National Gallery of Art, Washington Art, of Gallery National

Spring 2008 Spring Program Film

National Gallery of Art 4th Street and Constitution Avenue nw Washington, dc Mailing address 2000b South Club Drive Landover, md 20785 www.nga.gov

Films are shown in the East Building Auditorium

Cover image from (Seagull)

Film Program Spring 2008

Film Program Spring 2008 National Gallery of Art, Washington

Spring Series film

Jean Eustache: Film as Life, Life as Film

From the Archives: 16 at 12

Max Ophuls in Hollywood

Retour à May 1968

Envisioning : Studio

Gabriel Figueroa: Master of Light and Shade

Art and Events The New (Seagull) 26 Sat 7 Sat I’ll Show You the Town 4:00 Film Event: I’ll Show You the Town 2:00 Gabriel Figueroa: Master of Light and Ciné-Concert Shade: Enamorada Ciné-Concert 4:00 Gabriel Figueroa: Master of Light and 27 Sun Shade: La Perla 4:30 Max Ophuls in Hollywood: Caught Charly (Isild Le Besco in 8 Sun 29 Tues 4:30 Envisioning Russia: The Thirteen person) 12:00 From the Archives: 16 at 12: The Happiness of Still Life 10 Tues In Praise of Independents: 12:00 From the Archives: 16 at 12: Glassmakers of Herat The Flaherty May 14 Sat 2:00 Gabriel Figueroa: Master of Light and I Am a Cat (Tatsuya Nakadai 4 Sun Shade: Nazarín 4:00 Envisioning Russia: The New Moscow in person) 4:30 Retour à May 1968: May Fools 6 Tues 15 Sun 4:00 Gabriel Figueroa: Master of Light and 12:00 From the Archives: 16 at 12: The Incised Julius Caesar Shade: Another Dawn Image 10 Sat 17 Tues 12:00 From the Archives: 16 at 12: Glassmakers 2:00 Film Event: In Praise of Independents: of Herat April The Flaherty 11 Sun 21 Sat 2:00 Envisioning Russia: The Russian Question 1 Tues 5:00 Film Event: Charly (Isild Le Besco in 4:00 Envisioning Russia: 12:00 From the Archives: 16 at 12: The Happiness person) of Still Life 13 Tues 22 Sun 5:00 Film Event: I Am a Cat (Tatsuya Nakadai 5 Sat 12:00 From the Archives: 16 at 12: The Incised in person) 2:00 Jean Eustache: Le Jardin des délices de Image Jérôme Bosch; Le Cochon 24 Tues 4:00 Jean Eustache: Le Jardin des délices de 17 Sat 12:00 From the Archives: 16 at 12: Glassmakers Jérôme Bosch; Le Cochon 3:00 Retour à May 1968: Tout va bien of Herat 6 Sun 18 Sun 26 Thurs 4:30 Jean Eustache: Les Photos d’Alix; Le pere 4:00 Retour à May 1968: Regular Lovers 12:30 Film Event: Julius Caesar Noël a les yeux bleus; Une sale histoire 20 Tues 27 Fri 8 Tues 12:00 From the Archives: 16 at 12: The Incised 12:30 Film Event: Julius Caesar 12:00 From the Archives: 16 at 12: The Happiness Image of Still Life 24 Sat 28 Sat 12:30 Film Event: Julius Caesar 12 Sat 2:00 Retour à May 1968: To Die at Thirty 3:00 Gabriel Figueroa: Master of Light and 2:00 Jean Eustache: 4:30 Envisioning Russia: Shade: Marcario; Days of Autumn 13 Sun 25 Sun 29 Sun 4:30 Jean Eustache: La peine perdue de Jean 5:45 Envisioning Russia: 2:00 Envisioning Russia: Eustache; Numéro zéro 27 Tues 4:30 Envisioning Russia: The Letter Never Sent 15 Tues 12:00 From the Archives: 16 at 12: The Incised 12:00 From the Archives: 16 at 12: The Happiness Image of Still Life Films are shown in original format in the 31 Sat auditorium of the National Gallery’s East 4:00 Envisioning Russia: Jolly Fellows 19 Sat Building at 4th Street and Constitution 2:00 Max Ophuls in Hollywood: The Exile Avenue nw. Seating is on a first-come basis. 4:30 Max Ophuls in Hollywood: The Reckless To ensure a seat, please plan to arrive at Moment June least ten minutes before showtime. 20 Sun Programs are subject to change. 4:30 Max Ophuls in Hollywood: Letter from 1 Sun For current information, visit our Web site: an Unknown Woman 4:30 Envisioning Russia: Tractor Drivers www.nga.gov/programs/film.htm or call (202) 842-6799. 22 Tues 3 Tues 12:00 From the Archives: 16 at 12: The Happiness 12:00 From the Archives: 16 at 12: Glassmakers of Still Life of Herat Julius Caesar June 26, 27, 28 at 12:30 One of the finest Hollywood studio renditions of Shakespeare, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Julius Caesar features not only a stellar cast — as Brutus, Marlon Brando as Mark Antony, and John Gielgud as Cassius to men- tion only three — but also a respectful and sensitive reading of the text that preserves the play’s dramatic rhythms. (Joseph L. Mankie- wicz, 1953, 35 mm, 120 minutes) Presented in association with the Shakespeare Theater Company’s stage production of Julius Caesar at the Harman Center for the Arts.

Jean Eustache: Film as Life, Life as Film Jean Eustache with Alix Clio-Roubaud, Les Photos d’Alix (Tamasa) Untrained as a filmmaker but bold and origi- nal in approach, Jean Eustache (1938 – 1981) Art Films and Events Elephant Boy, the classic film based on frequently called himself an archivist or “Toomai of the Elephants” from Kipling’s ethnographer, not a filmmaker, even when The Jungle Book, features Sabu himself at the I’ll Show You the Town Ciné-Concert talking about his dramatic work. “I simply age of thirteen. Although seemingly about Premiere of new organ score want to show that the cinema has a direct Sabu’s rite of passage to adulthood, the film by Dennis James influence on life, just as literature does.” He touches on questions of myth and colonialism. April 26 at 4:00 directed many films with an anthropological (Robert Flaherty and , 1937, slant (some of them for French television) in English comedic actor Reginald Denny 35 mm, 80 minutes) which language and image shrewdly engage resettled in Hollywood when he was twenty- and challenge the viewer’s ideas about life. eight and immediately became a beloved star The series is presented in association with the of many now-forgotten American comedies. Charly Washington premiere Embassy of France and La Maison Française, In I’ll Show You the Town a poor young profes- where other Eustache films are shown in April. sor (Denny) is interrupted from his work on a Director Isild Le Besco in person book and becomes caught in a web of scandal May 11 at 5:00 and disgrace. Extricating himself with some Fourteen-year-old Nicholas, a foster child Le Cochon (The Pig) fast-talking and high-stepping, in the end he uncomfortable with elderly guardians, steals preceded by Hieronymous Bosch’s finds his true love. Declared one reviewer in a book and a postcard showing the sea at Garden of Delights 1925, “There are situations here that defy any- Belle-Ile-en-Mer. He runs away, meets a April 5 at 2:00 and 4:00 one to keep a straight face.” (Harry A. Pollard, young village prostitute called Charly, and Eustache’s famous yet rarely seen documentary 1925, 35 mm, 102 minutes) Dennis James live experiences a rough coming-of-age. A fresh Le Cochon records a domestic hog-slaughtering on theater organ. Print from the Stanford Theatre talent from France, Isild Le Besco (b. 1982) and sausage-making event on a small farm Foundation Collection at ucla Film Archive. has directed four films and appeared in over in the Massif Central. The two co-directors thirty. Hailing from a long line of actors and (Eustache and Barjol) eschewed any voiceover filmmakers, she cast brother Kolia as young In Praise of Independents: The Flaherty and used only the local (sometimes indeci- Nicholas and used brother Jowan as her cinema- Washington premiere of Santiago pherable) patois of the farmers — a suitably tographer. (Isild Le Besco, 2007, French with May 10 at 2:00 authentic soundtrack to accompany a van- subtitles, 35 mm, 95 minutes) Isild Le Besco ishing practice once a vital part of life. (Jean Each year the National Gallery salutes the will discuss the film after the screening. Eustache with Jean-Michel Barjol, 1970, natural annual film showcase known as “The Flaherty sounds, French regional dialect, 16 mm, Seminar,” a unique week-long forum named I Am a Cat 50 minutes) for American pioneering filmmaker Robert In Hieronymous Bosch’s Garden of Delights, Flaherty. Now in its fifty-fourth year, the Tatsuya Nakadai in person June 22 at 5:00 Eustache’s friend Jean Frapat reflects on the Flaherty brings together artists, filmmakers, meanings in Bosch’s triptych The Garden of writers, students, and scholars. Screenings Natsume S¯oseki’s satirical Japanese novel I Am Earthly Delights. The film is one of several are conceived around a specific theme, and a Cat spurred to make a film ver- extraordinary French television programs critical discussions are always an important sion casting Tatsuya Nakadai in the starring created by Eustache in the 1970s. (1979, part of the blend. The Gallery’s program role as a Tokyo teacher during the Meiji period. French with subtitles, 33 minutes) consists of four works from the 2007 seminar By turns madcap, meditative, and moving, the held on the Vassar College campus. The over- film follows not only the teacher’s comings all theme was “South of the Other.” and goings, but also the divergent affairs of Une sale histoire (A Nasty Tale) Borom Sarret, a poetic day in the life of a the local cat population. Toward the end, the preceded by Les Photos d’Alix poor cart driver, was the directorial debut for teacher’s cat politely shares his own perplexed and Le pere Noël a les yeux bleus Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene. opinion of his overseer and of humans in (Santa Has Blue Eyes) The deep roots of the worker’s poverty are general. (Kon Ichikawa, 1975, Japanese with April 6 at 4:30 clearly related to corrupt politicians and subtitles, 35 mm, 116 minutes) The first of three short works,Les Photos d’Alix colonialist practices. (Ousmane Sembene, Actor Tatsuya Nakadai, legendary star of records an actress telling her life story to a 1964, French and Wolof with subtitles, films by , , young man (who in fact is Eustache’s son) 16 mm, 20 minutes) Kon Ichikawa, and , is rivaled in with the aid of her treasured photo album. Santiago is the delicately layered portrait reputation only by the late Toshiro Mifune as Her verbal recollections interestingly vie with of a butler working in the filmmaker’s home Japan’s most iconic male star. One of the few the photographic record. (Jean Eustache, 1978, since childhood. Memory, history, identity, actors known outside the country, Nakadai is French with subtitles, 16 mm, 18 minutes) and filmmaking practice all come into play as also considered Japan’s leading Shakespearean In Le pere Noël a les yeux bleus Jean-Pierre the director himself provides context. (João actor and, at 75, remains one of its most Léaud plays Daniel, a thief who shoplifts and Moreira Salles, 2007, Portuguese with sub- popular stage stars. Immediately following invents meaningless scams, while keeping titles, 35 mm, 80 minutes) I Am a Cat, Mr. Nakadai will appear in person a day job posing for photographs in a Santa Surviving Sabu depicts difficulties arising for an on-stage interview with Japanese film uniform (“it’s an easy way to meet the girls”). when a father and son debate issues of tradi- specialist Michael Jeck. For better or worse, Léaud still endears tion and modernity surrounding an intriguing himself to the viewer. (Jean Eustache, 1966, topic: the iconic Indian film star Sabu. (Ian French with subtitles, Beta SP, 47 minutes) Iqbal Rashid, 1997, English subtitles, Beta SP, 15 minutes) Une sale histoire is two versions of the same story — one documentary, the other fiction. A man describes in detail his life as a voyeur to a group of friends. “The first part could stand alone as the performance of a natural storyteller, an amateur but enthusiastic entertainer, but the second part broadens the subject… to include the nature of movies and of performance.” — Jared Rapfogel (Jean Eustache, 1977, French with subtitles, 35 mm, 52 minutes)

The Mother and the Whore (La maman et la putain) April 12 at 2:00 One of the monumental achievements of midcentury cinema (and “an icy comment on the ”), this nearly four-hour film puts a magnifying lens on the tangled relationships between a self-absorbed young Jean-Pierre Léaud and the women in his life. As the viewer observes daily comings and goings, monologues and dialogues

(culled, according to the director, from real- Max Ophuls with Joan Fontaine (Photofest) life conversations) form a large part of the soundtrack. “The same way that Flaubert’s novels gave a reading of a personal trajectory The Happiness of Still Life work. “This sense of ‘exile’ made the screen as well as a tableau of an era, La maman et la April 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 his only home,” wrote one historian. putain offers a close up of three individuals, Ophul’s camera, too, constantly traveled The Happiness of Still Life depicts Austria’s a medium shot of a micro-society, and a in tilts, pans, and a whole array of tracking Biedermeier culture — the first fully-realized wide shot of French society in the early and crane shots, seemingly never comfort- expression of an emerging middle class in 1970s,” noted one writer. (Jean Eustache, able unless on the move. 1973, French with subtitles, 35 mm, following the Napoleonic wars. With 220 minutes) music by Franz Schubert and quotations from contemporary Austrian texts, the film is also The Exile a meditation on beautiful, simple objects: April 19 at 2:00 La peine perdue de Jean Eustache sewing boxes, friendship books, teacups, A vehicle for Douglas Fairbanks Jr. who, (The Wasted Breath of Jean Eustache) chairs, and lockets. (Andrea Simon, 1989, in the swashbuckling mode of his father, also Numéro zéro 16 mm, 27 minutes) April 13 at 4:30 plays Charles ii in exile in Holland, posing as a laborer and aiming to evade Cromwell’s Arguably one of the most intelligent biogra- The Incised Image puritanical Roundheads. “The result is a phies of a filmmaker ever produced,La peine May 6, 13, 20, 27 film whose athletic feats are in the camera’s perdue de Jean Eustache (The Wasted Breath of Jean realm, a Hollywood film with a European Australian artist Charles Lloyd, working Eustache) presents the artist through a series pace and Ophulsian grace that contemporary in London in the early 1960s, explains his of interviews and readings by close friends critic James Agee characterized as ‘cavalier methods for etching on copper plates. The and colleagues. Jean-Pierre Léaud leads the detachment.’” — Pacific Film Archive first part of the film is in black and white and procession, reciting a text by Eustache from (Max Ophuls, 1948, 35 mm, 95 minutes) features prints made with black ink, while 1971. Eustache’s revolutionary ideas about his Print from the Library of Congress collection art, his background, and the major events of the second part is in color and addresses his life (he comitted suicide in 1981) are por- color printmaking. (Arthur Cantrill, 1966, trayed throughout the film. (Angel Díez, 1997, 16 mm, 25 minutes) French with subtitles, 53 minutes) April 19 at 4:30 In Numéro zéro Eustache set out to make Glassmakers of Herat “I never wanted to do a decent thing until I a portrait of his aged and nearly blind June 3, 10, 17, 24 met you.” Blackmailer James Mason mellows grandmother. He simply placed her in front after putting the squeeze on , In association with the exhibition Afghanistan: of a camera and asked her to recount her who has just dumped the body of her daugh- Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, life. This deceptively straightforward prem- ter’s disreputable boyfriend. The emotional Kabul, The Glassmakers of Herat documents a ise became a stirring portrait of a strong intensity builds more from the bleakness of one-room glass factory in Afghanistan that woman. Eustache never released Numéro zero the everyday than from this touch of la noir, has retained production methods similar to in its original format; instead, a truncated however. Raising blackmail money is just those recorded on Assyrian cuneiform tablets version was exhibited on French tv with another item on Bennett’s to-do list, along 3,000 years ago. (Elliott Erwitt, 1979, 16 mm, the title Odette Robert. The longer original with the groceries, the mortgage, and the 26 minutes) version was not released until 2003, nearly telephone bill. “Roving from room to room, twenty years after the director’s death. (Jean tracked by Ophuls’s restless camera, Bennett Eustache, 1971/2003, French with subtitles, is a prisoner in her open-plan home, a condi- 35 mm, 104 minutes) tion only sympathetic extortionist Mason seems to notice.” — Juliet Clark (Max Ophuls, Max Ophuls in Hollywood 1949, 35 mm, 82 minutes)

German-born, French-bred, Austrian-influ- From the Archives: 16 at 12 enced Max Ophuls (1902 – 1957) flourished Letter from an Unknown Woman through a nomadic lifestyle that included April 20 at 4:30 turns in , Holland, Switzerland, and the The Gallery continues its regular Tuesday Louis Jourdan, concert pianist turned playboy, . In 1941 he arrived in . at noon screenings of artist portraits and opens a letter from recently deceased Joan His very first Hollywood assignment was historical documentaries in archival 16 mm Fontaine and, to his amazement, finds him- a picture called Vendetta. Although that format. All prints are from the collection of self the object of a lifelong unrequited love. project in the end was a flop, Ophuls went the National Gallery’s film department. As Fontaine recounts their brief relationship, on to direct four successful American movies the film contrasts Jourdan’s detachment before heading back to France in 1950, where with her very knowing assessment of their he eventually achieved his most celebrated plight. “Her life was like the carnival ride that took the couple, on their only night together, Regular Lovers (Les Amants réguliers) Battleship Potemkin through the countries of Europe, a fantasy of May 18 at 4:00 May 25 at 5:45 movement that was really only a circular stasis, Filmmaker was a partici- A 1905 sailors’ revolt leads to repression propelled by a bemused operator.” — Judy pant in the May 1968 mutiny and (alongside and triumph in one of the genuinely Bloch (Max Ophuls, 1948, 35 mm, 90 minutes) Jean-Luc Godard and ) pro- exciting legends of the silent cinema. Print from the Library of Congress collection duced footage of the revolution in progress. For many years routinely selected by critics’ Decades later, Garrel recalls these experi- polls as the greatest film of all time, Battle- Caught ences in his quasi-experimental Les Amants ship Potemkin was at first planned as a sweep- April 27 at 4:30 réguliers, a film that for its first hour portrays ing overview of the entire 1905 revolution the May nocturnal street rebellions in styl- on its twentieth anniversary but weather and Ordinary girl Barbara Bel Geddes eagerly ized black and white. Police pursuit and a time constraints forced concentration on marries into money in the form of sadistic feeling of bourgeois world-weariness follow this single episode, comprising only a half millionaire . Her new Long Island the fighting and euphoria, making the film page of the original script. The devastating gothic dream house — darkly and moodily “one-third idealism, two-thirds disillusion- Odessa steps sequence — arguably the most shot in deep noir by cinematographer Lee ment — not unlike life itself.” — Dennis Lim anthologized sequence in film history — Garmes — does not satisfy Bel Geddes, (Philippe Garrel, 2005, French with subtitles, required three days to conceive and seven to however, and she seeks truer happiness in 35 mm, 178 minutes) shoot using only real sailors and denizens the hands of a poor but appealing doctor of Odessa. “Pure , as much as it (James Mason). “The alluring web of hearts is art.” (, 1925, silent with and dollars has rarely looked so deadly, and To Die at Thirty (Mourir à 30 ans) intertitles, 35 mm, 80 minutes) only the studio spared us the sight of the May 24 at 2:00 kill.” — Paul Taylor (Max Ophuls, 1949, Romain Goupil — student activist during the 35 mm, 88 minutes) Print from ucla Film Jolly Fellows (Moscow Laughs) May 1968 protests and apprentice to Jean-Luc and Television Archive with preservation funded May 31 at 4:00 Godard — is among France’s most productive by The Film Foundation and the afi/nea Preser- and politically engaged - The most popular early sound films in Rus- vation Grants Program. makers. His reflection fourteen years later on sia, as elsewhere, were often infused with the significance of May 1968 won the Festival national musical forms. The determined but de Cannes Caméra d’Or and the French César untalented chanteuse of Jolly Fellows mis- for best first work. Goupil, who claims his takes an innocent shepherd for a renowned only goal is to “communicate the existential jazz band leader. She invites the shepherd Retour à May 1968 issues that trouble [him],” raises many ques- to accompany her to a fancy fête. He agrees, tions about the use of film as a medium to but then shows up at the party with his pan- This May marks the fortieth anniversary of record history, even as he tells the story of this pipes — as well as all the animals from his the notorious “May ’68” social revolution turbulent time. (Romain Goupil, 1982, French farm. (, 1934, Russian in France. It was a period of student unrest, with subtitles, digital beta, 95 minutes) with subtitles, 35 mm, 96 minutes) activism, boycott, rebellion, and mayhem that set off changes in French society later felt around the world. These four films evoke, in Tractor Drivers ways both reflective and raw, the exhilaration June 1 at 4:30 and remonstration that marked May 1968. Envisioning Russia: Returning home to his collective in Ukraine, Mosfilm Studio Klim is surprised to find his beloved Mariana May Fools (Milou en mai) is now an ace tractor driver with many male May 4 at 4:30 admirers. His only recourse is to take up The largest and most influential film studio tractor driving, too, so he and Mariana can The De Vieuzay family matriarch has just died, in Russia, Mosfilm first opened its doors in reconnect. With music by Dmitry Pokrass, and as the family gathers, young radicals are Moscow in the early 1920s. From historical Tractor Drivers was the model for many shutting down French society. Stranded by epics to musicals, propaganda films, and girl-boy-tractor romances and the object strikes and chaos in the streets, the clan flees enduring classics by directors such as of innumerable parodies. “A fascinating for the country house only to be confronted , , Larisa work that combines three Soviet obsessions by the more familiar chaos of their own Shepitko, and , Mosfilm’s of the : musicals, the glorification of familial bickering. Neither disapproving of contributions to film history have been technology, and preparations for an impend- beyond compare. Notable productions the period nor commending it, May Fools in ing war.” — Richard Pena (, 1939, the end is neutral. “What is Malle trying to include ’s monumental Russian with subtitles, 35 mm, 88 minutes) say? The revolution comes to nothing, the War and Peace, the most expensive film ever family neither caves in nor rises to heroism, made, and Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship and the happiest person is arguably the maid Potemkin, arguably the greatest film of all The Thirteen who unexpectedly is in the will.” — Roger time. A selection of ten Mosfilm archival June 8 at 4:30 Ebert (, 1989, French with sub- features from the 1920s through the 1950s Heading home through the Central Asian titles, 35 mm, 108 minutes) is presented in June. More films from the desert, members of a thirteen-person patrol 1960s through the present day will be shown are harassed by a horde of marauding bandits. in July, concluding with the 2007 Moscow One of the earliest of the frontier adventure Tout va bien International grand prize winner. films known as “Easterns” (this one was May 17 at 3:00 Organized in association with Envisioning seemingly fashioned after ’s The Yves Montand and Jane Fonda, intellectuals Russia curators Alla Verlotsky and Richard Lost Patrol), The Thirteen remains an excellent committed to the 1968 revolution, find old Pena. Special thanks to Seagull Films and the example of the genre. (Mikhail Romm, 1936, ideas thrown into question during a visit Film Society of Lincoln Center. Russian with subtitles, 35 mm, 87 minutes) four years later to a worker-occupied factory. “A nutty farce that presents a worker’s strike as Bed and Sofa a theater-of-cruelty exercise in proto-Marxist The New Moscow May 24 at 4:30 cant… another Godard masterstroke thanks June 14 at 4:00 to the referential, self-conscious presence of A cool comedy of manners, Bed and Sofa “Little known even inside Russia, The New radical princess Fonda.… So fake it’s real to satirizes everything from Moscow’s 1920s Moscow is an eye-popping amalgamation of the touch, and mordantly funny.” — Michael housing shortage to social problems between country comedy, musical romance, and science Atkinson (Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre the sexes. “The director’s triumph was to fiction. A young designer working in Gorin, French with subtitles, 35 mm, balance precisely the tensions and tone of comes up with a model that will allow the 95 minutes) the situation — two men and one woman world to see how the capital city will appear sharing a tiny flat. He was aided greatly by in a future imagined by Stalin. He sets off for the delicacy of the playing and a wonder- Moscow and is quickly overwhelmed by the fully cluttered, lived-in set.” — British Film city’s energy, enormity, and then-brand-new Institute (, 1927, silent with subway .… Director Medvedkin’s mixing of intertitles, 35 mm, 80 minutes) popular culture and avant-garde technique recalls an earlier period of Soviet life and pol- itics, even as the film envisions an impossibly bright, technologically advanced future for La Perla (The Pearl) June 7 at 4:00 John Steinbeck’s The Pearl (he also co-wrote the screenplay) provided the inspiration for this tender tale of a penniless diver named Quino (Pedro Armendáriz) whose joyful dis- covery of the title’s immensely valuable jewel only brings sadness to his life. The tragedy, set against ’s west coast landscapes, develops a pace and style that conveys the power of its earthy premise — man strug- gling against his inevitable fate. Figueroa counted La Perla among his favorite films. (Emilio Fernández, 1947, Spanish with sub- titles, 35 mm, 85 minutes)

Nazarín June 14 at 2:00 In the poverty-stricken backwoods of turn- of-the-century Mexico, priest Don Nazario’s Une sale histoire (Tamasa) obsessive devotion to his own Christian principles produces calamity all around him. Figueroa’s lens moves away from the all.” — Richard Pena (Aleksandr Medvedkin, The Letter Never Sent imposing landscapes of his earlier work with 1938, Russian with subtitles, 35 mm, June 29 at 4:30 Fernández, emphasizing instead the actors 80 minutes) Hundreds of miles from nowhere in forsaken who, notes one critic, “constantly arrange Siberia, a team of geologists (Russian super- and rearrange themselves in approximations The Russian Question stars , Tatiana of an early Renaissance triptych” — a typically June 21 at 2:00 Samoilovna, and Vasili Livanov among them) ambiguous layout from Spanish surrealist makes a diamond strike. As a harrowing man- Buñuel. (Luis Buñuel, 1958, Spanish with Journalist Smith (Vsevolod Aksyonov), back against-wilderness epic, The Letter Never Sent subtitles, 35 mm, 94 minutes) in the States after assignment in the Soviet is in a class by itself — the hair-raising high- Union, turns down a lucrative offer from light is a fast tracking shot through a forest a wealthy publisher to write a book con- Another Dawn (Distinto Amanecer) fire, with flames seemingly inches from lens demning the Russian way of life. Smith is June 15 at 4:00 and actors. (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1959, Russian subsequently hit with a campaign of slander with subtitles, 35 mm, 97 minutes) Distinto Amanecer’s tale of labor union intrigue so convincing that even his wife thinks him and corporate crime is set in the shadowy cab- a traitor. Vintage Cold War propaganda of arets of Mexico City where Pedro Armendáriz, the Stalinist era, the film’s set-designed haunted by sleazy government officials and America is spectacular, even if wildly askew. aided by sultry Andrea Palma, probes the (Mikhail Romm, 1947, Russian with sub- murder of a friend. Although usually associ- titles, 35 mm, 91 minutes) Gabriel Figueroa: Master ated with dramatic Mexican skies and rural of Light and Shade landscapes, Figueroa was equally adept at Carnival Night capturing bright lights and dark alleys for the June 21 at 4:00 The central cinematographer of Mexico’s noirish melodramas of Mexico’s golden age. golden age of cinema, Gabriel Figueroa (Julio Bracho, 1943, Spanish with subtitles, “Some of the first cracks in the brick wall of (1907 – 1997), played a key role in establish- 35 mm, 108 minutes) Stalinist culture were caused by this witty ing the nation’s visual heritage. A brilliant comedy that transformed director Eldar master of chiarascuro, he developed a unique Ryazanov and young star Lyudmila Gurch- style based on his principle of “curvilinear Macario enko into overnight celebrities. New Year’s perspective” that merged the latest Hollywood also Days of Autumn (Dias de Otoño) Eve is fast approaching and the employees of technique with the pictorial art of Mexican June 28 at 3:00 the Economics Institute are planning a big muralists. Figueroa’s commitment to Mexi- A short story by B. Traven lies at the heart of night, with lots of dancing and holiday cheer. can national identity and his country’s social Marcario, a mythical tale about a peasant’s New boss, Comrade Ogurtsov (), issues remained firm: “My art has Mexican chance encounter with the Grim Reaper. has his own ideas, however, about how to nationalism engraved everywhere.” The When Death grants him magical healing properly ring in the New Year: end-of-the-year Gallery’s presentation of six restored 35 mm powers, Marcario is powerless to defend reports, and maybe a speech or two…. Still a prints is made possible through the coopera- himself against the church and the local vil- great Russian favorite (it is always broadcast tion of Filmoteca de la unam. Special thanks lagers who accuse him of heresy. Figueroa’s during the holiday season) Carnival Night is a to Ivan Trujillo, José Manuel Garcia, Linda chiaroscuro, suitably otherworldly, won an delicious send-up of bureaucracy, and a genu- Lilienfeld, and Pablo Gutierrez Fierro. Oscar nomination for best cinematography. ine celebration of people’s power.” — Richard (Roberto Gavaldón, 1959, Spanish with sub- Pena (, 1956, Russian with titles, 35 mm, 91 minutes) subtitles, 35 mm, 78 minutes) Enamorada June 7 at 2:00 Director Gavaldón teamed up once more with Figueroa and the cast of Macario to make The Cranes Are Flying A remake of The Taming of the Shrew set in a this graceful melodrama about a country girl June 29 at 2:00 Mexican village during the Juárez revolution, (Pina Pellicer) who comes to Mexico City, Enamorada glows with the radiant María Félix finds work in a pastry shop, and builds Lovers and Alexei Batalov as the spoiled landowner’s daughter and a happy life. When her fiancé seemingly stroll through quiet Moscow streets as cranes Pedro Armendáriz as her pursuer, General deserts her on their wedding day, her fantasies fly overhead. The year is 1941, however, and Reyes. Figueroa’s cinematography is the take over and mingle with fact (or perhaps fact war brings death, rape, desertion, draft- focal point, capturing the village’s churrigue- was fantasy all along). Emotional moments dodging, and black-marketeering — topics resque cathedrals, the revolution’s animated are made memorable by Pellicer’s intimate decidedly taboo during the Stalinist years. atmosphere, and, noted one writer, “an acting and by Figueroa’s beautiful interiors Filmed by director Mikhail Kalatozov and extreme close up of María’s famously arched and bright urban streets. (Roberto Gavaldón, photographer Sergei Urushevsky using brow and moonlit eyes set into a landscape 1962, Spanish with subtitles, 35 mm, equally taboo techniques (helicopter and of Mexicanidad.” (Emilio Fernández, 1946, 92 minutes) crane shots, crowd scenes, and endless takes) Spanish with subtitles, 35 mm, 98 minutes) this first postwar Soviet film to attain wide commercial release in the West also won the Cannes Festival Palme d’Or. (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957, Russian with subtitles, 35 mm, 97 minutes)