Friday, March 30, 2018

Radical Presence: Anne Wiazemsky April 20-26 at the Quad (Plus an evening with Michel Hazanavicius)

The Quad presents an Anne Wiazemsky retrospective coinciding with the April 20 release of Michel Hazanavicius' Godard Mon Amour, based on Wiazemsky's memoir recalling her marriage to Jean-Luc Godard

Plus an evening with Michel Hazanavicius; on April 18, we'll be presenting a double bill of spy comedies OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies & Lost in Rio—with Hazanavicius in person!

As a teenager, Anne Wiazemsky was introduced by a family friend to French filmmaker Robert Bresson, who immediately cast her in his now-legendary Au hasard Balthazar. Bresson’s advice to the rest of his “models” on set was simply, “Watch Anne.” She became a crucial screen player (and then husband) to Jean-Luc Godard before appearing in works by some of the world’s most acclaimed auteurs. The granddaughter of Nobel literature laureate François Mauriac, Wiazemsky become a novelist and memoirist; her 2015 book One Year Later recollected the making of La Chinoise and her marriage to Godard, and served as the basis for the new Godard Mon Amour (opening April 20). After her untimely passing last October at 70, the Quad pays tribute to Wiazemsky’s captivating presence. In performance after performance, you can’t help but watch her.

Au hasard Balthazar, Robert Bresson, 1966, France/Sweden, 95m, 35mm
La Chinoise, Jean-Luc Godard, 1967, France, 95m, DCP
L’enfant secret, Philippe Garrel, 1979, France, 92m, DCP
Porcile, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969, Italy, 99m, 35mm
Qui trop embrasse…, Jacques Davila, 1986, France, 84m, 35mm
Le retour d’Afrique, Alain Tanner, 1973, Switzerland/France, 108m, 35mm
Sympathy for the Devil, Jean-Luc Godard, 1968, UK, 100m, DCP
Teorema, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968, Italy, 98m, 35mm
Weekend, Jean-Luc Godard, 1967, France/Italy, 104m, 35mm

Godard Mon Amour

Opens Fri April 20

Michel Hazanavicius, France, 107m, DCP
Adapted from Anne Wiazemsky’s memoir, One Year Later, the new film from Oscar winning director Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) is a stylish, freewheeling account of the romance between a dyspeptic Jean-Luc Godard (Louis Garrel) at the height of his celebrity and burgeoning young actress Wiazemsky (Stacy Martin), which reaches a fever pitch of marital and creative crisis in the wake of the revolutionary events of May ’68. The late Wiazemsky noted that Hazanavicius "understood something very profound about Jean-Luc.”

In French with English subtitles

Official Selection: Cannes Film Festival

“This movie is a stupid, stupid idea.” —Jean-Luc Godard
An Evening with Michel Hazanavicius

Weds, April 18
A double bill of two delightful comedies from the the Academy Award-winning director of The Artist, an acclaimed stylist at ease in seemingly any genre, in advance of the release of his new film Godard Mon Amour

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies

6.45pm
Michel Hazanavicius, 2006, France, 99m, 35mm
Hazanavicius broke out with his second feature by reviving novelist Jean Bruce’s long-running titular spy protagonist, who had been portrayed in three movies in the 1960s. Here, though, OSS 117 is playfully refitted as bluff and politically incorrect, firing first and not asking questions later. Genre clichés are razzed as the French secret agent tracks fugitive Nazis in the Middle East of 1955, and lead actors Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo both began fruitful collaborations with the filmmaker.

In French with English subtitles

With Michel Hazanavicius in person

Followed by...

OSS 117: Lost in Rio

9.00pm
Michel Hazanavicius, 2009, France, 101m, 35mm
Following the first movie’s success, the filmmaking team reunited three years later for a sequel—but cheekily vaulted their French spy OSS 117 forward by 12 years, with star Jean Dujardin having even more fun showing his manly-man character buffeted by swingin’ 1967. The hunt for another Nazi in hiding (played by Rüdiger Vogler, of Wim Wenders films) takes OSS 117 and Mossad agent Louise Monot into South America, with delightful movie references throughout.

In French with English subtitles

With Michel Hazanavicius in person

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