Die Augen der Mumie Mâ / The Eyes of the Mummy (FWMS print)

Ernst Lubitsch: Die Augen der Mumie Mâ / The Eyes of the Mummy (DE 1918). Pola Negri. Poster design: Josef Fenneker.

Les Yeux de la momie.

Ernst Lubitsch / Allemagne / 1918 / 58 min / 35 mm / INT.FR. deutsche Zwischentitel / Copie unique.

Avec Emil Jannings, Pola Negri.

Film issu des collections de la Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung à Wiesbaden.

Grand piano: Abel Saintbris (classe d'improvisation de Jean-François Zygel)

Sous-titres français n.c.

Vu lundi, le 14 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Ernst Lubitsch, Salle Georges Franju, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: " Les péripéties exotiques d'une jeune danseuse retenue prisonnière dans un tombeau égyptien. Le premier long métrage réalisé par Lubitsch révèle son sens du récit dramatique, tandis que Pola Negri et Emil Jannings accèdent à la célébrité. "

Taglines from IMDb: " Bewitching Pola Negri as an Oriental dancer who comes from the burning Sahara to capture London society by storm. All the charm and mystery of the East caught into a passion-swept romance of irresistible appeal. "

AA: Revisited Ernst Lubitsch's first feature film and his first collaboration with Pola Negri.

On display was a Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung print, of fair visual quality, a complete version, with lovely sepia toning. The last time I saw this film it was also a fair FWMS print of Die Augen der Mumie Mâ that we screened in our 2008 programme. My first viewing had been of a bad print in the 1981 Lubitsch retrospective in Stockholm.

Orientalism is rampant in The Eyes of the Mummy. It is beyond offensive.

The Eyes of the Mummy was Lubitsch's first experiment outside comedy, and the aim was for grand, exotic entertainment. This is a film of apprenticeship, of a director eager to try something new. Commercially, he succeeded, but for a viewer of a later generation the movie is clumsy and awkward.

The film is well cast, but Emil Jannings (already a Lubitsch regular) overacts horribly. Harry Liedtke (another Lubitsch regular) is molto simpatico as the painter who marries Mâ. The reliable Margarethe Kupfer also belonged to the director's stock company. Max Laurence as Prince Hohenfels in his sole Lubitsch role is another force of normality in counterweight to the overwrought main couple.

The revelation is of course Pola Negri, who changed the cinema of Ernst Lubitsch. They soon achieved world fame together. None of this is evident in The Eyes of the Mummy, but it all started here. It is fascinating to see Pola Negri before her mannerisms had set. At times she is unrecognizable, a stranger to us and herself. She overacts and rolls her eyes. But there are moments of touching interiority, a sadness out of this world. She performs ancient sacred dances in commercial Europe. Her sensuality is genuine and natural. But are we worthy?

I like the laconic force of some of the intertitles. "Die Augen leben, die Augen leben" in the beginning. "Zu spät" in the finale.

The Eyes of the Mummy is sometimes classified as a horror film. I don't object, but I hesitate to use the label. It is certainly a film of "das Unheimliche". It belongs to the wild growth of the fantastique. 

Last year in the Ben Carré retrospective of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto I revisited Maurice Tourneur's Trilby (US 1915). It made me think of Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (DE 1920). Gerald du Maurier's novel Trilby (GB 1894) and the eponymous play (1895), whose protagonists Svengali and Trilby became concepts of culture, have also an affinity also with The Eyes of the Mummy. The priest Radu (Jannings) wields telepathic power over the dancer Ma (Negri), and Ma's eyes inside the mummy of the ancient Queen Ma make the spectator lose his mind.

There is also magic power in the portrait of Ma that the painter Alfred Wendland (Liedtke) has created. All following works are different, but there are affinities with the lineages of Edgar Allan Poe (The Oval Portrait), Honoré de Balzac (Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu), Oscar Wilde (The Portrait of Dorian Gray) and even Leo Tolstoy (Mikhailov's portrait of Anna Karenina, which upsets Lyovin's mental balance).

There are fascinating power fields at play, but Lubitsch does not quite know what to make of them. He does not completely abandon them either. He revisits them in untypical films like Eternal Love and The Man I Killed.

Der Fall Rosentopf / The Rosentopf Case (2011 restoration Bundesarchiv)

Ernst Lubitsch: Der Fall Rosentopf / The Rosentopf Case (DE 1918). Poster design: Josef Fenneker.

Ernst Lubitsch: Der Fall Rosentopf / The Rosentopf Case (DE 1918). Ernst Lubitsch. La Cinémathèque française,

Der Fall Rosentopf : Lustspiel in 3 Akten.

Ernst Lubitsch / Allemagne / 1918 / 20 min / DCP / INT.FR. deutsche Zwischentitel / Version restaurée

Avec Ernst Lubitsch, Trude Hesterberg, Ferry Sikla.

Fragments of 361 m restored in 4K in 2011 by Bundesarchiv. Original length: 1083 [Vorspann, Filmportal] or 1163 m [Zensurkarte].

E-sous-titres français Marc Ullrich.

Grand piano Abel Saintbris (classe d'improvisation de Jean-François Zygel)

Vu lundi, le 14 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Ernst Lubitsch, Salle Georges Franju, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: " Une comédie policière, pour laquelle Lubitsch reprend son rôle de Sally Meyer, dans l'enquête sur l'affaire Rosentopf, littéralement du « pot aux roses ». Le film est constitué de fragments restaurés. "

AA: I see for the first time Der Fall Rosentopf, or the 361 meters of its remains. The original length of the comedy was 1083 or 1163 m. The restoration makes sense of the surviving footage. I enjoy the attractive sepia toning. There is also a lila passage.

The film belongs to Ernst Lubitsch's Sally comedy series. Sally is a tough careerist and go-getter, eager to please and easily distracted if attractive women are around. The name Sally is an abbreviation from Salomon, and the Sally series can be compared with the Jewish self-parody series of Max Davidson (the Izzy series for Reliance and the classic Hal Roach series). When we screened Sally films in Helsinki, the audience reaction was: "with films like this, who needs antisemitism?".

Der Fall Rosentopf is a detective story, and the mystery is about a lost rosepot. Commissioned by the rentier Klingelmann (Ferry Sikla), the detective Ceeps (Fritz Niemand) assigns the case to Sally who is eager mostly to secure an advance and to being fully reimbursed for expenditures but remarkably phlegmatic to pursue the mission otherwise.

Lubitsch is never the best actor in his cast, but fortunately we have here the wonderful Margarete Kupfer as Klingelmann's maid and Trude Hesterberg as the life-affirming dancer Bella Spaketti. Sikla and Kupfer are familiar from other Lubitsch films. For the wonderful Hesterberg this was her sole Lubitsch appearance.

Frankly, Lubitsch's performance is often grating, and nobody told him so. This is a little film, but there is an appealing relaxed atmosphere in many scenes, particularly with Trude Hesterberg. "Spitzentanz or Bauchtanz?" "Wie weit sind sie?" We are far from the Lubitsch touch, but the innuendo is amusing.

Romeo und Julia im Schnee (2025 La Cinémathèque française)

Ernst Lubitsch: Romeo und Julia im Schnee (DE 1920) mit Lotte Neumann (Juliet) und Gustav von Wangenheim (Romeo). Photo: Maxim Film. Postcard: Ross Verlag, no. 636/4. From: European Film Star Postcards.

Ernst Lubitsch: Romeo und Julia im Schnee (DE 1920) with Lotte Neumann. La Cinémathèque française.

Roméo et Juliette dans la neige

Ernst Lubitsch / Allemagne / 1920 / 49 min / 35 mm / INT.FR. deutsche Zwischentitel / Copie unique

D'après la pièce Roméo et Juliette de William Shakespeare.

Avec Jakob Tiedtke, Marga Köhler, Lotte Neumann, Gustav von Wangenheim.

E-sous-titres français n.c.

Grand piano par Sinan Asiyan (classe d'improvisation de Jean-François Zygel)

Vu lundi, le 14 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Ernst Lubitsch, Salle Georges Franju, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: " Pastiche de la pièce de Shakespeare, Roméo et Juliette dans la neige fait partie de la série « montagnarde » de Lubitsch. Transformés en rustres bavarois, les Capulethofer et les Montekugerl s'affrontent à coup de batailles de boules de neige et de procès farfelus. "

AA: Revisited Romeo und Julia im Schnee, the second of Ernst Lubitsch's Shakespeare parodies which he shot during a Schwarzwald winter holiday in 1919-1920. Channeling The Taming of the Shrew, Kohlhiesels Töchter turned into Lubitsch's biggest comedy hit in Germany. Romeo und Julia im Schnee failed to get equal attention since it overlapped with the Kapp-Putsch. Again Lubitsch returned to primitive farce (the guests slipping one after another on the same icy spot). The farce extended to satire (bribed with sausages, the village judge weighs them on the scales of justice). Starting as stock characters, the actors grow in subtlety and convey true emotion by the time of a happy ending which does not dilute the revelation of the original tragedy. Julius Falkenstein is unique and poignant as Paris, the son on an autism spectrum disorder, dressed as an angel with oversized wings.

The copy on display is amazingly bad. I had never before seen a bad print of this movie. The first Lubitsch retrospective I visited was in 1981 in Stockholm, and a good Svenska Filminstitutet print of Romeo and Julia im Schnee was screened. The same print we used to program in Helsinki, including in our 1988 Lubitsch retrospective. Twenty years later, we were able to screen a newly accessible fantastic toned and tinted 2008 restoration-in-progress of Romeo and Julia im Schnee from Filmarchiv Austria. Finally I saw the delicious 2015 Filmarchiv Austria / Bundesarchiv restoration of Romeo und Julia im Schnee at the opening gala of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto. I hope it will be made available for future screenings!

Die Flamme / Montmartre (2006 reconstruction Filmmuseum München)

Ernst Lubitsch: Die Flamme / Montmartre (DE 1923) with Alfred Abel and Pola Negri.

Montmartre (French and English title) / The Flame / Liekki / Kokotten från Caféet Flora.

Ernst Lubitsch / Allemagne / 1923 / 41 min / DCP / INT.FR. deutsche Zwischentitel

Avec Pola Negri, Alfred Abel, Hilde Wörner.

Original length: 2555 m /18 fps/ 123 min

Reconstruction: Stefan Drössler / Filmmuseum München 2006. Of the 5 reels, only reel 2 survives. 80% of the film is missing believed lost, but it has been reconstructed via promotion stills, other photographs, production sketches and text material.

E-sous-titres français n.c.

Grand piano: Sinan Asiyan (classe d'improvisation de Jean-François Zygel)

Vu lundi, le 14 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Ernst Lubitsch, Salle Georges Franju, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: " Une modiste parisienne se perd dans une vie dissolue, au grand dam de son cousin. Illuminés par le jeu subtil de Pola Negri, les fragments qui subsistent de ce drame naturaliste offrent un aperçu fascinant du dernier film allemand de Lubitsch. "

AA: Revisited Stefan Drössler's reconstruction of Ernst Lubitsch's last German film. 80% of its original duration of 123 minutes is missing believed lost, but using all available material, a reconstruction was performed with excellent taste, doing justice to Lubitsch and Pola Negri in their last German collaboration.

I had seen and programmed both the earlier available fragment (418 m /18 fps/ 20 min) by Deutsches Institut für Filmkunde and Münchner Filmmuseum in 1988 (it did not make sense) and this restoration in our The Unknown Ernst Lubitsch programme in 2008 (for the first time it made sense, storywise and artistically). 

Lubitsch wanted to do a Kammerspiel between the big productions of The Wife of the Pharaoh and Rosita. Die Flamme is a tender story of true love for Yvette who wants to break free from the life on the street. But when Adolphe, her husband whose baby she expects, is too ashamed to invite Yvette to the Uraufführung of his first symphony, Yvette jumps from the window. "Die Strasse hat mich gerufen".

Colorado Territory

Raoul Walsh: Colorado Territory (US 1949) avec Henry Hull (the settler Fred Winslow), Virginia Mayo (Colorado Carson) and Joel McCrea (as a wounded Wes McQueen). La Cinémathèque française.

Raoul Walsh: Colorado Territory (US 1949). Colorado  removes the bullet from Wes's shoulder. My screenshot.

Raoul Walsh: Colorado Territory (US 1949). Colorado cauterizes Wes's wound. My screenshot.

Raoul Walsh: Colorado Territory (US 1949). Colorado and Wes die in a hail of bullets. As they fall towards us, Sidney Hickox tracks forward to a medium close-up. My screenshot.

Raoul Walsh: Colorado Territory (US 1949). Wes holds Colorado's hand tighter until both lose their grip. In superimposition, Sidney Hickox tracks forward to the tower of the abandoned mission of Todos Santos. The bell is ringing. My screenshot.

La Fille du désert / Coloradon sankari / Norr om Rio Grande.

US © 1949 Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.

Raoul Walsh / États-Unis / 1949 / 94 min / 35 mm / VOSTF

D'après le roman High Sierra et le scénario du film éponyme de W. R. Burnett.

Avec Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Dorothy Malone.

Loc: – Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Colorado – Gallup, New Mexico – Sedona, Arizona – Juarez Square, Warner Ranch, Calabasas, California.

Une copie avec sous-titres français: Michael Henry.

Vu jeudi, le 10 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Le Western, en 25 films indispensables, Salle Henri Langlois, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: " Avec La Fille du désert, Walsh réalise un remake de son propre film, La Grande Évasion, sorti huit ans plus tôt. Il en fait un western cosmique aux accents « noir », qui vaut autant pour ses superbes chevauchées, attaques de train et de diligence, que pour son versant psychologique tourné vers la trahison et la fatalité. Dans le rôle de Wes McQueen, pilleur de chemin de fer, évadé de prison, Joel McCrea porte la classe de son héros. Cavalier hors pair, solitaire et sentimental, il rêve de raccrocher le pistolet en s'offrant les bénéfices d'un dernier exploit. S'ensuit une traque, à laquelle ni lui ni sa compagne de planque, l'ardente Virginia Mayo, ne pourront échapper. Sec, tranchant et désespéré, le récit d'une impossible quête de rédemption, aussi tragique que palpitante. "

AA: As a birthday present to myself I visit Colorado Territory*, one of Raoul Walsh's greatest movies. It is a piece of Western Gothic and a film of tragic grandeur from the second golden age of the genre. The male star is Joel McCrea, not a typical choice for Walsh, who preferred actors bigger than life like Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn or Clark Gable – or Humphrey Bogart, the star of High Sierra, of which Colorado Territory is an excellent and inspired remake, reinterpreting the gangster masterpiece as a Western.

Joel McCrea is my favourite American male star, and while he is not an obvious choice to play the part that Humphrey Bogart did so well, he is an unusual and exciting one. His interpretation as the antihero, the outlaw Wes McQueen who tries to break free from a life of crime harks back to the tradition of the "good bad man" of the Western, launched by stars ranging from Harry Carey to Douglas Fairbanks, the greatest of all being William S. Hart – McCrea's close friend and mentor from the first golden age of the genre.

William S. Hart and Joel McCrea were true Westerners and superb horsemen who lived in their own ranches. Almost all Hart's films were Westerns, and after 1946, McCrea almost exclusively made them. The authenticity of his Western spirit graces Colorado Territory.

As an action film, Colorado Territory is lean and efficient, even elliptic (the prison break, the visit to Martha's grave). The central setpiece, the "final big caper", is a train robbery**, one of the finest such sequences in the history of the cinema. Walsh is not interested in action in itself but as a means to reveal character. The human touch is essential, the vulnerability, the nuances in performances, a sense of humour, an understated tragic irony.

The presence of death is telegraphed in the names of the ghost town retreats on the Rocky Mountains: Todos Santos***, Canyon of Death, City of the Moon. The imagery is ominous: full moon, vultures, skeletons, smoke signals (Wes interprets them to Colorado: "It means we’re a couple of fools in a dead village dreaming about something that’ll probably never happen."), Indian death songs. The presence of religion is meaningful. Vaya con Dios. We are on the edge of eternity.

The gloomy ambience of the authentic locations is impressively caught by Sidney Hickox, Walsh's regular cinematographer since Gentleman Jim. Hickox became also a master of film noir (To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, White Heat).

As often in the cinema of Walsh, there is female agency. In the beginning, after his prison escape, Wes rescues a settler father and his daughter, Fred (Henry Hull) and Julie Ann Winslow (Dorothy Malone) from a gang of robbers who attack the stagecoach they are riding. Wes is serious in his intentions about Julie Ann (as was Roy Earle / Humphrey Bogart about Velma/Joan Leslie). But after the train robbery, when the Winslows learn Wes's identity, Julie Ann is about to betray him, only stopped by her father. This is the point of no return.

Among the gang of robbers in the Todos Santos hideaway Wes meets Colorado Carson (Virginia Mayo) whom Reno Blake (John Archer) has taken along from a dancehall in El Paso. Wes instantly wants to send her back, because a woman in a male gang spells trouble. Later Wes is happy to be her protector but nothing more, because she belongs to a life he wants to leave behind. (In High Sierra, her counterpart was the former taxi dancer Marie Garson/Ida Lupino). 

Colorado, who identifies herself as "part Pueblo", has superior survival skills. She is a genuine Wild West woman. After the train robbery, in the film's most intimately physical moment, Colorado saves Wes by removing the bullet from his shoulder and cauterizing the wound with gunpowder. 

In the final siege at an abandoned Pueblo cliff dwelling at the Canyon of the Dead, Colorado tries to save Wes by bringing horses, but the posse outwits them and they die in a hail of gunfire. 

The last we see of Wes and Colorado is their hands joining in a close-up that might have inspired Bresson. At the abandoned mission of Todos Santos, where they left the loot, they were symbolically married by the wandering Brother Tomas. The loot now helps bring new life to the ghost town.

WES MCQUEEN (JOEL MCCREA)

Joel McCrea as Wes McQueen is completely different from Humphrey Bogart as Roy "Mad Dog" Earle, a performance that made a big star out of him. Bogart until then had been seen as a character actor, also by Walsh and the Warner Bros. McCrea belongs to Hollywood's "strong silent men", straight in many ways, sometimes even perceived as boring. His kalokagathia makes him special in both tragedy and comedy. When he plays the part of a doomed criminal, we feel in his character a potential for greatness that should have been within his reach. When he stars in a Preston Sturges farce, his innate dignity is in hilarious contrast with the ridiculous situations in which he lands. In comedy, he belongs to the Max Linder lineage.

COLORADO CARSON (VIRGINIA MAYO)

Signed by Samuel Goldwyn, Virginia Mayo became a dancing star in musicals and comedies. She was four times Danny Kaye's leading lady (Wonder Man, The Kid from Brooklyn, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, A Song Is Born) but excelled also in a serious role in The Best Years of Our Lives. At Warner Bros. she became the biggest box-office draw, and Raoul Walsh directed her to a career best performance as Colorado Carson, her own personal favourite role, perhaps inspired by Jennifer Jones as Pearl Chavez in Duel in the Sun, equally passionate and defiant as an eternal outsider because of her Indian blood, but original and heartfelt. The collaboration was so fortunate that Walsh and Mayo made four films together (Colorado Territory, White Heat, Captain Horatio Hornblower, Along the Great Divide).

The first impressions of Mayo in Colorado Territory are her overdone makeup and cheesecake poses. Suspicion arises of an attempt to serve us a glamorous facade instead of character, but Mayo soon transcends such impressions. Her dancing skills, essential in musical comedy, now power an amazing action choreography.

Wes is an excellent judge of character when it comes to men. The only one he trusts in the robber gang is its leader Dave Rickard (Basil Ruysdael), his mentor and father figure. He would not join this final robbery if it were not for him. All but Dave are traitors. There is a brilliant plan, but nothing goes according to plan. The most overwhelming part is coming to terms with betrayal every step of the way, but Wes is prepared for everything, and finally he returns to Dave, only to find him murdered by Pluthner (Houseley Stevenson). Besides Wes, the gang's only survivor is now Colorado - the only one whom Wes wanted to dismiss.

Wes is a terrible judge of character when it comes to women. Together, Wes and Colorado seek refuge with the Winslows who only now learn Wes's true identity. Wes had dreamed of getting together with Julie Ann, but she turns him down and wants to turn him in. While Wes was in prison, his girlfriend Martha died, and in Julie Ann he saw a candidate for a new partner. Colorado immediately senses the transference taking place here. Wes would like to become a settler and farmer, but Julie Ann has no interest in farm life.

In this turning-point of double anagnorisis and peripeteia, Wes at last starts to see in Colorado his veritable Wild West female partner. She has courage, character, survival instincts and skills. She can ride, scale mountains and shoot straight. She would be the ideal partner for life. But it is too late. They become partners in death in a scene that may have inspired Gun Crazy and Bonnie and Clyde.

HIGH SIERRA AND COLORADO TERRITORY

I have not seen The Criterion Collection's 2021 blu-ray double issue of High Sierra / Colorado Territory, but they are an ideal pairing of an original film and its remake.

Humphrey Bogart in High Sierra grew from a 1930s style hard-boiled character to an embodiment of a world of pain. His bigger-than-life persona fit perfectly into the expressionistic imagination of film noir. He became the face of noir.

Joel McCrea in Colorado Territory is still in a lineage of the gallant knight of the age of chivalry. Wes has erred so far into the dark side that is is by now impossible to return. Colorado Territory is full of film noir hallmarks, but its main identity is classicism as distinct from expressionism. It is a pure classical Western genre picture with film noir touches.

The lovers' blood bond and the Liebestod are the biggest differences. 

There is a surgery in High Sierra: organized by Roy Earle, "Doc" Banton (Henry Hull) heals the clubfooted Velma. In Colorado Territory, the act takes place among lovers: Colorado performs surgery on Wes. 

In High Sierra, Roy dies alone while Marie watches in horror from below. In Colorado Territory, the lovers die together.

DANSE MACABRE

Colorado Territory is a danse macabre, but although it is full of death imagery, Raoul Walsh is not a horror film director. I would even argue that although Walsh made fundamental contributions to film noir, he lacked a film noir sense. There is no existential dread, no cosmic agony.

...

There is a duped look in the print viewed. Full black is missing. It is impossible to appreciate the "Western noir" look.

...

* Colorado Territory was a territory of the United States in 1861–1876 before the State of Colorado was admitted to the Union. Previously the land was home to the Ute, the Anasazi, the Comanche, the Jicarilla Apache, the Arapaho and the Cheyenne. – A history lesson is given in the movie by an old cowboy: "The Spaniards moved in first; Indians came along and massacred them. Then the pox came along and took care of the Indians. Left nothing but scorpions; then an earthquake came along and took care of them." – The action takes place after the American Civil War (1861–1865), in 1870, in the most classical period (1870–1900) of Western fiction.

** Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad started its operation in 1870.

*** A reference to Vispera de Todos los Santos = Halloween, also Día de Muertos and the danse macabre legacy.

Warner Bros.

My screenshot.

My screenshot.

My screenshot.

My screenshot.

My screenshot.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

My screenshot.

Ulzana's Raid

Robert Aldrich: Ulzana's Raid (US 1972) avec Burt Lancaster (McIntosh) and Bruce Davison (Lt. Garnett DeBuin).

Fureur apache / Ulzana - verinen apassi / Ulzana - den blodige apachen

Robert Aldrich / États-Unis / 1972 / 103 min / DCP / VOSTF

Avec Burt Lancaster, Bruce Davison, Jorge Luke.

Loc: Coronado National Forest, Huachuca Mountains, Whetstone Mountains, Pajarito Mountains, Atascosa Mountains -  Arizona, USA.

Ouverture de la retrospective - Jean-François Rauger

Sous-titres français n.c.

Vu mercredi, le 9 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Le Western, en 25 films indispensables, Salle Henri Langlois, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: "Un chef apache en fuite est poursuivi par la cavalerie américaine. Comme en hommage à La Prisonnière du désert, Aldrich construit un film de traque violent et introspectif. Aux antipodes du western classique, son film est un astre noir, nihiliste et dépourvu de tout manichéisme, parfait complément du déjà génial Bronco Apache, qui réunissait déjà Aldrich et Lancaster 18 ans plus tôt."

AA: A brutal Western about the desperate raid of the Chiricahua Apaches led by Ulzana against European settlers in 1880s Arizona. The Apaches, fighting for their country, are superior in their fighting spirit, although the Cavalry overwhelmingly outnumbers them. 

A feature that disturbs and horrifies the novice leader Garnett LeBuin (Bruce Davison) is the appalling and dehumanizing torture inflicted by the Apache on their victims. During the odyssey Garnett, a devout Christian, starts to understand that the Apache are reciprocating what we have done.

A tragic coming of age story of a young lieutenant who is taught life lessons in the hardest way. The ageing U.S. Army scout McIntosh (Burt Lancaster) becomes his mentor in army life. The Apache scout Ke-Ni-Tay (Jorge Luke) teaches him the Apache ways.

A clean image on the DCP with colour ok, but from a dupe master at an obvious remove from the original.

Forbidden Paradise (2021 restoration by MoMA and The Film Foundation) (original score arranged by Gillian B. Anderson and conducted by Robert Israel).

Ernst Lubitsch: Forbidden Paradise (US 1924) avec Rod La Rocque (Capt. Alexei Czerny) and Pola Negri (Catherine, the Czarina).

Paradis défendu / Kielletty paratiisi / Det förbjudna paradiset.

États-Unis / 1924 / 78 min / DCP avec musique / VOSTF / Version restaurée

Ernst Lubitsch

D'après la pièce The Czarina de Lajos Biró et Melchior Lengyel.

Avec Pola Negri, Adolphe Menjou, Clark Gable, Rod La Rocque.

Film restauré par The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Foundation, financé par la fondation George Lucas Family. Orchestration musicale, d'après la partition originale, par Gillian B. Anderson et conduite par Robert Israel.

E-sous-titres français n.c.

Vu mercredi, le 9 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Ernst Lubitsch, Salle Georges Franju, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: "Le film des retrouvailles de Pola Negri et Lubitsch à Hollywood est une audacieuse comédie sexuelle inspirée de la vie de la Grande Catherine, tsarine russe du XVIIIe siècle. Un ballet stylisé, rehaussé de fantaisies anachroniques et de détails savoureux."

AA: I am happy and grateful for having finally caught a MoMA restoration of Forbidden Paradise.

I had previously seen and programmed pre-restoration copies, including a Prague print of Forbidden Paradise at 1534 m /20 fps/ 67 min. The visual quality was inferior, and there were only Czech and no original intertitles.

An earlier, 2018 MoMA restoration of Forbidden Paradise, was screened in Pordenone (6461 ft / 1969 m /20 fps/ 73 min). I missed it but preserved the festival data to keep Dave Kehr's superb program note. 

The original duration was 2299 m /20 fps/ 100 min, but both the Czech and the New York copies seem to present the full narrative. Perhaps passages important for psychology, mood, nuance and the Lubitsch touch have been lost. It is impossible to give a fair judgment on the movie based on the surviving copies.

...

Ernst Lubitsch made Forbidden Paradise in the middle of his great run of silent sophisticated comedies inspired by Stiller's Erotikon and Chaplin's A Woman of Paris – after The Marriage Circle and Three Women, and followed by Kiss Me Again, Lady Windermere's Fan and So This Is Paris, all released in 1923–1926. In that extraordinary series, Lubitsch perfected his Mozartian approach. Beyond a brilliant surface of joy and elegance loomed depths of sorrow, solitude and death. All conveyed in a style of grace under pressure.

Forbidden Paradise belongs to other continuities: the Pola Negri vehicles and the History of the World series.

It was the eighth and last collaboration of Ernst Lubitsch with Pola Negri. During their Weimar years they had helped each other to world stardom in films like Carmen and Madame Dubarry.

Forbidden Paradise is also one of Lubitsch's irreverent, parodical interpretations of world history. He had already covered Ancient Egypt (Das Weib des Pharao), the English Reformation (Anne Boleyn) and the French Revolution (Madame Dubarry). Forbidden Paradise apparently refers to Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia. (The subject of The Patriot was Catherine's son, Tsar Paul I.)

Lubitsch's operettas of the early sound period were often set in Ruritania, and Forbidden Paradise already is a Ruritanian fantasy. There are motorcars, checkbooks and 1924 Parisian hairstyles in this story nominally set in the 18th century.

...

The magnificent story of Catherine the Great has been replaced with a provincial bedroom farce. Adolphe Menjou is great as the Chancellor, a link to the lineage of A Woman in Paris, The Marriage Circle and the 1920s Hollywood Bubbly. Those who love Luis Buñuel's essay about the moustache of Adolphe Menjou can enjoy the moustache gag in Forbidden Paradise. Rod La Rocque lacks charisma in the male lead. Pauline Starke is appealing as his true love. Forbidden Paradise is a Pola Negri vehicle. Her talent is showcased particularly in the final part of the movie in which she faces disappointment but transcends herself.

Catherine's country is in a constant turmoil of revolutions, but the Chancellor knows how to quench them by reaching for his checkbook and bribing rebel leaders with astronomical sums of money. However, in the finale he states: "One more revolution, and we will be bankrupt".

Thank you MoMA and The Film Foundation for this lovingly curated restoration. The visual quality is superior to the Prague print. The sepia toning is appealing. The original score has beén successfully reconstructed and synchronized by Gillian B. Anderson and conducted by Robert Israel.

David Hockney 25 (exhibition Fondation Louis Vuitton)

David Hockney, A Bigger Splash 1967. Acrylique sur toile 242,5 x 243,9 x 3 cm (96 x 96 x 1,181 pouces) © David Hockney Tate, Royaume-Uni.

Sir Norman Rosenthal (ed.): Catalogue David Hockney 25. Fondation Louis Vuitton / Thames & Hudson. 2025. 324 pages. 26 x 31 cm. Hard cover. Two language editions. French EAN 9780500030325. English EAN 9780500029527. - Official description: "This catalogue traces the major stages of the career of painter David Hockney, from his ealry works to his most recent creations. Structured around key themes, the book highlights the landscapes, portraits, and visual experiments that mark his artistic journey. The publication also includes previously unseen works, including a painting inspired by William Blake and new sel-portraits. Under the direction of Sir Norman Rosenthal, this unique books offers an accessible insight into the work of an artist who has constantly reinvented his approach to art and painting. As such, this catalogue is a valuable resource for understanding the trajectory of a major creative figure of the 20th and 21st centuries."

Fondation Louis Vuitton

8 avenue du Mahatma Gandhi ; 75116 Paris ; Jardin d'acclimatisation de Paris ; Bois de Boulogne.

Exposition du 9.4.2025 au 31.8.2025

“Do remember they can’t cancel the Spring”

– David Hockney

Official introduction: "Au printemps 2025, du 9 avril au 31 août, la Fondation invite David Hockney, l’un des artistes les plus influents des XXᵉ et XXIᵉ siècles, à investir l’ensemble de ses espaces d’exposition. Cette présentation exceptionnelle de plus de 400 œuvres de 1955 à 2025 rassemble, outre un fonds majeur provenant de l’atelier de l’artiste et de sa fondation, des prêts de collections internationales, institutionnelles ou privées."

"L’exposition réunira des créations réalisées avec les techniques les plus variées – des peintures à l’huile ou à l’acrylique, des dessins à l’encre, au crayon et au fusain, mais aussi des œuvres numériques (dessins photographiques, à l’ordinateur, sur iPhone et sur iPad) et des installations vidéo."

"David Hockney s’est totalement impliqué dans la réalisation de cette exposition. Il a lui-même choisi, après avoir présenté les œuvres « mythiques » de ses débuts, d’ouvrir l’exposition sur les vingt-cinq dernières années de son œuvre, proposant ainsi une immersion dans son univers, couvrant sept décennies de création. Il a voulu suivre personnellement la conception de chaque séquence et de chaque salle, dans un dialogue continu avec son assistant Jonathan Wilkinson."

« Cette exposition est particulièrement importante pour moi, car c’est la plus grande que j’aie jamais eue – les onze galeries de la Fondation Louis Vuitton ! Quelques-unes de mes toutes dernières peintures, auxquelles je suis en train de travailler, y seront présentées. Ça va être bien, je crois. »

– David Hockney

"L’exposition « David Hockney 25 » montre combien ces dernières années témoignent du renouvellement permanent de ses sujets et de ses modes d’expression. La capacité de l’artiste à toujours se réinventer à travers des nouveaux media est en effet exceptionnelle. D’abord dessinateur, passé maître dans toutes les techniques académiques, il est aujourd’hui un des champions des nouvelles technologies."

"En préambule, seront réunies au rez-de-bassin des œuvres emblématiques des années 1950 aux années 1970 – depuis ses débuts à Bradford (Portrait of My Father, 1955), puis à Londres, jusqu’en Californie. La piscine, thème emblématique, apparaît avec A Bigger Splash, 1967 et Portrait of An Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972. Sa série de doubles portraits est représentée par deux peintures majeures : Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy, 1970-1971 et Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, 1968."

"Puis la nature prend une place toujours plus importante dans le travail de David Hockney à partir de la décennie 1980-1990 – comme en témoigne A Bigger Grand Canyon, 1998 – avant que l’artiste ne regagne l’Europe pour y poursuivre l’exploration de paysages familiers."

"Ensuite le cœur de l’exposition renvoie aux 25 dernières années, passées principalement dans le Yorkshire où il redécouvre les paysages de l’enfance, ainsi qu’en Normandie et à Londres. On y assiste à une célébration du Yorkshire, l’artiste faisant d’un buisson d’aubépine une explosion spectaculaire du printemps (May Blossom on the Roman Road, 2009). L’observation du rythme des saisons le mène au paysage hivernal monumental peint sur le motif, exceptionnellement prêté par la Tate de Londres, Bigger Trees near Warter or/ou Peinture sur le Motif pour le Nouvel Âge Post-Photographique, 2007."

"Dans le même temps, David Hockney poursuit le portrait de ses proches, à l’acrylique ou sur iPad, ponctué de plusieurs autoportraits. L’exposition en compte une soixantaine en galerie 4, associés à des « portraits de fleurs » réalisés à l’iPad mais insérés dans des cadres traditionnels, créant un trouble dont on retrouve l’effet dans le dispositif qui les réunit au mur, 25th June 2022, Looking at the Flowers (Framed), 2022."

"Tout le 1er étage – galeries 5 à 7 - est consacré à la Normandie et à ses paysages. La série 220 for 2020, exécutée uniquement sur iPad, est présentée dans une installation inédite en galerie 5. Hockney y capte, jour après jour, saison après saison, les variations de la lumière. En galerie 6, faisant suite à cet ensemble, on notera une série de peintures acryliques et le traitement très singulier du ciel animé de touches vibrantes, lointaine évocation de Van Gogh. En galerie 7, un panorama composé de vingt-quatre dessins à l’encre (La Grande Cour, 2019) fait écho à la Tapisserie de Bayeux."

"Enfin, le dernier étage est introduit par une série de reproductions remontant au Quattrocento constituant des références importantes pour l’artiste (The Great Wall, 2000). La peinture de Hockney, qui se nourrit de l’histoire universelle de l’art depuis l’Antiquité, est centrée ici sur la peinture européenne, de la première Renaissance et des peintres flamands jusqu’à l’art moderne. La première partie de la galerie 9 témoigne de ce dialogue avec Fra Angelico, Claude le Lorrain, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Picasso... Puis, le public est invité à traverser l’espace de cette galerie-atelier transformée en salle de danse et de musique, comme David Hockney le fait régulièrement, accueillant chez lui musiciens et danseurs."

"Passionné par l’opéra, Hockney a souhaité réinterpréter ses réalisations pour la scène depuis les années 1970 dans une création polyphonique à la fois musicale et visuelle, en collaboration avec 59 Studio, enveloppant le visiteur dans la salle la plus monumentale de la Fondation (galerie 10)."

"L’exposition se clôt par une salle intimiste où seront révélées les œuvres les plus récentes peintes à Londres, où l’artiste réside depuis juillet 2023 (galerie 11). Celles-ci, particulièrement énigmatiques, s’inspirent d’Edvard Munch et de William Blake : After Munch: Less is Known than People Think, 2023, et After Blake: Less is Known than People Think, 2024, où l’astronomie, l’histoire et la géographie rencontrent une forme de spiritualité, selon les propres mots de l’artiste. Il a souhaité y inclure son tout dernier autoportrait."

Commissaire générale: Suzanne Pagé, directrice artistique de la Fondation Louis Vuitton

Commissaire invité: Sir Norman Rosenthal

Commissaire associé: François Michaud, conservateur à la Fondation Louis Vuitton

Assisté de Magdalena Gemra

Avec la collaboration de Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima et de Jonathan Wilkinson, pour le studio David Hockney

AA: The biggest David Hockney exhibition ever opened today at Fondation Louis Vuitton. With 400 works covering his 70 year long career, it is called "David Hockney 25" because the emphasis is on the 21th century - the last 25 years. Of the previous decades we see representative keyworks, and of his intense "late period" of creativity we experience the full sumptuous volume and versatility.

The exhibition itself is a work of art. Huge galleries offer possibilities for oversize paintings. Hyperbole is one of Hockney's hallmarks. Only he could present a painting called A Bigger Grand Canyon. But there is also room for illuminating juxtapositions and contrasts, such as trees / parks / forests in bright colours on the one hand and in refined monochrome drawings on the other.

The technological arch ranges from oil paintings to iPhone animations. David Hockney is also a notable philosopher of art history. I bought from the exhibition a stimulating dialogue volume by David Hockney and Martin Gayford called A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen (2016, new edition 2020).

I entered the exhibition full of enthusiasm but lost it by the time I reached A Bigger Splash. The exhibition is perfect, but the center of attention is not David Hockney but the ultra bright LED displays of audience members.

Out of respect for David Hockney I made a U turn and left the exhibition, bought the wonderful catalogue and spent two hours in the garden reading it and enjoying the high visual quality of the illustrations.

David Hockney believes in the joy of the picture and the joy of colours. We deserve it.

The UGC cinema announcement ahead of every film screening: Respect your neighbours. Respect the work. Respect the environment. - I wish art museums and galleries would follow these standards.

Fanon

Jean-Claude Barny: Fanon (FR/LU/CA 2024). Alexandre Bouyer (Frantz Fanon).

FR/LU/CA © 2024 – Special Touch Studios – Webspider Productions – Paul Thiltges Distributions – Périphéria Productions Inc.

    Producteurs: Sébastien Onomo (Special Touch Studios), Louise Genis Cosserat (WebSpider Productions), Adrien Chef (Paul Thiltges Distributions), Paul Thiltges (Paul Thiltges Distributions), Yanick Létourneau (Peripheria Films), Producteur exécutif : Habib Attia (Cinetelefilm).

    Réalisateur : Jean-Claude Barny

Scénario : Philippe Bernard, Jean-Claude Barny

Directeur de la photographie : Ariel Méthot

Format : couleur (Fujicolor) — 2.35:1 Panavision — 35 mm

Direction artistique : Ariel Methot-Bellemare

Décors : Audrey Hernu

Costumes : Carmen Di Pinto

Musique : Thibault Kientz-Agyeman, Ludovic Louis - "Clameurs" de Jacques Coursil

Son : Éric Boisteau — son Dolby SR

Montage : Maxime Lahaie

Casting: Sylvie Brocheré

    Distribution

Alexandre Bouyer : Frantz Fanon

Déborah François : Josie Fanon

Stanislas Merhar : le sergent Rolland

Mehdi Senoussi : Hocine

Olivier Gourmet : Darmain

Arthur Dupont : Jacques Azoulay

Salomé Partouche : Alice Cherki

Salem Kali : Abane Ramdane

Sfaya Mbarki : Farida

Nicolas Buchoux : Ferrère

Sfaya Mbarki : Farida

Jamal Madani, Moncef Ajengui, Khaled Brahmi.

    Loc: Algeria, Martinique.

    Langue de tournage : Français

    Genre : drame biographique

    Durée : 133 minutes

    Société de distribution : Eurozoom

    Date de sortie : France : 2 avril 2025

    Vu samedi, le 5 avril 2025 UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Salle 10, Pl. de la Rotonde Forum des Halles, accès Porte du Jour, M° Les Halles, Ligne 4, Paris 1er  

Unifrance: " Frantz Fanon has just been appointed chief medical officer at the psychiatric hospital of Blida, in Algeria. Very soon, the innovative methods and the humanistic treatment he gives to Algerian patients attracts him the wrath of his colleagues and the director of the institution. However, Frantz Fanon is not a man who lets be stepped on. His determination and his ideas generates interest of FLN and his leader Abane Ramdane, who offers to join the cause. In a context where tensions between the French army and FLN are becoming increasingly evident, Frantz Fanon sounds like a traitor. With his wife Josie, they are caught in a vortex of violence which lead them to take up the cause for the Independence of Algeria.  "

Wikipédia: " Fanon est un film franco-québéco-luxembourgeois réalisé par Jean-Claude Barny et sorti en 2025. Il s'agit d'un film biographique sur le psychiatre, militant anticolonialisme et intellectuel Frantz Fanon, originaire de la Martinique. "

Synopsis (Wikipédia): " 1953. Originaire de la Martinique, le psychiatre français Frantz Fanon est nommé chef d'une division de l'hôpital psychiatrique de Blida en Algérie, dans un contexte de colonisation. Il va y introduit des méthodes très modernes comme la sociothérapie ou psychothérapie institutionnelle, qu'il adapte à la culture des patients musulmans algériens. Ses idées vont cependant s'opposer aux thèses racistes de l'École algérienne de psychiatrie d'Antoine Porot. "

Présentation officielle: " Frantz Fanon, un psychiatre français originaire de la Martinique vient d'être nommé chef de service à l'hôpital psychiatrique de Blida en Algérie. Ses méthodes contrastent avec celles des autres médecins dans un contexte de colonisation. "

" Très tôt dans sa jeunesse et dans sa carrière de cinéaste, Jean-Claude Barny a su qu'il allait dédier un film au psychiatre et écrivain Franz Fanon. « Par une sorte de prémonition, je sentais l’histoire se répéter et je voyais mon histoire de Guadeloupéen se répéter avec les Maghrébins de France », explique le cinéaste, qui présente Fanon. Il précise : « C’est lorsque j’ai senti le vent tourner ici, que j’ai compris que le film devait se faire en Algérie, là où le colonialisme a été le plus barbare et destructeur.  J’espère avoir réussi à montrer de façon quasi pédagogique les rapports que les Français entretenaient avec leurs anciennes colonies. » "

From promotional materials: " Un biopic d'une intensité rare qui retranscrit à merveille la pensée de Frantz Fanon, un acteur principal charismatique, sans oublier une esthétique et une musique agréable. Un beau film d'auteur. "

" Avec ce long métrage consacré à Frantz Fanon, Jean-Claude Barny éclaire, de façon édifiante, l’itinéraire humain, psychologique et politique d’un des plus grands penseurs et militants anticolonialistes du XXᵉ siècle. Sous le biopic, un vibrant questionnement sur la liberté et la haine. "

" C'est le regard de l'autre qui fait le juif, le noir et le fou. "

"It is the gaze of the Other which makes the Jew, the Black and the madman."

AA: I have been aware of Frantz Fanon since 1970, when Les Damnés de la terre / The Wretched of the Earth (FR 1961), complete with the introduction by Jean-Paul Sartre, was published in Finnish as Sorron yöstä, translated by Hilkka Mäki. I still keep my copy from that year. 

Fanon's first major work, Peau noire, masques blancs / Black Skin, White Masks (FR 1952) has not been translated into Finnish, and I have never read it, but Jean-Claude Barny's dignified biographical drama reminds me to fix the matter as soon as possible.

Fanon the movie can characterized as the journey from Black Skin, White Masks to The Wretched of the Earth. It is the story of the genesis of the latter book.

It starts with a flashback to a childhood memory on the Martinique, when the child Frantz is attacked by a giant Caribbean hermit crab, his face scarred for life.

As a young man Fanon joined the French resistance (shades of Howard Hawks's film adaptation of To Have and Have Not for a film buff), but was shocked to confront racism almost as rampant as on the Nazi side.

The main action starts in 1953 when Frantz Fanon, MD, is appointed chef de service at the Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in Algeria. He instantly liberates inmates from chains and brings them from their cells to the sunlit hospital yard. He also wins the respect of the population with his surgical skills. Instead of dehumanization he pursues sociotherapy and institutional psychotherapy. There is a clash with the Algerian school of psychiatry by Antoine Porot.

These are the last decades of traditional colonialism, and in Algeria it is at its most barbaric and destructive. Fanon as a civil servant of the French government finds himself in an extremely conflicted position. Gradually he approaches the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN). He is being spied on and his home and office are ransacked by the special forces, but as a doctor he is impartial.

One of his patients is an expert of torture and settler violence, Sergeant Rolland (Stanislas Merhar whom I remember from another colonial saga, Chantal Akerman's Joseph Conrad film adaptation La Folie Almayer, with Merhar in the title role), whose mental balance has been disturbed, but Fanon steers him back to health again.

Finally in 1956 he submits his letter of resignation and moves to Tunis. Fighting leukemia, he dictates The Wretched of the Earth, which is published posthumously in 1961.

Alexandre Bouyer as Frantz Fanon and Déborah François as Josie Fanon impress with their charisma and silent dignity.

The Fanon story is extremely dramatic, but Jean-Claude Barny's approach is extremely anti-dramatic. He trusts in the inherent power of his subject too much.

Hard Truths

Mike Leigh: Hard Truths (GB 2024). Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Pansy) and Michele Austin (Chantal).

Deux sœurs / Kovia totuuksia / Hard Truths [Swedish title].

    GB/ES 2024. Société de production : Film4 ; Thin Man Films ; The Mediapro Studio ; Creativity Media. Production : Georgina Lowe. Production déléguée : Gail Egan, Daniel Battsek, Jennifer Eriksson, Mark Gooder, Andrew Karpen, Richard Kondal, Ollie Madden, Javier Mendez, Javier Pons, Kent Sanderson et Alison Thompson

    Réalisation : Mike Leigh

Scénario : Mike Leigh

Photographie : Dick Pope – format : couleur — 2,39:1 — son 5.1

Décors : Suzie Davies

Costumes : Jacqueline Durran

Musique : Gary Yershon

Montage : Tania Reddin

    Distribution

Marianne Jean-Baptiste : Pansy

David Webber : Curtley

Michele Austin : Chantal

Tuwaine Barrett : Moses

Sophia Brown : Aleisha

Jonathan Livingstone : Virgil

Ani Nelson : Kayla

Tiwa Lade : Savannah

Samantha Spiro : Nicole

Ruby Bentall : le médecin

    Durée : 97 minutes

Langue originale : anglais

Genre : Comédie dramatique

    Dates de sortie :

Toronto International Film Festival: 6 Sep 2024.

Brésil : 6 septembre 2024

Canada : 6 septembre 2024 (Toronto)

24 janvier 2025 (en salles)

Espagne : 26 septembre 2024 (Saint-Sébastien)

Royaume-Uni : 14 octobre 2024 (Londres)

31 janvier 2025 (en salles)

France : 2 avril 2025 – société de distribution : Diaphana Distribution – sous-titres francais: Harold Manning.

    British Independent Film Awards 2024 : meilleure interprétation pour Marianne Jean-Baptiste

    Vu samedi, le 5 avril 2025 UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Salle 4, Pl. de la Rotonde Forum des Halles, accès Porte du Jour, M° Les Halles, Ligne 4, Paris 1er 

Wikipedia: "Hard Truths is a 2024 comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh, starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michele Austin, and David Webber. Set in London, its plot follows the plight of a depressed and nay-saying woman (Jean-Baptiste) and the relationship with her jovial sister Chantelle (Austin)."

Wikipedia synopsis: "Pansy Deacon is a depressed and anxious woman who lives with her meek plumber husband Curtley and her layabout adult son Moses, the latter of whom she constantly chastises for his lack of aspirations. Her short temper causes her to argue with and criticize everyone she meets, whether they be her family or strangers, and her anxiety is so severe that she loathes going outside and is disgusted by animals and flowers. Her sister Chantelle, a single hairdresser with two adult daughters, continually presses her to come to their mother Pearl's grave on Mother's Day for the fifth anniversary of her death, which she hesitates to do."

"After spending the days leading up to the anniversary getting into fights with strangers, Pansy goes with Chantelle to the grave, where she insists that Pearl gave Chantelle preferential treatment and put undeserved pressure on her after their father left them. As Chantelle denies the former claim, Pansy admits her fear that her family hates her, and Chantelle comforts her, promising that she loves her despite her issues."

"The sisters go to Chantelle's flat for a Mother's Day celebration with their families, where Pansy, convinced that her fears about her family are true, is morose and silent. Chantelle pulls her aside and she admits that she married Curtley out of desperation but is unable to bring herself to divorce him, leaving her isolated and lonely. Returning to the party, she learns that Moses bought her flowers as a gift, contradicting her earlier belief that he would do nothing for Mother's Day. Pansy laughs hysterically before breaking down sobbing, thanking her son through tears."

"When the Deacons return home, Pansy anxiously puts the flowers in a vase and leaves the patio door open, but after she leaves, Curtley throws them outside and shuts the door. The next day, he injures his back on the job and sends his coworker to wake Pansy, who becomes so anxious when he enters her bedroom that she cannot go downstairs. As a young woman approaches Moses while he is out on a walk, Curtley silently weeps downstairs while Pansy remains in her bedroom."

AA: Mike Leigh's Hard Truths is a chamber play as a catastrophe film. Leigh explores the dynamics of a dysfunctional family with a courage, directness, openness to vulnerability and psychological depth that invites comparison with John Cassavetes. Consequently the performance of Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Pansy can be compared with Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence and Love Streams.

Something on the spectrum of a mental disorder has hit Pansy. We don't know if it's neurological or a result of overwhelming burdens at home and in society. There is a mystery: why is Pansy such a monster while her sister Chantal is so sunny (though far from Poppy/Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky)? The secret may lie buried in their mother's grave.

Secrets and Lies, Part Two? This time harder to solve, perhaps impossible.

Pansy's pain is unbearable, and everybody gets to share it. Laughter turns to tears. This is a house where joy is absent. The wife turns to a stranger to her husband, the mother to her son. Pansy's journey is a gauntlet of meanness and insults. The husband Curtley hurts his back in a workplace accident. Bad karma at home or work can make everybody sick or prone to accidents.

The son Moses has resigned to apathy, but in the finale a young woman looks at him in a certain way, and they ride a bicycle together.

The film ends in silent images of the housefront.

A lovely score by David Yershon is like balm for a wounded skin.

Paddington in Peru

Dougal Wilson: Paddington in Peru (CA 2024).

Paddington au Pérou / Paddington seikkailee / Paddington i Peru.

    GB/FR/JP/US 2024. Sociétés de production : StudioCanal, Columbia Pictures, Stage 6 Films, Kinoshita Group et Marmalade Pictures. Production : David Heyman, Rosie Alison, Rob Silva et Claudia Roca Bravo. Production déléguée : Camilia Celis, Jeffrey Clifford, Ron Halpern, Dan MacRae, Anna Marsh, Tim Wellspring et Paul King

    Réalisation : Dougal Wilson

Scénario : Mark Burton, Jon Foster et James Lamont, d'après une histoire de Paul King, Simon Farnaby et Mark Burton et d'après le personnage crée par Michael Bond

Photographie : Erik Wilson. Format : couleur — 2,35:1

Décors : Cathy Cosgrove

Costumes : Charlotte Walter

VFX : Framestore

Musique : Dario Marianelli

Soundtrack: – Manon, Act 2: "Il sogno" (Jules Massenet, Henri Meilhac, Philippe Gille) perf. Enrico Caruso – Scott Joplin: "The Entertainer" perf. Antonio Banderas – Gioachino Rossini: Wilhelm Tell overture – Johann Strauss: The Blue Danube – "Onward Christian Soldiers" (Sabine Baring-Gould, Arthur Sullivan).

Montage : Úna Ní Dhonghaíle

    Distribution

Ben Whishaw (VF : Guillaume Gallienne) : Paddington Brown (voix)

Hugh Bonneville (VF : Patrick Bonnel ; VQ : Alain Zouvi) : Henry Brown

Emily Mortimer (VF : Rafaèle Moutier) : Mary Brown[3]

Madeleine Harris (en) (VF : Camille Timmerman) : Judy Brown

Samuel Joslin (VF : Jules Timmerman) : Jonathan Brown

Julie Walters (VF : Françoise Vallon ; VQ : Johanne Léveillé) : Mme Bird

Jim Broadbent (VF : Jean-Claude Donda) : Samuel Gruber

Olivia Colman (VF : Julie Dumas (dialogues) / Rachel Pignot (chants)) : la mère supérieure

Imelda Staunton (VF : Marie-Martine ; VQ : Lisette Dufour) : Tante Lucy (voix)

Antonio Banderas (VF : Bernard Gabay ; VQ : Manuel Tadros) : Hunter Cabot

Carla Tous (VF : Laure Filiu) : Gina Cabot

Hayley Atwell : Madison

Joel Fry : Joe le postier

Sanjeev Bhaskar : Dr Jafri

Robbie Gee : M. Barnes

Ben Miller : le colonel Lancaster

Jessica Hynes : Miss Kitts

Simon Farnaby : Barry le steward

Ella Bruccoleri : Rosita la nonne

Hugh Grant (VF : Thibault de Montalembert) : Phoenix Buchanan (caméo non crédité)

    Loc: – England – Peru (Machu Picchu) – Colombia (El Prado River, Prado Reservoir).

    Durée : 106 minutes

Langue originale : anglais

Genre : aventure, comédie, famille

Série  Paddington 2  (2017)

    Sociétés de distribution : StudioCanal (Royaume-Uni et France), Sony Pictures Releasing (États-Unis), Kino Films (Japon)

    Dates de sortie :

Royaume-Uni : 8 novembre 2024

Finlande : 24 janvier 2025

France : 5 février 2025

États-Unis : 14 février 2025

Japon : 9 mai 2025

    Vu en VF samedi, le 5 avril 2025 UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Salle 37, Pl. de la Rotonde Forum des Halles, accès Porte du Jour, M° Les Halles, Ligne 4, Paris 1er

Wikipedia: "Paddington in Peru is a 2024 live-action animated adventure comedy film directed by Dougal Wilson and written by Mark Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont. It is the third installment in the Paddington film series, which are based on the Paddington stories by Michael Bond. The film stars Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas and Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington. The film sees the Brown family travelling through the Peruvian jungle to find Paddington's aunt Lucy."

Synopsis from Wikipedia: "Paddington receives a letter from the Home for Retired Bears in Peru, informing him that Aunt Lucy deeply misses him and is acting strangely, so Paddington and the Browns decide to go to Peru to visit her. Upon arriving in Peru, the Browns learn from the Reverend Mother that Aunt Lucy has gone missing in the jungle, leaving behind only her glasses and her bracelet. Paddington finds a map in Aunt Lucy's cabin indicating they should start their search at a place called Rumi Rock; Mrs. Bird and the Reverend Mother stay behind and the Reverend Mother gives Mrs. Brown a pendant for good luck."

"The Browns look to hire a boat to travel down the river, meeting riverboat captain Hunter Cabot and his daughter Gina. Hunter notices Paddington's bracelet and informs the family of the lost city of El Dorado, a mythical place that is said to contain the gold offered by ancient Peruvians to the jungle spirits; travellers in search of El Dorado typically begin their searches at Rumi Rock, but do not return alive. Hunter is driven by the ghosts of his ancestors to find gold at any cost and wishes to hijack the trip to find El Dorado himself; he and Gina argue about continuing the journey, with Gina wanting him to turn back. In response, Hunter throws Gina off, but then falls overboard himself, causing the boat to shipwreck."

"Paddington gets separated from the family and stumbles upon Rumi Rock, where Hunter is waiting for him. Following roars that Paddington believes are calls and responses from himself and Lucy, Hunter and Paddington duly set off in search of El Dorado and Aunt Lucy. Gina locates the Browns and explains her father's motivations and family history; they set out to find Paddington and save him from Hunter. Mrs. Bird grows suspicious of the Reverend Mother and discovers a secret room where she reveals that the pendant she gave to Mrs. Brown is actually a tracker. Now knowing their location, Mrs. Bird and the Reverend Mother fly in with a plane to rescue the Browns."

"After reaching the summit of an Incan fort, which contains a coin slot for an emblem on Paddington's bracelet, Hunter attacks and chases Paddington, but the Browns arrive just in time to save him. The Reverend Mother reveals herself as Clarissa Cabot, Hunter's long lost cousin who was thought to be deceased, also wishing to find El Dorado. Clarissa reveals that she staged Aunt Lucy's disappearance to entice Paddington to come to Peru. She then holds the Browns and Gina at gunpoint, but Hunter intervenes by incapacitating Clarissa, thus removing his visions of his ancestors. The Browns use Paddington's bracelet to enter El Dorado. They find Aunt Lucy, who explains that El Dorado is an orangery where Paddington was born and that her bracelet was originally Paddington's when she found him, used by the bears of El Dorado. Paddington bonds with the other bears making marmalade, but chooses to return to London with the Browns."

"In the aftermath, Hunter reconciles with Gina and gives up his obsession for gold, Clarissa is sent to the North Pole to become a real nun and work at the Home for Retired Polar Bears, much to her dismay, and several El Dorado bears visit Paddington in London and are named after other London rail stations. Paddington and the bears visit Phoenix Buchanan in prison, where Buchanan, believing that he will soon be released, plans a production of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" starring the El Dorado bears."

AA: Paddington in Peru is my introduction to the Paddington phenomenon. Michael Bond launched his beloved bear character in 1958, and he has by now appeared in 29 books and several television adaptations as well as a film series in which animated characters are merged with live action footage. The films so far are Paddington (GB 2014), Paddington 2 (GB 2017) and Paddinton in Peru (GB 2024). They belong to the greatest hits of the cinema, and it is easy to see why.

Myself, I am instantly enthusiastic. Typically for a Finn, bear is my totem animal. My favourite toy as a child was a teddy bear. I have always loved Winnie the Pooh, and Baloo is my favourite character in the Jungle Book. Valtteri Mulkahainen the bear specialist is a favourite photographer of mine. Ivan Shishkin's Morning in a Pine Forest / Утро в сосновом лесу (RU 1889, in the Tretyakov Gallery) is one of my favourite paintings. I liked very much Jean-Jacques Annaud's L'Ours / The Bear (FR 1988) based on James Oliver Curwood's novel The Grizzly King (US 1916) which I read as a boy in a Finnish translation called Kalliovuorten kuningas [The King of the Rockies].

Paddington in Peru is perfection in all departments. It looks gorgeous, and there is a wealth of inventions, awesome visions and witty details. The animation is state of the art. Ever-changing ideas flash by so fast that nothing grows to fulfillment. More is more.

The performances are uneven. Paddington is engaging, as well as the members of the Brown family. But Olivia Colman and Antonio Banderas fail to convince as villains. I saw the film in French, but I don't think that is a factor.

We see the real Machu Picchu in Peru and the real El Prado River in Colombia in glorious cinematographic detail.

The most stunningly fantastic new element in Paddington in Peru for me is the amazing photorealism of the CGI animation. I need to learn about the technology how this has been achieved.

I am usually reserved about photorealistic CGI animation.

I love animation that is stylized and I love regular live action, but previously I have not been impressed by photorealistic animation, with exceptions. To my surprise I have liked James Cameron's Avatar films.

Paddington in Peru is my introduction to a new frontier in animation – and cinema in general.