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).

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 away, 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 deservedly 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 the 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 into 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 its 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 understands the transference that is 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 Colorado as his veritable Wild West female partner. She has courage, character, survival instincts and skills. She can ride, scale mountains and shoot straight with two sixguns. 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 film 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 I would argue that its main identity is of a sober, classical tragedy, and it is also a model of genre cinema in the best sense.

The lovers' blood bond and the Liebestod are the biggest differences. There is a surgery in High Sierra: financed by Roy Earle, "Doc" Banton (Henry Hull) heals the clubfooted Velma. In Colorado Territory, 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 in a bloodbath.

DANSE MACABRE

Colorado Territory is a danse macabre, but although it is full of death imagery, Raoul Walsh is constitutionally incapable of a horror ambience. I would even argue that although Walsh made big contributions to film noir, he lacked a fundamental film noir sensibility. 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.

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* 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.

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 an infinity of sorrow, loss and death. All conveyed in a style of grace under pressure.

Forbidden Paradise belongs to two other continuities. 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.

Lumière, l'aventure continue

Thierry Frémaux: Lumière, l'aventure continue ! (FR 2024). Photomontage from Vue N° 1170: Les Jardins du Champ-de-Mars (FR 1900).

Les Jardins du Champ-de-Mars. Vue N° 1170. Circulation des visiteurs dans les jardins du Champ-de-Mars. Opérateur: inconnu. Date: 15 avril 1900 - 8 juillet 1900. Lieu: France, Paris, Exposition universelle 1900, Champ de Mars. Projections: Programmée le 8 juillet 1900 à Lyon (France) sous le titre Les jardins du Champ-de-Mars (Le Progrès, 9 juillet 1900). Eléments filmiques: négatif Lumière. Pays: France. Ville: Paris. Lieu: parc, ville. Événement: exposition. Genre: villes et paysages. Séries: Exposition universelle de Paris 1900. Data: Catalogue Lumière online. Please click on the photo to expand it.

Lumière, l'aventure continue

un film de Thierry Frémaux

    FR © 2024 Institut Lumière. Sorties d’Usine Productions. Institut Lumière, en association avec Le Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée. Avec la participation de l’Association frères Lumière et la Direction du patrimoine cinématographique du CNC. Avec la participation de la Ville de Lyon.

Productrice  Maëlle Arnaud

Producteur associé  Nathanaël Karmitz / MK2

Écrit et commenté par Thierry Frémaux, d’après une série de vues cinématographiques tournées par Louis Lumière et ses opérateurs à partir de 1895.

Un film de montage – noir et blanc – sauf un film en couloir de pochoir – format: 1,85 (intégrent le 1,33, format respecté des films Lumière) – the 120 Lumière films are largely not credited by title.

Montage  Jonathan Cayssials, Simon Gemelli avec Thierry Frémaux

Musique  Gabriel Fauré [many compositions identified in the end credits]

Post-production  Jonathan Cayssials, Simon Gemelli

Director of Sortie d'usine (2019): Francis Ford Coppola

Dedicated to Bernard Chardère and Bertrand Tavernier.

    106 min

    Distribution France  Ad Vitam

    Ventes internationales  Goodfellas

    Festival premiere: 20 Sep 2024 San Sebastián

    Spanish premiere: 14 March 2025

    French premiere: 19 March 2025

    Vu mercredi, 26 mars 2025, UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Salle 35, Pl. de la Rotonde Forum des Halles, accès Porte du Jour, M° Les Halles, Ligne 4, Paris 1er  

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: " Il y a 130 ans, les frères Lumière inventaient le cinéma. Tout était déjà là, les plans, les travellings, le drame, la comédie, le jeu des acteurs… Grace à la restauration de plus de 120 vues Lumière inédites, le film nous offre le spectacle intact du monde au début du siècle et un voyage stimulant aux origines d’un cinéma qui ne connait pas de fin. "

NOTE D'INTENTION: " Après Lumière ! L’aventure commence, sorti le 25 janvier 2017 dans 45 salles en France, qui totalisera plus de 135 000 entrées et plus encore dans le monde entier (il a été vendu dans plus de  33 pays), Sorties d’usine Productions et l’Institut Lumière proposent un nouveau « film Lumière », réalisé par Thierry Frémaux et produit par Maelle Arnaud : Lumière, l’aventure continue. "

" À l’instar du premier opus, Lumière, l’aventure continue est un essai dont l’image est exclusivement composée de films Lumière, afin que ces « vues cinématographiques » prennent toute leur importance sur le grand écran. "

" Le cinéma de Lumière, ce sont près de 1500 films de cinquante secondes. C’est de fait la première production cinématographique de l’Histoire, qui débute avec la Sortie des usines en 1895 et s’arrêtera en 1905, lorsque Louis Lumière se consacrera à l’invention de la photographie en couleur. "

" Au sein de cette production pléthorique, 120 films inédits et nouvellement restaurés ont été choisis. Les faire découvrir dans les salles, sur le grand écran, dont les Lumière ont imaginé le principe le 28 décembre 1895, et les replacer, les repenser au cœur du cinéma comme art, voilà ce qui fait l’existence de Lumière, l’aventure continue. "

" Pour autant, quand le premier long métrage mettait à l’honneur les films les plus identifiés et les plus mondialement célèbres, ce deuxième opus nourrit une ambition nouvelle. Il permet d’approfondir la connaissance de l’œuvre Lumière, en dévoilant des films stupéfiants de beauté. Ici, nombreux sont les nouveaux films qui font la preuve de l’imagination et de l’audace remarquables de Lumière et de ses opérateurs. "

" Les sujets sont insolites, les cadrages ouvrent sur une forme qui est déjà celle dont le cinéma ne cessera jamais de visiter l’accomplissement. Issues d’un matériel de première qualité pieusement conservé par Louis Lumière lui-même, puis rassemblé par la Direction du patrimoine du CNC, la Cinémathèque française et l’Institut Lumière depuis le centenaire du cinéma de 1995, les copies qui composent Lumière, l’aventure continue sont splendides et disent l’exigence technique et la qualité esthétique dont Louis et Auguste se faisaient les défenseurs. "

" Enfin, ce film porte aussi le texte de Thierry Frémaux qui inscrit ce cinéma méconnu dans une perspective historique détaillée et une vision philosophique à laquelle les Lumière sont généralement trop peu associés – même s’ils le furent par Henri Langlois dans les années soixante. "

" Le film insiste sur le lien immanent entre l’aventure Lumière et ce que deviendra le cinéma. Il nourrit la réflexion que pareille œuvre mérite, par son ampleur, son projet artistique et sa portée universelle, d’être redécouverte. Il dit que si Lumière est le dernier des inventeurs, il est le premier cinéaste." 

NOTE DE LA PRODUCTRICE MAËLLE ARNAUD: " Découvrir Lumière, l’aventure continue, c’est découvrir la splendeur de l’œuvre Lumière, associée à une réflexion inspirante sur le cinéma. C’est s’éblouir de la beauté des premières images filmées et Continuer à se réjouir de la vitalité du cinéma, 130 ans après son invention. C’est allier plaisir visuel, voyage à travers les continents, et profondeur d’une réflexion sur le cinéma. C’est bénéficier d’un niveau de restauration exceptionnel pour des œuvres du passé, et réaliser combien elles sont modernes, et s’inscrivent tout naturellement dans le cinéma contemporain. C’est une véritable leçon sur l’importance de cet art, le plus jeune d’entre tous, et sur sa puissance évocatrice. "

" La beauté des films, le commentaire qui l’accompagne : Lumière, l’aventure continue est un plaisir qui va sans nul doute émouvoir les spectateurs. Et ce travail exceptionnel est un cadeau pour tous ceux qui ont plaisir à aimer le cinéma. "

" Lumière, l’aventure continue c’est :

– Les films Lumière, 120 films qui seront une découverte totale, 120 films qui n’avaient plus jamais été projetés sur grand écran depuis 130 ans.

– Le commentaire de Thierry Frémaux, érudit, didactique, et ses perspectives historiques,  philosophiques et esthétiques qui recèlent de nombreuses et inattendues considérations qui nous emmènent jusqu’au cinéma d’aujourd’hui. 

– La musique issue de l’œuvre de Gabriel Fauré, élément essentiel de mise en scène et en valeur des films. Gabriel Fauré a été choisi, comme Camille Saint-Saëns précédemment pour Lumière, l’aventure commence, parce qu’il était un contemporain de Louis et Auguste Lumière. "

" Le film est découpé en onze chapitres, précédés d’un prologue et suivi d’un épilogue (et d’une surprise de Francis Ford Coppola, glissée dans le générique, il faut rester jusqu’à la fin!). Ce découpage raconte l’aventure Lumière, et plus largement l’aventure du cinéma. "

" C’est Sorties d’usine Productions, filiale commerciale de l’Institut Lumière (cinémathèque de Lyon, installée rue du Premier-Film, là où les Lumière tournèrent Sortie d’usine en 1895), qui a produit le film, et Thierry Frémaux a pu choisir parmi les 300 films Lumière nouvellement restaurés au laboratoire L’Immagine ritrovata grâce au CNC pour en faire découvrir plus de 120, parfaitement méconnus, et pourtant splendides. "

LE CORPUS LUMIÈRE: Les Lumière ont produit plus de 1400 films (et environ 1000 supplémentaires, dits « hors catalogue »), entre 1895 et 1905.

Sur les 1428 référencés dans leurs différents catalogues, 1422 ont été retrouvés et conservés, ce qui est exceptionnel quand on sait que 80 % de la production de film de l’ère du muet a disparu.

Les négatifs de ces films sont principalement détenus par l’Institut Lumière, la Cinémathèque française et la Direction du patrimoine cinématographique du CNC, et sont conservés par cette dernière, après le recensement et le rassemblement de l’œuvre Lumière initiés à l’occasion du centenaire du cinéma en 1995.

Il est important de noter que le matériel conservé par les Archives du CNC est en excellent état, ce qui est une chance inespérée pour la première production cinématographique mondiale.

LES RESTAURATION INITIÉES PAR L'INSTITUT LUMIÈRE: En 2015, l’Institut Lumière a lancé la restauration d’environ 130 films Lumière (les plus célèbres) avec l’Immagine Ritrovata pour les scans et Éclair pour la restauration, financée majoritairement par le CNC dans le cadre de son plan d’aide à la restauration et par un partenaire privé : la Fondation pour le patrimoine. C’est à partir de ces restaurations que Thierry Frémaux avait réalisé son documentaire Lumière! L’aventure commence, valorisant ce travail.

Actuellement, ce sont 300 nouvelles restaurations 4K qui sont en cours, supervisées par Maelle Arnaud et Thierry Frémaux, et effectuées au laboratoire l’Immagine Ritrovata (Bologne, Italie). Cette vaste et ambitieuse opération est financée majoritairement par le Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée dans le cadre de l’aide sélective à la numérisation des œuvres cinématographiques du patrimoine, ainsi que grâce au soutien de la Golden Globe Foundation et la Fondation pour le patrimoine.

Ainsi, pour son 2e film consacré aux films Lumière, Thierry Frémaux a utilisé une sélection de ces nouvelles restaurations inédites et ayant bénéficié des meilleures technologies en matière de scan (un défi, compte-tenu des perforations rondes de la pellicule Lumière) et de restauration. Le résultat est, aux dires des spécialistes et sans nul doute bientôt aux yeux des spectateurs, éblouissant. "

AA: This year we celebrate the 130th anniversary of the cinema.

In 1891, Edison launched film as a medium for the single viewer of the Kinetoscope. In 1895, Lumière launched film as a cinema medium for an audience with the Cinématographe.

For the celebration, Thierry Frémaux and the Institut Lumière have released a new fabulous compilation of films produced by the fathers of the cinema. Lumière, l'aventure continue is a brilliant sequel to Lumière ! L'Aventure commence (FR 2016). Both montage films are independently capable of conveying the miracles and wonders of the brothers from Lyon. They are ideal introductions to early cinema both for specialists and the general audience, including children.

The visual quality of the digital restorations is luminous and extraordinary. It is particularly important, because the Lumière brothers, in another distinction to Edison, were visual artists. There has been no greater celebration to this than Lumière ! L'Aventure continue.

I have been watching Lumière films since the 1960s, usually in dismal prints. The revelation for me was when I was able to see the " Cent films Lumière " compilation of La Cinémathèque française, a hundred 35 mm prints made from the unique single-perforated original Lumière negatives, printed in the laboratory of Jean-Paul Boyer, commissioned by Henri Langlois in the 1960s. I first saw this compilation in 1988 in one of the FIAF Touring Shows in Berlin and Helsinki, and again in 1991 in Helsinki when we screened the fabulous "Cent années Lumière" retrospective circulated by Institut Français on 35 mm.

I was disappointed with early digital transfers of Lumière. The films died in early digital. Now they live again.

Last year was the 150th anniversary of impressionism, and Lumière, l'aventure continue is a powerful reminder of the impact of impressionism in the birth of the cinema. Impressionism revealed that art does not need big subjects, nor important protagonists. Impressionism was the art of the instant. In the instant the artist saw eternity. What mattered was the grandeur of spirit, regardless of the topic.

Lumière films are also essential viewing from the viewpoint of la Belle Époque. Thus was life before the Great War, the last period in history when beauty was a main criterion in great art.

I loved the Camille Saint-Saëns compilation soundtrack in Lumière ! L'aventure commence. In the new film, the wonderful soundtrack is based on Gabriel Fauré, another contemporary. Fauré is not considered an impressionist but an influence to impressionists. Currently, "Pavane" happens to belong to the greatest hits of classical music in the radio channels I habitually listen such as Yle Radio 1 and France Musique. It does not sound too obvious here as it invites us to its warm embrace as the opening theme of the Lumière film.

With justification, Thierry Frémaux emphasizes plein air vues, where it all started. He dutifully screens samples of Lumière's staged comedy acts and trick films, only to state that others were better in them.

Lumière's cinematographers excelled in composition, mise-en-scène, movement, multiple movement, children's games, intimate family scenes, intimate travelogue scenes, public events, vehicles of transportation (trains and boats), mountains, oceans, sports, the military, world fairs, big cities, the grace of the wind moving in the foliage, the miracles of light reflected in water and the sublime of the nature in general (the Alps, the Mediterranean). The Lumière team had instant talent in filming action, finding the "decisive moment" for 50 second films. They were already masters in the art of the plan-séquence.

There are no title cards or captions for the 120 films, nor are they identified in the end credits, unlike the Gabriel Fauré compositions. Even in the press dossier, the frame enlargements are not identified. I look forward to revisiting Lumière, l'aventure continue armed with the titles of the films to be able to pay tribute to them specifically.

MORE DATA FROM THE PRESS DOSSIER:

Un condamné à mort s'est échappé / A Man Escaped (Gaumont DCP 2018)

 

Robert Bresson: Un condamné à mort s'est échappé / A Man Escaped (FR 1956). Everything is made possible by a safety pin.

Robert Bresson: Un condamné à mort s'est échappé / A Man Escaped (FR 1956). Prison de Montluc, Lyon, "Cette histoire est véritable, je la donne comme elle est, sans ornements." Robert Bresson. From the opening credits. My screenshot.

Un condamné à mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut

Kuolemaantuomittu on karannut / En dödsdömd har rymt / Ein zum Tode Verurteilter ist entflohen.

    FR 1956. PC: Société Nouvelle des Établissements Gaumont – Nouvelle Édition de Films. P: Alain Poiré, Jean Thuillier. 

D+SC: Robert Bresson – adaptation du récit autobiographique d'André Devigny. DP: Léonce-Henry Burel - 35 mm - 1,37:1 - b&w. PD: Pierre Charbonnier. S: Pierre-André Bertrand. ED: Raymond Lamy. Advisor: André Devigny. [Assistant: Louis Malle (n.c.).]

    Soundtrack: W. A. Mozart: Grosse Messe in c-Moll, First Part "Kyrie" (KV 427, unfinished 1782). 

    C: François Leterrier (le lieutenant Fontaine), Charles LeClainche (François Jost), Maurice Beerblock (Blanchet), Roland Monod (le pasteur Deleyris), Jacques Ertaud (Orsini), Jean-Paul Delhumeau (Hebrard), Roger Treherne (Terry).

    Loc: Prison Montluc (le réfectoire, les douches, la cellule 107, les cours de promenade). - Le 3e arrondissement de Lyon. - Le Rhône. 

    Studio: Studios de Saint-Maurice (Val-de-Marne). 

    Language: French - with some German.

    101 min

    French premiere: 11 Nov 1956.

    German premiere: 1957 VEB Progress Film Vertrieb. 1961 West Germany.

    Helsinki premiere: 1 April 1960 Adlon, Broadway, distributor: Eurooppalainen Filmi Oy (Aito Mäkinen).

    Gaumont dvd: 2010.

    Gaumont restoration: 2018.

    Symposiumi Elokuva ja psyyke 15: toivottomuus ja toivo / [Film and Psyche Symposium 15: Hope and Hopelessness], screening followed by a lecture by Antti Alanen.

    Viewed at Kino Regina, Central Library Oodi, Helsinki, 22 March 2025

[Jésus répondit:] "Si un homme ne naît de nouveau, il ne peut entrer dans le royaume de Dieu. [...] Le vent souffle où il veut, et tu en entends le bruit; mais tu ne sais d'où il vient, ni où il va. Il en est ainsi de tout homme qui est né de l'Esprit." Jean 3:5, Louis Segond Bible

    "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes" (Jesus and Nicodemus) John 3:5

    "Der Wind weht, wo er will, und du hörst sein Sausen wohl; aber du weißt nicht, woher er kommt und wohin er fährt". Johannes 3:8

    "Tuuli puhaltaa, missä tahtoo, ja sinä kuulet sen huminan, mutta et tiedä, mistä se tulee ja minne se menee." Johannes 3:8

AA: TALKING POINTS AFTER THE SCREENING. 

Robert Bresson's Un condamné à mort s'est échappé is a true story based on the memoirs of André Devigny, a hero of the French Resistance. 

From Devigny's memoirs, Bresson crafted a lean and vigorous screenplay. Distributed by Gaumont, the result became Bresson's most popular film, and it has maintained its universal appeal. Although there is a single protagonist, he is a disciplined member of a movement. In his pursuit, he is supported by a community of fellow prisoners in many ways and at every stage.

Also unusually for Bresson, Un condamné à mort s'est échappé is a genre movie that satisfies the genre expectations of the general audience, a movie that obeys the conventions of classical narrative and a film with a happy end. It is a suspense thriller in which reversals of fortune and last minute turning points are original and effective. 

But Bresson's suspense is of a special kind. The outcome is already declared in the title. What electrifies us is something beyond, the battle of the spirit against crushing circumstances.

In Journal d'un curé de campagne and Un condamné à mort s'est échappé Bresson established his unique style. His three films of the 1950s (also including Pickpocket) were based on the idea of the diary. The voice of the narrator conveys the inner world of the protagonist. There are no actors. Instead there are non-professional performers called "models". The films chart their spiritual journey towards grace. The camera registers physical reality with devotion. Everyday objects gain weight. 

The approach is elliptic. Bresson shows what others leave out and disregards what others would highlight. He is a master of action cinema (the prison escape, the world of pickpockets), but action is not an end in itself. Bresson is an exceptional director of the look, unique in the art of the point-of-view.

Un condamné à mort s'est échappé was Bresson's first film without a score. The only soundtrack selection is "Kyrie", the first part of the Great Mass in C Minor by W. A. Mozart. It is heard in the beginning and the end, and in repeated scenes where prisoners empty latrine buckets. The lowest business is conducted to the highest music.

Bresson did not consider himself a film director in the ordinary sense of the word. He was interested in le cinématographe. The cinematograph is related to music and painting, not theatre. It is a new way of écriture, writing in moving images. Its material is reality in the raw. In this, Bresson's aesthetics is close to Bazin and Kracauer. It is an art of mechanical reproduction but most crucially, something far beyond. The art of the cinematograph is pre-written, photographically crafted and carefully edited.

Four films - Journal d'un curé de campagne, Un condamné à mort s'est échappé, Pickpocket, Jeanne d'Arc - are about grace. The rest of Bresson's films are about a world without grace.

Starting with Journal d'un curé de campagne, Bresson no longer cast actors. Instead, he cast what he called models - non-professional performers. The models were required to avoid psychology, emotional engagement and identification. They were asked to perform without emphasis and recite dialogue as in a line reading.

Bresson loved actors in the theatre, but he did not want to cast them in films. The models were carefully selected. Dominique Sanda* testifies that they were precious treasures for Bresson. He approached them as if taming them and merging with them in an instinctive intercourse that had nothing to do with directing an actor. "I wanted to bring out the soul and the presence of something noble that is omnipresent everywhere and that is God". He quoted Robert Bernanos: "There is no kingdom of the living, no kingdom of the dead, there is only the kingdom of God and we are all inside". (From Dominique Sanda's foreword to Lauri Timonen's Robert Bresson, luultavasti [Robert Bresson, Probably], 900 p., 2023).

We have devoted one of our Film and Psyche symposia to the Diderotian Paradox of the Actor. According to Diderot, the performer who experiences a genuine emotion is not as effective as the professional who performs the emotion by purely technical means. The Bressonian model is something else again, but perhaps there is an affinity with the Kuleshov experiment. To enable that, the model must have a special inner quality. What is needed is not impersonation but presence.

It is fascinating to register that Bresson filmed Dostoevsky three times - and was the opposite of psychological storytelling. In Bresson's films, there is no unconscious from a psychoanalytical point of view. Death drive (including justified suicide) is a leading theme, but Bresson has no interest in das Es.

The performances of Bresson's models are deeply sensitive, touching and memorable. I argue that even for Bresson, it is about the unconscious - but in a sense contrary to psychoanalysis.

What is art? We are a secret to ourselves and to each other. Our life is a detective novel, and we are looking for solutions to the mysteries of "who am I?" and "what is life?" Even when we think we know the answer, there is always something more, something bigger, something deeper.

Bresson is interested in the secret in us that is related to our spiritual essence.

A performer who attempts to engage in a character with psychological means, muddles the water and prevents from seeing clearly. In the process, she also muddles the act of the co-performers.

A performer whose presence is bare from affectation, conveys something that is true, something of which even she is not conscious. Nor is Bresson.

There is an affinity with the documentary school of Robert Flaherty who was intested in a human being so fully immersed on what she is doing that she forgets to pretend. When we renounce self-consciousness, we reveal something that fascinates Bresson. It is not necessarily something private, but rather something universal.

Susan Sontag found in Bresson's cinema a "spiritual style" and Paul Schrader a "transcendental style". In Bresson's account of a material world, Sontag found a spiritual dimension. In Bresson's focus on immanence, Schrader discovered transcendence. 

In the beginning, the models look ordinary, and the way they are lit has nothing to do with glamour photography. But during their ordeal, the characters start to emanate an inner light. There is an affinity with transfiguration. A subtle shine emerges on their faces and in their eyes. Even if they are burned at the stake, their spirit is eternal.

(Robert Bresson made two films about military heroes. André Devigny became a brigadier general, grande officier de la Légion d'honneur and a Compagnon de la Libération. Jeanne d'Arc lifted the spirit of the French army to a momentous victory at Orléans and became the patron saint of France. In death she became immortal.)

The working title of Un condamné à mort s'est échappé was "Who helps himself" as in "God helps him who helps himself". Bresson was devoted to the theme of grace - grace and predestination - and the paradox of the free will. I am out of my depth in matters of theology. These questions were highly present on the French intellectual scene at the time, for instance in the writings of Simone Weil. Among major film critics, André Bazin, Henri Agel and Amédée Ayfre discussed them. Bresson's cinema is all about them, and his engrossing film leads us to reflect on these great mysteries.

...

No film-maker is more eloquent with hands. Bresson films them like thinking organs. (Incidentally, in Finnish, "käsi/hand" is the root for "käsittää/conceive", "käsite/concept", "käsitys/conception" and "käsitteellinen/conceptual".) Focusing on hands, Bresson makes thought visible.

...

André Devigny (1916-1999), a hero of the French Résistance, retired as a général de brigade of the French Army. 

During the occupation Devigny was a commander of a resistance network in the Lyon region. He was arrested and sent to the high security Montluc prison. There he was tortured by Klaus Barbie and his men. 

He made a series of attempts to escape until he succeeded together with a fellow prisoner and fled to Switzerland. 

...

Klaus Barbie, "the butcher of Lyon", is the subject of Marcel Ophuls's Hôtel Terminus : la vie et les temps de Klaus Barbie (US 1988). After the war, the US Army Counterintelligence Corps smuggled Barbie to Bolivia, where he advised military dictatorships (he was crucial in eliminating Che Guevara), also working for the West German foreign intelligence agency Bundesnachrichtendienst. When military dictatorship was abolished in Bolivia in 1983, Barbie was delivered to France to stand trial. By then, death penalty had been abolished. 

...

* Dominique Sanda was not an actor when Bresson cast her, but she became one after Une femme douce. She was the sole model of Bresson's who was an actual model: a mannequin and a beauty queen.

...

Robert Bresson is the only major film director of his caliber of which no biography has been published.

...

The cinematographer is the maestro Léonce-Henri Burel (1892-1977) whose filmography consists of 145 titles made between 1914 and 1971, among them many of the greatest classics of French cinema. He was the regular cinematographer of Abel Gance, shooting for example the three hugitives J'accuse, La Roue and Napoléon. From Journal d'un cure de campagne (1951) till Jeanne d'Arc (1962) Burel shot all Bresson's films. He brought to them something of the great secret of the silent cinema: the stark power of framing, the art of the close-up, the human presence, the mise-en-scène, the dynamic camera angle. There is an assured touch, a sense of urgency, an impact like these views have been branded on film.

...

This was my first experience of Un condamné à mort s'est échappé on digital in a cinema. The visual quality of the Gaumont DCP looked fine to me. The Finnish subtitles were not of the highest order. I saw and reviewed the Gaumont dvd release in 2010. A digital restoration was released in 2018.

Black Bag

 

Steven Soderbergh: Black Bag (US 2025). Cate Blanchett (Kathryn St. Jean) & Michael Fassbender (George Woodhouse). Pierce Brosnan (Arthur Stieglitz), Naomie Harris (Dr. Zoe Vaughan), Tom Burke (Freddie Smalls), Regé-Jean Page (Col. James Stokes), Marisa Abela (Clarissa Dubose).

Black Bag (titre original) / The Insider (titre français) / Le Sac noir (titre québécois).

    US © 2025 Focus Features. Société de production : Casey Silver Productions. Production : Casey Silver et Gregory Jacobs

    Réalisation : Steven Soderbergh

Scénario : David Koepp

Photographie : Steven Soderbergh (crédité sous le nom de Peter Andrews) – couleur

Décors : Philip Messina

Costumes : Ellen Mirojnick

Musique : David Holmes

Montage : Steven Soderbergh (crédité Mary Ann Bernard)

    Distribution

Cate Blanchett (VF : Isabelle Gardien) : Kathryn St. Jean

Michael Fassbender (VF : Jean-Pierre Michaël) : George Woodhouse

Regé-Jean Page (VF : Eilias Changuel) : le colonel James Stokes

Marisa Abela (VF : Victoria Grosbois) : Clarissa Dubose

Naomie Harris (VF : Annie Milon) : Dr Zoe Vaughan

Pierce Brosnan (VF : Emmanuel Jacomy) : Arthur Stieglitz

Tom Burke (VF : Gilduin Tissier) : Freddie Smalls

Gustaf Skarsgård : Philip Meacham

Orli Shuka : Andrei Kulikov

Kae Alexander : Anna Ko

Ambika Mod : Angela Childs

Alex Magliaro : M. Green

    Loc: – London, England – Zürich, Switzerland. Le tournage débute le 6 mai 2024 à Londres.

    Durée : 94 minutes

    Langue originale : anglais

    Genre : espionnage, thriller

    Sociétés de distribution : Focus Features (États-Unis) ; Universal Pictures (International)

    Dates de sortie :

France : 12 mars 2025 - sous-titres francais : Geraima Le Felletin

États-Unis, Québec : 14 mars 2025

Finlande : 17 avril 2025

    Vu samedi, le 15 mars 2025, MK2 Bastille (Côté Beaumarchais), Salle 1, 4 boulevard Beaumarchais Paris 75011, 11e, M° Bastille, Lignes 1, 5, 8

Tagline: "It takes a spy to hunt a spy".

IMDb: "When intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband - also a legendary agent - faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage, or his country."

Wikipédia: " George Woodhouse et sa femme Kathryn sont des légendes de l'espionnage. Lorsque Kathryn est soupçonnée de trahison, George est confronté à un dilemme ultime : son mariage ou la loyauté envers son pays. "

AA: Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag is his third collaboration within four years with the scenarist mastermind David Koepp. As is Soderbergh's occasional habit, he is also the cinematographer (credited as his father) and the editor (credited as his mother).

Black Bag is plot-driven. The plot is devilishly ingenious. The film is brilliant, perfect and breathtaking, and the cast is outstanding.

But life is missing.

"Black Bag" is a spy code expression. "It's in the black bag" means that spies keep secrets even from each other. Kathryn and George love each other even though they cannot trust each other.

This reminds me of Federico Fellini's comment on Marcello Mastroianni: "We have a beautiful lifelong friendship that is based on healthy mutual distrust".

Kathryn & George have been compared with the detective duo Nick & Cora Charles (William Powell, Myrna Loy) in the Thin Man series. Notorious (Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman) and North by Northwest (Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint) have been mentioned. But these references help highlight the absence of warmth and tenderness in the Black Bag. Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbinder are icy creatures in public and private, so distanced that they have been reduced to shadows of themselves.

Soderbergh makes the amazingly complex plot run smoothly. I would need to see the film again to understand all the complications and implications. The plot is largely built around two dinner sequences. They are among the most curious in the history of the cinema. They may also be a satire on fine dining today: it is no longer expected that the food is good and the circumstances appealing.

The most impressive sequence for me is the control room with its deadly accurate satellite surveillance powers, leading to a prompt to destroy by drone the car of two Russians on their way in Poland to the Eastern border. Now that the US President is a Russian asset, and the CIA about to become subordinate to Vladimir Putin's FSB, I wonder what will be left of European security. And American.

I have been a Steven Soderbergh fan since Sex, Lies and Videotape (US 1989). Only later did I catch his feature film debut, the longform music video Yes: 9012 Live (US 1985), the first showcase of his experimental drive. I liked the Elmore Leonard adaptation Out of Sight (US 1998) with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, still my favourite of the Soderbergh "entertainments" I have seen. Then came the magnificent thrillers with epic resonance, Erin Brockovich (US 2000) and Traffic (US 2000). I would need to visit a Soderbergh retrospective to check out at least Che 1-2, The Informant!, Contagion, The Laundromat and Kimi.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: PLOT FROM WIKIPEDIA:

The Last Showgirl

Gia Coppola: The Last Showgirl (US 2024). Pamela Anderson as Shelly Gardner in Las Vegas.

La dernière danseuse de cabaret (titre québécois).

    US © 2024 Body of Work. Sociétés de production : Utopia, High Frequency Entertainment, Pinky Promise, Digital Ignition Entertainment et Spark Features. Production : Robert Schwartzman, Natalie Farrey et Gia Coppola. Producteurs exécutifs : Jessamine Burgum, Michael Clofine, Nick Darmstaedter, Kara Durrett, Brandon Thomas Lee, Duncan Montgomery, Alex Orlovsky, Josh Peters, Robina Riccitiello, George Rush, Jack Selby, Kevin Wheeler et Cole Harper. Coproducteur exécutif : Matthew Shire. Coproducteurs : Jennifer Goodridge et Dani Koenigsberg

    Réalisation : Gia Coppola

Scénario : Kate Gersten - based on her stage play Body of Work

Coconcepteur : Rainy Jacobs

Photographie : Autumn Durald Arkapaw – couleur – 2.39:1 – 16 mm

Décors : Natalie Ziering

Costumes : Jacqueline Getty

Musique : Andrew Wyatt

"Shadows of the Night" (D. L. Byron) perf. Pat Benatar. – "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (Jim Steinman) perf. Bonnie Tyler). – "Come and Get Your Love" (Lolly Vegas) perf. Redbone. – Theme song during the end credits, written for the movie: "Beautiful That Way" (Andrew Wyatt, Miley Cyrus, Lykke Li) perf. Miley Cyrus.  

Montage : Blair McClendon et Cam McLauchlin

    Distribution

Pamela Anderson : Shelly Gardner (vf : Malvina Germain), a successful seasoned showgirl

Dave Bautista : Eddie, producer of the revue, Hannah's father

Jamie Lee Curtis : Annette (vf : Véronique Augereau), Shelly's best friend, a cocktail waitress and former showgirl

Patrick Hilgart : Brad

Billie Lourd : Hannah Gardner, Shelly and Eddie's daughter

Jason Schwartzman : the casting director

Kiernan Shipka : Jodie, a showgirl

Brenda Song : Marianne / Mary-Anne, a showgirl

John Clofine : Poker Player

Patrick Hilgart : Brad

Jesse Phillips : Wardrobe Dresser

David Avne : Patron du restaurant (non crédité)

Sean Patrick Bryan : Patron du restaurant (non crédité)

    Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada.

    Durée : 85 min (L'Officiel des Spectacles), 89 min (Wikipédia, IMDb)

    Langue originale : anglais

    Genre : drame

    Sociétés de distribution : Roadside Attractions (États-Unis), Sony Picture (France), September Film (Belgique). 

    Dates de sortie :

Festival premiere : 6 septembre 2024 (Toronto)

Festival international du film de Saint-Sébastien : 26 septembre 2024 : prix spécial du jury

États-Unis : 13 décembre 2024 (sortie limitée), 10 janvier 2025 (sortie nationale)

Finlande : 28 février 2025

France : 12 mars 2025 - Sony - sous-titres francais: Pierre Arson

    Vu samedi, le 15 mars 2025, Majestic Bastille, 4 bd Richard-Lenoir, Paris 75011, 11e, M° Bastille, Lignes 1, 5, 8

IMDb: "A seasoned showgirl must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run."

Wikipédia: " Depuis près de trente ans, Shelley est une showgirl de Las Vegas. Elle est la « pièce maîtresse » d'un spectacle typique de la « ville du péché ». Ses collègues danseuses sont comme une sorte de famille. Mais un jour, Eddie, le régisseur, annonce que le spectacle s'arrêtera définitivement dans deux semaines. Shelley et ses collègues danseuses doivent prendre des décisions pour leur avenir. Âgée de 50 ans, Shelley ne sait rien faire d'autre que de la danse. Très marquée par cette nouvelle, elle va tenter de renouer avec sa fille Hannah qu'elle connaît à peine. Elle va cependant être soutenue par sa meilleure amie Annette, une serveuse exubérante. "

AA: Gia Coppola's The Last Showgirl is a subversively body-positive celebration of femininity caught between glorification and exploitation. 

It belongs to a contemporary trend of women film-makers "reclaiming the gaze" in the traditionally male-monopolized arena of presenting woman as spectacle.

Examples range from Bette Gordon's Variety (US 1983) to Lorene Scafaria's Hustlers (US 2019) and Lucie Borleteau's À mon seul désir (FR 2023). From the male side, sympathetic accounts include Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls (US 1995, first derided, then rehabilitated), Mathieu Amalric's Tournée (FR 2010) and Sean Baker's Anora (US 2024).

In parallel to Westerns featuring ageing gunfighters such as Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country / Guns in the Afternoon (US 1962), The Last Showgirl tells about "Showgirls in the Afternoon". It also resembles dramas about boxers past their prime such as John Huston's Fat City (US 1972) or the final entries of the Rocky franchise (US 1990, US 2006).

Shelly Gardner (Pamela Anderson) and her best friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis) are super troupers who face facts stoically. It is humiliating to be auditioning again after 30 years in a successful show, but this is not a story of disillusion and disappointment. Shelly is proud of her performances, and she is in good condition, happy about the style and glamour of the show. 

But there is a "best before" date in show business, particularly cruelly for women who are more dependent on their looks. Pamela Anderson's performance is equally daring as Demi Moore's in The Substance (FR 2024). Demi Moore played her part in a mode of utter horror, as a woman destructively lost in illusions of surface youth.

In contrast, Pamela Anderson gives a warm and tender performance. In the heartbreaking world of sex as commodity she has not lost her humanity. She meets her estranged daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd) whom she abandoned as a child. Now Hannah is her mirror, the one who sees her and through her. The show manager Eddie (Dave Bautista) is Hannah's absentee father. Shelly does her best to make up what was broken. What remains is the most important of all: dignity, again in contrast to the horror show of The Substance.

...

I missed the beginning of the movie because of erroneous information in L'Officiel des Spectacles about the duration of the previous film, Armand.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM WIKIPEDIA: