Jules et Jim

Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1962)


François Truffaut with Jean-Luc Godard and Éric Rohmer were radical film critics who turned to filmmaking in the 1960s under the given title the French New Wave. They were the critics responsible for the auteur theory that proposes it is the filmmaker who is responsible for the creative process of the film and that there is a personal projection through the mise-en-scene. François Truffauts 1962 masterpiece is one of the most romantic and stylistically evocative film of the entire movement. The story takes place in France, Germany and Austria before, during and after the first world war. The two friends who the film is titled after Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) are two writers who are interested in the world of the arts, actively participate in a bohemian lifestyle and fall in love with the same beautiful women Catherine (Jeanne Moreau). All the while transporting the viewer to an ancient ideological lifestyle visiting cool french bars Parisian landmarks and gorgeous summer homes. The themes involve alternatives to the traditional couple relationship and on love, life and tragedy that were beautifully summed up when Catherine sings Le Tourbillon over the enchanting musical score by Georges Delerue. This was Jeanne Moreau first encounter with François Truffaut and her role of Catherine is staple of French Cinema. Catherine is a disenchanted women whose strife's never end well and who has perpetual feelings of ennui. To make the beautiful black and white cinematography by Raoul Coutard even more enjoyable, Truffaut beautifully alternates between grave and joyous subject matter that entices a wonderful feeling that is both funny and melancholic. In French with subtitles. 105 min.-David Davidson

Jules et Jim plays at the ByTowne Cinema Nov. 17 at 8:55 p.m. and Nov. 28 at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $10, $6 for members.

Kym's smile

Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme, 2008)


A entralling film on a familiar subject, this suburban melodrama play's with prolonged montages that evoke endearing sympathy and with an acute use of sound and music especially a indie-rock accoustic adaptation of the wedding march it profiles Kym (Anne Hathaway), a recovering junkie that got out of rehab for her sisters Rachel`s wedding. Jonathan Demme started his carrer in the 1974 under AIP`s Roger Corman and pays his dept to his mentor by having him appear in a cameo where he picks up a camera at the wedding. Through a shaky hand-held camera and versatile tracking shots the film create`s enchanting and devastating moods. The screenplay by Jenny Lumet treats all the characters with respect and dignity as it examines Kym personal imperfection, repressed memories and her hope of overcoming them.-David Davidson

(Bytowne Cinema, 324 Rideau Street)

Truffaut, Leigh & Demme

Coming to the Bytowne Cinema in november.

Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh, 2008)
Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme, 2008)
Shoot the Piano Player (François Truffaut, 1960)

It was kinda fun in a necrophile sort of way

This was published in the Volume 69, Issue 9, Oct. 16-22, 2008 issue of the Fulcrum. —D.D.

Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
**** (A)

Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse portraits one of the most paranoid and alienated women in motherhood in cinema. A good-hearted wife to Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes) in 1960 New York once pregnant gets entangled in a series of sinister coincidences. Ambiguously portrayed in a feverish nightmare or during a satanic ritual Rosemary gets raped by satan. Much of the film’s intensity derives from Polanski style, the claustrophobia of the appartment, the over bearing dark ancient building, the eerie decor and the unnerving tone fills each frame of the film with dread, grief and apprehension. With an adhering use of expressionistic actors the film sets the mood for an intense fright. A perfect companion before Halloween, show up!-David Davidson
(Bytowne Cinema, 324 Rideau Street, Monday October 20th, 9:05)

***

Selected Conversations with Innovative and Influential Creative Figures in Film, TV and Digital Media at Pinewood Dialogues and more Jonathan Rosenbaum.

October Indefinite Openings

Changeling (Clint Eastwood, 2008)
(scheduled opening October 24th)

Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)
(scheduled opening October 24th)

Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh, 2008)
(scheduled opening October 10th)

At The Movies

The Lucky Ones (Neil Burger, 2008)
(South Keys & AMC 24 Kanata)

Next of Kin (Atom Egoyan, 1984)
(National Archives Auditorium, 395 Wellington Street, Friday, October 17th, 9:00pm)

American Nightmare (Don McBrearty, 1983)
Deadly Eyes (Robert Clouse, 1982)
(Club SAW,67 Nicholas Street, Saturday, October 25th, 9:30 & 11:00)

Shangri-La (Takashi Miike,2002)
(National Archives Auditorium, 395 Wellington Street, Sunday, November 2nd, 7:00pm)

Roman

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (Marina Zenovich, 2008)


In France he is desired and in America he is wanted.
- Andrew Braunsberg

Rajmund Roman Liebling was born on August 18, 1933 in Paris, France. His family moved to Poland in 1937. At the dawn of the second world war his family was moved to the Kraków Ghetto.He stayed alive by living in a farm where he had to sleep in a cow stall. One of his life-affirming motivation was to reunite with his family when the Nazi Germany would be defeated. Once the war ended he found out his mother and sister were killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

He graduated from the Polish film school in Łódź in 1959. His international breakthrough masterpiece Knife in the Water (1962) was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and was just re-released on dvd by the Criterion Collection. His films dealt with intelligent psychological horrors and alienation. Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown and The Tenant were popular in the art house film circuits. In 1969 his pregnant wife of the time Sharon Tate was murdered by followers of Charles Manson.

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired explains what exactly happened in 1978 between Roman and the 13-year-old Samantha (Gaily) Geimer. Through archive footage, photographs, newspaper clippings, text, courtroom sketches and interviews. Marina Zenovich beautifully lays out and layers the facts wrapped up in the divisive case. The scandal with Samantha involved Roman organizing a private photo shoot for a french edition of vogue that lead to the unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. After that there was an indictment for Roman where the showboating presiding judge, Laurence J. Rittenband sentenced him to 50 years in prison. To get around the American legal system Roman fled to London and then to Paris where he holds citizenship. France does not extradite its own citizens so he has been staying there ever since and he avoids traveling to countries that might give him up to American authorities. The film sheds a light on the activities leading up to, involving and after the case. (Bytowne Cinema, 324 Rideau Street, 09/26-09/30)

He is now 75 years old and is married to the french actress Emmanuelle Seigner and they have two children Morgane and Elvis. In 2002 he won his first Palme D'or at Cannes for The Pianist and now he is currently working on a adaptation of the novel The Ghost, written by Robert Harris.- David Davidson