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CinémaTuesdays
Jean Eustache’s Circle
April 1, 8, 15, 22, & 29, 2008 |
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Although Jean Eustache has become
an emblematic filmmaker in post-New
Wave cinema, he is too frequently
cast as a solitary figure in the shadowy
landscapes of the French seventies.
Rather than approach his desperate,
passionate, and wickedly funny films
in isolation, this series envisions them
as part of a larger community. Throughout
April, Jean Eustache’s Circle brings together
key directors of its time, opening new
perspectives onto the work of an individual
and his output over a decade. While some
of these efforts include Eustache in their
cast and crew, others shed light on his
experiments with narrative and fascination
with authenticity in his films. |
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Near Orouët
Du côté d’Orouët
Tuesday, April 1
at 12:30pm
Jacques Rozier, 1969. Color. 150 min.
With Danièle Croisy, Françoise Guégan,
Caroline Cartier,
Bernard Menez.
In French with English subtitles
Rozier’s wry late-season vacation portrait
of sixties youth sees clog dancing, eel
feasts, interrupted sun tanning, and vague,
monstrous flirtations accompanied
by a deeper reflection on power, gender,
and passing time.
More Info | Tell a Friend |
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Jean-Pierre Léaud |
Double Screening
Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes
Le Père Noël a les yeux bleus
Tuesday, April 1
at 4 & 7pm*
Jean Eustache, 1966. B&W. 47 min.
With Jean-Pierre Léaud, Gérard Zimmermann,
Henri Martinez,
René Gilson.
In French with English subtitles
Daniel is desperate to buy a new coat
but has no money to do so. Taking a job
as a street-corner Santa Claus, he begins
to earn income and, more surprisingly,
the attention of many young women
taken with his costume. Eustache infuses
Daniel (and his hometown of Narbonne,
where the film takes place) with a keen
sense of compassion. |
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Bad Company
Les mauvaises fréquentations
Jean Eustache, 1963. B&W. 42 min.
With Daniel Bart, Dominique Jayr,
Jean Eustache
In French with English subtitles
Eustache’s debut film follows two young
men in a Parisian suburb looking for
fun and whatever trouble comes with it.
Unsurprisingly, their attention ultimately
falls on a girl. Spurned when she decides
to go dancing with someone else, their
thoughts quickly turn to revenge. Slowly,
we discover the layer of despair that
sits just under their carefree appearance.
*The post-screening discussion with Bernard Eisenschitz
and Sam Di Iorio is cancelled.
More Info | Tell a Friend |
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Michaël Lonsdale |
Double Screening
A Dirty Story (I & II)
Une Sale Histoire (I & II)
Tuesday, April 8
at 12:30 & 7pm*
Jean Eustache, 1977. Color. 47 min.
With Michaël Lonsdale, Jean Douchet,
Jean-Noël Picq
In French with English subtitles
A fascinating diptych of a man relating
his obsession with looking through
a peephole into a café bathroom. A Dirty
Story presents documentary and fictional
versions of the same shameful tale,
a dandified account of voyeurism and
humiliation that works both as a sexual
parable and as an allegory for cinephilia. |
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The Bakery Girl of Monceau
La Boulangère du Parc Monceau
Eric Rohmer, 1963. B&W. 23 min.
With Barbet Schroeder, Claudine Soubrier,
Michèle Girardon
In French with English subtitles
A university student passes a girl on the
street and feels instant attraction to her.
While searching for her in the days
following, he comes to patronize
a nearby bakery, as well as the woman
behind the counter. Eustache was present
during the production of this short,
the first of Rohmer’s six moral tales.
Its triangular love story provides an uppermiddle
class counterpoint to the films
Eustache would later make.
*Film editor Jacquie Raynal, who worked
with director Eric Rohmer, and Sam Di Iorio, Associate Professor
of French at Hunter College, will present
the 7pm screenings.
More Info | Tell a Friend |
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Une femme en Afrique |
Empty Quarter:
A Woman in Africa
Une femme en Afrique
Tuesday, April 8
at 4 & 9pm
Raymond Depardon, 1985. Color. 90 min.
With Françoise Prenant
In French with English subtitles
An unseen filmmaker falls in love with
a solitary woman who travels with him
across Africa. Like Eustache’s A Dirty
Story, Depardon’s restless feature strains
against the boundaries, separating fiction
from documentary.
More Info | Tell a Friend |
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Michel Terrazon |
Naked Childhood
L’enfance nue
Tuesday, April 15
at 12:30 & 7pm
Maurice Pialat, 1969. Color. 83 min.
With Raoul Billerey, Maurice Coussonneau,
Michel Terrazon, Pierrette Deplanque, Linda Gutemberg.
In French with English subtitles.
Considered unmanageable by his
adoptive parents, ten-year old François
is shipped off to a foster home. Problems
with his subsequent families render
his life even more difficult. Entirely cast
with non-professional actors, Pialat's
debut feature is an unflinching story
of abandonment and revolt.
More Info | Tell a Friend |
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Martin Loeb & Marie-Paule Fernandez |
My Little Loves
Mes petites amoureuses
Tuesday, April 15
at 4 & 9pm
Jean Eustache, 1974. Color. 123 min.
With Martin Loeb, Marie-Paule Fernandez,
Jacqueline Dufranne, Dionys Mascolo
In French with English subtitles
Just one year into high school, Daniel
is uprooted from his rural country life
and transplanted into the city to live
with his mother and her lover.
With a nod to Rimbaud, Eustache delivers
an unsentimental portrait of a small-town
boy’s gradual discovery of work
and play in the adult world. Featuring
a cameo by Maurice Pialat.
More Info | Tell a Friend |
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Jean Renoir |
Jean Renoir, The Boss
Jean Renoir, le Patron
Tuesday, April 22
at 12:30 & 7pm
Jacques Rivette, 1966. B&W. 97 min.
With Jean Renoir, Michel Simon
In French with English subtitles
This incandescent portrait of a late-career
reunion between Jean Renoir and Michel
Simon is also a collaboration between
two major filmmakers: Jacques Rivette,
who directed the film, and Jean Eustache,
who edited it. The experience irrevocably
changed the way they understood
rhythm, pacing, and narrative in cinema.
More Info | Tell a Friend |
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The Pig |
Double Screening
The Photos of Alix
Les Photos d’Alix
Tuesday, April 22
at 4 & 9pm
Jean Eustache, 1980. Color. 18 min.
With Alix Cléo Roubaud, Boris Eustache
In French with English subtitles
A simple, engrossing film that continues
to address the themes of representation
and deception that emerge throughout
Eustache’s work. Alix talks with a young
man (Eustache's son Boris) about a number
of her photographs. As she speaks,
we slowly realize that the images she
discusses are not the ones we see. |
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The Pig
Le Cochon
Jean Eustache & Jean-Michel Barjol, 1970.
Color. 50 min.
In French with English subtitles
Shot in a single day, The Pig documents
the process by which a pig is slaughtered
and converted into sausage. Yet the film
is neither a gruesome exposé nor an
exercise in detached journalism; instead,
Eustache offers an appreciation of the
farmers’ work and a document of their
simple way of life. In many ways, The Pig is his most beautiful work.
More Info | Tell a Friend |
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Jean-Pierre Léaud,
Françoise Lebrun &
Bernadette Lafont |
The Mother and the Whore
La Maman et la Putain
Tuesday, April 29
at 12:30 & 7pm*
Jean Eustache, 1973. B&W. 219 min.
With Jean-Pierre Léaud, Françoise Lebrun & Bernadette Lafont
In French with English subtitles
Florence Gould Hall (12:30pm); Tinker Auditorium (7pm)
Disinherited from politics, family, and
society Alexandre, Marie, and Véronika
seduce and destroy each other as France
sinks into a long post-68 hangover.
Eustache’s epic vision of sour relationships,
linguistic vampirism, and bad times
in the City of Light single-handedly
slammed the door shut on the New Wave’s
romanticism of youth.
More Info | Tell a Friend |
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In French with English subtitles unless otherwise noted
Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th Street
*The 7pm screening of The Mother and the Whore on April 29 will be held at Tinker Auditorium.
Ticket Price
FIAF Members Free** ($2 advance tickets)
Non-Members $10
Students w/ ID $7
**Free tickets are
distributed on the day of the
event.
Present your
membership card at the
box office and pick up your ticket.
Buy Tickets
Ticketmaster.com
Call 212 307 4100
Visit Box Office
Special Offer
Present your CinémaTuesdays ticket and receive a 15% discount on your bill at Bistro 60 (37 E 60 St). Valid only on date printed on ticket. |
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Curated by Marie Losier
& Sam Di Iorio, Associate Prof.
of French, at Hunter College.
CinémaTuesdays is made possible
with public funds from the
New York State Council on the Arts,
a State agency. Special thanks to the
Cultural Services of the French
Embassy and the French Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. Special thanks to Antoine Sebire
from Audiovisual Affairs at the
French Embassy in Washington
D.C., Connaissance du Cinéma,
Boris Eustache, Jacques Rozier,
and Sam Di Iorio. American Airlines is the official
airline of FIAF. CinémaTuesdays is sponsored
by the generous support of Lillet.
Images:
© New Yorker Films/Photofest
(Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes);
© Tamasa Distribution (A Dirty Story);
© Boris Eustache (Jean Eustache);
© Boris Eustache (My Little Loves);
© New Yorker Films/Photofest
(The Mother and the Whore) |
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