Sunday, April 16, 2023

Decision Before Dawn


Anatole Litvak: Decision Before Dawn (US 1951) avec Oskar Werner (Carl Maurer) et Dominique Blanchar (Monique).


Le Traître / Vakoilijana omassa maassaan / Förrädare / Entscheidung vor Morgengrauen.
Anatole Litvak / États-Unis / 1951 / 119 min / 35 mm / VOSTF
D'après le roman Call It Treason de George Howe.
Avec Oskar Werner, Richard Basehart, Gary Merrill.
La Cinémathèque française : Rétrospective Le cinéma d'espionnage (3e partie).
Sous-titres français sur la copie : Philippe Neumann.
Viewed at Salle Georges Franju, Paris dimanche 16 avril 2023, 15h00 17h00
" La Seconde Guerre mondiale touche à sa fin. Un jeune Allemand accepte de trahir les siens pour tenter de mettre fin aux exactions commises par les nazis. "

AA: The most powerful aspect of Anatole Litvak's Decision Before Dawn is being shot on location among the actual ruins of Munich, Würzburg, Nuremberg and Mannheim and on the Rhine. A documentary authenticity in general is its greatest strength. The training and the equipping of the spies and the parachute operation are thrilling and seem realistic.

Most important is the psychological viewpoint. Can Karl "Happy" Maurer (Oskar Werner) succeed as a spy in his own country? The most agonizing aspect of his mission is meeting people who know who he is and have no idea that he is now a spy with a double identity.

Double identity means lying all the time, and that creates the most tremendous pressure. Especially when it seems that everybody gets suspicious based on tiny details such as carrying a packet of cigarettes that are no longer available. SS and Gestapo officers, contrary to Hollywood stereotype, look harmless and innocuous, but they seem to see through Karl quickly.

A particularly chilling moment involves Rudolf Barth's nephew, a little boy who belongs to Hitler Jugend. He instantly informs on the spies. The spies know that they are supposed to kill him, but they refuse to do so, and the boy in turn finally saves the spies with his silence.

On both sides, Karl meets wonderful women. Monique (Dominique Blanchar) is fond of him but "a boche would be too much to forget before love". Hilde (Hildegarde Knef) reveals to Karl the tragedy of German women during the war. The promesses de bonheur remain unfulfilled.

The French title of Decision Before Dawn means "Traitor", but Karl is no traitor. He is loyal to the true calling of Germany for justice and honour. For that he is ready for the ultimate sacrifice. In a chilling climax it seems that the Allied only see that sacrifice as a tool. That does not diminish the dignity of Karl Maurer's mission.

The cast is fascinating. Besides Richard Basehart and Gary Merrill in further leading roles, there is Hans Christian Blech as Rudolf "Tiger" Barth, Wilfried Seyferth as the SS officer Scholtz, and O. E. Hasse as Colonel von Ecker suffering from angina pectoris: the medic Karl saves his life during the night. Klaus Kinski is memorable in his fleeting uncredited bit part in the beginning.

Written by Peter Viertel, photographed by Franz Planer and with music composed by Franz Waxman (enhanced by stirring soundtrack selections), this is a top production.

Born in Kiev, Anatole Litvak's commitment to the fight against the Nazis was personal, starting with another spy film, Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), continuing with contributions to the Why We Fight series, and going on until the 1960s in The Night of the Generals.

Decision Before Dawn belongs to the films that convey turbulence, confusion and tragedy during the last months of WWII on the Western Front. It is not a story-driven movie. It is an epic historical play conveying a sense of unrest.

The 35 mm print is ok.

Top Secret: Cinema and Espionage (exhibition at La Cinémathèque française, 2022-2023)




Top secret : cinéma et espionnage

Exposition du 21 octobre 2022 au 21 mai 2023
La Cinémathèque française, visited on 16 April 2023

Alexandra Midal & Matthieu Orléan (La Cinémathèque française): " L’exposition Top Secret explore les relations imbriquées entre espionnage et cinéma, rendant compte de l’étendue et de la vitalité d’un sujet qui se déploie autant dans une histoire que dans une géographie mondiale. L’épicentre des intrigues d’espionnage ne cesse d’être déplacé et reconfiguré, des villes divisées d’Europe (La Lettre du Kremlin, John Huston, 1970) au Moyen-Orient (la série du Bureau des légendes, créée par Eric Rochant), mettant aujourd’hui en avant des stratégies renouvelées du renseignement, caractéristiques du monde sécuritaire post 11-Septembre, dont l’impact sur la mise en scène génère de nouveaux codes, de nouveaux visages."

"Résistant aux stéréotypes, l’exposition Top Secret déconstruit la représentation sexiste des espionnes, longtemps reléguées à la seule pratique du « Piège à miel », et rétablit leur apport stratégique considérable, ce à quoi le cinéma a su précocement rendre justice. De Protéa, férue de Jiu-Jitsu et première espionne de l’histoire du cinéma (1913), à Mata Hari, fusillée pour intelligence avec l’ennemi allemand (interprétée dès 1931 par Greta Garbo, plus tard immortalisée dans ce rôle par Andy Warhol), le cinéma s’est intéressé, dès ses origines, aux figures de femmes agents secrets : Marthe Richard ou Mademoiselle Docteur sont des héroïnes dont les aventures sur grand écran reposent sur des faits réels, tandis qu’Alicia Huberman (interprétée par Ingrid Bergman) dans Les Enchaînés (1946) incarne, devant la caméra d’Alfred Hitchcock (le maître incontesté en dix films majeurs du cinéma d’espionnage), un fantasme fictionnel de femme infiltrée et courageuse. Par ailleurs, de nombreuses stars ont véritablement profité de leur notoriété pour s’engager par patriotisme au sein des services de renseignement : Marlene Dietrich, l’Agent X27 de Josef von Sternberg (1931), a espionné quelques dignitaires nazis pour le compte de l’Office of Strategic Services (OSS) américain. Les risques pris par ces actrices (comme Hedy Lamarr, à l’origine du futur GPS, et dont l’artiste Nina Childress a exploré en sculpture les multiples facettes) permettent de réévaluer l’importance des femmes dans l’art du renseignement et témoignent, par comparaison, de la manière dont certains ont longtemps déformé cet engagement, en privilégiant l’hypersexualisation du sexpionnage
. "

Undercover

" L’espionnage n’est donc pas plus réductible à un genre, qu’il ne l’est à un médium artistique : cherchant toujours à se réinventer, il passe de la littérature au cinéma (de nombreux films montrés dans l’exposition sont des adaptations de livres de Ian Fleming, Graham Greene ou Tom Clancy), et du design à l’art contemporain. L’exposition orchestre ainsi des propositions visuelles, ludiques ou parfois volontairement dérangeantes, du Canadien Rodney Graham, de l’Ukrainien Boris Mikhaïlov, du Français Julien Prévieux, du Serbe Nemanja Nikolič, du Libanais Walid Raad (The Atlas Group), ou de l’Américaine Heather Dewey-Hagborg, qui interrogent par leurs œuvres d’art la cryptologie, le simulacre, voire le lavage de cerveau. Autant de thèmes mystérieux et fascinants qui font de l’espion le personnage romanesque par excellence, réceptacle des fantasmes des cinéastes. Capable de glisser d’une identité à l’autre, l’espion ne cesse de se dissimuler et de se grimer tel un acteur, aux talents hors normes. Tantôt invincible, tantôt torturé, il hante autant le cinéma d’auteur (Conversation secrète, Francis F. Coppola, Palme d’or en 1974) que le cinéma de série B (Un espion de trop, Don Siegel, 1977) ; les comédies humoristiques (Modesty Blaise, Joseph Losey, 1966) que les thrillers engagés (Espions sur la Tamise, Fritz Lang, 1944). Son aura populaire culmine dans les années 1960, quand les tensions de la Guerre froide (cette guerre mondiale secrète) sont au plus haut. À l’opposition diplomatique entre les deux blocs, le cinéma d’espionnage occidental répond par une propagande qui n’hésite pas à vanter la liberté individuelle et l’opulence des biens de consommation. Ex-espion au sein du MI6 britannique, devenu célèbre écrivain, John le Carré n’hésite cependant pas à démontrer que ce manichéisme sommaire traduit en profondeur l’interdépendance entre espion et espionné, entre Ouest et Est, rejouant ici la dialectique du maître et de l’esclave. Situant ses intrigues des deux côtés du Mur, l’écrivain s’est toujours documenté avec précision sur les Sûretés d’État communistes, avant de les réinventer dans la fiction. Ainsi imagina-t-il dans La Taupe (publié en 1974 et adapté au cinéma par Tomas Alfredson en 2011) l’agent soviétique Karla, sur le modèle de l’implacable Markus Wolf, directeur des renseignements extérieurs de la Stasi. L’une des particularités de la Guerre froide est ce dialogue incessant, par fictions interposées, entre Est et Ouest qui en venaient à s’instruire, grâce aux films, sur l’état d’esprit et les avancées technologiques du camp ennemi."

Sur écoute

" Top Secret accompagne donc aussi la très sérieuse marche de l’Histoire, et expose le rôle du cinéma comme instrument de propagande ou de formation des espions. Parce que l’enregistrement du réel se révèle un art nécessaire à l’agent secret, les techniques de captation cinématographiques se retrouvent au cœur des pratiques d’espionnage. Cinéma et espionnage partagent donc l’art – et la technique – de produire des sons et des images, agencés ensuite pour former un récit. Le cœur de ce territoire commun consiste donc en de nombreux appareils performants qui servent à l’accomplissement de leurs tâches : caméras, Nagra, micros aident à la filature des uns et au tournage des autres. L’exposition en montrera de rares originaux, certains datant même du XIXe siècle. "

" Mais en ce début de XXIe siècle, chacun peut, avec un simple téléphone portable, collecter ou pirater des informations sensibles, tout en déjouant les systèmes de surveillance de l’État. Pas besoin d’être un super-héros cascadeur à la Mission impossible (série et films, 1966-2017) pour y parvenir. Un cinéma engagé, plus minoritaire, témoigne de ces nouvelles pratiques, érigeant en chef de file fictionnel le geek Jason Bourne, interprété par Matt Damon dans les cinq films de la saga inaugurée par La Mémoire dans la peau en 2002. Ex-agent de la CIA devenu renégat, il est l’incarnation du justicier solitaire contemporain qui défie les nouveaux maîtres du monde lors de scènes d’action filmées caméra à l’épaule. Dans la réalité, ces modèles sont à chercher du côté des citoyens-espions Edward Snowden ou Chelsea Manning, qui font le choix de partager en temps réel devant une caméra des informations classées top-secrètes (Citizenfour, réalisé par la militante Laura Poitras, Oscar du meilleur documentaire, 2014). Aujourd’hui, ces pratiques d’enquête sont également revendiquées par des artistes engagés : c’est le cas de Trevor Paglen dont les photographies télescopiques mettent en lumière les activités illicites de surveillance perpétrées par les USA. Avec ce nouveau millénaire, alors que certains pensaient l’espionnage relégué à des parodies hilarantes à la OSS, l’opposition entre les nouvelles forces en puissance démontrent combien l’art du renseignement est plus que jamais d’actualité, soulevant des questions éthiques et politiques, tout en produisant des formes artistiques et critiques inédites.
"

Alexandra Midal & Matthieu Orléan, commissaires de l'exposition

AA: A thorough retrospective on cinema and espionage is running at La Cinémathèque française, now in its third season, and a fascinating exhibition has been on display since October 2022. It is an audience-friendly show covering the history from Louis Feuillade and Fritz Lang to Jason Bourne and Ethan Hunt. Besides generous samples of the films and their world, there are also several authentic espionage objects from many different periods.

In the age of cyberspace, there has been an existential transformation of espionage, covered even in James Bond movies such as Skyfall and the trilogy Skyfall - Spectre - No Time to Die which is about James Bond becoming obsolete.

But the theme of espionage and surveillance is more topical and scary than ever. After the revelations of Edward Snowden, covered in Citizenfour, we have learned about much more formidable spyware from Pegasus.

For me, Catherine Belton's Putin's People (2020) was the book of the year. Vladimir Putin, the former KGB and FSB boss, became the authoritarian leader of a newly belligerent Russia. Swearing vengeance for the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Putin's goals include breaking down the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. So far, he has been successful (Trump, Brexit). Donald Trump thinks that Putin is the world's richest man. Putin's dark money funds may be the most formidable in history. Vladimir Putin is the James Bond villain fantasy come true. Follow the money.

A favourite movie of Putin's is the television miniseries in 12 episodes called Seventeen Moments of Spring (Семнадцать мгновений весны / Semnadtsat mgnoveniy vesny / Kevään seitsemäntoista hetkeä, directed by Tatyana Lioznova, SU 1973), about Soviet infiltration into Nazi hierarchy from 1927 until 1945. This work would have deserved to be included.

Ever since its independence in 1917, Finland has been a hotspot of espionage, but I cannot think of a single Finnish spy movie. Foreign spy movies have been shot partly in Finland, such as The Kremlin Letter and Billion Dollar Brain. Alfred Hitchcock's last film project, The Short Night (unrealized), was to be shot in Finland.

The Finnish author and journalist Jukka Rislakki has written several books on espionage, Finnish and international. Truth is stranger than fiction. His latest book, Saatan kuolla jo rajalla : Suomen ja Neuvostoliiton vakoilusodan hahmoja [I May Die on the Border : Figures in the Espionage War of Finland and the Soviet Union] (2021), contains new revelations about the infamous Operation Trust and Sidney Reilly, "the Ace of Spies", often considered a model for James Bond.

The success of Le Bureau confirms the enduring fascination in the world of espionage. It would be interesting to see a film about Operation Trust, too.

Musée Méliès : La magie du cinéma (La Cinémathèque française)


Musée Méliès : La magie du cinéma (La Cinémathèque française).

Musée Méliès : La magie du cinéma (La Cinémathèque française).

Visited on Sunday, 16 April 2023.

La Cinémathèque française : " L'exceptionnelle collection Méliès de la Cinémathèque française, issue d'un siècle de recherches, et celle du CNC, issue d'une acquisition conséquente faite en 2004, forment un ensemble sans pareil que le public va pouvoir découvrir avec l'ouverture de ce nouveau Musée. 800 m2 flambant neufs, un périple de Montreuil à Hollywood, un voyage dans l'histoire du cinéma. Et Méliès de retrouver toute sa place, celle d'un poète génial et précurseur. Héritier d'une très longue tradition, descendant d'une pléiade de grands inventeurs, il marie science et magie et donne naissance à des images nouvelles, jamais vues auparavant, qui annoncent le sur-réalisme cinématographique cher à Cocteau et Franju, les bricolages sensationnels de Michel Gondry ou Wes Anderson, et les blockbusters de George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro, Peter Jackson ou Tim Burton, autant de cinéastes qui se sont tous, un jour, revendiqués de Méliès. "

Patrimoine exceptionnel et effets spéciaux

" Tout au long du parcours, le visiteur découvrira plus de 300 machines, costumes, affiches, dessins et maquettes. "

" Des pièces exceptionnelles complétées par une sélection de près de 150 photographies et surtout par les films de Méliès – ses plus connus, évidemment, mais aussi bien d'autres, beaucoup plus rares. Des lanternes magiques côtoieront des dispositifs « dernier cri », dont une expérience de réalité virtuelle totalement inédite. Autant de manières, nouvelles et inventives, de raconter Méliès, génial inventeur des effets spéciaux dont le cinéma contemporain est aujourd'hui infusé. Si HAL et R2D2 existent, c'est aussi grâce au cinéaste français, pionnier de la féérie cinématographique, inlassable expérimentateur, précurseur du cinéma moderne. Pyrotechnie, effets d'optique, arrêts de caméra, fondus-enchaînés, maquettes animées, surimpressions, effets de montage et effets de couleurs sur pellicule, bruitage, narration, presque tout semble avoir été conçu et utilisé par ce virtuose de la technique. Magicien et cinéaste, il est l'auteur total, scénariste, décorateur, costumier, acteur, producteur et distributeur de ses films, il dirige son propre laboratoire de tirage, et invente le studio. "

    « Quel est donc l'homme à notre époque qui pourrait vivre sans féerie, sans un peu de rêve ? »
    Georges Méliès

" La contribution de Méliès au 7e art est essentielle, ouvrant à la cinématographie les portes du rêve, de la magie et de la fiction. Mais comment le cinéaste du Voyage dans la Lune est-il devenu l'un des auteurs les plus inventifs et les plus prolifiques du cinéma ? D'où vient l'étrange cosmogonie méliésienne ? Comment travaillait-il ? De quelle façon s'inscrit-il dans les arts du spectacle et dans la longue histoire de l'invention du cinéma ? Comment se traduit son influence sur le cinéma d'aujourd'hui ? Autant de questions auxquelles le musée de la Cinémathèque française apporte aujourd'hui son éclairage en invitant le visiteur à embarquer dans une exploration merveilleuse. "

AA: Cinematic tales of mystery and imagination by the first conscious artist of the cinema, Georges Méliès, are the red thread running through La Cinémathèque française's new permanent exhibition, Musée Méliès : La magie du cinéma, that was opened in 2021, during the pandemic. I visit it for the first time. I have fond memories of the previous exhibitions from the Cinémathèque collections, including reconstructions of Henri Langlois's original museum and the wonderful 2014 tribute, Le Musée imaginaire d'Henri Langlois, with a display of original artworks from friends ranging from Matisse to Chagall. The dilemma of cinema museums, including London's legendary The Museum of the Moving Image (1988-2002), is that they may be tremendously popular in the beginning, but if they don't change, there are not enough return customers. La Cinémathèque française is doing the farsighted thing in completely rethinking its museum and selecting a "for children of all ages" approach. There is a danger at cinematheques of too high a percentage of gray panthers. Children are the future.

Friday, April 14, 2023

Santa Fe Trail


Michael Curtiz: Santa Fe Trail (US 1940). Kit Holliday (Olivia De Havilland) and J. E. B. Stuart (Errol Flynn).

Michael Curtiz: Santa Fe Trail (US 1940). The hanging of John Brown.

Michael Curtiz: Santa Fe Trail (US 1940). Kit Holliday (Olivia de Havilland), daughter of the railway magnate Cyrus K. Holliday, carrying a major responsibility in the building of the Santa Fe Trail. The rivals J. E. B. Stuart (Errol Flynn) and George Armstrong Custer (Ronald Reagan).

Michael Curtiz: Santa Fe Trail (US 1940). "The Navajo Cassandra": the woman fortune teller Old Stick In The Mud (n.c.) predicts the future to incredulously laughing West Point graduates. Translating her is Kit (Olivia de Havilland) who knows the Navajo language. The Navajo prophesies that this is one of the last times they would meet as friends and that soon they would be bitter enemies. Standing: Phil Sheridan (David Bruce), George Pickett (William Marshall), James Longstreet (Frank Wilcox), John Hood (George Haywood), George Armstrong Custer (Ronald Reagan) and Jeb Stuart (Errol Flynn). Sheridan and Custer became Union officers, the rest, Confederate Officers. Stuart died in battle in 1864, Custer in 1876 in the Battle of Big Horn.


Michael Curtiz: Santa Fe Trail (US 1940). Slaveholder J. E. B. Stuart (Errol Flynn) helped by Blacks who have escaped via the Underground Railroad.

Michael Curtiz: Santa Fe Trail (US 1940). Slaveholder J. E. B. Stuart (Errol Flynn) helped by Blacks who have escaped via the Underground Railroad.


La Piste de Santa Fe / Santa Fen sankari / Vägen till Santa Fe.
Michael Curtiz / États-Unis / 1940 / 110 min / 35 mm / VOSTF
Avec Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan.
La Cinémathèque française : Rétrospective Warner Bros., fabrique de stars
Viewed at Salle Georges Franju, vendredi 14 avril 2023, 8h30 20h20
La Cinémathèque française " 1854 : les États-Unis se forment peu à peu, mais l'esclavagisme du Sud gêne de nombreux Américains, dont John Brown, fanatique abolitionniste qui commet des massacres pour libérer les esclaves. "
" En 1854, au Kansas, les soldats Jeb Stuart et George Custer se lancent sur la piste de John Brown, un abolitionniste fanatique engagé dans une croisade meurtrière pour libérer les esclaves
. "

AA: It was a huge pleasure to see for the first time Santa Fe Trail, which I have always missed, although the movie has been telecast in Finland several times. It was theatrically released in Finland in 1941 but never re-released.

I'm a big fan of Michael Curtiz, Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, and they are all at their best here. The second golden age of the Western had started the year before, in the golden year 1939 of the Western, and this rousing epic spectacle proceeds with such irresistible vigour and energy that the drawbacks of the screen story and the royal disregard for historical accuracy do no fatal harm.

This was the seventh of the eight collaborations between Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. They were not lovers but they were in love, and it shows in every scene in which they are together. Their genuine warmth and mutual attraction is an essential counterweight to the tragedy of "Bloody Kansas".

Errol Flynn plays J. E. B. Stuart, later a Confederate general, while Ronald Reagan plays George Armstrong Custer, later a major general in the Union army. In this movie's fairy-tale world, they are fellow West Point graduates and rivals in love. In the next and last Flynn-de Havilland collaboration, They Died With Their Boots On, as wildly inaccurate as Santa Fe Trail, Flynn got to play Custer.

Michael Curtiz had proven his craft and skill already in Europe. He was able to evoke epic grandeur, a sense of history and passion in romances. He was uniquely capable of bringing life to the often lethally boring genre of the historical epic. As a director of actors he was electrified by rebellious men and women.

Captain Blood was a turning-point for all three: it made stars out of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, and it launched Curtiz to the most illustrious period of his career. For Warner Bros. the collaboration was more than a goldmine. It promoted in terms of engrossing entertainment the studio's sense of social and historical responsibility, defending liberty and equality in a period of growing tyranny.

Curtiz is at his best in the many rousing battle scenes of this movie. They are epic and exciting. They are also often truly scary, perhaps because they are all too realistic. Flynn made only one more film (Dive Bomber) with Curtiz, a bit of a tyrant himself, before turning to the more congenial Raoul Walsh.

The railway story in Santa Fe Trail seems like an afterthought, a mask and a screen, another counterweight to the tragedy and the bloodshed. The railroad founder Cyrus K. Halliday, a historical figure, is played by Henry O'Neill. Olivia de Havilland plays his daughter "Kit Carson" Holliday. It is one of de Havilland's best and most original roles. She is bright and uninhibited and carries major responsibilities in the building of the railway. Hers is a memorable portrait of a Western woman. She loves Jeb Stuart, the man from the past, but is herself a woman of the future.

Kit is also the interlocutor and translator to the "Navajo Cassandra": the woman fortune teller Old Stick In The Mud (n.c.) who predicts the future of the West Point graduates: soon they will be fighting each other. They laugh at her.

I am aware that Santa Fe Trail is an increasingly awkward film in today's America. John Brown (Raymond Massey) is portrayed in caricature as a raving lunatic. His cause is true but his action in this movie is seen as disastrous, and, incredibly enough, a key reason for the Civil War.

This is the first Western I have seen with John Brown as a character, which tells more about my limitations than those of the Western genre.

This is also the first Western I have seen about the Underground Railway. I have happened to see several Westerns recently relevant to the Civil War. Common to all is that they do not even mention Blacks, to speak nothing about slavery. Santa Fe Trail includes Blacks, and the conviction and the passion in the movie's heart is for equality and fighting slavery.

The hanging of John Brown is the shocking climax, staged by Curtiz in the starkest imagery evoking Weimar Expressionism and foreshadowing film noir. We register the pain on the faces of Kit and Custer who are among the witnesses. It is a "victory in defeat" scene. John Brown may have been a deranged fanatic (at least in this film), but the future is his, and in death he becomes immortal.

The Black characters, harassed and threatened, escaping via the Underground Railway to Palmyra, receive our total love and sympathy, but they are shown as passive victims to be helped by white liberators, even by Jeb Stuart, who rescues them from a burning barn and is himself rescued by them in one of the most moving scenes of the film. Adding insult to the injury of the treatment of the Blacks in this movie, after the ordeals in Kansas, the Blacks are seen yearning back home in Texas.

Originally released in sepiatone, we saw Santa Fe Trail in a black and white 35 mm print. In the beginning the visual quality was great, but perhaps the viewing print has been assembled from several sources with variable quality and status of wear and tear, never inferior. In general it conveyed the visual grandeur of Curtiz and his trusted cinematographer Sol Polito well.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM WIKIPEDIA:

Thursday, April 13, 2023

All Through the Night


Vincent Sherman: All Through the Night (US 1942) avec Peter Lorre, Karen Verne, Humphrey Bogart.

Échec à la Gestapo / Kuoleman lasti / Sweden: Kalabalik i högkvarteret / Sweden 2: Gangsterrazzia.
Vincent Sherman / États-Unis / 1942 / 107 min / 16 mm / VOSTF
d'après une histoire de Leonard Q. Ross, Leonard Spigelgass
Avec Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Karen Verne.
U.S. premiere: 10 Jan 1942.
Finnish premiere: 22 July 1949.
French premiere: 14 Dec 1949, Paris premiere: 14 Dec 1949.
La Cinémathèque française : Rétrospective Warner Bros., fabrique de stars - Rétrospective Le cinéma d'espionnage (3e partie)
Greek subtitles on the 16 mm print and e-subtitles in French by Scéna Media.
Viewed at Salle Georges Franju, Paris, Jeudi 13 avril 2023, 14h45 16h35
La Cinémathèque française : "Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Gloves Donahue, un joueur professionnel, lève le voile sur un réseau d'activistes nazis établi en plein cœur de New York."

AA: All Through the Night had its premiere in January 1942, and the principal production of Casablanca started in May 1942. All Through the Night is a Casablanca predecessor, bringing together Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt and Peter Lorre in an anti-Nazi drama.

The best of the Casablanca spinoffs was Howard Hawks's To Have and Have Not, and Vincent Sherman's divertissement is far from that level, yet it is a great pleasure to meet Humphrey Bogart at his relaxed best as an action hero defeating the Nazis on their way to world domination in the heart of New York.

As we know from Ken Burns's U.S. and the Holocaust (2022), Nazism was no laughing matter in the 1930s and the 1940s in the U.S.A.

The great exiles from Hitler's Germany, Peter Lorre and Conrad Veidt, play key Nazi parts. The entire cast is wonderful with many of Hollywood's best character actors.

The enchanting leading lady is Karen Verne, another exile from Germany. Like Lauren Bacall in To Have and To Have Not, she gets to sing torch songs, including the theme song. The title of the movie does not refer to the spiritual "This Little Light Of Mine".

Leda Hamilton (Karen Verne) and the baker Herman Miller (Ludwig Stössel) have relatives in Germany in concentration camps, and that's how the Nazis are able to blackmail them to work for them.

The 16 mm print is not hot, but the screening offered a great evening of entertainment. And concern, because the threat of authoritarianism is not over, not even in the U.S.A.

Manet/Degas: To Photograph Or To See III


Collectif : Manet/Degas : Catalogue. Gallimard/Musée d'Orsay. Édition publiée sous la direction de Laurence Des Cars, Stéphane Guégan et Isolde Pludermacher. Livres d'Art, Gallimard, 2023. Chez Manet et Degas, figures essentielles de la modernité des années 1860-1880, les analogies ne manquent pas, qu’il s’agisse des sujets qu’ils imposent, des genres qu’ils réinventent ou encore des cercles où ils se croisent. Ce qui les différencie, voire les oppose, est tout aussi marquant. À la sociabilité ouverte de Manet répond l’entourage restreint de Degas. Leurs convictions politiques ne s’expriment pas de la même manière, et leurs choix en matière d’exposition et de carrière sont source de dissensions, malgré l’amitié qui les lie. Cet ouvrage, qui confronte les chefs-d’œuvre de Manet et de Degas dans un dialogue inédit, nous invite ainsi à renouveler notre regard sur l’éphémère complicité et la durable rivalité de ces deux géants. 272 pages, ill., sous couverture illustrée, 240 x 288 mm. ISBN : 9782073013057.

AA: This blog note is my third commentary on the syndrome of photographing artworks at museums, a follow-up to:
"Le Louvre: To Photograph Or To See" I (2014) and
"Musée d'Orsay: To Photograph Or To See" II (March 2023).

Musée d'Orsay is a wonderful place for photo opportunities. The magnificent architecture offers many excellent alternatives for group photographs. They help sustain happy memories and provide tremendous publicity for Musée d'Orsay. I have nothing but praise for this. The following critical remarks are only about photographing artworks in exhibitions.

The Manet/Degas exhibition offers me the privilege to actually see with my own eyes many of the most profoundly moving artworks ever made. Many are familiar since childhood from high quality illustrations in art books. But this is the real thing at last, lovingly selected from several museums and collections.

I have found the current trend of photographing artworks in exhibitions goofy. The phenomenon in vernissages of journalists rushing through the show while snapping photographs as fast as they can is particularly comic.

Musée d'Orsay lifted its ban of visitors photographing artworks in 2015. The turning-point was l'affaire Pellerin, and quickly the habit has become hugely popular. Today, on my third visit into the museum in March-April 2023, the relentless photographing feels increasingly disruptive.

In cinemas, electronic devices are banned during screenings, because the bright illumination of the display disturbs the viewing for everybody exposed to the dazzling light.

The lighting downstairs at the Manet/Degas exhibition is at times so dim (to protect pastels) that the bright illumination of the mobile phones is overwhelming.

I would like Musée d'Orsay to introduce photograph-free hours for its exhibitions for those visitors who would prefer to focus on artworks.

A side effect of the ubiquitous photographing is that the quality of the exhibition catalogs suffers. Perhaps visitors no longer buy catalogs like before, and there are no longer sufficient resources to provide high quality illustrations.

Photo: Reuters/Charles Platiau. From: Adam Epstein: Technology : Coup d'état : "Photography is now welcome at Paris’s Musée d’Orsay (but selfie sticks are still banned)", Quartz, 19 March 2015.

Manet / Degas (Musée d'Orsay, 2023)


Edgar Degas (1834–1917) : Jeune femme à l’Ibis, 1857–58. Huile sur toile. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Etats-Unis. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Édouard Manet (1832–1883) : Berthe Morisot étendue. 1873. Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris XVIe. Huile sur toile. Height: 26 cm (10.2 in); width: 34 cm (13.3 in). 6086 (Musée Marmottan Monet). Morisot was Manet's muse.

Manet / Degas
From 28 March to July 23rd, 2023.
    Chief Curator: Laurence des Cars, President – Director of the Louvre Museum
    Curators in Paris:
Isolde Pludermacher, Chief Curator of Painting at the Musée d'Orsay
Stéphane Guégan, Scientific Advisor to the President of the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie
    Curators in New York:
Stephan Wolohojian, John Pope-Hennessy Curator in Charge of the Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Arts
Ashley E. Dunn, Curator of Graphic Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Arts

Musée d'Orsay
Esplanade Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Esplanade du Musée d'Orsay
62 rue de la Lille
Rue de la Légion d'Honneur
7 quai Anatole France
75007 Paris

Visited on Thursday, 13 April 2023.

Musée d'Orsay : "Édouard Manet (1832–1883) and Edgar Degas (1834–1917) both played a pivotal role in the new painting of the 1860s-80s. This exhibition, which brings together the two painters in the light of their contrasts, forces us to take a new look at their real bond. It shows the heterogeneous and conflicting nature of pictorial modernity and reveals the value of Degas’ collection, in which Manet occupied a larger place after the latter’s death."

"A comparison of artists as crucial as Manet and Degas should not be limited to identifying the similarities in their respective bodies of work. Admittedly, there is no lack of analogies among these key players in the new painting of the 1860s-80s when it comes to the subjects they imposed (from horse races to café scenes, from prostitution to the tub), the genres they reinvented, the realism they opened to other formal and narrative potentialities, the market and the collectors they managed to tame, and the places (cafés, theaters) and circles, whether comprised of family (Berthe Morisot) or friends, where they crossed paths."

"Before and after the birth of Impressionism, which the exhibition looks at in a new light, what differentiated or opposed them is even more striking. From dissimilar backgrounds and with different temperaments, they did not share the same tastes in literature and music. Their divergent choices in terms of exhibitions and career cooled the budding friendship that bound them from 1873–1874 – a friendship strengthened by their shared experience of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and the aftermath of the Commune. The quest for recognition of the former with the stubborn refusal of the latter to use the official channels of legitimization defy comparison. While, if we consider the private sphere, once the years of youth were over, everything divided them. Manet's sociability, which was very open and soon quite brilliant, and his domestic choices were matched by Degas' secret existence and his restricted entourage."

"In Degas, Danse, Dessin, where Manet is much talked about, Paul Valéry speaks of these "marvelous coexistences" that border on dissonant chords. By bringing Manet and Degas together in the light of their contrasts, and showing how much they defined each other by differentiating themselves, this exhibition, rich with masterpieces never before brought together and an unprecedented partnership, forces us to take a new look at the ephemeral bond and lasting rivalry of two giants. The exhibition circuit also highlights the conflicting, heterogeneous and unforeseen aspects of pictorial modernity, at its point of emergence, its rise and its subsequent success. Finally, it shows the true value of Degas’ art collection, in which Manet took a more and more commanding place following his death. Death had reconciled them."

"This exhibition is organized by the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York where it will be presented from September 2023 to January 2024.
"

AA: After having witnessed a display of one decade in the friendly rivalry between Matisse and Picasso at the Orangerie (in the Matisse in the 1930s exhibition) it is now possible to experience a full career-long comparative survey between two giants of the previous century: Éduard Manet and Edgar Degas at the Musée d'Orsay.

Manet and Degas were contemporaries, but where Manet died already in 1883, Degas survived to witness the First World War.

Both artists created severe portraits of their parental families. We must look hard to find signs of love in them. The parents seem to stare at their sons in a spirit of accusation. They seem to condemn them and find that they are wasting their lives. Degas was able to convey barely hidden family sorrow also in group portraits such as the one about the Bellille family.

Both excelled in large size classical subjects like Semiramis (Degas) or the Crucifixion (Manet) and created memorable portraits (Degas on Tissot, Manet on Zola). Both were drawn to the circle of the generous patroness of the arts Berthe Morisot and painted porraits and group portraits focusing on the wonderful hostess.

Horse races were a new trend in Paris, and both painters were greatly inspired by it. Manet caught the heat of the action in blurred vision and elongated views of racing horses. Degas explored refined colour mixes and was moved to capture tragedy on the racetrack.

Great historical events of the age included the U.S. Civil War and France's intervention into Mexico. Manet covered both in paintings of sea battles and the execution of Emperor Maximilian. Both good bourgeois painters were devastated by the Franco-Prussian War and the sémaine sanglante of the Paris Commune.

Women were an esssential subject for both. Manet was more relaxed in his visions of women, but also the more stern Degas was also able to portray interesting women from all walks of life. Degas was also capable of capturing the tragedy of sexual violence. His painting about the aftermath of a rape of an underage girl conveys a horror comparable with Dostoevsky's The Devils. Monet paid the price of his Bohemian ways: he died of syphilis.

Both Manet and Degas were called Impressionists, and both hated the title, preferring to be seen as Realists. But undeniably both created keyworks that belong to the core of Impressionism. As always, labels are for critics and historians, not interesting for artists. One of my favourite juxtapositions in the exhibition offers large size beach scenes by Manet and Degas, both with an Impressionist approach.

The magnificent exhibition is mounted downstairs at the Musée d'Orsay. I view it four times. The lighting is not always as brilliant as in the top floor where there are also several Manet and Degas masterpieces which do not belong to the double exhibition, such as "Le déjeuner sur l'herbe". For instance, "Le Tub" by Degas is not well lit. N.B. I realized later that this must be because it is a pastel, and pastels are more gently lit.

The excellent catalogue offers a lot of fascinating background information and analysis and a full catalogue of the artworks on display. It is a sign of the times that the visual quality of the reproductions is inferior.

Monday, April 10, 2023

Empire of Light


Sam Mendes: Empire of Light

Isabel Pinner (Telluride Film Festival 2022): " Sam Mendes fills his superbly cast, deeply personal drama with surprises, all emerging from a cinema in a working-class town in 1980s England. Hilary (Olivia Colman, in another knockout performance) is a single woman who runs the ticket booth, where she meets Steven (played with stirring confidence by relative newcomer Micheal Ward). Though on its surface a love story, EMPIRE OF LIGHT is not what you might expect, as Mendes sidesteps the expected nostalgia to instead follow the credo written on the cinema’s walls: “Find in light where darkness lies.” The film (which also features Colin Firth and Toby Jones) leads us through the characters’ profound struggles, both internally and with a society encountering massive cultural and economic shifts. Working again with the Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins, Mendes has created a rich, complex celebration that, at its core, reminds us how music and cinema can bring us together, even as the world drives us apart. –IP (U.K.-U.S., 2022, 119m) In person: Sam Mendes, Micheal Ward "

"Find in light where darkness lies"
- the motto of the Empire theatre

AA: Movies about the sunset of glorious picture palaces are a mini-trend in the history of the cinema. Most famous are the Italian ones by Giuseppe Tornatore (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso) and Ettore Scola (Splendor). Wim Wenders discussed the phenomenon in Im Lauf der Zeit / Kings of the Road. As a sidenote, in Risto Jarva's Onnenpeli there is an unforgettable sequence about the demolition of Finland's grandest palace cinema, Kino Palatsi.

Sam Mendes's film is original and complex. The grand Empire cinema has been built in the 1930s, the golden age of British movie palaces, when cinema was the reigning popular entertainment. It is now (in the year 1981) dilapidated externally but the spirit and the commitment of the dedicated staff are undiminished. The lives and the times are hard, and Mendes discusses the troubles honestly, but essentially Empire of Light is a celebration of the team spirit.

For cinephiles, the sequence in which the projectionist Norman (Toby Jones) shows the machine room to Stephen (Micheal Ward) is an accurate introduction to 35 mm film projection, from carrying the film print to the functioning of the carbon arcs and screening a print via switchover with double projectors.

The professionalism of the staff and the technical skill of the projectionist are there to provide the audience a night of magic. And because of that, after all the turbulences and transformations in the world of media, the cinema is still a temple of movies.

Film titles evoke the period, from Chariots of Fire to Stir Crazy (Gene Wilder / Richard Pryor). Giant marquee letters for Raging Bull are mounted. The most moving scene is the private screening of Being There for Hilary (Olivia Colman) who has never seen a film at her cinema before, being too busy in her job as duty manager. Regarding the cinema's past, the oldest reference is to Greta Garbo's The Painted Veil (1934).

A memorable motif is the pigeon with a broken wing. Stephen, whose mother Delia (Tanya Moodie) is a nurse, knows how to heal it until it is well enough to fly to freedom.

Stephen and Delia know all about racism, grown vicious in the era of Thatcher. Violent skinheads of the local National Front chapter break into the Empire and beat Stephen so brutally that it seems uncertain if he can survive.

Hilary has a medical condition. She suffers from schizophrenia but can cope with Lithium and in a way her position is a shelter job. She is excellent unless she neglects medication. She is also being abused for sexual favours by her boss Donald (Colin Firth).

Stephen and Hilary, the two colleagues with broken wings, become friends and lovers. There is cultural exchange in music: ska and two-tone from Stephen, Bob Dylan and Cat Stevens from Hilary.

Hilary is an avid reader, particularly passionate about poetry: Eliot (The Waste Land: "april is the cruellest month"), Tennyson and Auden. Her parting gift to Stephen is High Windows by Philip Larkin.

"Light is a state of mind". The excellent cinematography in glorious scope is by Roger Deakins. Seen in another way, Empire of Light might be sordid and depressing. But the beam of light transports us to a night of magic.

The most important emphasis is on the inner light, expressed in countless ways, especially in the warm solidarity of the cinema staff to the struggling protagonists, Hilary and Stephen.

Empire of Light might be one of the movies that suffer somewhat from what I call the "pandemic phlegmatic syndrome". It could be more vigorous or compelling. But after the screening, the film grows in my mind and I admire its sonority, the affinity with music and poetry.

Empire of Light was my film selection for my birthday. I saw it at Studio 28, the world's oldest art cinema, established in 1928, with interior decoration by Jean Cocteau, still going strong on Rue Tholozé at Montmartre, the 18th arrondissement of Paris. The motto:

"La salle des chefs d'oeuvres, le chef d'oeuvre des salles" (Jean Cocteau).

Saturday, April 08, 2023

Old Acquaintance


Vincent Sherman: Old Acquaintance (US 1943) avec Miriam Hopkins et Bette Davis.

L'impossible amour / Ystävättäriä / Väninnor.
Vincent Sherman / États-Unis / 1943 / 110 min / 35 mm / VOSTF
D'après la pièce Old Acquaintance de John Van Druten.
Avec Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, Gig Young.
La Cinémathèque française : Rétrospective Warner Bros., fabrique de stars
Séance présentée par Serge Chauvin
Salle Henri Langlois, samedi 8 avril 2023, 19h30 21h20
Kit Marlowe, romancière confirmée, fait publier le roman de son amie d'enfance Millie Drake, qui devient un best-seller. Mais Millie ne se rend pas compte que son mari se détache d'elle et tombe amoureux de Kit.

AA: The first film adaptation of John Van Druten's popular play provides an excellent role for Bette Davis in her most golden period (Jezebel, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The Letter, The Little Foxes, Now, Voyager). This time, she is not the bitch: instead, Miriam Hopkins is cast in that role. Bette Davis as Kit is the voice of reason and sanity in contrast to Miriam Hopkins's Millie. The story is about the best friends whose closeness has been forged in childhood, and who have become rivals and competitors in work and perhaps love. Many decades are covered. The mystery remains. Kit and Millie have formed each other, which is why they are inseparable.

I also like George Cukor's remake Rich and Famous starring Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen with Meg Ryan in her acting debut as Candice Bergen's daughter. Its finale opens the door to a possible novel twist about the friendship of the women.

The Little Giant


Roy Del Ruth: The Little Giant (US 1933) avec Mary Astor et Edward G. Robinson.


Le Petit géant
Roy Del Ruth / États-Unis / 1933 / 74 min / 35 mm / VOSTF
Avec Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor.
Not released in Finland or Sweden.
La Cinémathèque française : Rétrospective Warner Bros., fabrique de stars
E-sous-titres français par Scéna Media.
Salle Henri Langlois, samedi 8 avril 2023, 17h15 18h30
À la fin de la Prohibition, un baron de la bière de Chicago cesse ses activités illicites et part pour la Californie en quête de nouvelles opportunités.

AA: The Little Giant starts with a blitz montage about the 1932 United States presidential election in which Franklin D. Roosevelt wins both in the electoral collage and the popular vote, carrying 42 states against 6. New legislation is planned, spelling the end of the prohibition.

In Chicago, gangster boss "Bugs" Ahearn (Edward G. Robinson) sees the writing on the wall and closes shop immediately. He disarms his bootleg operation and grants generous severance payments to gangsters and girlfriend.

In the AFI Catalog, The Little Giant is classified as a comedy. Funny situations emerge as the vulgar gangster reinvents himself as an upper class millionaire in Santa Barbara in sunny California and embarks on refinement. Ahearn as interpreted by Robinson never loses self-confidence although constantly exposed to ridicule.

The hardened criminal Ahearn is so dazzled by the glamour of the Cass family that he never suspects that they are even bigger criminals than he, including daughter Polly Cass (Helen Winson), who pretends to be in love with him. Ahearn's capital is swindled to the Cass family's fraudulent bond business. His eyes at last opened, he calls the old mob once more to rectify everything.

Because Ahearn has never courted a woman, he asks his real estate agent Ruth Wayburn (Mary Astor) to show him the steps to approach Polly in the "proposal racket", including how to kiss a woman. But one thing leads to another in an unexpected way, and a bond is created also by the fact that the Wayburn family has been a major victim of the Casses.

On display was a good 35 mm print.

D’ici à l’infini / From Here to Infinity (Galerie Marian Goodman, 2023)


D’ici à l’infini / From Here to Infinity. Giovanni Anselmo, Lothar Baumgarten, Marisa Merz, Ettore Spalletti. At Galerie Marian Goodman, 79 Rue du Temple, Paris 3.

D’ici à l’infini / From Here to Infinity
Giovanni Anselmo, Lothar Baumgarten, Marisa Merz, Ettore Spalletti
Galerie Marian Goodman | 10 March – 29 April 2023
79 Rue du Temple, 75003 Paris
Visited on Saturday, 8 April 2023.

Official introduction: "Marian Goodman Gallery is pleased to present D’ici à l’infini (From Here to Infinity) a group show that brings together four major European artists for the first time: Giovanni Anselmo, Lothar Baumgarten, Marisa Merz and Ettore Spalletti. Through their respective oeuvre, they all defied the formal conventions of visual arts and developed a profound and conceptual practice focused on our relationship with nature and the universe. The works in the show - in wood, paper, granite, earth, clay, impasto, alabaster - not only convey a sense of tangible reality, a hic et nunc presence, but they also instill a sense of boundless time and space. They exist as a coherent reality, independent of reality itself, allowing viewers to mentally project themselves beyond the exhibition space."

Giovanni Anselmo: Il sentiero verso oltremare, 1992-2023. Ultramarine blue, earth. Dimensions variable.

"Giovanni Anselmo's notable interest in the force of gravity and energy of the Earth, in our connection with the cosmos, dates back to an August day in 1965 when, after climbing to the top of Mount Stromboli, he had a searing observation of his own shadow projected towards ‘infinity.’ This seminal experience has infused his practice to this day. Il sentiero verso oltremare (1992-2023) consists of a path of earth traced on the floor that connects two vertical stripes of ultramarine paint applied on two opposing walls. The blue pigment, originally sourced from imported lapis lazuli, signifies a window to a distant horizon."

"In keeping with his practice of associating several old pieces, Giovanni Anselmo creates a new proposal by linking the path to one of his emblematic works, Direzione (1967-2023). Consisting of a compass embedded in a block of granite, it indicates with precision the direction of the Earth's magnetic North Pole. While one of the projections of Particolare (1972-2023) is oriented directly to the granite block, the other is pointed in another direction within the space, becoming visible only on furtive contact with a body or an object. The notions of visibility and infinitude are further investigated in Particolare del lato in alto della prima I di Infinito 25.04.75 (1975), a series of graphite drawings on paper which reveal only a ‘visible and measurable detail’ of the concept of infinity, in the form of the letter i."

Lothar Baumgarten: Kosmos, 1969. Hazelnut wood branches, Atlas map, paper. Branches: 138 x 19 x 22 in. (350.5 x 48.3 x 55.9 cm). Bird: 12 x 13 in. (30.5 x 33 cm). Overall dimensions variable. Edition of 4 (10673).

"In his multidisciplinary practice, Lothar Baumgarten referred to different systems of thought and representations, focusing on non-Western cosmogonies and cultures. Created prior to his initiatory journey to South America which involved an eighteen-month stay with the Yanõmami indigenous community in southern Venezuela, the early work Kosmos (1969) is composed of hazelnut wood branches and a figure of a bird in paper wrapped in a map of the constellations. Echoing his iconic film Origin of the Night (Amazon Cosmos), (1973-1977) which references the myth of the origin of the night for the Tupi people, the 1969 work links terrestrial ecosystems to the immensity of space. Like his photographs from the series Culture-Nature (Manipulated Reality) (1968-72) as well as his ephemeral sculptural interventions all conceived at the same time in the Rhineland, Kosmos transports us by thought, momentarily, elsewhere."

Marisa Merz: Cielo e Terra, 2005. Spray paint and pastel on Japanese paper, white clay, aluminum. Frame: 70 7/8 x 56 1/4 x 1 5/8 in. (180 x 143 x 4 cm). Sculpture: 6 7/8 x 4 1/8 x 4 7/8 in. (17.5 x 10.5 x 12.5 cm).

"Considering forms as fluid and fragile, Marisa Merz would reshape her earlier works in varying arrangements based on the exhibition space by employing humble materials and non-traditional techniques. The correlation between natural materials and the idea of infinity is also significant in her work, through the representation of human forms that lie between abstraction and figuration. A prominent example is Cielo e Terra (2005), where the artist juxtaposed a large drawing with spray paint and pastel on Japanese paper and a small clay sculpture placed on a tall tripod, as is Untitled (2004), a drawing with graphite, spray paint and gold pigment on paper. These feminine and enigmatic forms inhabit Merz’s work like spiritual or ghostly figures, seeming to float through time and space, and relying, in turn, on the imagination of the viewers to detach them from reality."

Ettore Spalletti: Così com'è, luna, 2018. 2 elements; color impasto on board, gold leaf. Square: 39 3/8 x 39 3/8 x 1 5/8 in. (100 x 100 x 4 cm). Diameter: 46 7/8 x 1 5/8 in. (119 x 4 cm). Overall: 46 7/8 x 89 3/4 x 1 5/8 in. (119 x 228 x 4 cm).

"Acclaimed for his subtle exploration of color and light, Ettore Spalletti has founded a minimal aesthetic through pictorial or sculptural works, which, when presented simultaneously, often form an immersive installation. The monochrome works Così com'è, luna (2018) and Senza titolo, (grigio chiaro) (2019) result from the unchanging process initiated by the artist in the early 1970s – the meticulous application of multiple layers of impasto at the same time of each day over the course of weeks. Like all his work, they are inspired by the landscapes of Abruzzo, the region on the Adriatic coast of Italy where the artist has lived and worked all his life. Each color recalls a specific element of the natural panorama that surrounded the artist. Whether set in alabaster in Scatola di colore (1991) or applied on wooden panels in Così com'è, luna, the colored material encloses space and time. But what is to be contemplated is not so much this materiality as the spirituality infused into the work."

Friday, April 07, 2023

One Way Passage


Tay Garnett: One Way Passage (US 1932) avec Frank McHugh, William Powell et Kay Francis.

Voyage sans retour / Swedish title: Hongkong - San Francisco.
Tay Garnett / États-Unis / 1932 / 67 min / 35 mm / VOSTF
Avec William Powell, Kay Francis, Frank McHugh.
Not released in Finland.
La Cinémathèque française : Rétrospective Warner Bros., fabrique de stars
E-sous-titres français par Scéna Media.
Salle Henri Langlois, vendredi 7 avril 2023, 20h15 21h25
Dan et Joan tombent amoureux lors d'une traversée du Pacifique. Mais ils savent que leur histoire est sans lendemain, car Joan est gravement malade tandis que Dan est un criminel recherché par la police et promis à la peine de mort.

AA: La Cinémathèque française launches a Warner Bros. Centenary tribute, and I start following it with Tay Garnett's powerful and compact pre-Code tale about the voyage of a terminally ill woman (Kay Francis) and a death row prisoner (William Powell) from Hong Kong to San Francisco. I remember One Way Passage as a favourite of my friend Kari Lempinen. Although the story is full of witty incidents and dialogue, there is also time for reflection. The underlying feeling of agony is genuine, and the performances of debonair stars are deeply moving. Especially Kay Francis is at her career best here. The lovers' signature gesture at turning-points is to have a toast and then break the glasses. The final image at their planned next point of encounter, Agua Caliente, is of two broken glasses, but nobody is there. It evokes the finale of Antonioni's L'eclisse. A 35 mm print, heavily used, with joins, out of synch moments, yet radiating a true raw photochemical energy.

Decameron Nights


Hugo Fregonese: Decameron Nights (GB 1954) avec Joan Fontaine.

Pages galantes de Boccace / Decameronen lemmenöitä / Lustans lön.
Hugo Fregonese / Grande-Bretagne / 1954 / 84 min / DCP / VOSTF
Avec Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, Godfrey Tearle, Joan Collins.
La Cinémathèque française : Rétrospective Hugo Fregonese
Digital reproduction from a 35 mm print in the Martin Scorsese collection at George Eastman Museum.
E-sous-titres français.
Salle Georges Franju, vendredi 7 avril 2023, 17h00 18h25
Au XIVe siècle, l'écrivain Giovanni Boccaccio est à la recherche de son grand amour, la veuve Fiametta. Il est invité dans la demeure de la comtesse de Florence, où réside Fiametta, et invente pour la séduire des histoires délicieusement immorales.

AA: Joan Fontaine and Louis Jourdan, the stars of Letter from an Unknown Woman, are reunited in an omnibus film inspired by the life and stories of Giovanni Boccaccio. There is a framing story about Boccaccio (Jourdan) courting the recently widowed Fiametta (Fontaine) and three stories, all about virtue in marriage. Beautifully shot in Spain and Florence, the fairy-tale ambience and the evocation of the period are enchanting. As usual (even in the Pasolini Il Decameron), mostly the frivolous surface of Boccaccio is rendered, and the poetry and the gravity in the shadow of death is ignored. Like in Mark of the Renegade, Hugo Fregonese expands his scope, but does not have quite the talent required for such un jeu d'esprit. A valuable digital reproduction of Martin Scorsese's Technicolor print, in general conveying a lush sense of colour essential for the cinematographer Guy Green's vision. It is illuminating to observe the soft and blurry image, not always in good definition, issues inherent in Technicolor.

Thursday, April 06, 2023

À mon seul désir / My Sole Desire


Lucie Borleteau: À mon seul désir / My Sole Desire (FR 2023) avec Zita Hanrot (Mia) and Louise Chevillotte (Aurore).

Artist: anonymous: À mon seul désir (La Dame à la licorne: La sixième tapisserie). Date: between 1484 and 1500. Medium: tapestry. Height: 377 cm (12.3 ft); width: 473 cm (15.5 ft). Collection: Musée de Cluny, Musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris. Accession number: Cl. 10834 (Musée de Cluny).

FR © 2022 Aspara Films. Année de production 2022, année de sortie 2023 | 1H57 | DCP | 5.1 | SCOPE | COULEUR
    Un long-métrage de Lucie Borleteau. Produit par Aspara Films. Lucie Borleteau: À mon seul désir (2022), Les Vies rêvées (2021), Ils sont vivants (2020).
    Genre : Drame romantique / Langue de tournage : français / Nationalité : 100% français / Numéro de visa : 151.930 / Interdiction : moins de 12 ans.

Direction de production Dimitri LYKAVIERIS
Régie Armel ADOU KOUASSI
Direction de postproduction Victoire BOISSONT-FERTÉ
Production Marine ARRIGHI DE CASANOVA (ASPARA FILMS)
Avec le soutien du CENTRE NATIONAL DU CINÉMA ET DE L’IMAGE ANIMÉE
En association avec PYRAMIDE,
Avec la participation de CANAL + & CINÉ +
Avec le soutien d’ARTE COFINOVA
Avec le soutien de LA PROCIREP
Distribution France et ventes internationales PYRAMIDE

LISTE TECHNIQUE:
Réalisation Lucie BORLETEAU
Scénario Lucie BORLETEAU & Clara BOURREAU avec la collaboration de Laure GIAPPICONI
Directeur de la photo Alexis KAVYRCHINE
Montage Clémence DIARD
Décors Aurélien MAILLÉ
Costumes Alexia CRISP JONES
1er assistant mise en scène Hadrien BICHET
Casting Colia VRANICI
Superviseur musical Frederic JUNQUA
Musique originale Pierre DESPRATS
Chansons originales Rebeka WARRIOR
Ingénieure du son Marie-Clotilde CHÉRY
Montage son Sarah LELU
Mixage Edouard MORIN
Electricité Mariore MANNEVILLE
Machinerie Bruno MARTIN
Étalonnage Yov MOOR

LISTE ARTISTIQUE:
Zita Hanrot : Mia
Louise Chevillotte : Aurore
Laure Giappiconi : Elody
Pascal Casablanc : Pablo
Sieme Miladi : Savannah
Yuliya Abiss : Sati
Tokou Bogui : Candy
Céline Fuhrer : Vergine
Thimotée Robart : Benjamin
Melvil Poupaud

Durée : 1 h 59 min
Sortie de festival: 12 décembre 2022 (Les Arcs Film Festival)
Sortie en France : 5 avril 2023 (en salles)
Viewed at Gaumont Montparnos 20, 16 rue d'Odessa, Paris le 14e, 6 April 2023

Official synopsis: "Vous n’êtes jamais entrés dans un club de strip-tease n’est-ce pas ? Mais vous en avez déjà eu envie ... au moins une fois... vous n’avez pas osé, c’est tout. Ce film raconte l'histoire de quelqu'un qui a osé."

Wikipédia: La Dame à la licorne: "Cinq de ces représentations forment une allégorie des cinq sens, symbolisés par l'occupation à laquelle se livre la Dame :

    Le touché : la dame tient la corne de la licorne dans sa main ainsi que le mât d'un étendard.
    Le goût : la dame prend ce qui pourrait être une dragée d'une coupe que lui tend sa servante, et l'offre à un oiseau ;
    L'odorat : pendant que la dame fabrique une couronne de fleurs, un singe respire le parfum d'une fleur, dont il s'est emparé ;
    L'ouïe : la dame joue d'un petit orgue ;
    La vue : la licorne se contemple dans un miroir tenu par la dame ;

La sixième tapisserie, celle du sixième sens, ne s'interprète que par déduction de l'hypothèse des cinq sens. On peut y lire, encadrée des initiales A et I, la devise « Mon seul désir » au haut d'une tente bleue.

On peut rapprocher ces six tapisseries d'un poème de François Villon, Louange à la Cour ou requête à la Cour de Parlement, qui développe le thème des cinq sens en y ajoutant le cœur, qui serait d'après Jean Gerson un sixième sens, siège des passions et du désir, de l'âme, de la vie morale et du libre arbitre. Dans un poème daté de 1501, Olivier de La Marche écrit à la princesse Éléonore de Habsbourg, de renoncer aux plaisirs de ses sens et d'ouvrir son cœur afin qu'il « soit riche d'aulmosnes généreuses ».

Dans cette sixième tapisserie, la dame se défait du collier qu'elle portait dans les autres tapisseries. À l'inverse de tentures comme celle de la Chasse à la licorne du musée des Cloisters de New York, la licorne, symbole de pureté, ne semble jouer qu'un rôle annexe dans cette tapisserie. On notera aussi un article d’Alain Erlande-Brandenburg, écrit en 1977, où il émet l'hypothèse que la sixième tapisserie pourrait symboliser le renoncement aux sens. Jean Pierre Jourdan a aussi réalisé une étude, qui se base sur le pré-humanisme italien, de Marsile Ficin, optant pour une approche intellectuelle. Pour Jean-Patrice Boudet, cette tapisserie serait une allégorie du cœur, sixième sens, poussant la Dame à la charité chrétienne, revenant ainsi aux dires de Jean Gerson qui introduit la notion de « cœur », mais de manière plus moraliste : « comme d’un sixième sens qui mène les autres et fait la danse » . L'historien de l'art britannique Michael Camille relève que la dame de cette dernière tapisserie est la seule a avoir les cheveux courts, sans doute parce qu'elle a fait don de cheveux à son amant, comme dans de nombreuses sources littéraires.

Œuvre d'art par essence sans signification univoque, le système de la composition donne lieu à toutes sortes d'interprétations de la part de poètes comme d'historiens de l'art.

Parmi ces derniers, Marie-Élisabeth Bruel, propose de lire dans les six tentures, identifiées depuis 1921 comme une allégorie des cinq sens et du désir, les six Vertus allégoriques courtoises que Guillaume de Lorris présente dans son Roman de la Rose. La référence aux sens ne serait qu'accessoire. Les Vertus apparaissent successivement au héros du roman comme autant de femmes au cours du voyage initiatique qu'elles lui font poursuivre :

    Oiseuse, c'est-à-dire l'apparence superficielle, pour la Vue,
    Richesse, c'est-à-dire une forme brutale d'avidité, pour le Toucher,
    Franchise, c'est-à-dire une sensation directe et sans tromperie, pour le Goût,
    Liesse, c'est-à-dire une élévation de l'âme, pour l'Ouïe,
    Beauté, c'est-à-dire un ravissement de l'âme vers l'harmonie, pour l'Odorat.
    Largesse, c'est-à-dire la générosité, vertu suprême, pour "A Mon seul désir".

D'autres rapprochements ont été proposés avec d'autres œuvres littéraires postérieures et moins célèbres, et même avec des thèmes alchimiques.

Quelle que soit l'interprétation, et donc l'ordre des tentures, c'est une conception aristotélicienne d'élévation de l'âme par les sens, c'est-à-dire de subsomption des tendances animales ('επιθυμία) en un désir raisonné propre aux humains (βούλησις), qui est illustrée. Cependant, en mettant en scène le désir féminin, et en le présentant en position de charmer, La Dame à la licorne exprime une condition féminine moins aristocratique, plus bourgeoise, qui n'est plus celle du XIIIe siècle et du Roman de la Rose mais préfigure les précieuses et leur carte de Tendre.
"

AA: My Sole Desire is the name of a little strip-tease cabaret located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.

The opening image, Gaumont's daisy / Marguerite logo, evokes to me Brigitte Bardot's En effeuillant la marguerite / Plucking the Daisy. Strip-tease in French is "effeuillage".

Aurore (Louise Chevillotte) steps inside the cabaret and is fascinated, even aroused, by the spectacle, especially by the magnetic Mia (Zita Hanrod). The film tells about Aurore's journey to the underworld, the forbidden realm of taboos. She breaks even her own boundaries.

Me Too and the male gaze have been discussed for five years. I guess that no man would now risk making a movie about strip-tease. But when a woman makes such a film it is different and original. In the press dossier, Lucie Borleteau calls it a "paradigm shift".

Based on first hand observation, Borleteau discovers a world of erotic spectacle in which the performers are not victims but in charge. They are not competitors but companions, in a spirit of sisterhood.

The gaze is reversed. The strip-tease dancers are the queens of the gaze, and the male voyeurs are seen exposed, in their full variety from timid boys of the backroom to bachelor night revellers.

In Lucie Borleteau's vision, My Sole Desire grows into a celebration of femininity: the energy, the joy, the fun and the grace of the female life force as God intended. As a strip-tease show, it delivers a full and satisfying evening of entertainment in the company of gorgeous women. It is different from the norm, from clichés, from Moulin Rouge idioms and Las Vegas pole dancing. It is original, playful, humoristic, eccentric, foolish, contemporary and irresistible.

The film is a celebration of bonding, friendship and love among women. Starting as colleagues and partners, Mia and Aurora turn into lovers.

A special feature in My Sole Desire is that having become a strip-tease dancer, Aurore starts to see everybody on the streets undressed, conveyed by charming special effects.

My Sole Desire evokes predecessors. Lorene Scafaria's The Hustlers (US 2019) with Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez. Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls (US 1995) with Elizabeth Berkley and Gina Gershon. Mathieu Amalric's Tournée (FR 2010), a tour de France with American burlesque queens, with Amalric himself as the impresario.

As a tale about female companionship in sex work, I'm thinking about Max Ophuls's La Maison Tellier and Kenji Mizoguchi's Akasen chitai. Even in such a company, Lucie Borleteau stands up well. She creates a vivid sense of a community of performers from various backgrounds, ages and diversities. And a clientele from all walks of life. Stereotypes are overcome. Everybody is an individual.

Prostitution in France is officially forbidden, but as a private agreement it exists. The dancers are warned against it, but the newcomer Aurore, of all people, crosses the line and explores it. Strippers do private sessions which are monitored, but only within limits. Mia is disgusted when she learns about Aurore's transgression, but Borleteau's view is neutral and matter-of-fact.

The overall impression is amazingly sunny without being naive. We witness transgression attempts. We learn about harassment and abuse.

The erotic shows are real and revealing, mounted in an atmosphere of trust and safety, obeying the rules and regulations of CNC sensitivity training. The fair trade ambience enhances the experience.

The title My Sole Desire derives from a medieval series of tapestries on display in the Cluny Museum near Sorbonne. It is a fascinating artwork about the six senses and the six virtues. In the center is the Woman with the Unicorn, and the unicorn emblem is visible also on the wall outside the cabaret. We are left pondering its multiple meanings.

MATERIALS FROM THE DOSSIER DE PRESSE: