarov, Mélanie Laurent.

Andreï Filipov was a prodigy—the celebrated conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra, the greatest orchestra in Russia. Today, aged 50, he still works at the Bolshoi, but as a cleaner.
The Director of the Bolshoi, an old apparatchik, has been promising forever to return Andreï’s orchestra to him “soon”, but he’s mocking him, humiliating him sadistically. For him, Andreï’s a has-been, and he’s doing him a big favor by keeping him on as a cleaner.
Then Andreï finds a fax inviting the orchestra to play at Pleyel, in Paris, in two weeks’ time, as a last minute replacement for the indisposed Los Angeles Philharmonic. Andreï conceives of a crazy notion: he’ll round up his old musician buddies, a motley bunch now scraping a living in Moscow as cab drivers, removal men, flea market traders, suppliers of porno film sound effects…

City Cinemas, Cinemas 123, 1001 3rd Avenue, New York, NY 10022 (800) 326-3264 | Cobble Hill Cinemas, 265 Court St. Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) 596-9113

Link City Cinema 123

Link Cobble Hill Cinema

Directed by Stéphane Brizé, 101 minutes, France, Lorber Films, 2009. With Vincent Lindon, Sandrine Kiberlain.

Two adults struggle to avoid letting their erotic passion for one another guide them into infidelity in this subtly erotic, understated chamber drama from France. Vincent Lindon stars as Jean, a burly blue-collar mason who lives semi-contentedly with his wife, Anne-Marie (Aure Atika), and son, Jérémy (Arthur Le Houérou), in some unspecified provincial French town. Little passion exists in Jean's life -- until his path crisscrosses with that of Véronique Chambon (Sandrine Kiberlain), his son's violin teacher. Completely taken with the woman's cultural sophistication (manifested through her love of classical music) and intellectualism, Jean begins contemplating an affair with this virtual stranger, and offers to repair one of her windows as an excuse to be more proximate to her. Ultimately, suspense begins to build as the question lingers of whether the two will give in to their desires. Stéphane Brizé directed and authored the script, an adaptation of Eric Holder's novel. - Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Northshore Towers Twin Cinema, 272-40 Grand Central Parkway, Floral Park, NY 11001, (718) 229-7702

Link

Directed by Samuel Maoz, 93 minutes, Israel/France/UK, Sony Pictures Classics, 2009. With Yoav Donat, Itay Tiran, Oshri Cohen, Ashraf Barhom.

A handful of soldiers take a claustrophobic journey into the heart of war in this drama from Israeli writer and director Samuel Maoz. It's June 1982, and Israel is launching an invasion of Lebanon. Four men assigned to take part in the first strike are put on the same tank detail -- Assi (Itay Tiran) is the commanding officer, Shmulik (Yoav Donat) is a gunner new to the outfit, Hertzel (Oshri Cohen) keeps the weapons loaded, and Yigal (Michael Moshonov) drives the machine. After being given their orders by Jamil (Zohar Strauss), the men set out toward the Lebanese border, recognizing little of what goes on outside beyond what can be seen through Yigal's tiny window; they occasionally stop to help fellow Israelis hurt in battle, but for the most part, they roll relentlessly onward, occasionally arguing amongst themselves, until they arrive at their destination, a town already bombed into rubble by the Israeli Air Force.
Levanone (aka Lebanon) was an official selection at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival. - Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011, (212) 255-8800.

Link

Nanny McPhee Returns

Directed by Susanna White, 108 minutes, UK/USA/France, Universal Pictures, 2010. With Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rhys Ifans,.

A struggling mother receives some much-needed assistance tending to the family farm and raising a group of spirited children while her military husband is fighting overseas in this sequel to the whimsical 2005 fantasy comedy Nanny McPhee. Mrs. Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal) lives in a scenic valley with her two daughters and one son. They each understand the importance of working together as a family, and things are going remarkably smoothly for the rural quartet until a pair of spoiled cousins arrive for an extended stay, effectively turning the quaint little farm into a virtual zoo. As the situation quickly getting out of hand, Nannie McPhee (Emma Thompson) suddenly appears on her doorstep claiming that she can bring a much-needed sense of order to the out-of-control household. In time the mysterious helper does just that, using powerful magic to teach her young charges the importance of getting along, and gradually winning their trust in the process. But when the piglets escape from their sty, the contentious kids must work together to recover the family farm's most valued assets, or risk losing everything their father worked so hard to build before he went off to fight in the war. Rhys Ifans and Maggie Smith co-star. - Jason Buchanan, Rovi.

Link

The Film Society of Lincoln Center presents
THE SIGN OF ROHMER
>>> August 18th - September 3rd

When Eric Rohmer died in January at the age of 89, he left behind an inimitable body of work that had beguiled critics and moviegoers for a half-century, even if they found it difficult to pinpoint Rohmer’s particular je ne sais quoi. The most overtly literary of the French New Wave directors, eternally fascinated by the mysteries of human attraction, Rohmer was prized for his wry, insightful dialogue, but undervalued for a deceptively simple visual style, of which the writer Gilbert Adair noted: “He knew, in short, how to film what D.W. Griffith called ‘the wind in the trees,’ how to film air.” In celebration of this extraordinary career, we are delighted to present the most complete North American retrospective of Rohmer’s work in more than a decade, including all of his feature films, the U.S. premiere of his 1980 TV film Catherine de Heilbronn, plus special in-person appearances by key Rohmer collaborators.

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 89 minutes, France, The Criterion Collection, 1967. With Patrick Baucha, Haydée Politoff, Daniel Pommereulle.

Rohmer’s first color film (shot by Nestor Almendros), and his first feature-length Moral Tale, focuses on the sexual power plays between two male friends and a woman who collects lovers as if they were paintings. Set in St. Tropez, and co-written by Rohmer and the three leads, the film is driven by ironic interactions that are at once devilishly entertaining and laced with a sharper edge than in most of his work.

The Aviator’s Wife|La femme de l'aviateur

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 104 minutes, France, Fox Lorber, 1981. With Philippe Marlaud, Marie Rivière, Anne-Laure Meury.

“Or, It is impossible to think of nothing.”
Rohmer’s Comedies & Proverbs series begins with the misunderstandings of youthful obsession, the vagaries of chance encounters, and Paris, always. When a beautiful law student (Philippe Marlaud) sees his girlfriend (Marie Rivière) step out of her apartment with her ex, he trails the man around the city, fearing the worst. But his private fears in public places are put into delightful perspective by an impish younger student (Anne-Laure Meury) whom he runs into. Shot in 16mm and featuring a song sung by Arielle Dombasle (as well as a vintage 80’s man purse). New York Film Festival ’81.

Full Moon in Paris|Les nuits de la pleine lune

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 100 minutes, France, Orion Classics, 1984. With Pascale Ogier, Tchéky Karyo, Fabrice Luchini.

“He who has two women loses his soul; he who has two houses loses his mind.”
A young interior decorator (Venice Film Festival Best Actress winner Pascale Ogier) keeps two residences—one with and one without her boyfriend—in Rohmer’s fourth Comedies & Proverbs film. Louise chases the freedom of the single life in her Paris pied-à-terre, while Remi stays in the other residence, seemingly a homebody. Rohmer’s finely drawn characterization draws out the confusions and small devotions that complicate a familiar paradox, rarely rendered with such subtlety and maturity.

The Bakery Girl of Monceau|La Boulangère de Monceau

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 23 minutes, France, The Criterion Collection, 1963. With Barbet Schroeder, Claudine Soubrier.

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 55 minutes, France, The Criterion Collection, 1963. With Catherine Sée, Philippe Beuzen.

These two delicate tales of unrequited love comprise the first and second episodes of Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales. Though not Rohmer’s first movies, they lay down the simplicity, subtlety, and delicate touch that would define the filmmaker’s style (shot here in black-and-white). The Bakery Girl of Monceau is a snapshot of urban temptation, as a neat young man (future director Barbet Schroeder) finds himself increasing his carb intake after spotting the titular woman. In Suzanne’s Career, a hard-working young student in the Latin Quarter endures mistreatment at the hands of two male colleagues.

Catherine de Heilbronn

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 108 minutes, France, 1980. With Jean Boissery, Daniel Tarrare.

Rohmer returned to The Marquise of O author Heinrich von Kleist for this gorgeous staging (from Rohmer’s own translation) of the author’s popular medieval play, performed at the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre in 1979 and filmed for French television. Pascale Ogier stars as the beautiful armourer’s daughter who becomes infatuated with a gallant knight and leaves home to follow him, whereupon she finds herself in the crosshairs of a jealous rival, Kunigunde de Thurneck (played by frequent Rohmer muse Arielle Dombasle).

Chloe in the Afternoon|Chloe l'après midi

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 97 minutes, France, Heron Communications, 1972. With Bernard Verley, Zouzou, Françoise Verley.

A happily married businessman enters into a flirtation with the bohemian young woman who wants him to father her child in the pitch-perfect conclusion to the Moral Tales cycle. The free spirit and vulnerability of Chloe (Zouzou) that attracts the stable Frédéric (Bernard Verley, real-life husband to the woman playing his wife), but Rohmer leaves open the possibility of calculation to the seduction and in turn allows our sympathy. Featuring an intriguing use of fantasy and dream sequences. New York Film Festival ’72.

Claire’s Knee|Le genou de Claire

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 105 minutes, France, Columbia Pictures, 1970. With Jean-Claude Brialy, Aurora Cornu, Béatrice Romand.

Rohmer’s penultimate moral tale—and one of his most exquisite, painterly films—concerns the increasingly irrational desire of thirtysomething diplomat Jerome (Jean-Claude Brialy) to touch the knee of the eponymous teenage beauty (Laurence de Monaghan), whom he encounters on a summer holiday while visiting his writer friend Aurora. Aurora, in turn, is only too happy to use Jerome’s erotic follies as the material for her latest novel. The superb supporting cast includes a 19-year-old Fabrice Luchini and an 18-year-old Beatrice Romand in the first of their many Rohmer collaborations.

Friday, August 27th at 8:30 pm
Tuesday, August 31st at 2:00 pm

Rendezvous in Paris|Les Rendez-vous de Paris

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 94 minutes, France, Artificial Eye, 1995. With Clara Bellar, Antoine Basler.

A beguiling trio of vignettes about would-be lovers coupling and uncoupling amidst the cafes and galleries of the City of Lights: Esther (Clara Bellar), who believes that her boyfriend is cheating on her, encounters a stranger in a market who professes his instant attraction to her. Another woman (Aurore Rauscher), in the throes of a break-up, lets her new suitor know exactly how he measures up. And an artist (Michael Kraft) uses a trip to the Picasso Museum to rid himself of one lady friend while soliciting the attention of an attractive stranger.
“One of the best of [Rohmer’s] works” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Summer|Le rayon vert

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 98 minutes, France, Orion Classics, 1986. With Marie Rivière, Amira Chemakhi, Sylvie Richez.

“Ah, for the days/That set our hearts ablaze.”
Rohmer’s mid-career triumph follows a depressed, newly single Parisian secretary as she spends her summer vacation looking for happiness and true love. Starring Rohmer axiom Marie Rivière as the directionless Delphine, it’s a masterpiece about unspoken feelings of melancholy and uncertainty, fashioned from the simplest of elements: a change in plans when a holiday falls through. It’s a rare chronicle of in-between moments and moods that’s proven hugely influential, with a glorious, unforgettable guest appearance by a sunset...Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 115 minutes,France/Italy/Spain/Greece/Russia, Koch Lorber Films, 2004. With Katerina Didaskalou, Serge Renko, Cyrielle Clair.

Rohmer’s atypical espionage thriller recounts the true story of a former Russian general working as a spy in 1930s France during the era of the Popular Front and the Spanish Civil War. A White Russian general, Fyodor, has immigrated to Paris with his lovely, devoted wife, Arsinoé. Weighing aloud whether to keep serving the irrelevant White Russians, go over to the Soviet Union, or throw in his lot with the Nazis, Fyodor invites speculation that he is a spy. The husband’s glib confidence makes us question the nature of trust; the viewer is placed in the same position as Fyodor's wife, forced continuously to parse sincerity from insincerity. A moving love story of two people trying to outrun the juggernaut of history. New York Film Festival ’04.

Boyfriends and Girlfriends | L'ami de mon amie

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 103 minutes, France, Orion Classics, 1987. With Emmanuelle Chaulet, Sophie Renoir, Anne-Laure Meury.

“The friends of my friends are my friends.”
Rohmer uses the amorous misadventures of two girlfriends in the Paris suburbs to test the old adage in the final episode of his Comedies & Proverbs series. Taking an identifiable stab at a yuppie(ish) set, Rohmer’s witty Shakespearean roundelay involves two friends, buttoned-up Blanche (Emmanuelle Chaulet, in a superb debut) and free spirit Lea (Sophie Renoir), and their current amours. The pair are tempted by each other’s love interests, testing both their friendship and their understanding of matters of the heart. New York Film Festival ’87.

Sunday, August 29th at 6:00pm
Lead actress Emmanuelle Chaulet will participate in a Q&A following the screening. She will sign copies of her book, A BALANCING ACT.

Tuesday, August 31th at 4:15 pm

Link

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 125 minutes, France, Sony Pictures Classics, 2001. With Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Lucy Russell, Alain Libolt.

Rohmer digitally inserted his actors into 18th-century paintings and hand-painted sets to depict the relationship between Scottish expatriate Grace Dalrymple Elliott and the Duc d’Orléans. Making ironic play on the question of character being shaped by environment, Rohmer sets the violent socio-political upheaval of the French Revolution in a heavily stylized milieu. This is the world as seen by Scottish expatriate Elliott (Lucy Russell)—courtesan to princes, staunch friend of the monarchy, brave anachronism. Rohmer teases us into seeing Revolution as a form of extreme rudeness or breach of taste. Adroitly mixing melancholy with arrant absurdity, The Lady and the Duke celebrates the imagination’s power to make and unmake worlds. New York Film Festival ’01.

Eric Rohmer, Preuves a l’Appui

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 115 minutes, France, 1994. With Eric Rohmer, Arielle Dombasle, Jean Douchet.

Famously private, Rohmer gives a fascinating master class on his recurring themes, obsessions, and influences in this two-part episode of the long-running series Cinéma, de notre temps. Among the discussion topics: the role of German philosophy and music in his films, the random nature of life, the work of his New Wave contemporaries, and how he works with his actors. A rare peek behind the curtain of a master’s creative process.

Pauline at the Beach|Pauline à la plage

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 94 minutes, France, MGM/UA Home Entertainment, 1983. With Amanda Langlet, Arielle Dombasle, Pascal Greggory.

“He who talks too much will damage himself.”
Rohmer won Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival for this unforgettable tale of a 15-year-old girl learning the ways of grown-ups during a summer holiday with her older divorcée cousin. The unrequited love, idle lust, and general folly of adults are backlit against the sincerity and curiosity of the observant teen (Amanda Langlet). The Brittany misadventures are rendered in Nestor Almendros’s seaside photography, in his final collaboration with Rohmer. The third of Rohmer’s Comedies & Proverbs films also stars Pascal Greggory, Arielle Dombasle, and Féodor Atkine.

My Night at Maud's|Ma nuit chez Maud

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 105 minutes, France, Pathé Contemporary Films, 1969. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Françoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault.

In Rohmer’s Oscar-nominated masterpiece, originally presented at the 1969 New York Film Festival, a young Catholic engineer (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is forced by a Clermont-Ferrand snowstorm to spend a night with the irresistibly witty and charming divorcée of the title (the ravishing Françoise Fabian). She tries to seduce him, though he has his heart set on the beautiful blond he’s spied across the pew. So instead they chat, over and under the covers, about the universe, the existence of God, and the philosophies of Blaise Pascal. Rarely has pillow talk been this heady, or this scintillating.

A Good Marriage|Le beau mariage

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 97 minutes, France, United Artists Classics, 1982. With Béatrice Romand, André Dussollier, Féodor Atkine, Arielle Dombasle.

“Who has not built castles in Spain?”
Art student Sabine (Béatrice Romand, the teenager in Claire’s Knee) swears off affairs with married men in favor of finding a good husband. But there’s a small problem with her selection process: she decides to pursue lawyer Edmond (André Dussollier) after meeting him just once at a party (thanks to matchmaker friend Clarisse, played by Arielle Dombasle). And dashing Edmond is not exactly on board with the program... The second of Rohmer’s Comedies & Proverbs films goes out to anyone who ever made a decision and stuck with it to the tragic end.

A Tale of Springtime|Conte de Printemps

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 108 minutes, France, MGM Home Entertainment 1990. With Anne Teyssèdre, Hugues Quester, Florence Darel.

A Rohmerian Parent Trap, the first in the filmmaker’s “Tales of the Four Seasons” follows a teenage piano student (radiant newcomer Florence Darel) in her efforts to play matchmaker between her divorced father and a high-school philosophy teacher she meets at a party. The only hitch: both prospective paramours already have a significant other. But to everything, in life and love, there is a season…

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 114 minutes, France, MK2 Diffusion, 1992. With Charlotte Véry, Frédéric van den Driessche, Michael Voletti.

Félicie (Charlotte Véry) had an ecstatic affair with Charles four years ago, but gave him the wrong address when they parted, and hasn’t seen him since. Now she’s raising their daughter and vacillating between two other men, one a hairdresser and the other an intellectual, but still dreaming of Charles and clinging to her conviction that they’ll meet again. Rohmer’s second seasonal tale is one of his greatest films, a study of faith and transcendence that’s also an effervescent romantic comedy, with a touch of Shakespeare for good measure.

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 113 minutes, France, Artificial Eye, 1996. With Melvil Poupaud, Amanda Langlet, Gwenaëlle Simon.

Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud), a shy mathematics major, embarks on a relaxing summer vacation in Brittany only to find himself juggling the affections of three seductive women: Margot (Amanda Langlet), a waitress who says she just wants to be friends; her extroverted friend Solene (Gwenaëlle Simon), who’s ready and willing for a summer fling; and Gaspard’s own on-again, off-again girlfriend Lena, whose imminent arrival he awaits. The third of Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons is a sun-drenched, sensual delight.tic comedy, with a touch of Shakespeare for good measure.

Directed by Eric Rohmer, 112 minutes, France, October Films, 1998. With Marie Rivière, Béatrice Romand, Alain Libolt.

In the final and possibly finest of his four seasonal tales, Rohmer sets aside his familiar concern with youth to explore the romantic yearnings of middle age. Béatrice Romand plays a feisty, divorced 45-year old vintner who’s the target of a double machination: her best friend (Marie Rivière) schemes to set her up with an amiable businessman, while her son’s girlfriend plots to pair her off with a man who has a taste for young women. Carried along by the wonderfully shaded performances of Rohmer favorites Romand and Rivière, this treat of a movie finds the great director at his most affirmative and buoyant.

MoMA presents AN AUTEURIST HISTORY OF FILM

>>> September 9, 2009 – Ongoing

This ongoing screening cycle is intended to serve as both an exploration of the richness of the Museum’s film collection and a basic introduction to the emergence of cinema as the predominant art form of the twentieth century. The auteurist approach to film—articulated by the critics of Cahiers du Cinéma in the 1950s and brought to America by Andrew Sarris—contends that, despite the collaborative nature of the medium, the director is the primary force behind the creation of a film. This exhibition takes this theory as its point of departure, charting the careers of several key figures not in order to establish a formal canon, but to develop one picture of cinematic history.

Link

Under the Roofs of Paris|Sous les Toits de Paris

Directed by René Clair, 95 minutes, France, The Criterion Collection, 1930. With Albert Préjean, Pola Illéry, Gaston Modot.

Clair’s first talkie is a charming, lyrical musical evocation of a magical Paris of the mind, a Paris in a state of grace, long before Max Ophuls, François Truffaut, and even Jean Renoir. This print has no English subtitles.
For a full plot synopsis, see curator Charles Silver's post on Inside/out

BAMCinemathèk presents ROMAIN DURIS

We mark the release of Heartbreaker with this tribute to one of the most popular actors of his generation. Co-presented by UniFrance.

Link

Directed by Christophe Honoré, 92 minutes, France, IFC Films, 2006. With Romain Duris, Louis Garrel, Guy Marchand.

Honoré showcases his penchant for playful stylistic experimentation in this family drama that channels New Wave forebearers Truffaut and Godard. Heartbroken and depressed, Paul (Duris) moves in with his brother (Garrel) and father (Marchand) who try in vain to cheer him up, while Honoré moves deftly between moods, from somber to ebullient.

Sink your teeth into 33 films featuring cinema’s most dangerous—and dangerously alluring—figure. From Lugosi to the lesbian undead, Murnau to Maddin, camp-horror staple to postmodern, society-as-sickness metaphor, the vampire’s reign over popular imagination continues to seduce filmmakers over to the dark side.

Vampyr |L'étrange aventure de David Gray

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, 70 minutes, Germany/France, General Foreign Sales Corp, 1932. With Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel.

A horror film unlike any other, Dreyer's Vampyr reinvents the genre with nary any of its recognizable trappings. Revealing a series of mysterious goings-on at an ancient castle, Dreyer forsakes strict narrative structure and instead crafts a masterpiece of mood, using gauze filters and expressionistic lighting to create a fractured, dream-like atmosphere of sustained dread. Unsettling and hauntingly beautiful, Vampyr is arguably the director's most radical, formally experimental work.

Anthology Films Archives present WINGS OF DESIRE|LES AILES DU DESIR

Directed by Wim Wenders, 128 minutes, West Germany/France, Orion Classics , 1987. With Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander.

“Wim Wenders’s ambitious and audacious feature focuses mainly on what’s seen and heard by two angels (Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander) as they fly over and walk through contemporary Berlin. These are the angels of the poet Rilke rather than the usual blessed or fallen angels of Christianity, and Wenders and co-screenwriter Peter Handke use them partially to present an astonishing poetic documentary about the life of this city, concentrating on an American movie star on location (Peter Falk playing himself), a French trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin), and a retired German professor who remembers what Berlin used to be like (Curt Bois).” –Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER

Directed by Michel Ocelot, 99 minutes, France/Belgium/Spain/ Italy,GKIDS, 2006.

AZUR & ASMAR is a poetic, fairytale-like story set within a shimmering landscape of incomparable brilliance and beauty. Audiences and critics have been unanimous in their outpouring of praise for this film: “Quite simply, it’s a visual masterpiece that combines cut-outs with CGI and the mesmeric beauty of Islamic art to create a magical world, in which scarlet lions with blue claws and birds with rainbow wings stand between the blonde Azur, and Asmar, the estranged Arab friend of his childhood.” Empire Magazine, “Beautiful!” New York Times, “Mesmerizing! Dazzling! A Feast for the Eyes!” Seattle Times, “Five Stars! Absolutely Gorgeous!” Time Out New York, “Impossibly Gorgeous! The year’s most beautiful animated film!” Salon, “Is it too early to announce the most beautiful film of 2009? It’s hard to imagine a more transporting cinematic experience coming our way than this animated feature from the French writer-director Michel Ocelot.” Chicago Tribune.

Directed by François Ozon, 90 minutes, France, 2009. With Alexandra Lamy, Sergi Lopez.

Friday, August 27th at 7:30 PM
Saturday, August 28 4:35 AM

Link

Directed by Pascale Ferran, 161 minutes, France, 2006. With Marina Hands, Jean-Louis Coullo'ch.

Saturday, August 28 at 1.50 AM

Link

Directed by Catherine Breillat, 114 minutes, France, 2007. With Asia Argento, Fu'ad Ait Aatou.

Sunday, August 29th at 10:00 PM
Monday, August 30th at 3:15 AM

Link

Directed by Luis Bunuel, 98 minutes, France, 1964. With Jeanne Moreau, Georges Géret.

Monday, August 30th at 11:00 AM and 3.30 PM

Link

Directed by Luis Bunuel, 101 minutes, France/Italy/Spain, 1979. With Fernando Rey, Paul Frankeur, Jean-Pierre Cassel.

In the last decade of his career, Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel achieved his greatest popular and critical success with this Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner, a caustic and surreal social comedy about hypocrisy and frustration. Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Cassel and Stephane Audran play middle class friends who, in fact, are neither discreet nor charming and discover that their plans for dinner together invariably go awry.
"A stiletto heel of a film ... his most fully realized work" - John Baxter, Bunuel's biographer.


>>> New Releases
	Mesrine: Killer Instinct\|Mesrine : l'instinct de mort Directed by Jean-François Richet, 113 minutes, France/Canada/Italy, Music Box Films, 2008. With Vincent Cassel, Cécile de France, Gérard Depardieu, Gilles Lellouche. 'Mesrine: Killer Instinct' - the first of two parts - charts the outlaw odyssey of Jacques Mesrine (Vincent Cassel), the legendary French gangster of the 1960s and 1970s who came to be known as French Public Enemy No. 1 and The Man of a Thousand Faces. Infamous for his bravado and outrageously daring prison escapes, Mesrine carried out numerous robberies, kidnappings and murders in a criminal career that spanned continents until he was shot dead in 1979 by France's notorious anti-gang unit. Thirty years after his death, his infamy lives on. Mesrine was helped along the way by beautiful and equally reckless Jeanne Schneider (Cecile de France), a Bonnie to match his Clyde. Mesrine made up his own epic, between romanticism and cruelty, flamboyance and tragedy. Both a thriller and a biopic, 'Mesrine: Killer Instinct' explores the man behind the icon. Angelika Film Center, 18 W. Houston Street, New York, NY 10012, (800) 326-3264 \| AMC Theatres Empire 25, 234 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036, (888)262-4386 Link
	Change of Plans\|Le code a changé Directed by Danièle Thompson, 100 minutes, France, IFC Films, 2009. With Karin Viard, Dany Boon, Marina Foïs, Patrick Bruel. CHANGE OF PLANS is a delicious comedy of manners from acclaimed Oscar- and César-nominated writer/director Danièle Thompson (Avenue Montaigne). The film centers around a summer dinner party where ten acquaintances, each attempting to mask their own personal troubles, come together for an evening of food, wine and friendship. It’s not long before the couples begin revealing their dissatisfaction with their partners and it becomes obvious that they are planning or having affairs. The all-star ensemble cast includes Dany Boon (Micmacs), Emanuelle Seigner (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Karin Viard (Paris), and Marina Hands (Lady Chatterley). IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10014, (212)924-7771 \| Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, Broadway Between 62nd and 63rd, New York, NY 10023, (212) 757-2280 Link
>>> Now Playing
	Army of Crime \|L'armée du crime Directed by Robert Guédiguian, 139 minutes, France, Lorber Films, 2009. With Simon Abkarian, Virginie Ledoyen, Robinson Stévenin. In Robert Guédiguian’s taut, internationally acclaimed thriller, set during the French Resistance, Armenian poet Missak Manouchian (Simon Abkarian) and his French wife (Virginie Ledoyen) lead a ragtag assortment of volunteers — Jews, Poles, Hungarians, Italians, Spaniards and Armenians — in an assassination plot against the German occupiers and their French allies. Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011, (212) 255-8800 Link
	Making Plans for Lena\|Non ma fille, tu n'iras pas danser Directed by Christophe Honoré, 108 minutes, France, Le Pacte, 2009. With Chiara Mastroianni, Marina Foïs, Louis Garrel. Recently liberated from her job and husband, Lena (Chiara Mastroianni) heads home to Brittany for the holidays, hoping to enjoy at least a temporary escape from all she’s gone through in Paris. But no such luck: from practically the moment she’s back, she’s confronted with unwanted advice, character analysis that borders on character assassination, and a few other unexpected surprises. His most successful film yet in France, Christophe Honoré has made a wonderfully sprawling portrait of a family that veers from painful to funny to painfully funny, expertly capturing all the feints and digs that often pass for conversation when families get together. Chiara Mastroianni has never been better, radiating a deceptive calm at the center of this emotional storm, while Marie-Christine Barrault as her mother and Marina Foïs as her sister are the loving obstacles to her actually having any semblance of rest and relaxation. IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10014, (212)924-7771 Link
	The Concert\|Le Concert Directed by Radu Mihaileanu, 119 minutes, France/Italy/Romania/ Belgium/Russia, The Weinstein Company, 2009. With Aleksei Guskov, Dmitri Nazarov, Mélanie Laurent. Andreï Filipov was a prodigy—the celebrated conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra, the greatest orchestra in Russia. Today, aged 50, he still works at the Bolshoi, but as a cleaner. The Director of the Bolshoi, an old apparatchik, has been promising forever to return Andreï’s orchestra to him “soon”, but he’s mocking him, humiliating him sadistically. For him, Andreï’s a has-been, and he’s doing him a big favor by keeping him on as a cleaner. Then Andreï finds a fax inviting the orchestra to play at Pleyel, in Paris, in two weeks’ time, as a last minute replacement for the indisposed Los Angeles Philharmonic. Andreï conceives of a crazy notion: he’ll round up his old musician buddies, a motley bunch now scraping a living in Moscow as cab drivers, removal men, flea market traders, suppliers of porno film sound effects… City Cinemas, Cinemas 123, 1001 3rd Avenue, New York, NY 10022 (800) 326-3264 \| Cobble Hill Cinemas, 265 Court St. Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) 596-9113 Link City Cinema 123 Link Cobble Hill Cinema
	Mademoiselle Chambon Directed by Stéphane Brizé, 101 minutes, France, Lorber Films, 2009. With Vincent Lindon, Sandrine Kiberlain. Two adults struggle to avoid letting their erotic passion for one another guide them into infidelity in this subtly erotic, understated chamber drama from France. Vincent Lindon stars as Jean, a burly blue-collar mason who lives semi-contentedly with his wife, Anne-Marie (Aure Atika), and son, Jérémy (Arthur Le Houérou), in some unspecified provincial French town. Little passion exists in Jean's life -- until his path crisscrosses with that of Véronique Chambon (Sandrine Kiberlain), his son's violin teacher. Completely taken with the woman's cultural sophistication (manifested through her love of classical music) and intellectualism, Jean begins contemplating an affair with this virtual stranger, and offers to repair one of her windows as an excuse to be more proximate to her. Ultimately, suspense begins to build as the question lingers of whether the two will give in to their desires. Stéphane Brizé directed and authored the script, an adaptation of Eric Holder's novel. - Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide Northshore Towers Twin Cinema, 272-40 Grand Central Parkway, Floral Park, NY 11001, (718) 229-7702 Link
	Lebanon Directed by Samuel Maoz, 93 minutes, Israel/France/UK, Sony Pictures Classics, 2009. With Yoav Donat, Itay Tiran, Oshri Cohen, Ashraf Barhom. A handful of soldiers take a claustrophobic journey into the heart of war in this drama from Israeli writer and director Samuel Maoz. It's June 1982, and Israel is launching an invasion of Lebanon. Four men assigned to take part in the first strike are put on the same tank detail -- Assi (Itay Tiran) is the commanding officer, Shmulik (Yoav Donat) is a gunner new to the outfit, Hertzel (Oshri Cohen) keeps the weapons loaded, and Yigal (Michael Moshonov) drives the machine. After being given their orders by Jamil (Zohar Strauss), the men set out toward the Lebanese border, recognizing little of what goes on outside beyond what can be seen through Yigal's tiny window; they occasionally stop to help fellow Israelis hurt in battle, but for the most part, they roll relentlessly onward, occasionally arguing amongst themselves, until they arrive at their destination, a town already bombed into rubble by the Israeli Air Force. Levanone (aka Lebanon) was an official selection at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival. - Mark Deming, All Movie Guide Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011, (212) 255-8800. Link
	Nanny McPhee Returns Directed by Susanna White, 108 minutes, UK/USA/France, Universal Pictures, 2010. With Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rhys Ifans,. A struggling mother receives some much-needed assistance tending to the family farm and raising a group of spirited children while her military husband is fighting overseas in this sequel to the whimsical 2005 fantasy comedy Nanny McPhee. Mrs. Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal) lives in a scenic valley with her two daughters and one son. They each understand the importance of working together as a family, and things are going remarkably smoothly for the rural quartet until a pair of spoiled cousins arrive for an extended stay, effectively turning the quaint little farm into a virtual zoo. As the situation quickly getting out of hand, Nannie McPhee (Emma Thompson) suddenly appears on her doorstep claiming that she can bring a much-needed sense of order to the out-of-control household. In time the mysterious helper does just that, using powerful magic to teach her young charges the importance of getting along, and gradually winning their trust in the process. But when the piglets escape from their sty, the contentious kids must work together to recover the family farm's most valued assets, or risk losing everything their father worked so hard to build before he went off to fight in the war. Rhys Ifans and Maggie Smith co-star. - Jason Buchanan, Rovi. Link
>>> Revivals, Classics, Festivals…
	The Film Society of Lincoln Center presents THE SIGN OF ROHMER >>> August 18th - September 3rd When Eric Rohmer died in January at the age of 89, he left behind an inimitable body of work that had beguiled critics and moviegoers for a half-century, even if they found it difficult to pinpoint Rohmer’s particular je ne sais quoi. The most overtly literary of the French New Wave directors, eternally fascinated by the mysteries of human attraction, Rohmer was prized for his wry, insightful dialogue, but undervalued for a deceptively simple visual style, of which the writer Gilbert Adair noted: “He knew, in short, how to film what D.W. Griffith called ‘the wind in the trees,’ how to film air.” In celebration of this extraordinary career, we are delighted to present the most complete North American retrospective of Rohmer’s work in more than a decade, including all of his feature films, the U.S. premiere of his 1980 TV film Catherine de Heilbronn, plus special in-person appearances by key Rohmer collaborators. Link
	La Collectionneuse Directed by Eric Rohmer, 89 minutes, France, The Criterion Collection, 1967. With Patrick Baucha, Haydée Politoff, Daniel Pommereulle. Rohmer’s first color film (shot by Nestor Almendros), and his first feature-length Moral Tale, focuses on the sexual power plays between two male friends and a woman who collects lovers as if they were paintings. Set in St. Tropez, and co-written by Rohmer and the three leads, the film is driven by ironic interactions that are at once devilishly entertaining and laced with a sharper edge than in most of his work. Friday, August 27th at 4:15 pm Link
	The Aviator’s Wife\|La femme de l'aviateur Directed by Eric Rohmer, 104 minutes, France, Fox Lorber, 1981. With Philippe Marlaud, Marie Rivière, Anne-Laure Meury. “Or, It is impossible to think of nothing.” Rohmer’s Comedies & Proverbs series begins with the misunderstandings of youthful obsession, the vagaries of chance encounters, and Paris, always. When a beautiful law student (Philippe Marlaud) sees his girlfriend (Marie Rivière) step out of her apartment with her ex, he trails the man around the city, fearing the worst. But his private fears in public places are put into delightful perspective by an impish younger student (Anne-Laure Meury) whom he runs into. Shot in 16mm and featuring a song sung by Arielle Dombasle (as well as a vintage 80’s man purse). New York Film Festival ’81. Saturday, August 28th at 4:00 pm Link
	Full Moon in Paris\|Les nuits de la pleine lune Directed by Eric Rohmer, 100 minutes, France, Orion Classics, 1984. With Pascale Ogier, Tchéky Karyo, Fabrice Luchini. “He who has two women loses his soul; he who has two houses loses his mind.” A young interior decorator (Venice Film Festival Best Actress winner Pascale Ogier) keeps two residences—one with and one without her boyfriend—in Rohmer’s fourth Comedies & Proverbs film. Louise chases the freedom of the single life in her Paris pied-à-terre, while Remi stays in the other residence, seemingly a homebody. Rohmer’s finely drawn characterization draws out the confusions and small devotions that complicate a familiar paradox, rarely rendered with such subtlety and maturity. Sunday, August 29th at 2:00 pm Thurday September 2nd at 9:00 pm Link
	The Bakery Girl of Monceau\|La Boulangère de Monceau Directed by Eric Rohmer, 23 minutes, France, The Criterion Collection, 1963. With Barbet Schroeder, Claudine Soubrier. Followed by... Suzanne’s Career\|La carrière de Suzanne Directed by Eric Rohmer, 55 minutes, France, The Criterion Collection, 1963. With Catherine Sée, Philippe Beuzen. These two delicate tales of unrequited love comprise the first and second episodes of Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales. Though not Rohmer’s first movies, they lay down the simplicity, subtlety, and delicate touch that would define the filmmaker’s style (shot here in black-and-white). The Bakery Girl of Monceau is a snapshot of urban temptation, as a neat young man (future director Barbet Schroeder) finds himself increasing his carb intake after spotting the titular woman. In Suzanne’s Career, a hard-working young student in the Latin Quarter endures mistreatment at the hands of two male colleagues. Friday, August 27th at 2:15 pm Link
	Catherine de Heilbronn Directed by Eric Rohmer, 108 minutes, France, 1980. With Jean Boissery, Daniel Tarrare. Rohmer returned to The Marquise of O author Heinrich von Kleist for this gorgeous staging (from Rohmer’s own translation) of the author’s popular medieval play, performed at the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre in 1979 and filmed for French television. Pascale Ogier stars as the beautiful armourer’s daughter who becomes infatuated with a gallant knight and leaves home to follow him, whereupon she finds herself in the crosshairs of a jealous rival, Kunigunde de Thurneck (played by frequent Rohmer muse Arielle Dombasle). Thursday, September 2nd at 4:00 pm U.S. Premiere! Link
	Chloe in the Afternoon\|Chloe l'après midi Directed by Eric Rohmer, 97 minutes, France, Heron Communications, 1972. With Bernard Verley, Zouzou, Françoise Verley. A happily married businessman enters into a flirtation with the bohemian young woman who wants him to father her child in the pitch-perfect conclusion to the Moral Tales cycle. The free spirit and vulnerability of Chloe (Zouzou) that attracts the stable Frédéric (Bernard Verley, real-life husband to the woman playing his wife), but Rohmer leaves open the possibility of calculation to the seduction and in turn allows our sympathy. Featuring an intriguing use of fantasy and dream sequences. New York Film Festival ’72. Saturday, August 28th at 2:00 pm Tuesday, August 31st at 9:00 pm Link
	Claire’s Knee\|Le genou de Claire Directed by Eric Rohmer, 105 minutes, France, Columbia Pictures, 1970. With Jean-Claude Brialy, Aurora Cornu, Béatrice Romand. Rohmer’s penultimate moral tale—and one of his most exquisite, painterly films—concerns the increasingly irrational desire of thirtysomething diplomat Jerome (Jean-Claude Brialy) to touch the knee of the eponymous teenage beauty (Laurence de Monaghan), whom he encounters on a summer holiday while visiting his writer friend Aurora. Aurora, in turn, is only too happy to use Jerome’s erotic follies as the material for her latest novel. The superb supporting cast includes a 19-year-old Fabrice Luchini and an 18-year-old Beatrice Romand in the first of their many Rohmer collaborations. Friday, August 27th at 8:30 pm Tuesday, August 31st at 2:00 pm Link
	Rendezvous in Paris\|Les Rendez-vous de Paris Directed by Eric Rohmer, 94 minutes, France, Artificial Eye, 1995. With Clara Bellar, Antoine Basler. A beguiling trio of vignettes about would-be lovers coupling and uncoupling amidst the cafes and galleries of the City of Lights: Esther (Clara Bellar), who believes that her boyfriend is cheating on her, encounters a stranger in a market who professes his instant attraction to her. Another woman (Aurore Rauscher), in the throes of a break-up, lets her new suitor know exactly how he measures up. And an artist (Michael Kraft) uses a trip to the Picasso Museum to rid himself of one lady friend while soliciting the attention of an attractive stranger. “One of the best of [Rohmer’s] works” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times Monday, August 30th at 9:00 pm Link
	Summer\|Le rayon vert Directed by Eric Rohmer, 98 minutes, France, Orion Classics, 1986. With Marie Rivière, Amira Chemakhi, Sylvie Richez. “Ah, for the days/That set our hearts ablaze.” Rohmer’s mid-career triumph follows a depressed, newly single Parisian secretary as she spends her summer vacation looking for happiness and true love. Starring Rohmer axiom Marie Rivière as the directionless Delphine, it’s a masterpiece about unspoken feelings of melancholy and uncertainty, fashioned from the simplest of elements: a change in plans when a holiday falls through. It’s a rare chronicle of in-between moments and moods that’s proven hugely influential, with a glorious, unforgettable guest appearance by a sunset...Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Sunday, August 29th at 4:00 pm Wednesday September 1st at 4:15 pm Link
	Triple Agent Directed by Eric Rohmer, 115 minutes,France/Italy/Spain/Greece/Russia, Koch Lorber Films, 2004. With Katerina Didaskalou, Serge Renko, Cyrielle Clair. Rohmer’s atypical espionage thriller recounts the true story of a former Russian general working as a spy in 1930s France during the era of the Popular Front and the Spanish Civil War. A White Russian general, Fyodor, has immigrated to Paris with his lovely, devoted wife, Arsinoé. Weighing aloud whether to keep serving the irrelevant White Russians, go over to the Soviet Union, or throw in his lot with the Nazis, Fyodor invites speculation that he is a spy. The husband’s glib confidence makes us question the nature of trust; the viewer is placed in the same position as Fyodor's wife, forced continuously to parse sincerity from insincerity. A moving love story of two people trying to outrun the juggernaut of history. New York Film Festival ’04. Monday, August 30th at 4:30 pm Link
	Boyfriends and Girlfriends \| L'ami de mon amie Directed by Eric Rohmer, 103 minutes, France, Orion Classics, 1987. With Emmanuelle Chaulet, Sophie Renoir, Anne-Laure Meury. “The friends of my friends are my friends.” Rohmer uses the amorous misadventures of two girlfriends in the Paris suburbs to test the old adage in the final episode of his Comedies & Proverbs series. Taking an identifiable stab at a yuppie(ish) set, Rohmer’s witty Shakespearean roundelay involves two friends, buttoned-up Blanche (Emmanuelle Chaulet, in a superb debut) and free spirit Lea (Sophie Renoir), and their current amours. The pair are tempted by each other’s love interests, testing both their friendship and their understanding of matters of the heart. New York Film Festival ’87. Sunday, August 29th at 6:00pm Lead actress Emmanuelle Chaulet will participate in a Q&A following the screening. She will sign copies of her book, A BALANCING ACT. Tuesday, August 31th at 4:15 pm Link
	The Lady and the Duke \| L'Anglaise et le Duc Directed by Eric Rohmer, 125 minutes, France, Sony Pictures Classics, 2001. With Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Lucy Russell, Alain Libolt. Rohmer digitally inserted his actors into 18th-century paintings and hand-painted sets to depict the relationship between Scottish expatriate Grace Dalrymple Elliott and the Duc d’Orléans. Making ironic play on the question of character being shaped by environment, Rohmer sets the violent socio-political upheaval of the French Revolution in a heavily stylized milieu. This is the world as seen by Scottish expatriate Elliott (Lucy Russell)—courtesan to princes, staunch friend of the monarchy, brave anachronism. Rohmer teases us into seeing Revolution as a form of extreme rudeness or breach of taste. Adroitly mixing melancholy with arrant absurdity, The Lady and the Duke celebrates the imagination’s power to make and unmake worlds. New York Film Festival ’01. Monday, August 30th at 2:00 pm Link
	Eric Rohmer, Preuves a l’Appui Directed by Eric Rohmer, 115 minutes, France, 1994. With Eric Rohmer, Arielle Dombasle, Jean Douchet. Famously private, Rohmer gives a fascinating master class on his recurring themes, obsessions, and influences in this two-part episode of the long-running series Cinéma, de notre temps. Among the discussion topics: the role of German philosophy and music in his films, the random nature of life, the work of his New Wave contemporaries, and how he works with his actors. A rare peek behind the curtain of a master’s creative process. Sunday, August 29th at 8:15 pm Thursday, September 2nd at 1:30 pm Link
	Pauline at the Beach\|Pauline à la plage Directed by Eric Rohmer, 94 minutes, France, MGM/UA Home Entertainment, 1983. With Amanda Langlet, Arielle Dombasle, Pascal Greggory. “He who talks too much will damage himself.” Rohmer won Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival for this unforgettable tale of a 15-year-old girl learning the ways of grown-ups during a summer holiday with her older divorcée cousin. The unrequited love, idle lust, and general folly of adults are backlit against the sincerity and curiosity of the observant teen (Amanda Langlet). The Brittany misadventures are rendered in Nestor Almendros’s seaside photography, in his final collaboration with Rohmer. The third of Rohmer’s Comedies & Proverbs films also stars Pascal Greggory, Arielle Dombasle, and Féodor Atkine. Saturday, August 28th at 8:30 pm Link
	My Night at Maud's\|Ma nuit chez Maud Directed by Eric Rohmer, 105 minutes, France, Pathé Contemporary Films, 1969. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Françoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault. In Rohmer’s Oscar-nominated masterpiece, originally presented at the 1969 New York Film Festival, a young Catholic engineer (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is forced by a Clermont-Ferrand snowstorm to spend a night with the irresistibly witty and charming divorcée of the title (the ravishing Françoise Fabian). She tries to seduce him, though he has his heart set on the beautiful blond he’s spied across the pew. So instead they chat, over and under the covers, about the universe, the existence of God, and the philosophies of Blaise Pascal. Rarely has pillow talk been this heady, or this scintillating. Friday, August 27th at 6:15 pm Link
	A Good Marriage\|Le beau mariage Directed by Eric Rohmer, 97 minutes, France, United Artists Classics, 1982. With Béatrice Romand, André Dussollier, Féodor Atkine, Arielle Dombasle. “Who has not built castles in Spain?” Art student Sabine (Béatrice Romand, the teenager in Claire’s Knee) swears off affairs with married men in favor of finding a good husband. But there’s a small problem with her selection process: she decides to pursue lawyer Edmond (André Dussollier) after meeting him just once at a party (thanks to matchmaker friend Clarisse, played by Arielle Dombasle). And dashing Edmond is not exactly on board with the program... The second of Rohmer’s Comedies & Proverbs films goes out to anyone who ever made a decision and stuck with it to the tragic end. Saturday, August 28th at 6:15 pm Link
	A Tale of Springtime\|Conte de Printemps Directed by Eric Rohmer, 108 minutes, France, MGM Home Entertainment 1990. With Anne Teyssèdre, Hugues Quester, Florence Darel. A Rohmerian Parent Trap, the first in the filmmaker’s “Tales of the Four Seasons” follows a teenage piano student (radiant newcomer Florence Darel) in her efforts to play matchmaker between her divorced father and a high-school philosophy teacher she meets at a party. The only hitch: both prospective paramours already have a significant other. But to everything, in life and love, there is a season… Monday, August 30th at 6:45 Link
	A Tale of Winter \|Conte d'Hiver Directed by Eric Rohmer, 114 minutes, France, MK2 Diffusion, 1992. With Charlotte Véry, Frédéric van den Driessche, Michael Voletti. Félicie (Charlotte Véry) had an ecstatic affair with Charles four years ago, but gave him the wrong address when they parted, and hasn’t seen him since. Now she’s raising their daughter and vacillating between two other men, one a hairdresser and the other an intellectual, but still dreaming of Charles and clinging to her conviction that they’ll meet again. Rohmer’s second seasonal tale is one of his greatest films, a study of faith and transcendence that’s also an effervescent romantic comedy, with a touch of Shakespeare for good measure. Tuesday, August 31th at 6:30 pm Link
	A Summer’s Tale\|Conte d'Eté Directed by Eric Rohmer, 113 minutes, France, Artificial Eye, 1996. With Melvil Poupaud, Amanda Langlet, Gwenaëlle Simon. Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud), a shy mathematics major, embarks on a relaxing summer vacation in Brittany only to find himself juggling the affections of three seductive women: Margot (Amanda Langlet), a waitress who says she just wants to be friends; her extroverted friend Solene (Gwenaëlle Simon), who’s ready and willing for a summer fling; and Gaspard’s own on-again, off-again girlfriend Lena, whose imminent arrival he awaits. The third of Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons is a sun-drenched, sensual delight.tic comedy, with a touch of Shakespeare for good measure. Wednesday, September 1st at 2:00 pm Link
	Autumn Tale\|Conte d'Automne Directed by Eric Rohmer, 112 minutes, France, October Films, 1998. With Marie Rivière, Béatrice Romand, Alain Libolt. In the final and possibly finest of his four seasonal tales, Rohmer sets aside his familiar concern with youth to explore the romantic yearnings of middle age. Béatrice Romand plays a feisty, divorced 45-year old vintner who’s the target of a double machination: her best friend (Marie Rivière) schemes to set her up with an amiable businessman, while her son’s girlfriend plots to pair her off with a man who has a taste for young women. Carried along by the wonderfully shaded performances of Rohmer favorites Romand and Rivière, this treat of a movie finds the great director at his most affirmative and buoyant. Thursday, September 2nd at 6:45 pm Link
	MoMA presents AN AUTEURIST HISTORY OF FILM >>> September 9, 2009 – Ongoing This ongoing screening cycle is intended to serve as both an exploration of the richness of the Museum’s film collection and a basic introduction to the emergence of cinema as the predominant art form of the twentieth century. The auteurist approach to film—articulated by the critics of Cahiers du Cinéma in the 1950s and brought to America by Andrew Sarris—contends that, despite the collaborative nature of the medium, the director is the primary force behind the creation of a film. This exhibition takes this theory as its point of departure, charting the careers of several key figures not in order to establish a formal canon, but to develop one picture of cinematic history. Link
	Under the Roofs of Paris\|Sous les Toits de Paris Directed by René Clair, 95 minutes, France, The Criterion Collection, 1930. With Albert Préjean, Pola Illéry, Gaston Modot. Clair’s first talkie is a charming, lyrical musical evocation of a magical Paris of the mind, a Paris in a state of grace, long before Max Ophuls, François Truffaut, and even Jean Renoir. This print has no English subtitles. For a full plot synopsis, see curator Charles Silver's post on Inside/out Friday, August 27th at 1:30 pm Theater 3, mezzanine, Education and Research Building Link
	BAMCinemathèk presents ROMAIN DURIS We mark the release of Heartbreaker with this tribute to one of the most popular actors of his generation. Co-presented by UniFrance. Link
	In Paris\|Dans Paris Directed by Christophe Honoré, 92 minutes, France, IFC Films, 2006. With Romain Duris, Louis Garrel, Guy Marchand. Honoré showcases his penchant for playful stylistic experimentation in this family drama that channels New Wave forebearers Truffaut and Godard. Heartbroken and depressed, Paul (Duris) moves in with his brother (Garrel) and father (Marchand) who try in vain to cheer him up, while Honoré moves deftly between moods, from somber to ebullient. Wednesday, September 1st at 4:30pm, 6:50pm & 9:15pm Link
	BAMCinemathèk presents BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD, VAMPIRE LIVE FOREVER >>> August 4th - September 30th Sink your teeth into 33 films featuring cinema’s most dangerous—and dangerously alluring—figure. From Lugosi to the lesbian undead, Murnau to Maddin, camp-horror staple to postmodern, society-as-sickness metaphor, the vampire’s reign over popular imagination continues to seduce filmmakers over to the dark side. Link
	Vampyr \|L'étrange aventure de David Gray Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, 70 minutes, Germany/France, General Foreign Sales Corp, 1932. With Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel. A horror film unlike any other, Dreyer's Vampyr reinvents the genre with nary any of its recognizable trappings. Revealing a series of mysterious goings-on at an ancient castle, Dreyer forsakes strict narrative structure and instead crafts a masterpiece of mood, using gauze filters and expressionistic lighting to create a fractured, dream-like atmosphere of sustained dread. Unsettling and hauntingly beautiful, Vampyr is arguably the director's most radical, formally experimental work. Thursday, September 2nd at 6:50 & 9:15pm Link
	Anthology Films Archives present WINGS OF DESIRE\|LES AILES DU DESIR Directed by Wim Wenders, 128 minutes, West Germany/France, Orion Classics , 1987. With Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander. “Wim Wenders’s ambitious and audacious feature focuses mainly on what’s seen and heard by two angels (Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander) as they fly over and walk through contemporary Berlin. These are the angels of the poet Rilke rather than the usual blessed or fallen angels of Christianity, and Wenders and co-screenwriter Peter Handke use them partially to present an astonishing poetic documentary about the life of this city, concentrating on an American movie star on location (Peter Falk playing himself), a French trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin), and a retired German professor who remembers what Berlin used to be like (Curt Bois).” –Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER Saturday, August 21st at 9.00 pm Sunday, August 22th at 6.00 pm Link
	IFC Center presents AZUR & ASMAR\|AZUR ET ASMAR Directed by Michel Ocelot, 99 minutes, France/Belgium/Spain/ Italy,GKIDS, 2006. AZUR & ASMAR is a poetic, fairytale-like story set within a shimmering landscape of incomparable brilliance and beauty. Audiences and critics have been unanimous in their outpouring of praise for this film: “Quite simply, it’s a visual masterpiece that combines cut-outs with CGI and the mesmeric beauty of Islamic art to create a magical world, in which scarlet lions with blue claws and birds with rainbow wings stand between the blonde Azur, and Asmar, the estranged Arab friend of his childhood.” Empire Magazine, “Beautiful!” New York Times, “Mesmerizing! Dazzling! A Feast for the Eyes!” Seattle Times, “Five Stars! Absolutely Gorgeous!” Time Out New York, “Impossibly Gorgeous! The year’s most beautiful animated film!” Salon, “Is it too early to announce the most beautiful film of 2009? It’s hard to imagine a more transporting cinematic experience coming our way than this animated feature from the French writer-director Michel Ocelot.” Chicago Tribune. Friday, August 20th at 11:05 am Saturday, August 21st at 11:05 am Sunday, August 22th at 11:05 am Link
>>> TV Program Sundance Channel
	Ricky Directed by François Ozon, 90 minutes, France, 2009. With Alexandra Lamy, Sergi Lopez. Throughout his career, French filmmaker François Ozon has confounded expectations. In his tenth feature, Ozon shifts tone from gritty realism to allegorical fantasy as he adapts a Rose Tremain story about Katie (Alexandra Lamy), a stressed factory worker living with her 7-year-old daughter. With a cool, unromantic eye, Ozon charts the family's shifting dynamics as Katie begins an affair with a fellow employee (Sergi Lopez), has a child, and confronts the realization that despite appearances, the newest addition to the household is no angel. Friday, August 27th at 7:30 PM Saturday, August 28 4:35 AM Link
	Lady Chatterley Directed by Pascale Ferran, 161 minutes, France, 2006. With Marina Hands, Jean-Louis Coullo'ch. This French treatment of D.H. Lawrence's story of class and sexual awakening is not the first, yet many critics acclaimed it the best. Notably, it adapts Lawrence's earlier draft, John Thomas and Lady Jane and has a woman, Pascale Ferran, as director and co-writer. As the title indicates, Constance Chatterley (Marina Hands) is the focus, rather than her lover (Jean-Louis Coulloc'h). Stunning cinematography and notable performances distinguish this multiple award-winner, which The New York Times hailed as "bracingly fresh, vital and modern." Saturday, August 28 at 1.50 AM Link
	The Last Mistress \| Une vieille maîtresse Directed by Catherine Breillat, 114 minutes, France, 2007. With Asia Argento, Fu'ad Ait Aatou. French filmmaker Catherine Breillat (ROMANCE; FAT GIRL) is famous for her uncompromising features examining varied forms of human sexuality and eroticism. In her most accessible film, Breillat parts 19th century bedchamber doors to tell a story about a sexually insatiable courtesan (Asia Argento) and her longtime lover, a penniless young rake (Fu'ad Ait Aattou) who tries to end their affair when he marries a young, wealthy aristocrat. A sumptuous and passionate period piece examining the anarchy of desire. "Like an erotic dream" -- Salon. Sunday, August 29th at 10:00 PM Monday, August 30th at 3:15 AM Link
	Diary Of A Chambermaid\|Le journal d'une femme de chambre Directed by Luis Bunuel, 98 minutes, France, 1964. With Jeanne Moreau, Georges Géret. Late in his long career, the great Spanish filmmaker and surrealist Luis Bunuel made six features in France that remain among his finest work. The first was this updated adaptation of Octave Mirbeau's celebrated novel examining the foibles and hypocrisy of the landed gentry as seen through the eyes of a newly installed chambermaid (Jeanne Moreau). With frequent screenwriting collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere, Bunuel revels in comically depicting the grotesque and perverse aspects of bourgeois life and daily existence on a rural country estate. Monday, August 30th at 11:00 AM and 3.30 PM Link
	Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie \| Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie Directed by Luis Bunuel, 101 minutes, France/Italy/Spain, 1979. With Fernando Rey, Paul Frankeur, Jean-Pierre Cassel. In the last decade of his career, Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel achieved his greatest popular and critical success with this Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner, a caustic and surreal social comedy about hypocrisy and frustration. Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Cassel and Stephane Audran play middle class friends who, in fact, are neither discreet nor charming and discover that their plans for dinner together invariably go awry. "A stiletto heel of a film ... his most fully realized work" - John Baxter, Bunuel's biographer. Sunday, August 29th at 8:10 AM Link
	---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Become a fan of the French Cultural Services Film, Broadcasting & IT Department \| Cultural Services \| French Embassy 972 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10075 E cinema-ny@frenchculture.org \| T 212 439 1400 \| W frenchculture.org Click here to unsubscribe