Tuesday, July 8, 2025 - Tuesday, July 29, 2025
“I’m a pessimist who desperately leans toward optimism—in fact, a happy pessimist.” – Yannick Bellon (1924–2019)
Yannick Bellon discovered and learned about cinema from those who made it—by going to the Cinémathèque Française and movie theaters tirelessly throughout her life. She rejected labels, schools, and cliques, following a path she carved out for herself.
Bellon’s first short documentary, Goëmons, was released in 1948, followed by a career in television. In 1972, she directed her first narrative feature, Quelque part quelqu’un (Somewhere, Someone), written, produced, and directed independently by founding her own company, Les Films de l’Équinoxe. From then until 2018, she directed several personal shorts, feature-length fiction films and documentaries. In each of her films, Bellon explored topics rarely addressed in cinema (rape, cancer, ecology) through the lens of predominantly female characters, many provoking intense public reactions and critical success.
Over the course of the eight fiction features she directed throughout her career, all to be screened in this two-part retrospective, Bellon tackled social issues well ahead of her time. She offered a clear-eyed perspective on individuals striving to reclaim their dignity. Operating outside dominant movements, including the French New Wave, Bellon remained uncompromising. Regarded as an engaged filmmaker with a deeply personal voice, her formal inventiveness is equally noteworthy—especially her seamless fusion of fiction and documentary, and her persistent exploration of time and memory.
– Éric Le Roy, series co-programmer and film historian
Yannick Bellon: The Happy Pessimist will continue in Fall 2025.
Special thanks to Cécile Farkas of Doriane Films and Éric Le Roy
Éric Le Roy worked at the Cinémathèque française and later at the French National Center for Cinema (CNC) and served as President of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) from 2011 to 2017. The author of several works on French cinema, he has notably conducted research on Yannick Bellon and Jean-Pierre Mocky, with whom he had close ties, and took part in the restoration of their films.
La femme de Jean
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Introduced by series co-programmer and film historian Éric Le Roy
Nadine (France Lambiotte) is suddenly left by her husband Jean (Claude Rich), and feels her world is collapsing. Once the shock wears off, she begins to reassess and regain her life, liberating herself from an identity of “the wife of…” to her own identity.
Goëmons + Le Souvenir d’un avenir
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Introduced by series co-programmer and film historian Éric Le Roy
In this program of two shorter length documentaries, made over a half century apart, Bellon captures the harsh labor of seaweed gatherers on a remote island in Brittany in Goëmons, her first film, and profiles her mother, the photographer Denise Bellon, in Remembrance of Things to Come.
L’Amour violé
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
This 1978 film challenges public acceptance and awakens awareness to the horrors of rape, with the story of a survivor (Nathalie Nell) who, after an appalling attack, further endures an unsupportive fiancé, uninterested police, and demeaning prosecutors.
Évasion
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
A prelude to Children of Chaos, this documentary is a “carnet de notes” or “notebook,” filmed at the Théâtre du Fil, following the daily work of a social and artistic project that engages young “delinquents” with theater as they prepare to reintegrate into the community. Among those featured are Mona and Danièle, whose experiences inspire Bellon in shaping the character of Marie, played by Emmanuelle Béart, in her companion film.
See the companion film, Children of Chaos, screening on July 29.
Les Enfants du désordre
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
The story of a young girl striving to rebuild her life through a transformative experience: theater. Bellon reenvisions her previous film, Escape, a documentary based on the real-life experience of the Théâtre du Fil, into a narrative with documentary elements, bringing together professional artists, semi-professional nomadic artists, and former juvenile inmates into an intimate human encounter. Emmanuelle Béart radiates in a dark, realistic register, delivering a performance that places her among the most iconic actresses of her generation.
See the companion film, Escape, screening on July 22.
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