La rétrospective Jim Carrey à la cinémathèque française aborde le parcours d’un comédien réputé pour son élasticité faciale et ses pitreries. Pourtant l’acteur révèle bien des surprises. Hystérique énergumène qui en agace plus d’un, il incarne sans exception tous les registres du comique, du jeune premier maladroit au blagueur régressif. Dans Ace Aventura ou The Mask ,Jim Carrey inventa un personnage de pitre infatigable, pour créer ensuite son pendant dramatique dans the Truman Show ou The Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. Les gesticulations se figent, le masque se compose et fait place à une mélancolie désarmante. Le clown sait aussi faire preuve de sérieux et on découvre un comique aux facettes multiples. Ses films sont imprévisibles tantôt bons tantôt mauvais, mais c’est grâce leur diversité que l’acteur renouvelle son jeu et peut tout oser.

 Jim Carrey (du 1er au 14 février la Cinémathèque Française 51, Rue de Bercy)

Next morning it’s coffee and a croissant in Au Relais, then over to Bercy and the Cinémathèque Française for the Magic Lantern Society meeting. It starts with a lantern show from Laurent Mannoni & Laure Parchomenko, the curators of the Exhibition Lanterne magique et Film peint – 400 ans de cinéma, using slides featured in the exhibition, accompanied by narration from actor Nathan Willcocks, Harp music from Liénor Mancip  and selection of sound effects by Chaab Mahmoud, some computer controlled, others of the old fashioned kind.

Another highlight of the day was an amazing find of an itinerant showman’s lantern and slides from the 18^th century. One other thing that must be mentioned is Alexia Lazou’s phantasmagoria hat, complete with open coffin, smoke, a ghost and a skeleton rising from it.

The back to Le butte de Monmarte for a long leisurely meal at the Poulbot Bistro.

Sunday we had to pay the hotel bill and stow our luggage before going off to breakfast. Maggie told us about the Monet Museum, asked us what we had been upto the day before, quizzed us about Halloween in England and about my poppy, told us how to tell an Irishman from a Scot by their eyes, and then told us about the Monet Museum again! Half an hour later we set off . A quick breakfast at Au Relais, then on the Cinémathèque Française, where we spent two hours drooling round the exhibition at a selection of some of the most fantastic slides and lanterns I’ve ever seen. Too much to see, let alone describe, but here goes, there were crudely painted 17^th century slides and fantastically detailed 19^th century Royal Polytechnic slides. There were comic slides and intricately animated scary phantasmagoria slides. Behind a heavy red velvet curtain “Minors interdit” was a room with erotic and pornographic slides, which included a projection of a hand painted porno film.

There was also a demo of The Optical Theatre of Emile Reynaud, which was operated superbly by a member of the museum staff.

After lunch we walk through Bercy in the teeming rain to the Museum of Fairground Art.

Professor Mervyn Heard, Chairman of the Magic Lantern Society, gets romantic in Paris

another member of the M.L.S perhaps?

Our knowledgeable guide Rochelle, led us through hall after hall of “wonderful things”.

An opera performed by animated waxworks, carousel rides and racing games which we were invited to have a go on.

A tour of the behind the scenes workshops where hundreds of carousel horses, pigs and other animals awaited restoration.

Rochelle demonstrated a Megascope (a lantern for projecting 3D objects rather than slides).

the marvelous megascope

Then we were taken in to the theatre of the Marvellous, where pianos, chimes, organs & saxophones played themselves. Meanwhile video projections of butterflies, fish, bubbles and waterfalls played all over the walls and painted figures and waxworks that looked on, while the dark ominous shadow of a shark flitted past.

Muybridge runner projected onto organ

I was beginning to feel like Hunter Thompson tripping, soon the come down, back on the streets of Bercy in the rain, saying goodbye to Alexia, today’s hat has a raven pecking at a rose – or am I still tripping!

Back to Montmartre for something to eat then pick up a taxi from the Lamark taxi rank, explain to the driver “no, there really is a hotel further up the Rue Lamark”.

Maggie is on form, she told us that she usually shuts the hotel door at 7pm, but will leave it unlocked until 7.15 for us tonight. It is 7.17 as I stand in the rain ringing the doorbell. The door opens instantly, Maggie is standing there with our case beside her. I step in to pick it up, Maggie looks behind me “where eeze your wife?” “Outside in a taxi”, she looks slightly disappointed. Then smiles “ere ees a present for you” she reaches behind her and produces a bottle of wine “geeve your wife a keess for me, a bientot!”

We arrive at Gard du Nord too early for our train, so we sit at a Brasserie table “Duex biere, une blanc et une brune, si vous plais”

Sono un fumatore; senza accanimento ma fumo. Posso anche passare una settimana senza aver voglia di accendere una sigaretta come posso fumarne dieci in una sola serata (lunga). Le lotte per i diritti dei fumatori però mi sono sempre sembrate ridicole, imbarazzanti, da perditempo: in poche parole penso che il modo di fumarsi una sigaretta si trovi sempre. Detto ciò quanto sta succedendo in Francia va oltre la contrapposizione fumo o non fumo e questioni derivate. In questo caso c’entra (anche) il cinema. La legge Évin, adottata oltralpe nel dicembre 1990 durante il secondo Governo Rocard – quando il Presidente della Repubblica era ancora François Mitterrand -, è stata promulgata nel gennaio 1991 ed è relativa alla lotta contro il tabagismo e l’alcolismo. Una parte della legge proibisce, tra l’altro, qualsiasi propaganda o pubblicità diretta o indiretta a favore del tabacco. Beh, la società dei trasporti municipali di Parigi, RATP, da qualche tempo la sta applicando rigidamente creando così varie polemiche.
Nell’Aprile 2009 la Cinémathèque Française ha organizzato una mostra dedicata a Jacques Tati (1907 – 1982) e sui manifesti promozionali campeggiava un’immagine del regista e attore francese a passeggio in bicicletta mentre trasportava sul sellino un bambino; Tati in quell’immagine culto tratta dal film Mio zio (1958) fuma la pipa. La RATP, a differenza di riviste, muri, musei e bar parigini, ha censurato proprio quella pipa sostituendola, sui manifesti affissi sui bus e nella zona della Metropolitana, con una girandola gialla. Un precedente simile di applicazione rigorosa della legge Évin risaliva al 2005 quando la Bibliothèque nationale de France aveva tolto la cicca dalla mano di Jean-Paul Sartre su una foto utilizzata per la copertina del catalogo di una mostra; ma il caso, forse per la minore rilevanza popolare dell’evento, era passato più in sordina.

Particolare del poster dell'esposizione dedicata a Jacques Tati; prima e dopo la cura RATP

Passati pochi giorni dall’«Affaire Tati» sorte simile per il poster di Coco avant Chanel – L’amore prima del mito, film della passata stagione con Audrey Tautou e dedicato alla storia della creatrice di moda Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. RATP non ne ha voluto sapere; poster rifiutato.
Ora, notizia di ieri, è toccato anche a un altro mito francese, Serge Gainsbourg: nonostante Joann Sfar, regista del film Gainsbourg, vie héroïque, e la distribuzione Universal abbiano deciso di non far figurare nel poster una sigaretta ma solo una nuvoletta di fumo che esce dalla bocca del protagonista dell’opera, niente da fare, RATP continua, solitaria, a non voler diffondere l’immagine sui mezzi pubblici e nelle aree di sua responsabilità.
Gli intellettuali e gli addetti alla cultura francese parlano di integralismo della RATP; tra questi Costa-Gravas, attuale presidente della Cinémathèque Française, definisce l’atteggiamento inaccettabile. La società dei trasporti dal suo canto ha dichiarato di voler prevenire eventuali azioni legali di associazioni di diritti di non fumatori. Questo nonostante l’ARPP, Autorité de Régulation Professionnelle de la Publicité, nel maggio scorso abbia dichiarato che dei prodotti legati al tabacco possano figurare sulle pubblicità sottostando ad alcune condizioni tra cui la “finalità culturale o artistica”. In Francia il dibattito è aperto. In questo caso so da ora che sia nelle serate lunghe in cui mi ammazzo di sigarette sia nelle settimane di astinenza penserò che chi si oppone alla RATP stia sostenendo una lotta sacrosanta. Perché qui si tratta di censura e non di lotta al tabagismo.

I due poster rifiutati da RATP

28569 Les 50 filles ou la rousseur d’Endymion [Sagem Bluetooth 2009-05-29]
(Cecil B.DeMille The king of king[1927] – Cinémathèque française Paris)

I’ve just landed in Paris, and I feel that rush of excitement I get when I’m here.  This city is divine…

Just as I was leaving New York, Nora Baldenweg, a journalist here in Paris, sent me a note about the opening night of the Nouvelle Vague film retrospective earlier in the week.  I bump into Nora time-to-time when I’m here.  I loved reading her account of the evening and wanted to share it with you.

The retrospective will be showing at the Cinémathèque Française this month, although I don’t know if I’ll be able to see any of them while I’m here – my schedule is crazy!  But if I could get there, I’d definitely see Lola on October 11.  Anouk Aimée will be there.  She’s such an icon, and she’s the star of A Man and A Woman, one of my favorite French films.

Anouk Aimée in Lola

Nora’s note also gives me an opportunity to mention Diane Pernet’s film festival, A Shaded View on Fashion Film.  It’s taking place this weekend here in Paris.  Diane herself is an icon, and her film selections look pretty amazing.

Here’s the note Nora sent to me:

Dear Susan,

Last night I attended the opening night of the film retrospective‚ La Nouvelle Vague: Une Génération d’Acteurs, which is at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris this month.  Celebrating the 50th birthday of the Nouvelle Vague movement and its generation of actors, the invited guests were treated to an exceptional screening of the restored version of Pierrot le Fou (1965), a visual masterpiece by Jean-Luc Godard.

After the arrival of the guests on the red carpet (including Jean-Paul Belmondo, a major figure in French Nouvelle Vague), Serge Toubiana, the general director of the Cinémathèque Française, opened the soirée with a touching speech.

Jean-Paul Belmondo

Jean-Paul Belmondo arrived for the festivities looking resplendent, and decidedly more tanned than 40 years ago.  Walking down the red carpet toward the flashing cameras, each of his fingers bejeweled with a ring, the now 76-year old was smiling that charming and roguish smile that had made his face famous back in the 60s.  The guests were so honored by his presence, they later broke out into a standing ovation, and at one point Belmondo — visibly touched himself — even seemed to wipe a tear from his left eye.  Before taking his seat in the movie theatre, he got up and thanked the intimate crowd: Je veux dire merci à tout le monde.

Anna Karina in Pierrot le Fou

Throughout the film, I was in complete awe at the beauty of Anna Karina, playing the female lead next to Belmondo.  She was not only Godard’s inspirational muse, but also his wife at the time (from 1961-1967, the movie was shot in 1965).  I was glued to the screen by her breathtakingly beautiful features.  She alternately made me think of either Kate Moss or Alexa Chung (a fixture at the current fashion week front rows), paired with an effortless yet always chic sense of style.  Unfortunately Anna Karina couldn’t attend the soirée because she sprained her ankle.

Pierrot le Fou

Pierrot le Fou

Other special guests included Raoul Coutard, the famed French Director of Photography, and Jean-Pierre Léaud, Godard’s assistant at the time.  After the projection, the guests mingled and celebrated the anarchic pioneers of Nouvelle Vague at a little stand-up dinner in the restaurant of the Cinémathèque, which is based in a modern building designed by Frank Gehry in Paris’ 12^th district.

This Nouvelle Vague retrospective is definitely an exceptional opportunity to examine the codes, muses and myths of that influential time.  And if you have not seen Pierrot le Fou, you really must get your hands on a copy.  For many people, it is one of the most dazzling films of French film history.

For the occasion a DVD box with the works of directors Rivette, Godard, Resnais and Chabrol (and including Pierrot le Fou) has been made.  It will be available from October 13th and exclusively at the Cinémathèque from September 23^rd if you can go by there.

La Cinémathèque Française

Nouvelle Vague: Une Génération d’Acteurs runs from September 23^rd to October 18^th at the Cinémathèque Française, Paris.  A number of screenings will feature actors and actresses from the Nouvelle Vague in attendance, including Alexandra Stewart, Michel Subor, Emanuelle Riva and Anouk Aimée.  For more information and the festival  schedule, click here.

Nora Baldenweg

Paris, September 24^th 2009

Dovrebbe bastare dire questo di The Dreamers, il nome del regista, e chi ne capisce qualcosa di cinema saprebbe che vale la pena di vederlo. Perché questo non è un film qualunque, di un regista qualunque e le critiche feroci lo dimostrano. Bernardo Bertolucci è un maestro del cinema, Dario Argento lo ha definito il più grande regista italiano vivente.

The Dreamers, basato su un racconto di Gilbert Adari, The Holy Innocents, è uscito nelle sale nel 2003 e racconta la storia di Matthew (Michael Pitt), giovane studente americano che giunge a Parigi all’alba del 1968 e delle proteste studentesche. Incapace di socializzare con i ragazzi del posto, Matthew passa le sue ore alla Cinémathèque française. Ben presto la crescente protesta travolge anche i cinema e la Cinémathèque viene occupata dagli studenti e dai cinefili. È in questa occasione che Matthew conosce Isabelle (Eva Green) e Theo (Louis Garrel), fratelli gemelli. I tre stringono ben presto amicizia, e dopo la partenza per le vacanze dei genitori dei due fratelli, Matthew viene invitato a vivere nella loro casa. Rinchiusi nelle grandi e deserte stanze dell’appartamento i tre ragazzi vivono immersi in un mondo fatto di cinema, poesia e musica. Vivendo con loro Matthew scopre l’immensa intimità di Theo ed Isabelle, che va oltre i normali rapporti che intercorrono fra un fratello e una sorella. I due vivono infatti in simbiosi, incapaci di vivere divisi e Matthew non può che sentirsi, nonostante il forte contatto, qualcosa di estraneo a quel legame. Nonostante tutto sboccia l’amore fra Matthew e Isabelle e la storia assume un ritmo vertiginoso, fatto di scommesse, giochi perversi, in cui i ragazzi vivono isolati dal mondo reale e da una Parigi ormai sconvolta dalla contestazione. Il ritorno brusco alla realtà avverrà proprio durante un corteo a cui prendono parte, in cui Matthew capirà definitivamente di non poter fare parte della vita dei gemelli, incapace di sostenere il loro legame esclusivo.

Come già ho scritto sopra Bertolucci è un maestro del cinema e lo dimostra anche in questo film, per la sua eccezionale capacità di ricerca di dettagli e per la scelta delle citazioni cinematografiche, dalla corsa dentro il Louvre, tratta da Bande a Part di Jean-Luc Godard alla scena in cui Isabelle recita Venere Bionda, passando per Scarface, Cappello a cilindro, Luci della città e Freaks.

La musica, i dettagli storici, l’iconografia è volontariamente ricercata e legata allo stesso periodo in cui è ambientata la storia.

Quando precedentemente ho parlato di critiche feroci, mi riferivo a quelle emerse in merito alle esplicite scene erotiche che compaiono nel film. A difesa credo che Bertolucci giri queste scene in modo raffinato ed elegante in confronto alla volgarità di tanti altri registi. Ad esempio la scena in cui Eva Green si “traveste” da Venere di Milo credo sia di una bellezza che raramente si vede al cinema di questi tempi.

Io non credo in Dio, ma se ci credessi sarebbe un chitarrista nero e mancino… (Matthew parlando di Jimmy Hendrix).

Paris, fuck yeah:

So I’m back, refreshed, rested and ready for action. Paris was everything I expected, a beautifully atmospheric city with plenty to see and enjoy, not least for a jaded old film nerd like moi but we’ll come to that. I did the blatantly obvious – the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre (well, the Denon wing anyway), the Champs-Élysées, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Pompidou Centre and the slightly less blatantly obvious, the La Défense district, Père Lachaise Cemetery, the Montmartre area, Montparnasse Cemetery and general meandering around the Latin quarter of the capital. Like any major city I think once you have the underground or in this case Le Métro worked out and have a central physical point of reference – the Seine – then you can’t really get lost, especially in a city with a logical arrondissement geographic location system. Like London you get a real feel for the city on the underground, the languages that are being spoken, the clothes and faces revealing a real cosmopolitan atmosphere. I ploughed through two books, this and this (where better to read an academic film study than the spiritual home of academic film criticism?) and made a heroic start on this, a 1000 page behemoth that is shaping up quite nicely. But enough of this nonsense, you want to hear about the film stuff don’t you? Well OK then…

I only managed two cinema visits whilst I was abroad, one which merits it’s own blog entry that I’ll try to get published over the weekend and a return visit to ‘Inglorious Basterds‘. Yes, yes I know I’ve already seen it but let me explain why I embarked on a repeat viewing, there are a couple of reasons for taking another look at this picture, particularly the opportunity to see it in Paris. The podcast and blogging world has been inflamed by the film with equal hatred and love for the movie, as you know I enjoyed it and I wanted to have another look in light of those opinions and observations, particularly when you bear in mind the prospect of seeing a cine-literate film which climaxes with the destruction and immolation of a Paris cinema in a Paris cinema being simply irresistible. I was keen to see the reaction of a French audience to a Tarantino film in general, for a crowd of youngsters – teenagers and early twentysomethings – I was encouraged to see how the Friday night crowd fell totally silent as the lights went down, there was no talking or phone glare, everyone was enthralled and laughed and gasped in all the right places. C’est bien.

The second dimension was the language issue – films in France are screened either in the version originale (VO) or the Version Francois (VF) format, the former of course subtitled in French with the original dub and language preserved intact and the latter translated into French. The version I saw was version originale but with a twist, as the film unfurled it emerged that the French dialogue of course was presented without subtitles whilst the German and English was subtitled in French. It was quite an entertaining exercise to follow the events on screen without being aware of most of the dialogue (my French and German, spoken or written are practically non-existent), to determine how the story was being told in images, to pick up on some of the visual cues and parameters of the film which weren’t apparent the first time around. Given the aspects of language being a major thematic and narrative instrument in the film this was a thoroughly entertaining experience and the film was just as enjoyable on the previous visceral and cineaste level – Robert Richardson’s high contrast trademark ‘halo’ lighting of characters and props in the film (particularly the pivotal glass of delicious milk) was more apparent, some of the more esoteric name references were spotted (Colonel Ed Fennege anyone?), Hugo Stiglitz sharpening his combat knife reminded me of this and no-one on the net that I’ve discovered seems to have commented on the cameo of Rod Taylor as Churchill, one assumes due to the heavy make-up job – that’s the Rod Taylor by the way, the star of ‘The Birds‘, ‘The Time Machine‘ and of course ‘Colossus & The Amazon Queen‘. There is a theory doing the rounds that the French farmer in the opening scene is suppossed to be a Kubrick reference in that he looks a lot like Kubrick physically, I think that might be stretching credulity a little too far as I can’t see any purpose behind it other than some vague tendrils reaching out to ‘Paths Of Glory’ being a French war movie. I don’t buy it.

Another unassuming central Paris street junction right? How exciting Minty, what thoroughly entertaining photographs (yawn). But wait, remember this when I captured the location of the first ever ‘proper’ movie? Well, I think I’ve got one better with this photo which just happens to be where the first film ever – ever – was projected by the Lumière brothers back in 1895 – plenty of background information here and here. I’m not sure how I’m going to beat that. Maybe the hotel room where Orson Welles was conceived or something.

I undertook a pilgrimage of sorts at two cemeteries where like any obedient Paris tourist I snapped the graves of Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde (above) but more importantly paid my respects at the graves of three of France’s most distinguished cinema figures;

The first is the final resting place of Henri-Georges Clouzot  (Or is it? SPOILERS for the ending of ‘Les Diaboliques‘), one of the great French thriller directors, the second is François Truffaut’s resting place which you will gasp in awestruck majesty at as it took me a good hour of searching in the blazing Parisian sun to locate and finally, and perhaps most influentially, the grave of George Méliès without whom cinema would never have been the same. There has been a century of discussion regarding cinema’s development with a clear spilt occurring way back in its infancy of the late 19th century, a split of the art form from realism and a theatrical style – the Lumiere’s through to Poetic Realism to Italian Neo-Realism to the more recent Dogme movements on the one hand and the fantastic on the other, Méliès to the Expressionists to the likes of ‘King Kong’ and the Universal Horror cycle, to the SF and ‘B’ Movies and big budget action adventure spectacles that dominate the summer screens in the 21st century. Whatever your opinions on their work there is a clear line of development from Méliès to Willis O Brien, from William Castle to Ray Harryhausen, from Lang to Kubrick, to Spielberg and Lucas, Jackson and Cameron. Repose en paix. Anyway, whenever I think of Truffaut it’s not ‘Tirez sur le pianiste‘ or ‘Les quatre cents coups‘ that spring to mind, it’s always this:

This was all eclipsed by my visit to the Cinémathèque Française, a Mecca for the celluloid faithful and the worlds largest repository of film and film related documentation. This new home for the Cinémathèque opened in 2005 in a controversial building designed by Frank Gehry after moving around various sites in Paris over the past seventy or so years, the Institute most famously serving as a crucible for the Paris student uprising in 1968. I found the Cinémathèque’s museum fascinating (quel surprise) which focused on the primitive emergence of film with the Zoetrope’s, the Edison patents and a display of one of the four remaining Kinetoscopes left on the planet. There were collections of 1910 and 1920’s film posters of which the spread for ‘Feu Mathias Pascal‘ put me in mind of the strategy emerging around Nolan’s ‘Inception’. I didn’t manage to get photos but there was also the mothers head from the finale to ‘Psycho’ on display and a collection of telegrams from directors received by the institute on the occasion of Henri Langlois politically motivated removal as president in 1968, all pledging support and agreeing to embargo screenings of their work, a list which essentially comprised all the most important filmmakers’ in the world at the time – from Oshima to Antonioni, Chaplin to Ford, Fellini to Hitchcock.

I furtively took a photo of one of them – can you guess from who – which is just about the closest I can recall to Stan making anything approaching an overt political statement, strangely its not something that has ever come up in all the books I’ve read about him. Characteristically the institute was running a Robert Aldritch season but the performance times weren’t convenient, I managed to fit in my second cinema visit elsewhere. Anyway, if you ever find yourself in Paris then you simply have to visit, I came away with this and this from the Institutes film store, the latter a film I’ve been meaning to pick-up for years which given its French origin and artistic pedigree seemed particularly apt to acquire despite the 30 Euro price tag.

Finally I located a group of independent cinemas around the Sorbonne area, the Paris equivalent to the Curzon chain here in the UK except that they are dedicated to showing only past releases, not a combination of new and older movies which seems to be the Curzon business model. Predictably there was a Tarantino retrospective playing and some other material that I had expected from one of the cinematic capitals of the world – a Cary Grant picture, a Sophia Loren picture, ‘Picnic At Hanging Rock’ and a real oddity which I elected to see – Tod Brownings 1936 picture ‘The Devil Doll‘ which has only recently been ‘rediscovered’ and given a new print, it screened at the BFI last Halloween which I thought about seeing but didn’t get round to booking tickets. In conclusion a fantastic city with an enormous wealth of attractions, I’ve vowed to go away for Christmas again this year to complement this experience, perhaps somewhere further afield than Europe. So then, what shall I see this weekend….

SDC10188 L’aveugle et le paralytique [Samsung Master 2009-05-27]
(Cinémathèque Française – Place Léonard Bernstein Paris)

Film as an act of Love


by Sukhdev Sandhu

Fifty years ago, François Truffaut’s Quatre cents coups
heralded a revolution in cinema. Sukhdev Sandhu salutes
a modern classic

NewStatesman 2 April 2009

Plus qu’à une exposition autour de Dennis Hopper, à la fois comédien, cinéaste, réalisateur reconnu et artiste multifacette méconnu, c’est à un vrai voyage dans le temps et dans l’espace avec Los Angeles pour épicentre, ville de tous les possibles, auquel nous invite la cinémathèque française jusqu’au 19 janvier 2009.

En effet, l’exposition s’ouvre tout d’abord sur une interview de Dennis Hopper, relatant et commentant les évènements marquants de l’histoire contemporaine des Etats-Unis des années 50 à nos jours.

Puis, le cheminement de l’exposition nous amène à traverser plusieurs périodes représentatives de différents courants artistiques, qui prennent forme au travers des œuvres très variées de Dennis Hopper : photographies, billboards géants, films, peintures, sculptures ou encore performances. Des œuvres emblématiques de l’art contemporain tirées de sa collection privée sont également présentées comme celles de Roy Lichtenschtein, Andy Warhol ou Basquiat.

Bien évidemment, l’exposition fait aussi la part belle aux films dans lesquels Dennis Hopper a joué – souvent des seconds rôles – ou qu’il a lui-même réalisés, dont le mythique « Easy Rider » de 1969, emblème du cinéma libertaire. C’est d’ailleurs au travers de ce road movie, véritable ode à la liberté comme philosophie de vie et au libre choix de vie dans une société conformiste, que fut lancé le mouvement du « Nouvel Hollywood » incarnant l’opposition à l’industrie hollywoodienne du cinéma.

Bref, si vous voulez découvrir les origines du « cinéma des rebelles, libertaires et contestataires » (je n’y vais pas par quatre chemins), n’hésitez pas à aller faire un tour à la Cinémathèque française : « Dennis Hopper et le Nouvel Hollywood » ou l’art de concilier le cinéma californien et la sociologie !

Informations pratiques :

Exposition « Dennis Hopper et le Nouvel Hollywood » jusqu’au 19 janvier 2009

La Cinémathèque française, 51 rue de Bercy,  75012, Métro Bercy.

 + Yake +

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Antes do DVD, ver um filme do dinamarquês Carl Theodor Dreyer, implicava numa viagem a São Paulo ou, caso quisesse conhecer a obra completa, uma ida à Cinematheque Française, em Paris, ou ao Museu de Arte Moderna de Nova York (Moma). A distribuidora Magnus Opus (http://www.magnusopusdvd.com.br) já disponibilizou seis filmes desse monstro sagrado do cinema, mas, infelizmente, é difícil encontrá-los nas locadoras.

O lançamento do pacote Dreyer, ocorrido há cerca de 3 anos, constituiu-se num acontecimento excepcional, pois ofereceu àquele amante da arte do filme a oportunidade de conhecer um dos mais expressivos autores de toda a história da chamada sétima arte. Creio mesmo que o acontecimento mais importante, desde o advento do DVD, em termos de arte, expressão, beleza e cinema.

Leia o texto completo no site do Terra Magazine, clicando aqui.

Plansplan n’a pas besoin de vous rappeler qui est Dennis Hopper, réalisateur d’Easy Rider film sorti en 1969 !
La cinémasteack organise une expo qui regroupe de nombreux extraits vidéo, de plans inédits de Dennis Hopper aujourd’hui à Los Angeles, d’archives rares , de ses photographies et créations at large (billboards géants, sculptures imposantes). Sont également présentées des œuvres provenant de la collection privée de D. Hopper, qui réunit aujourd’hui des œuvres emblématiques de l’art contemporain : Warhol, Basquiat, Ruscha, Salle, Rauschenberg, Herms, Berman… Ces œuvres résonnent en écho avec la pratique artistique et cinématographique d’Hopper lui-même.

Cette expo commence aujourd’hui et dure jusqu’au 19 janvier 2009.
La cinémasteack française c’est rue de Bercy, métro Bercy. L’entrée à l’expo coûte 7€.
Pour acheter un billet à l’avance

Do you live in or near Paris, the city of lights itself? If so, you can be among the first few to view Inside Man director Spike Lee’s latest film, the World War 2 drama Miracle At St. Anna, which premieres today at the Toronto Film Festival.

The anticipated film will screen as part of a mini Spike Lee festival organized by the Cinémathèque Française. Go here to buy seats while you still can!

Miracle At St. Anna tells the story, through flashback, of four African-American ”Buffalo Soldiers” who are trapped behind enemy lines in 1944 Tuscany, after one of them saved an Italian boy. It stars Derek Luke (Definitely, Maybe), John Turturro (You Don’t Mess With The Zohan), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Stop-Loss), John Leguizamo (The Happening) and Kerry Washington (the Fantastic Four films) among others. Author James McBride wrote the script based on his own novel. Trailer after the jump.

“Havia algo mágico nos anos 60. Havia união, coisa que não existe mais. O fato de estarmos sonhando juntos, cinema, política, música, jazz, rocnk’n’roll, sexo, filosofia; eram as coisas mais importantes para mim”. Essa é a sentença de Bernardo Bertolucci no vídeo de 52 minutos do making off de “Os Sonhadores”, de 2003.

Bertolucci recriou com delay de 35 anos o ambiente agitado da Paris de 1968, como pano de seu filme, que retrata a relação de descobertas de três jovens, dois irmãos gêmeos franceses e um estudante americano da mesma idade. A dúvida que permanece, entretanto, é porque a retomada do mítico período em 2003.

No filme, a demissão arbitrária do diretor da Cinèmathéque Française, em fevereiro de 1968, leva os três jovens a passarem mais tempo juntos em casa, num período de intensas descobertas sexuais e afetivas tão conturbadas quanto os acontecimentos políticos que se passavam paralelamente. É assim que se desenrola a história dos irmãos gêmeos Theo (Louis Garrel) e Isabelle (Eva Green) com o estudante americano Matthew (Michael Pitt).

A eclosão das manifestações de maio de 1968, que paralisaram a França quase que por completo, aparece apenas nas últimas cenas do filme e, numa união perversa de objetivos, representa também o ápice da crise anunciada que se espera acontecer entre os jovens durante todo o filme. Ali, há a ruptura definitiva entre revolucionários e governo, entre os gêmeos e o intruso americano.

Em 2003 seria difícil recriar a situação. Afinal, 35 anos depois estávamos – e, agora, 40 anos depois, ainda permanecemos – diante de uma sociedade fragmentada, caótica, multidirecionada. A quantidade se sobrepôs à qualidade, e isso se refletiu diretamente nos relacionamentos. Os casamentos se diluem, outros se formam rapidamente. O barato é se relacionar com uma, duas, três, quatro ou quantas mais pessoas forem necessárias para que se satisfaça algo que soa insaciável. Tudo isso dentro dos limites do ‘politicamente correto’ e ‘socialmente aceitável’. Segundo pregam os herdeiros de Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira (TFP), nada de transgredir. Isso é para os imorais.

A atmosfera libidinosa regada a vinho de “Os Sonhadores” não mais seria possível na sociedade politicamente correta de hoje. Mal podem os pobres serem chamados dessa maneira – cuidado! chamem-os ‘menos favorecidos’ – que dirá os jovens descobrirem-se da forma como propõe Bertolucci. Institucionalizou-se, depois de 1968, conceitos contestados à época, como a censura, a hipocrisia e a falta de massa crítica.

Talvez esteja aí a resposta da pergunta feita há pouco. Se para o diretor, como ele afirma no making of, ‘filmar o passado é filmar o presente’, Bertolucci nos propõe uma retomada do aventureirismo saudável de 1968, a incoseqüência inocente e os valores coerentes da época. A proposta, se tomada mais à diante, é um protesto.

Um protesto contra o cinema blockbuster que obedece às metas da indústria cultural, ou contra a política externa estúpida dos players da política internacional. Um protesto, enfim, contra essa caretice embrutecedora e rasa dos – muitos – jovens de hoje. Quem sabe, assim, Bertolucci não fomenta a institucionalização nessa mesma sociedade fragmentada e multi(dis)forme, desses conceitos esquecidos, ditos ultrapassados, e, assim, possamos ter como contemporâneos um novo trio Theo-Isabelle-Matthew. Suas incompatibilidades são preferíveis ao caretismo vigente.

por Eduardo Zanelato

 Merci Guitry.
J’ai assez peu d’amour pour les rétrospectives. Le côté « voici un homme, de A à Z, ce qu’il fut ce qu’il fit et prends ça dans ta gueule », je trouve que c’est parfois pénible et lourd. Surtout quand je me rends compte que je n’y connais rien et que j’ai encore d’énormes lacunes en histoire de l’art. Souvent, en sortant, j’abuse du Bordeaux, je me dis, allez, noie ton ignorance ma belle, c’est encore ce que tu fais de mieux.

    Sacha Guitry, soyons clairs, ne m’est pas le cinéaste, homme de théâtre, acteur, dessinateur ou que sais-je encore le plus familier du monde. Mais pour l’inauguration de l’exposition Sacha Guitry , une vie d’artiste mercredi 17 octobre, l’émission Tout Arrive de France Culture s’offrait une visite guidée exclusive avec Serge Toubiana, directeur de la Cinémathèque Française, et Jacques Nolot, dont le film, Avant que j’oublie – superbe, soit dit en passant- sortait le même jour. L’occasion était trop belle pour ne pas en profiter. J’ai donc suivi Arnaud Laporte et Antoine Guillot à la conquête de Sacha Guitry. Et les rétrospectives, surtout quand elles ne sont pas trop grandes, c’est bien.

Il y a plusieurs raisons d’y aller. D’abord, parce que c’est fait tout en finesse. Toubiana l’assume : « C’est prétentieux de monter une expo Guitry. Il s’est déjà tellement et si bien montré lui-même ».
Du coup, grâce est rendue à cet homme de lettres, homme à femmes, homme d’esprit, homme tout court. Pas de discours didactique. Pas de parcours infantilisant de type : ce qu’il faut savoir, ce qu’il faut aimer, etc.
A commencer par la petite vidéo qui fait l’ouverture de l’expo et qui vaut à elle seule le déplacement. Elle fut tournée le jour de ses 70 ans, le 21 février 1955. Autobiographie express, il y raconte sa vie par tranches de 10 ans, à mesure qu’il souffle ses bougies. Et finit par ces mots : « 21 février 1885. Il ne s’agissait pas de rater mon entrée. Quand j’ai vu ma mère, j’ai su que la vie était belle. »
Le reste de l’expo s’attache à le prouver. Il faut donc y aller pour retenir son souffle en découvrant le cénacle d’artistes qui l’entoura dès ses premiers pas. Son père d’abord, Lucien, et puis Cocteau, Colette, Rodin, Yvonne Printemps qui fut sa femme, etc.
Pour les photographies aussi, qui permettent d’admirer ses looks, mariage de décontraction moderne et de distinction XVIIIème, les poses de ses nombreuses épouses assorties, toutes véritables icônes de l’élégance parisienne.
Enfin, et surtout j’imagine, il faut y aller pour le laver de toutes les offenses dont il a été victime, les cinéphiles lui refusant encore sa place dans la filmothèque idéale.
Pourtant, il avait vu dans le cinéma un moyen moderne de voyager, et il a utilisé cet outil en véritable visionnaire.
Dans Bonne Chance notamment, où il a recours à la voix-off, quelques 29 ans avant la pseudo-révolution du Pierrot le Fou de Godard.
Visionnaire aussi lorsqu’en 1916 il décide de filmer les copains artistes de son père en pleine action. Ces petits formats Super8 sont des perles. Sarah Bernhardt, Rodin, Capus l’écrivain et surtout Monet dans son atelier de Giverny, stupéfiant, que j’ai regardé en boucle pendant dix minutes. Guitry père du documentaire ? C’est possible…
Visionnaire rétrograde enfin lorsqu’il se sert du cinéma pour sauver un peu de son XIXème siècle adoré. Ok, ok, Si Versailles m’était conté n’est pas la plus grande prouesse de l’histoire de la pellicule. En même temps, le casting fait encore pâlir plus d’un chasseur de têtes. Jean Marais, Orson Welles, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Brigitte Bardot, Edith Piaf Jean-Louis Barrault, Bourvil, Mary Marquet, Gérard Philippe, Micheline Presle, Tino Rossi, Annie Cordy (Annie Cordy putain !!!) et j’en passe… A côté de ça, qui dit mieux ? Même , que je vénère absolument, sombre dans le dilettantisme.

Il faut aller voir Sacha Guitry, une vie d’artiste parce qu’en sortant, on croit à nouveau que la liberté existe, et qu’elle fait l’art, et que l’art, c’est cool.