Tag Archives: CinéSalon

TICKET ALERT — AGNÈS VARDA: VISUAL ARTIST

French legend Agnès Varda will discuss her life and career as a visual artist at FIAF

French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, February 28, $30, 7:30
Series continues Tuesday nights through March 21
212-355-6100
fiaf.org

Over the years, FIAF has shown many films by Nouvelle Vague master Agnès Varda, the celebrated auteur behind such classics as Vagabond, Cléo from 5 to 7, The Gleaners and I, Jacquot de Nantes, and The Beaches of Agnès. Now the French Institute Alliance Française is bringing Varda herself to Florence Gould Hall for the special talk “Agnès Varda: Visual Artist,” taking place on February 28 at 7:30, moderated by art dealer Olivier Renaud-Clément. The Belgium-born, France-based Varda, who was married to Jacques Demy for nearly thirty years, will be focusing not only on her film career but her upcoming gallery show at Blum & Poe, which runs March 2 to April 15. The discussion also kicks off FIAF’s CinéSalon series “Agnès Varda: Life as Art,” which consists of Varda’s Daguerréotypes on March 7, with the 7:30 screening followed by a talk with Varda and curator Laurence Kardish, Jacqot de Nantes on March 14, and Lola on March 21. This is a very special chance to see the remarkable eighty-eight-year-old Varda, so get your tickets now.

POETIC AND POLITICAL — THE CINEMA OF RABAH AMEUR-ZAÏMECHE: BACK HOME

Kamel (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche) and Louisa (Meryem Serbah) are outsiders in their own village in BACK HOME

CINÉSALON: BACK HOME (BLED NUMBER ONE) (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, 2006)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, November 29, $13, 4:00 & 7:30
Series continues Tuesdays through December 13
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

FIAF’s Cinésalon series “Poetic and Political: The Cinema of Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche” continues November 29 with Ameur-Zaïmeche’s second feature, Bled Number One (Back Home), the follow-up and kind of prequel to Wesh Wesh and the second part of an unofficial trilogy that concludes with Adhen (Dernier Maquis). Kamel (Ameur-Zaïmeche) has returned home to his isolated village of Loulouj in northeast Algeria after having spent several years in France. Meanwhile, Louisa (Meryem Serbah) has left her husband, Ahmed (Ramzy Bedia), but her parents (Meriem Ameur-Zaïmeche and Larkdari Ameur-Zaïmeche) and brother (Soheb Ameur-Zaïmeche) insist she go back to him, saying she is bringing shame on the family. Both Kamel and Louisa feel like outsiders in their own village, which is balancing precipitously between the past and the future. The desperados, a group of young men who are spreading fundamentalist Muslim views, is battling with the patriots, the longtime members of the community, threatening violence on anyone who doesn’t follow the letter of the Koran. During Zerda, the pre-Islamic ritual of slaughtering and serving a bull in which the women are kept separate from the men, Kamel, in his ever-present orange hat, decides to be with the women instead, and the men, feeling shunned, remind him over and over that he is not to eat with them. The treatment of women in this patriarchal society is a central focus of the film. Louisa wants to break free of the chains that bind her, but she takes a bigger risk every time she strays from accepted, outdated convention. And the more Kamel proves to be his own man, the more the other men want to be rid of him. In fact, the patriots closely watch the town border, refusing entry to anyone they don’t want inside.

The film, which was written by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche and Louise Thermes, is photographed in a documentary style, with long shots both in time and distance; often what is being said among the characters can’t be heard and is not translated into English, as it is more for setting a realistic pace and a naturalistic flow. The muted, faded greens and blues of the village residences stand in stark contrast to the lush green mountainside and bright blue sky. The few times there is music, it turns out that it is being played live by Rodolphe Burger by the sea; at one point he sings William Blake’s “The Little Vagabond,” about God and the Devil. Bled Number One (“bled” in Algerian means “field” or “terrain”) is a subtle, poetic film laden with sociopolitical undertones, a melancholic yet beautiful work from an auteur who deserves a bigger audience. “To write Bled Number One, I didn’t return at all to Algeria to capture something about today’s youth there. I wrote this story based on my holiday memories,” Ameur-Zaïmeche has said. “But it is also because I felt that things hadn’t really changed, that time passes differently there. You have the time to reflect and be, faced with the elements. . . . A film is a gesture, a burst, a job, an enterprise, an action. An action in life, a pure lesson of life. It is here that we grasp something alive. For it is necessary to remain alive, no matter what else happens.” Bursting with life, Bled Number One is screening at FIAF on November 29 at 4:00 and 7:30; the later show will be followed by a Q&A with ArteEast executive director Jaime-Faye Bean, and both shows will end with a wine and beer reception. “Poetic and Political: The Cinema of Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche” continues December 6 with Smugglers’ Songs before concluding December 13 with Story of Judas.

POETIC AND POLITICAL — THE CINEMA OF RABAH AMEUR-ZAÏMECHE: ADHEN

Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche will be at FIAF on November 1 to screen and discuss ADHEN, which he directed, cowrote, and stars in

CINÉSALON: ADHEN (DERNIER MAQUIS) (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, 2008)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, November 1, $13, 4:00 & 7:30
Series continues Tuesdays through December 13
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

FIAF celebrates the career of French-Algerian indie writer, director, actor, and producer Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche in its November-December CinéSalon program “Poetic and Political: The Cinema of Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche.” The seven-week series will include all five of his films, realistic meditations on immigration, family, history, religion, and rebellion made between 2001 and 2015. The festival begins November 1 with 2008’s gentle and patient slice-of-life drama, Adhen. Christian Milia-Darmezin stars as Titi, a new Muslim convert who works at a small French company that repairs shipping pallets. Titi is teased by some of his fellow workers (Serpentine Kebe, Abel Jafri, Mamadou Koita, Sylvain Roume as Giant, Salim Ameur-Zaïmeche as Bashir) because he is not circumcised, so the not-very-bright Titi takes scissors to himself, landing him in the hospital. Meanwhile, the boss, Mao (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche), sets up a mosque for his employees, believing it will be good for morale, although he threatens to cut their bonuses if they don’t attend prayers every Friday. Growing worker unrest over low pay and long hours increases when Mao doesn’t let them participate in the selection of the Iman (Larbi Zekkour) and the mechanics start talking about unionizing.

A muezzin (Serpentine Kebe) calls fellow workers to prayer in ADHEN

A muezzin (Serpentine Kebe) calls fellow workers to prayer in Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s ADHEN

Adhen is beautifully shot by cinematographer Irina Lubtchansky, who lets her camera linger at the end of scenes, moving away from the characters and slowly turning up from the stacks and stacks of red pallets to a lightly cloudy bright blue sky or from a conversation about raises to trees blowing in the wind on the shore of a flowing river. The pallets are piled so high they are like physical barriers to the workers’ success, except when the muezzin (Kebe) climbs to the top and calls everyone to prayer, as if religion is the only answer to their problems. Later, when Giant encounters a trapped animal he thinks is a huge rat, the parallel between the frightened creature and the employees is palpable. Ameur-Zaïmeche, who cowrote the script with Louise Thermes, even gets away with such overt metaphors as a boss named Mao dealing with red pallets that transport commercial goods. He maintains a slow, easygoing pace throughout, regardless of where the emotions of the characters and story lead, from funny and proud to angry and resentful. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Dubai International Film Festival, Adhen is screening November 1 at 4:00 and 7:30; the later show will be followed by a Q&A with Ameur-Zaïmeche, moderated by Algerian-born French author and NYU visiting professor Zahia Rahmani. “Poetic and Political: The Cinema of Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche” continues Tuesday nights through December 13 with Ameur-Zaïmeche’s Wesh Wesh, Back Home (Bled Number One), Smugglers’ Songs, and Story of Judas in addition to an election-night Director’s Choice screening of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, followed by a reception with live election results.

BEYOND THE INGÉNUE: ADIEU PHILIPPINE

Liliane (Yveline Céry), Juliette (Stefania Sabatini), and Michel (Jean-Claude Aimini) have some wild adventures in ADIEU PHILIPPINE

CINÉSALON: ADIEU PHILIPPINE (Jacques Rozier, 1962)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, October 25, $14, 4:00 & 7:30
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

FIAF’s two-month CinéSalon series “Beyond the Ingénue” comes to a close October 25 with one of the lesser-known French New Wave classics, Jacques Rozier’s shamefully seldom screened Adieu Philippine. Rozier’s first film is a freewheeling adventure as Michel (Jean-Claude Aimini), a young man working in a television studio, cavorts with a pair of eighteen-year-old best friends, Juliette (Stefania Sabatini) and Liliane (Yveline Céry), while waiting to be called up to serve in the Algerian War. Rozier opens the film by taking viewers into the studio, where they are shooting a lively jazz performance by French violinist Maxim Saury and his band, the bouncy rhythm meeting the behind-the-scenes chaos. Pretending to be more important than he really is, Michel invites Juliette and Liliane to come in, and soon the trio is hitting cafés and nightclubs, camping on the beach, and trying to hook up with would-be filmmaker Pachala (Vittorio Caprioli). But what started out as fun gets somewhat more serious as jealousy creeps in and the war intervenes.

A trio of young French dreamers fight ennui and prepare for war in Jacques Rozier’s seldom-screened ADIEU PHILIPPINE

Adieu Philippine is an exhilarating tale of teenage freedom, of youth taking advantage of all life has to offer no matter one’s circumstance, fighting off ennui with a mad desire to just have fun. Rozier, who wrote the screenplay with Michèle O’Glor, allowed the cast of mostly nonprofessional actors to improvise and dubbed in dialogue later, resulting in less-than-stellar syncing that took two years in postproduction but thankfully gets lost in all the wild abandon. In his debut feature, cinematographer René Mathelin (Pardon Mon Affaire, The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe) shoots guerrilla-style in black-and-white, a kind of cinéma vérité in which passersby and people in the background often look at the camera, wondering what is going on. Adieu Philippine shares a soul and spirit with the early work of such auteurs as Jean-Luc Godard (1960’s Breathless), a friend and supporter of Rozier’s; American-born French photographer and documentarian William Klein (1958’s Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?), and François Truffaut, whose similarly themed Jules et Jim was also released in 1962, but Adieu Philippine has a charm all its own. Rozier, who turns ninety on November 10, would make only a handful of other features, including 1985’s Maine-Ocean and 2001’s Martingale. A new 35mm print of Adieu Philippine is being shown at FIAF on October 25 at 4:00 and 7:30; the later screening will be introduced by New York Review of Books editor Madeleine Schwartz.

BEYOND THE INGÉNUE: PAULINE AT THE BEACH

Pauline (Amanda Langlet), Pierre (Pascal Greggory), and Marion (Arielle Dombasle) get involved in a complicated love sextet in Éric Rohmer’s PAULINE AT THE BEACH

CINÉSALON: PAULINE AT THE BEACH (PAULINE À LA PLAGE) (Éric Rohmer, 1983)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, October 4, $14, 4:00 & 7:30
Series continues Tuesdays through October 25
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

“Love’s a form of insanity,” Pauline (Amanda Langlet) says in Éric Rohmer’s modern French classic, 1983’s Pauline at the Beach. The fifteen-year-old virgin turns out to be the most intelligent and honest character in the film, which earned Rohmer the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival. Amanda Langlet stars as Pauline, a teenager who is spending the end of the summer on the Normandy coast with her older cousin, sexy fashion designer Marion (Arielle Dombasle). Windsurfing hottie Pierre (Pascal Greggory) wants to rekindle the romance that cooled off when Marion left to get married, but the now-divorced Marion lusts for Henri (Féodor Atkine), a balding, middle-aged father who is not nearly as serious about sex as Marion is. Meanwhile, Pauline and fellow teen Sylvain (Simon de La Brosse) start a cute flirtation that gets upended when Marion shows up at Henri’s beach house one afternoon to discover candy girl Louisette (Rosette) hiding in a bathroom with Sylvain. A series of lies, misunderstandings, and miscommunications — all the elements of a basic French sex farce — ensue as various characters reevaluate their relationships as well as their faith in love.

Photographed by the great Néstor Almendros, who worked extensively with Rohmer and François Truffaut, Pauline at the Beach is a sophisticated jigsaw puzzle of a romantic drama, as Marion, Pierre, Pauline, and Henri spend much of the film debating over just what love is, each justifying their own beliefs. While the grown-ups act like children, the two teens are more like adults when examining the future. The film is also a splendid time capsule of 1980s styles, from the cheesy music to the awesome hairstyles and bathing suits. Dombasle, who has had a long film career, is racy and seductive as the libidinous blonde, but Langlet, in her cinematic debut, steals the show with her fantastic bangs, skimpy bikini, and expressive puppy-dog eyes. The third in Rohmer’s 1980s “Comedies and Proverbs” cycle — which also includes The Aviator’s Wife, A Good Marriage, Full Moon in Paris, The Green Ray, and Boyfriends and Girlfriends — Pauline at the Beach is screening October 4 at 4:00 and 7:30 in the FIAF CinéSalon series “Beyond the Ingénue”; the later show will be introduced by author Min Jin Lee (Free Food for Millionaires). The series continues Tuesday nights through October 25 with Patricia Mazuy’s The King’s Daughters, Jacques Rozier’s Adieu Philippine, and a double feature of Antoine Desrosières’s Haramiste and Claire Denis’s US Go Home.

BEYOND THE INGÉNUE: WATER LILIES

Floriane (Adèle Haenel) and Marie (Pauline Acquart) develop a complicated friendship in Céline Sciamma’s WATER LILIES

CINÉSALON: WATER LILIES (NAISSANCE DES PIEUVRES) (Céline Sciamma, 2007)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, September 27, $14, 4:00 & 7:30
Series continues Tuesdays through October 25
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

This past spring, the FIAF CinéSalon series “EDM Anthems: French Touch on Film” concluded with Céline Sciamma’s Girlhood, an award-winning coming-of-age drama about a sixteen-year-old girl who is trying to find a workable path to a worthwhile adulthood but is continually thwarted by socioeconomic and cultural issues. The 2014 film stars Karidja Touré, who was nominated for a César for Most Promising Actress. On September 27, Sciamma’s first feature, Water Lilies, another poignant and provocative coming-of-age drama, will be shown in the FIAF CinéSalon series “Beyond the Ingénue.” The 2007 film stars Adèle Haenel and Pauline Acquart, both of whom earned nominations as Most Promising Actress, along with a Best Debut nod for Sciamma. Mousy Marie (Acquart) wants to become part of her school’s synchronized swimming team, so she cozies up to squad captain Floriane (Haenel), who has a reputation as a rather loose girl. Marie’s best friend, Anne (Louise Blachère), dreams of having her first kiss with the hunky François (Warren Jacquin), a swimmer who is dating Floriane. Marie is caught in the middle, especially as she develops feelings of her own for Floriane.

The French title of Water Lilies is Naissance des Pieuvres, which translates as Birth of the Octopuses, referencing the eight interweaving arms of the four main characters as well as the synchronized swimming team itself. The film is a bold and honest look at young love, teen angst, and body image. While Floriane flaunts her alluring figure, Marie is small and flat-chested, and Anne is big-boned and fleshy, with large breasts that she desperately wants François to see. Writer-director Sciamma creates uniquely believable and intimately touching scenes that reveal the different problems the protagonists face as regular teenagers who might not quite be ready for what they are getting themselves involved in. As with Girlhood and Sciamma’s other full-length feature, 2011’s Tomboy, the cinematography, which goes from underwater shots to long, shadowy hallways, is by Crystel Fournier, with music by Para One, aka electronica maestro Jean-Baptiste de Laubier. Winner of the Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film, Water Lilies is screening September 27 at 4:00 and 7:30; the later show will be introduced by Columbia French literature professor Elisabeth Ladenson. “Beyond the Ingénue” continues Tuesday nights through October 25 with such other films as Éric Rohmer’s Pauline at the Beach, Patricia Mazuy’s The King’s Daughters, and Jacques Rozier’s Adieu Philippine.

BEYOND THE INGÉNUE: À NOS AMOURS

Sandrine Bonnaire makes a stunning debut as a sexually active teen in Maurice Pialat’s À NOS AMOURS

CINÉSALON: À NOS AMOURS (Maurice Pialat, 1983)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, September 20, $14, 4:00
Series continues Tuesdays through October 25
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

Sandrine Bonnaire won the César for Most Promising Actress in her film debut, Maurice Pialat’s À nos amours, and she has more than fulfilled that promise in her still-vibrant thirty-plus-year career. Bonnaire stars as fifteen-year-old Suzanne, who suddenly becomes sexually promiscuous one summer. “‘Don’t you think one can die of love?’” she asks, rehearsing for a camp play. “‘You told me you loved me. What kind of a world is this?’” As Suzanne flits about from lover to lover, her family begins to notice a change in her and is not very happy about it. Her mother (Evelyne Ker) and father (Pialat) are on the verge of a breakup, and her creepy brother, Robert (Dominique Besnehard), doesn’t really get any of it; all three seem emotionally stunted, able only to express their feelings about Suzanne’s behavior by striking her physically. Suzanne is a decidedly contemporary Western European ingénue; the film casts no aspersions on her and does not judge her actions, even if her mother and Robert do. Bonnaire was around the same age as her character when she made the film, which contains significant nudity and bed scenes if not graphic depictions of sex; the film would likely have been wildly controversial if made in Hollywood with a fifteen-year-old American actress. Suzanne’s father, a furrier who has left his wife for another woman, is sad that she has lost one of her dimples, a sign of her maturing; when she was a baby, he wanted to protect her from kidnapping, but now he knows and accepts that he no longer has control over her life. Suzanne enjoys the sex she is having but is obviously seeking something more; but Pialat, the director of the film and who also plays the fictional father, never delves too deeply into her psyche, refusing to provide any easy answers or simplistic resolutions for this complex coming-of-age story.

Suzanne (Sandrine Bonnaire) has a complicated relationship with her father (cowriter-director Maurice Pialat) in À NOS AMOURS

It’s not even clear how much time passes between scenes and boyfriends, whose names essentially become interchangeable. Pialat wrote the incisive script with Arlette Langmann, Claude Berri’s sister; Pialat and Langmann previously collaborated on 1980’s Loulou, in which Isabelle Huppert plays a young wife who undergoes a sexual reawakening. Bonnaire, who would go on to make such films as Pialat’s Under the Son of Satan and Police, Patrice Leconte’s Monsieur Hire, Claude Chabrol’s La Cérémonie, and Régis Wargnier’s Est-Ouest, earning another six César nominations and one more win (for Agnès Varda’s Vagabond), is extraordinary in her first film. Cinematographer Jacques Loiseleux falls in love with her eyes, following them as they wander, linger, and focus with an intelligence far beyond her years, and you will too. À nos amours is screening at 4:00 on September 20 in the FIAF CinéSalon series “Beyond the Ingénue,” which continues Tuesday nights through October 25 with such other films as Céline Sciamma’s Water Lilies Éric Rohmer’s Pauline at the Beach, and Jacques Rozier’s Adieu Philippine.