Carole Bouquet will be reading Antonin Artaud’s letters to Génica Athanasiou in special FIAF presentation (photo © Fuerte)
French Institute Alliance Française
Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Thursday, February 24, $50, 8:00
212-355-6160
www.fiaf.org
French actress and model Carole Bouquet, who has starred in such films as That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977), Blank Generation (Uli Lommel, 1980), For Your Eyes Only (John Glen, 1981), and Lucie Aubrac (Claude Berri, 1997), will be making a rare stage appearance in New York City on February 24 for a one-night-only presentation of Lettres à Génica at the French Institute Alliance Française. Bouquet will be reading love letters sent from innovative poet, actor, mystic, and Theatre of Cruelty provocateur Antonin Artaud to his girlfriend, Romanian actress Génica Athanasiou. Artaud, who suffered most of his life from psychological problems, and Athanasiou teamed up on such projects as 1928’s La Coquille et le Clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman), which was written by Artaud and starred Athanasiou; directed by Gemaine Dulac, it is considered to be the first surrealist film. Bouquet will read the letters in French, with English supertitles. Tickets are $50, but FIAF is offering a special two-event package for $85, pairing Lettres à Génica with the March 3 New York premiere of Francis Huster’s La Peste, in which the French actor presents his one-man performance of Albert Camus’s 1947 novel, The Plague.