click to enlarge
New York’s Film Forum, the venerated arthouse that sets the agenda for a lot of the nation’s touring repertory programming and film revivals, has found that a sizable audience can’t get enough of smoldering starlets, suave rakes, edgy crooks and existential cool—qualities that postwar French crime dramas possess in spades. (Rumor has it The Belcourt is prepping a dynamite French/British noir series for February that will lean heavily on hits from the Film Forum calendar.) Among its recent rediscoveries is this volatile 1962 thriller, produced by the prolific Louis Malle and directed by Alain Cavalier (Therese). A rich young fascist and budding terrorist (Jean-Louis Trintignant, in a kind of warm-up for his role in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist) clashes with his pacifist pal (Jules and Jim’s Henri Serre), while his wife Romy Schneider notches up the sexual tension. Know the old saying that a gun introduced in the first act must go off in the third? This movie features a bazooka. In French with subtitles, the film screens as part of The Belcourt’s annual “Restrikes and Rediscoveries” series.
Jan. 16-18, 2010
Jan. 16-18, 2010
