New French Cinema Film Festival
Camille is a bundle of energy, sexual and otherwise, in Catherine Corsini’s effective portrait of an independent woman with a troubled and unstable sense of herself. After a chance meeting with a married political activist Camille begins to pursue him relentlessly, attending party meetings (she helps illegal immigrants, she explains, by sleeping with them) and finally joining him in illicit weekend getaways. But she’s clearly a bit over-the-top, initiating sex in semipublic settings, and she admits that her love is “like an illness.” Corsini’s isolating close-ups and Karin Viard’s performance capture Camille’s volatility and alienation–at one point, feeling trapped, she breaks a plate over her head. (FC) (7:00)
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Pierre Salvadori (The Apprentices) directed this mildly subversive 1998 comedy about a con artist’s complicated relationship with a pathological liar. Jeanne, a kook from a dysfunctional working-class family, claims that her parents are wealthy; after getting wind of this, young Antoine kidnaps her, and the two eventually fall for each other. This is the third Salvadori film with Marie Trintignant (daughter of Jean-Louis) and Guillaume Depardieu (son of Gerard), and their passive-aggressive puppy love is endearing enough to overcome the narrative gaps and occasionally strained humor. (TS) (9:00)
I haven’t seen Andre S. Labarthe’s two-part 1994 documentary, an interview with Rohmer conducted by film critic Jean Douchet and interspersed with clips from Rohmer films. But it was part of the excellent, long-running French TV series Filmmakers of Our Time, so it’s bound to be good. (JR) Admission is free. (1:00)
Eric Rohmer: preuves a l’appui
See listing for this date above; admission is free. (5:15)
Mooncalf
