Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Max Ophüls, 1952, France, 93min
Starring Claude Dauphin, Jean Galland, Gaby Morlay, Madeleine Renaud, Daniel Gélin, Danielle Darrieux, Simone Simon, Jean Gabin
Kind of like a neglected middle child, Le Plaisir, made between Max Ophüls’s two most beloved works (La Ronde and Madame de…), is less heralded but equally worthy. The film turned to the oft-adapted Guy de Maupassant for inspiration, with the author (voiced by Jean Servais) guiding audiences through three of his short stories. An extended, more joyous center segment bookends briefer, melancholic tales addressing the pitfalls of pleasure that can accompany aging, distance, boredom, and obsession. Lush and visually divine, the film was Oscar-nominated for Art Direction/Set Decoration and features a cast of French acting royalty, all wondrously captured by the director’s characteristically ever-roaming camera. It’s no wonder it was a favorite of Kubrick’s.
Imported 35mm print courtesy of Institut Français.
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
In Alexandre Astruc’s bleak, painterly period drama, adapted from Guy de Maupassant’s debut 1883 novel, starry-eyed aristocrat Jeanne (Maria Schell) is so smitten with the fetching yet destitute Julien (Christian Marquand) that it takes many years and a child together to see that the philandering scoundrel was just after her money. 35mm print courtesy of Institut Français.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Adapted from de Maupassant’s novella of the same name, a delicate family drama of an unhappy marriage, the arrival of a possible new love, and the confused parentage that tends to result. Directed by André Cayette (Anatomy of a Marriage) whose work continues to offer revelations long underseen in the US.
{acf_additional_info_event_event_expanded_intro}
