Vladimir and Rosa 

Followed by a conversation with Jean-Pierre Gorin and Kent Jones

Renoir’s people’s love story and immigrant tale, propelled by crime and tragedy, was shot on location in Southern France, a region not often showed on screen to that time. Renoir, always leading with his heart, remarkably presents themes and style predating their adoption by major cinematic movements, namely Neo-Realism and the New Wave.

Introduced by Jean-Pierre Gorin

One of France’s greatest filmmakers, and long overlooked abroad in favor of his contemporaries, Grémillon made a series of films as strong as any in the heady days of the 30s and early 40s Gallic film production. Among many masterpieces, this poetic melodrama, made under the Occupation, is of a pair with Toni in their analysis of class, as Jean-Pierre Gorin will discuss.

Following six underground films as the Dziga Vertov Group, Godard and Gorin returned to the commercial film industry and a somewhat traditional narrative work. Jane Fonda and Yves Montand star as a bickering couple held captive in a sausage factory, emphasizing the personal dimensions of politics via their unresolved feuding. Gorin took on most of the directing duties and synthesized Godard’s iconic tricolor aesthetics with post-Brechtian dramaturgy and Jerry Lewis-inspired pranks.

In a seaside town, desolate and shuttered for the winter, a stranger arrives. Soon, a second man appears, and the perfect set up for a neat little drama is underway. The underknown Allégret contributes a late era twist on French realism, which will be a significant discovery for many.