Friday,
May 15 +
Saturday, May 16
Made
in USA
Friday,
May 15 at 7pm
Made
in USA – Philadelphia Premiere
dir.
Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1967, 35mm, 85 mins, color, French
w/ English subtitles
Introduced
by Richard Brody
Made
as a favor to his cash-strapped producer Georges de Beauregard,
and filmed simultaneously with Two or Three Things I Know
About Her, this ostensible
adaptation of a story by American crime writer Donald Westlake
was Godard’s farewell to his muse/ex-wife Anna Karina, never
filmed more glamorously, as she changes from one colorfully
Mod ensemble to another, posed against starkly colored backgrounds
and shot (by New Wave legend Raoul Coutard) in a succession
of giant, haunting close-ups. But it’s simultaneously an extremely
metaphorical and narratively disjunctive treatment of the notorious
disappearance/murder — still unsolved — of exiled Moroccan leftist
Mehdi Ben Barka and Godard’s own way of suggesting a vast Cold
War conspiracy.
Dedicated
to “Nick [Ray] and Samuel [Fuller], who taught me about image
and sound” and virtually unseen in this country due to rights
issues, this is Made in USA’s
very first US release in 35mm. "The many shots of Anna
Karina, with their wide variety of mood — each a different pose,
angle, expression — serve as a catalogue of remembrances. The
close-ups are the most expressive ones in color that Godard
has made to date." – Richard Brody
Saturday,
May 16 at 5pm
Made
in USA Reprise
Saturday,
May 16 at 7pm
They
Live by Night
dir.
Nicholas Ray, US, 1948, 16mm, 95 mins, b/w
Ray’s
directorial debut is a tense film-noir and a tale of doomed
romance. Escaped convict Bowie (Farley Granger) is desperate
to prove his innocence for a murder he was convicted of as a
teenager, but after a botched bank robbery he is forced to run
for his life. As his relationship with Keechie (Cathy O’Donnell)
offers a glimpse of a life that could be, one far from running
and hiding, the desperation builds as Bowie is drawn deeper
into a life of crime. They Live by Night is cited
as a key influence on the directors of the French New Wave.
followed
by
The
Crimson Kimono
dir.
Samuel Fuller, US, 1959, 35mm, 87 mins, b/w
In
its unmistakable Sam Fuller approach, The Crimson Kimono
finds the legendary director attempting to address racial
issues at a time when such a thing was rarely addressed in film.
Two LA cops, investigating the murder of a stripper, love the
same woman. When she finally begins to fall for Joe, a Japanese-American
(James Shigeta), his partner Charlie (Glenn Corbett) becomes
jealous, which Joe interprets as racially motivated. Not only
is The Crimson Kimono a highly original film-noir,
it is a true testament to Fuller’s unique vision and distinctive
style.
Richard
Brody is the
author of Everything
Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard. A "serious-minded
and meticulously detailed… account of the lifelong artistic
journey" of one of the most influential filmmakers of our
age. The New York Times. Brody is
a film critic and editor at The New Yorker. Everything
Is Cinema is his first book.
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