Godard, Varda & Carax!

12 november, Uitkjk Amsterdam
18 november, Filmschuur Haarlem
25 november, Filmhuis Lumen Delft

Prenom Carmen
Jean-Luc Godard | 1984 | 85 min
Met Maruschka Detmers, Jacques Bonnaffé, Myriem Roussel.

During a failed bank raid, a terrorist (Maruschka Detmers) named Carmen is seduced by a security guard.
The two escape and go into hiding together, taking refuge in a beachside house owned by Carmen’s uncle, a washed-out film director (played by Godard himself) living in dreams of a glorious comeback.
Unknown to him and to her possessive lover, Carmen and her comrades plan to use the hideout to plot a new criminal scheme.

Bizet’s famous opera ‘Carmen’, receives an original treatment by the enfant terrible of French cinema Jean-Luc Godard.
Witty, sexy and provocative, Prenom Carmen remains one of Godard’s most accessible films, although still carrying the director’s distinctive subversive touch towards cinematic norms and narrative cliques, starting by replacing Bizet’s music with Beethoven’s.
Prenom Carmen was awarded with the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Something like a remake of Pierrot le Fou in its cosmic despair, doom-laden romanticism, and stinging, insolent wit. This, throwaway jokes and all, is Godard back at his most nouvelle vague in years. – Time Out

26 november, Uitkjk Amsterdam
2 december, Filmschuur Haarlem
9 december, Filmhuis Lumen Delft

Sans Toit Ni Loin (Vagabond)
Agnes Varda | 1985 | 105 min
With Sandrine Bonnaire, Setti Ramdane, Macha Méril.

On a cold winter’s morning, the nearly frozen body of a dead young woman is found in a ditch in the countryside. Who was she? And what was she doing there?
The various men and women who encountered her remember her as a drifter.
Through flashbacks and brief interviews they try to figure out who she was and how she spent the last period prior to her death: though the memories of these encounters the vagabond’s life begins to emerge.

Agnes Varda humanism and dramatic realism shine with this moving story of a young woman who rejects society and civilisation to live freely in the countryside.
Filmed in a style closer to documentary than fiction, the film portrays the difficulty (or the impossibility) of living completely freely through the tragic and haunting story of Mona.
Sans Toit Ni Loin is one of Varda’s most critically acclaimed films and was awarded with the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, while Sandrine Bonnaire was rewarded with a César (French Oscars) as Best Actress for her extraordinary performance as the vagabond Mona.

A masterpiece, clearly one of the finest films in many a year. – The Chicago Reader

10 december, Uitkjk Amsterdam
16 december, Filmschuur Haarlem
23 december, Filmhuis Lumen Delft

Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
Leos Carax | 1991 | 120 min
With Juliette Binoche, Denis Lavant, Daniel Buain.

Alex, a mentally unstable street performer (Denis Lavant), and Michele, a young painter going blind for a degenerative disease (Juliette Binoche), meet and fall in love among the vagrants taking shelter at Pont-Neuf.
With no money, no job, no home, the two youngsters suddenly discover happiness and enjoy a whirlwind romance in the streets of Paris.
When Michèle discovers that her eyesight can maybe be saved Alex finds himself challenged by his own jealousy and by the anguish of losing her.

One of the French film sensations of the 1990s, Les Amantes de Point Neuf confirmed Leos Carax as one of the brightest new stars of French cinema with this stunningly original take to the traditional boy-meets-girl theme.
Carax’s unique filmic style succeeded in creating an astonishing modern melodrama, mixing a realistic depiction of homelessness told through quasi-documentary images to breathtaking romantic moments of pure sheer beauty while creating some of the most enchanting cinematic moments to date.

Truly extraordinary filmmaking from a unique cinematic voice. The love and filmmaking invoked in The Lovers on the Bridge are intoxicating. – Filmvault

Serie les Maîtres du Cinema

A celebration of French cinema through the masterpieces of its most renowned directors.
Every second and fourth Tuesday of the month at Uitkijk Cinema.
All films are screened in 35mm, with English subtitles.

Presented with the support of Maison Descartes.