WEEK-LONG RUNS OF FILMS BY TODD McCARTHY, BELA TARR, AND CARLOS REYGADAS TO BE SCREENED AT MoMA IN SEPTEMBER

Extended Runs of McCarthy’s Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema, Tarr’s The Man from London, and Reygadas’ Silent Light Offer Filmgoers More Opportunities to View Significant Recent Films

New York, September 9, 2008—MoMA Presents, an initiative launched earlier this year that brings weeklong runs of new and newly rediscovered feature films to The Museum of Modern Art, continues in September with extended runs of new films by Todd McCarthy (Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema), Béla Tarr (The Man from London), and Carlos Reygadas (Silent Light). All three films are receiving their first American theatrical presentations after having been screened at major international film festivals such as Cannes and the New York Film Festival. Todd McCarthy’s Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema (2007), a dramatic and rousing portrait of filmmaker, film programmer, and cinephile Pierre Rissient, a pivotal figure in the international film community since the 1950s, runs from September 18 through 24. One of the critically acclaimed films at Cannes in 2007, the documentary illustrates the many and varied accomplishments of one of the world’s most influential film fans, whose efforts brought such filmmakers as Abbas Kiarostami, Clint Eastwood, and Jane Campion to the international spotlight. It is accompanied by From the Archives, A Pierre Rissient Selection, seven films from MoMA’s collection that inform an understanding of Rissient’s career, including a rare screening of Rissient’s own film Cinq et le Peau (1982), from September 18 through 21. Both exhibitions are organized by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art. Béla Tarr’s The Man from London (2007) is the North American premiere of the French/English release of the haunting feature based on the popular crime novel L’Homme de Londres by Georges Simenon. Tarr, one of contemporary filmmaking's international masters, uses his signature inventive style to translate a popular crime story to the big screen. The film sets a shady transaction, a murder, and the discovery of a suitcase full of money amidst the rainy nighttime streets of a small town, perfectly capturing an atmosphere of dread, entrapment, and moral ambiguity. Running September 22 through 28, it is organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art. Carlos Reygadas’ Silent Light (2007), running September 24 through 29, frames the story of one man’s inescapable love for two women, and the spiritual crises and redemption that follow. Set among a group of pacifist Mennonites residing in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, its emotional authenticity is underscored by a cast of Mennonite non-actors, who appear to live and breathe the deep convictions of their faith and traditions, lending a documentary-like feel and a metaphysical dimension to the work. MoMA Presents: Reygadas: Silent Light is part of a Filmmaker in Focus presentation that also includes a Reygadas retrospective (including rarely seen early shorts and all his 3 features) and two accompanying screenings of Carl Th. Dreyer's Ordet (1955), a work that clearly inspired Silent Light and is being offered as a further insight into the filmmaker's working aesthetic. Organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.

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SCREENING SCHEDULE

MOMA PRESENTS: PIERRE RISSIENT: MAN OF CINEMA September 18-24

Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema. USA/France. 2007. Produced, written, directed, and photographed by Todd McCarthy. Additional photography by Gary Graver, Abbas Kiarostami. With Jane Campion, Claude Chabrol, Clint Eastwood, Buck Henry, Werner Herzog, Abbas Kiarostami, Sydney Pollack, Jerry Schatzberg, and Bertrand Tavernier. Todd McCarthy—documentary filmmaker (Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography, 1993), author (Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, 1999), and chief film critic of Variety—turns a biographical spotlight on Pierre Rissient, a figure relatively unknown to the public but deeply respected by filmmakers, critics, and film festival directors the world over. In 1993, when MoMA's Department of Film gave Rissient carte blanche to create a film exhibition, he was described as a "filmmaker, scout, festival advisor, programmer, and press strategist." McCarthy's dramatic and rousing portrait of Rissient illustrates the many and varied accomplishments of one of the world's most influential film fans. In English, French; English subtitles. 109 min.

SCREENINGS Thursday, September 18, 6:30 Friday, September 19, 8:00 Saturday, September 20, 1:00 Sunday, September 21, 2:30

2 Monday, September 22, 5:00 Wednesday, September 24, 4:30

FROM THE ARCHIVES: A PIERRE RISSIENT SELECTION September 18-21

Thursday, September 18

8:30 The Mothering Heart. 1913. USA. D. W. Griffith. With Lillian Gish. A young wife's trust is betrayed. approx. 22 min.

Hell's Hinges. 1916. USA. William S. Hart and Charles Swickard. With William S. Hart, Clara Williams, Jack Standing, Alfred Hollingsworth. Written by C. Gardner Sullivan. A frontier town, a saloon, a church, and a gunslinger hired to keep disorder—an early ferocious Western. 64 min. Rissient chose tinted prints of two classic examples of Americana. Silent with accompaniment.

Friday, September 19

6:00 Never Fear (The Young Lovers). 1950. USA. Directed by Ida Lupino. Screenplay by Lupino, Collier Young. With Sally Forrest, Keefe Brasselle. Another filmmaker Rissient finds noteworthy is Ida Lupino. Her feature directorial debut is a medical drama focusing on the disintegration of a young couple. This 35mm preserved print includes the original trailer. 82 min.

Saturday, September 20

3:00 The Big Sky. 1952. USA. Directed by Howard Hawks. Screenplay by Dudley Nichols from the novel by A. B. Guthrie Jr. With Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Arthur Hunnicutt, Elizabeth Threatt. Hawks’ saga, shot in part in Grand Teton National Park, traces the 1830’s journey of eastern traders voyaging into the virgin northwest meeting trappers, Frenchmen, Indians, both hostile and friendly, and Teal Eye, a Blackfoot princess. Restored with funding from The Film Foundation/Robert Sturm and the Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Fund, from materials on loan from Warner Bros. and Martin Scorsese. Restored to the original running time of 138 min.

6:00 Cinq et le Peau. 1982. France. Directed by Pierre Rissient. With Feodor Atkine, Eiko Matsuda, Gloria Diaz, and Phillip Salvador. In one of the two films Rissient wrote and directed a Frenchman in Manila wanders the streets, meets women, and muses about the films of Raoul Walsh and Fritz Lang. In French, English subtitles. 95 min.

8:30 The Piano. 1993. Australia/France. Written and directed by Jane Campion. With Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin. Jane Campion’s second feature film is as exceptional and strong as her remarkable heroine, a mute (but not deaf) young Scots widow, who, with her nine-year-old daughter, travels to New Zealand to marry a man she has never met. " 120 min

Sunday, September 21

4:30 Bird. 1988. USA. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Screenplay by Joel Oliansky. With Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora, Sam Robards. A romantic yet unsparingly raw biographical drama about jazz saxophone legend Charlie "Bird" Parker. 160 min.

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MOMA PRESENTS: BÉLA TARR’S THE MAN FROM LONDON September 22–28

A Londoni férfi (The Man from London). 2007. Hungary/Germany/France. Directed by Béla Tarr. Screenplay by Tarr, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, based on L’Homme de Londres by Georges Simenon. With Miroslav Krobot, Tilda Swinton, Erica Bók. The breathtaking twelve-minute panoramic shot that opens The Man from London circles the protagonist, surveys a harbor and a train station, witnesses a shady transaction and murder—and bears the indelible mark of Béla Tarr, the Hungarian director known for his stylistically unique and adventurous films. The story, based upon a novel by popular crime author Georges Simenon (with whom Tarr shares an interest in people’s reactions to their own morally ambiguous actions) follows a railway switchman, Maloin, who finds a suitcase full of money. Cinematographer Fred Kelemen, aided by Mihály Vig’s haunting score, perfectly captures an atmosphere of dread and entrapment amid the falling rain, quiet nighttime streets, and crammed kitchens and bars of a small town. This is the North American premiere of the French/English release version, for which the cast dubbed their own voices. In French, English; English subtitles. 135 min. North American premiere.

SCREENINGS Monday, September 22, 7:15 Wednesday, September 24, 8:30 Thursday, September 25, 8:00 Friday, September 26, 6:00 Saturday, September 27, 8:00 Sunday, September 28, 6:00

MOMA PRESENTS: CARLOS REYGADAS’S SILENT LIGHT September 24–29

Stellet Licht (Silent Light). 2007. Mexico/France/Netherlands/ Germany. Written and directed by Carlos Reygadas. With Cornelio Wall Fehr, Miriam Toews, Maria Pankratz. Silent Light is bracketed by a pair of achingly beautiful tracking shots—one of dawn and one of sunset—that suggest a metaphysical dimension. This “silent light” frames the story of one man’s inescapable, passionate love for two women, and the spiritual crises and redemption that follow. The film’s emotional authenticity is inexorably linked to the community it portrays: a group of pacifist, simple-living Mennonites who have resided in the Mexican state of Chihuahua since the 1920s, speaking a German-derived dialect known as Plautdietsch. Much of the film’s power is generated by its cast of Mennonite nonactors, who appear to live and breathe the deep convictions of their faith and traditions, lending a documentary-like feel to this poetic work. Reygadas’s film is indebted to Carl Th. Dreyer’s 1954 masterpiece Ordet—with which it shares a profound and deeply felt belief in the sublime and the miraculous. In Plautdietsch, Spanish; English subtitles. 135 min.

SCREENINGS Wednesday, September 24, 6:00 Thursday, September 25, 8:45 Friday, September 26, 6:00 Saturday, September 27, 2:00 Sunday, September 28, 4:30 Monday, September 29, 8:00

FILMMAKER IN FOCUS: CARLOS REYGADAS September 24–29

4 Wednesday, September 24

8:30 Max. 1999. Mexico. Directed by Carlos Reygadas. In Spanish, English; English subtitles. 7 min. Japón. 2002. Mexico/Spain. Written and directed by Carlos Reygadas. With Alejandro Ferretis, Magdalena Flores. This much-lauded debut feature is a brilliant study of a suicidal middle-aged man’s path to salvation and an elderly woman’s altruism. Shot in beautifully textured 16mm Cinemascope, the film envelops its characters in the stunning landscapes of Northern Mexico’s canyon terrain, where details—including the presence of animals and the minutiae of village life—attain great significance, anchoring the unconventional encounter between the two characters. With Japón, Reygadas displays an early mastery of form and pacing, and a remarkable talent for using nonactors to astounding effect. In Spanish; English subtitles. 128 min.

Friday, September 26

8:30 Ordet. 1954–55. Denmark. Written and directed by Carl Th. Dreyer. Based on the play by Kaj Munk. With Henrik Malberg, Emil Hass Christensen, Preben Lerdorff Rye, Birgitte Federspiel. Set in a small hamlet in Jutland, where two conflicting versions of Christianity make neighbors into enemies, Ordet slowly generates tremendous emotional force as fates are revealed and human nature is tested. The film carefully maps out subtle relationships and social differences with a documentary-like sensibility, in stark contrast with the heavy stylization of the performances and camera movements. The shocking ending—which has been called the greatest in cinema—fits seamlessly into the film’s masterfully balanced equilibrium. In Danish; English subtitles. 126 min.

Saturday, September 27

4:30 Max. and Japón. See September 24 at 8:30

7:00 Adulte. 1998. Mexico. Directed by Carlos Reygadas. In Spanish; English subtitles. 7 min. Batalla en el Cielo (Battle in Heaven). 2005. Mexico/Belgium/France. Written and directed by Carlos Reygadas. With Marcos Hernández, Anapola Mushkadiz, Bertha Ruiz. Reygadas’s second film—stark, violent, and sexually explicit—created shock and controversy upon its release. Working without a screenplay and with a cast of nonactors, including his father’s ex-chauffeur in the lead role, Reygadas creates a compelling portrait of a man’s crisis of conscience after a kidnapping goes awry. This uncompromising vision of a world spinning out of control presents a potent critique of religion, patriarchal power structures, and an antiquated class system. 88 min. In Spanish; English subtitles.

Sunday, September 28

7:00 Adult and Batalla en el Cielo (Battle in Heaven). See September 27 at 7:00

Monday, September 29

6:00 Ordet. See September 26 at 8:30

AN EVENING WITH JAMES SCHAMUS AND CARL TH. DREYER’S GERTRUD

5 September 25–28

MoMA welcomes James Schamus, Columbia University professor and CEO of Focus Features, as he introduces a screening of Carl Th. Dreyer’s Gertrud. Before the screening, Schamus will sign copies of his book Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Gertrud: The Moving Word. “Schamus’s book focuses on a single moment in Gertrud. He follows a trail of references and allusions back through a number of thinkers and artists (Boccaccio, Lessing, Philostratus, Charcot, and others) to reveal the richness and depth of Dreyer’s work—and the excitement that can accompany cinema studies when it opens itself up to other disciplines and media. Throughout, Schamus pays particular attention to Dreyer’s lifelong obsession with the ‘real,’ developed through his practice of ‘textual realism,’ a realism grounded not in standard codes of verisimilitude but on the force of its rhetorical appeal to its written, documentary sources” (University of Washington Press). Organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film.

Gertrud. 1964. Denmark. Written and directed by Carl Th. Dreyer. Based on the play by Hjalmar Söderberg.With Nina Pens Rode, Baard Owe, Axel Strøbye. In Danish; English subtitles. 115 min.

SCREENINGS Thursday, September 25, 6:00 (introduced by Schamus; book signing at 5:30) Sunday, September 28, 2:00

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