|
30
Years of Film @ International House
THE
JANUS COLLECTION
Commemorating
the 40th Anniversary of the Protests of May 1968
In
Paris, Henri Langlois, president of the National Cinematheque
Francaise and revered godfather of the French New Wave, was
removed from his post by France’s Minister of Culture. As young
cinephiles reacted with outrage, their angry protests flowed
into a tide of political and social discontent. Highlighting
works which exemplify the continuing radical influence of '68,
these selections reflect the
filmmakers’ direct revolutionary action through cinema and invention
of new film forms along the way.
Saturday,
October 18 at 7pm
Death
of a Cyclist (Muerte
de un ciclista)
dir.
Juan Antonio Bardem, Spain, 1955, 35mm, 87 mins, b/w, Spanish
w/ English subtitles
 Upper-class
professor Juan and his wealthy, married mistress accidentally
hit a cyclist while driving back from a late-night rendezvous.
This exquisitely shot tale of guilt, infidelity and blackmail
reveals the wide gap between the rich and the poor in Spain,
and surveys the corrupt ethics of a society seduced by decadence.
This charged melodrama was a direct attack on 1950s Spanish
society under Franco’s rule.
CLICK
HERE for Program Notes
Saturday,
November 15 at 7pm
WR:
Mysteries of the Organism
dir.
Dusan Makavejev, Yugoslavia/West Germany, 1971, 35mm, 85 mins,
b/w
&
color, English and Serbo-Croatian w/ English subtitles
 What
does the energy harnessed through orgasm have to do with the
state of communist Yugoslavia circa 1971? Makavejev’s surreal
documentary-fiction collision begins as an investigation of
controversial psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Reich and
explodes into a free-form narrative of a beautiful young Slavic
girl’s sexual liberation. Banned upon its release in the director’s
homeland, this art-house smash is both whimsical and bold in
its blending of politics and sexuality.
CLICK
HERE for Program Notes
Saturday,
December 20 at 7pm
Pierrot
le fou
dir.
Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1965, 35mm, 110 mins, color, French
w/ English subtitles
 Dissatisfied
in marriage and life, Ferdinand takes off with the babysitter
(and ex-lover) Marianne and leaves the bourgeoisie behind. Yet
this is no normal road trip: it’s a stylish mash-up of consumerist
satire, politics and comic-book aesthetics, and a violent, zigzag
tale of, as Godard called them, "the last romantic couple."
With Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina at their most animated,
Pierrot le fou is one of the high points of the French
new wave.
|
