Directors’ Fortnight at 40
’La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs’ Anniversary Celebration
This series combines past and current international selections from the 40-year history of the prestigious showcase, including a week-long run of Jacques Rivette’s Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974), the U.S. premieres of Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s Adhen and Olivier Jahan’s 40 x 15, and a number of rare films which played during the inaugural Directors’ Fortnight in 1969. Also actress Bulle Ogier will beat BAM for a Q&A with film historian Elliott Stein on June 27 after screening of La Salamandre (Alain Tanner, 1971).
’Directors’ Fortnight’ at BAM, June 13–July 3 and at FIAF, June 20–22
FIAF (French Institute Alliance Française)’s La Quinzaine des réalisateurs
FIAF presents La Quinzaine des réalisateurs (The Directors’ Fortnight), with a selection of some of the best and most recent French films. For more details, visit www.fiaf.org.
June 20 at 7pm: Adhen (Le Dernier maquis) (Rabah Ameur-ZaÔmeche, 2008); June 21 at 12:30pm: On Fire (ca brule) (Claire Simon, 2006); June 21 at 4pm: La France (Serge Bozon, 2007); June 21 at 7pm: Change of Address (Changement d’addresse) (Emmanuel Mouret, 2006); June 22 at 12:30: 40 x 15 (Olivier Jahan, 2008); June 22 at 4pm: Life on Earth (La Vie sur terre) (Abderrahmane Sissako, 1998) with The Little Girl Who Stole the Sun (La Petite vendeuse de soleil) (Djibril Diop Mambety, 1999); and June 22 at 7pm: L’Enfance Nue (Maurice Pialat, 1968).
’Directors’ Fortnight’ at BAM
Week-long run, Friday, June 13—Thursday, June 19
Friday, June 13–Sunday, June 15 at 3, 7pm Monday, June 16– Thursday, June 19 at 4:30, 8:10pm
(Céline et Julie vont en bateau) (1974), 193min, in French with English subtitles, in a recently stuck print courtesy of BFI Directed by Jacques Rivette With Juliet Berto, Bulle Ogier, Marie-France Pisier, Dominique Labourier
Rivette’s masterpiece is a summery Alice in Wonderland about two women who become friends and begin to share everything, especially their imaginations. Both are magicians, one is a magician-witch and the other a magican-illustionist. As feminist as Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman (1975) in its own way, CÈline explores how women see the world, themselves, and each other, as CÈline and Julie drop in and out of various rabbit holes, inviting us to join them in creating and shaping the narrative as they go along. ìScary, evocative, exhilarating, and essential,î comments Time Out London.
Friday, June 20 at 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30pm
(Faustrecht der Freiheit) (1975), 123min, in German with English subtitles Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder With Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Peter Chatel
In one of Fassbinder’s best performances in his own films, he plays Fox, a dim-witted carnival worker who is picked up by a wealthy gay man after losing his job. But when Fox wins big on a lottery ticket, his new “friends” begin to take advantage. Full of social critique, the film remains vital in its unusual compassion for its characters (especially the naive Fox).
Saturday, June 21 at 2, 7pm
(1980), 104min, an imported print Directed by Christopher Petit With David Beames, Lisa Kreuzer, Sting
Following the mysterious death of his brother, a man hits the road from London to Bristol to investigate what really happened. This loose framework sets the stage for a Wim Wenders-like road movie (Wenders served as producer) where the protagonist has a series of chance encounters with various lost souls, none of whom he is able to communicate with or understand. A film loaded with questions and devoid of answers, Radio On is an astonishing time capsule that captures the alienation many in Britain felt as the 70s sunk into the 80s. A rare, almost eerie attempt at mythic British cinema,î says Time Out London.
Saturday, June 21 at 4:30, 9:15pm
Control
(2007), 120min Directed by Anton Corbjin With Sam Riley, Samantha Morton
Control chronicles the short life and music career of Ian Curtis, frontman and spiritual leader of the hugely influential British rock band Joy Division. Former photographer Corbijn, lensing his film in crisp black and white, does not fall into the common trap of mythologizing his subject or glossing over his career—he digs deep and creates a devastating portrait of a troubled soul. The sense of realism is heightened by the spot-on recreations of Joy Division’s tunes by Riley and his fellow cast (and band) members. ìControl has an unmistakable pulse,î writes The New Yorker, ìa wiry, electric tension between the extraordinary spectacle of Curtis at maximum surge—clinging to the microphone for dear life, or stepping away from it and swinging his arms in a frantic march to nowhere—and the dented ordinariness of which his undear life, like ours, was mostly composed.
Sunday, June 22 at 2, 6:50pm*
(Dernier maquis) (2008), 93min, in French with English subtitles, U.S. Premiere. Directed by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche
A rising director, Algerian-born Ameur-Zaimeche’s second film, Bled Number One, played in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. His latest film takes place in the depths of a desolate industrial park. Mao, a Muslim boss who owns a company that repairs pallets, as well as a trucks garage, decides to open a mosque and designate the imam without any consultation.
*An introduction and Q&A with Directors’ Fortnight Artistic director Olivier PËre and Rabah Ameur-ZaÔmeche will take place during the 6:50pm screening.
Sunday, June 22 at 4:30, 9:30pm
(2002), 97min, an imported print Directed by Lynne Ramsay With Samantha Morton
Ramsay’s follow-up to her astonishing debut Ratcatcher is just as accomplished—in no small part because of the mesmerizing Samantha Morton. On Christmas Day, Morvern finds her boyfriend dead on the floor, leaving her some money for his funeral and an unpublished novel, which she signs her own name to and sends off to publishers. Ramsay’s incredibly assured visual language and the enigmatic performance by Morton result in a beautifully strange work of art. ’A wonderfully lush-pure punk existentialism’ writes The New York Times.
Monday, June 23 at 7pm
This program features experimental short films that all played in the first edition of Directors’ Fortnight. With Image, Flesh and Voice (1969), 77min Directed by Ed Emshwiller Through a structured interplay of sound, image, and sensual tensions, Emshwiller delivers a penetrating inner portrait of men, women, and their relationships with each other. Fuses (1967), 23min Directed by Carolee Schneeman The first film in the director’s ’Autobiographical Trilogy’ the silent, abstract Fuses is a landmark of feminist filmmaking. Schneeman incorporates a collage of images of herself making love with her partner that she has altered by painting, burning, and scratching directly on the film strip, which she juxtaposes with shots of nature and her observing housecat, in order to reverse traditional representations of the female body in pornography and classical art. 1/57: Versuch mit synthetischem Ton (Test) (1957), 2min Directed by Kurt Kren Kren’s film experiments with synthetic sound.
Tuesday, June 24 at 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm
by Hanging (Koshikei) (1968), 117min, in Japanese with English subtitles Directed by Nagisa Oshima With Do-yun Yu
Oshima’s film ostensibly begins as a polemical documentary on the subject of the death penalty. However, when the condemned man, a Korean student named ìR,î fails to die after the trap door opens and the rope tightens, Death by Hanging becomes a wry dark comedy as the prisoner awakes with amnesia and prison officials recreate his crimes to jog his memory. Oshima’s scathing work skewers not only the death penalty (which 70% of the Japanese population supported at the time), but also Japanese prejudice against Korean immigrants (and marginalization in general) and the concepts of guilt and social justice. Time Out London writes, ìDeath by Hanging is an ‘absurd’ comedy about the situation of Korean immigrants in Japan, centering on a state execution that goes wrong, mounted as a sort of witty Brechtian argument.
Wednesday, June 25 at 5, 9:15pm
One of two films presented in this series which came out of the events of May 1968, which also resulted in the creation of Directors’ Fortnight, AcÈphale vehemently seeks to create a cinematic tabula rasa from the outset with a dazzling 365 degree shot of a man’s head getting shaved as the sound of a buzz saw fills the soundtrack. Deval’s and his cadre of non-professional actors’ disgust for traditional narrative conventions is evident when one of his characters states ìI cannot stand the facility of fiction. I demand reality. I am going mad.
Wednesday, June 25 at 6:50pm
(1968), 100min, in French with English subtitles Directed by Philippe Garrel With Zouzou, Philippe Garrel, Pierre Clémenti
Philippe Garrel’s first film following the events of May 1968 reverberates with revolutionary zeal and gorgeous black and white cinematography. ClÈmenti, as Jesus Christ, is reluctant to take on his earthly mission and Zouzou, as the Virgin Mary, takes on the task of reconciling him with his duty. Made shortly after Garrel met Nico, ì[h]er haunting ‘The Falconer’ plays as a Jacobean-looking Garrel wanders lostÖin an expansive field that could envelop them all.î (Cinema-scope)
Thursday, June 26 at 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm
(1967), 85min Directed by Roger Corman With Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Dennis Hopper
LSD: A Lovely Sort of Death. Roger Corman and screenwriter Jack Nicholson embrace the sixties drug culture in this far-out freak-out about a TV commercial director (Fonda) whose life is upended when his wife leaves him. Naturally, the only recourse when faced with such despair is to experiment with acid. With the help of Dern and Hopper, Fonda goes on a psychedelic odyssey featuring dancing girls, witches, torture, sex, and death. Two years later, Hopper, Fonda, and Nicholson would join forces again for Easy Rider. A definitive commercial for acid scripted by Jack Nicholson, notes Time Out London.
Friday, June 27 at 3, 6*, 9pm
(La Salamandre) (1971), 125min, in French with English subtitles Directed by Alain Tanner With Bulle Ogier, Jean-Luc Bideau
In this restrained social satire, two men seek to write a screenplay based on a news story about a young woman accused of attempting to murder her uncle—one seeks to interview the girl and base it on the facts, while the other wishes to write the story how he imagines it. Beguiling and enigmatic, Ogier gives a career-best performance as the woman in question—adrift in Swiss society with no real responsibility and rebellious towards the social order that tries to tether her to conformity. ìA rare treat, infused with a rich and unforced vein of quiet humour, says Time Out London . *A Q&A with Bulle Ogier and Elliott Stein will follow the 6pm screening.
Saturday, June 28 at 2, 6:50pm
(2008) (90min), U.S. premiere Directed by Olivier Jahan
This documentary, commissioned to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Directors’ Fortnight, presents a fascinating history of the Cannes Film Festival rival—from its genesis amidst the tumult of May 1968 and the forced shutdown of the festival as a result of striking workers, as well as the dismissal of Henri Langlois from CinÈmathËque FranÁaise, to its current place as an entity that emphasizes quality work from filmmakers who are elevating the art form throughout the world. With archival footage, as well as interviews with figures like Pierre-Henri Deleau (former festival director), Costa-Gavras, Werner Herzog, and the current director Olivier PËre, this film reveals the sometimes contentious relationship between the Cannes Film Festival and the Fortnight, as well as why the fortnight remains so essential.
Saturday, June 28 at 4:30, 9:15pm
(2007), 98min With Cherry Pie Picache, Eugene Domingo Directed by Brillante Mendoza
An observational camera style and natural performances ground this portrait of a family in the slums of Manila. Partly shot in real time, the film chronicles the last day a foster mother has with the child she raised before he is taken by his adoptive American family. Exquisitely blurring the line between documentary and fiction, the authenticity of the film is startling, right up to its emotionally powerful finale. ìShot partly in real time in the slums of Manila, the pic has considerably more texture than Mendoza’s earlier digital efforts, exhibiting a fine sense of control along with a sophisticated use of space,î writes Variety.
Sunday, June 29 at 2, 6:50pm
(2007), 102min, in French with English subtitles, an imported print Directed by Serge Bozon With Sylvie Testud, Pacal Greggory
Critic-turned-director Bozon deconstructs the combat genre while borrowing from Fuller and Ford in this inventive World War I drama. Testud is Camille, a housewife who cross-dresses her way into a platoon of soldiers, while trying to track down her husband. Sumptuously photographed and hypnotic in mood, La France contrasts realistic scenes of the men’s quotidian routine with moments of Brechtian self-reflexivity—namely, when the cast breaks into catchy Beach Boys-esque musical numbers at regular intervals. Who says all was quiet on the Western Front? ìBresson meets the Beatles in director Serge Bozon’s remarkable La France,î writes Variety, ìa WWI drama that unexpectedly breaks into spirited song at four key moments during its otherwise spare, austere portrayal of combat and camaraderie on the Western front.
Sunday, June 29 at 4:30, 9:15pm
(Avant que j’oublie) (2007), 108min, in French with English subtitles Directed by Jacques Nolot With Jacques Nolot
Nolot delivers a ferociously honest performance opposite a mostly non-professional cast as a fifty-something HIV-positive ex-hustler coming to terms with his own mortality after a former lover’s death. This third installment of the director’s trilogy of films about gay life (L’ArriËre pays, Porn Theater) has an episodic structure that moves fluidly from conversation to conversation, charting its melancholy protagonist over a period of a few days as he meets with friends, goes to therapy, runs up against the law, sleeps around, and finds moments of solace alone. Variety comments, ìNolot has a knack, often via nicely handled incongruity, for finding the human comedy in awkward situations.
Monday, June 30 at 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm
(Changement d’adresse) (2006), 85min, in French with English subtitles, an imported print, New York premiere Directed by Emmanuel Mouret, Frederique Bel
Mouret’s delightful third feature is a sophisticated, witty comedy overrun by the kind of chatty, charming neurotics that would be at home in the films of Eric Rohmer or Woody Allen. The plot revolves around Paris newbie David (Mouret), a soft-spoken musician and teacher, his roommate Anne, and Julia, the student with whom he falls hopefully in love. Staging absurd set pieces and piling on the romantic complications, Mouret still manages to inject the script with subtle observations on relationships and sly comic wordplay while channeling vintage-70s Jean-Pierre LÈaud onscreen. Variety remarks that Change of Address ìconfirms the talent that Mouret showed in his debut feature, Laissons Lucie faire! (2000).
Tuesday, July 1 at 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm
(ca brule) (2006), 111min, in French with English subtitles, an imported print, New York premiere Directed by Claire Simon With Camille Varenne, Gilbert Melki
After being thrown from her horse, fifteen-year-old Livia is aided by a fireman. Seeing more in his gesture than was ever intended, she develops an intense crush on the man (three times her age), who is a happily married father. When her advances aren’t returned, her crush becomes downright incendiary. Director Simon’s previous documentary work lends realism to this sultry portrayal of sunbaked Provence. Variety writes, ìThe intense feelings, reckless experimentation and sheer obliviousness of adolescence are convincingly portrayed.
Wednesday, July 2 at 6, 9pm
(La Question humaine) (2007), 143min, in French with English subtitles Directed by Nicolas Klotz With Mathieu Amalric, Michael Lonsdale
This existential thriller centers on Simon Kessler (Amalric), a psychiatrist in the Human Resources department of petrochemical giant SC Farb. After orchestrating a restructuring plan for the company (read: massive layoffs), he is assigned to investigate the strange behavior of CEO Matthias J¸st (Lonsdale). As his inquiries uncover dark secrets in the company’s history, sharp editing creates suspense within the clean, efficient landscape of the modern workplace. With its languid pace, capitalist critique, and philosophical bent, The Heartbeat Detector is like a recent Godard movie crossed with Michael Clayton. ìIt’s an unapologetic film of ideas,î notes The Village Voice, ìperhaps the headiest of its kind to arrive on these shores since Godard’s Notre Musique. But Klotz’s film more consciously echoes early Godard in the way it binds its dense philosophizing to the spine of a pulpy crime fiction.
Thursday, July 3 at 6, 9pm
(2000), 145min Directed by Béla Tarr With Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hannah Schygulla
The film begins as the resident holy fool of a small Hungarian town startles the patrons of a local pub when he uses them to demonstrate a solar eclipse. A circus arrives, bringing the spectacle of a stuffed whale carcass and a much anticipated figure called ìthe Prince.î When this mysterious man fails to appear, the town bursts into revolt. These scenes, shot in takes as long as 15 minutes, set the stage for a profound allegory, powered by hypnotic black and white cinematography and a transcendent score. ìWeird, wonderful, witty and unsettling,î writes Time Out London. The Village Voice notes, ìTarr is as much formalist as existentialist: Crumbling facades and storm-dampened concrete become abstract compositions under the long durée of Tarrian vision.
BAM Rose Cinemas Admission
Tickets: $11 per screening for adults; $7.50 for seniors 65 and over, children under twelve, and $7.50 for students 25 and under with valid I.D.
Monday–Thursday, except holidays; $7 BAM Cinema Club members Tickets available by phone at 718.777.FILM Call 718.636.4100 or visit www.bam.org
Where / When
Dates:
Florence Gould Hall (FIAF)
55 East 59th Street
Between Park & Madison Avenues
New York, NY 10022
T. 212 307 4100
W. French Institute Alliance Française
Bam Cinématek
Peter Jay Sharp Building30 Lafayette Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217
BAM Cinématek
Written on Jun. 17, 08
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