French '24 = 14 + 19 (!)
BUT LET'S FOCUS ON PART ONE RIGHT NOW...
PARTING is, indeed, sweet sorrow—but a truly grand finale is in store for you.
We’ve summed up the monumental nature of THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT in our special combined FRENCH ’24 program, which will fold out into a 24x36 poster that displays all of the 155 films we’ve shown since 2014.
It then shows you the 30-odd films that most of the world still thinks of as “classic French film noir.”
That roughly 5-to-1 ratio is telling. Within that ratio is “the lost continent of French film noir,” rescued—at last—from a half-century of oblivion.
Those of you who frequent the great Roxie Theater (which has evolved into a vital template for the future of repertory cinema in the USA) should keep an eye out for that poster when it appears in their promotional window (target date: Labor Day).
It will serve as a permanent visual reminder of just how astonishingly groundbreaking our series has been in terms of the history of film noir and of French cinema itself.
AND our “grand finale”—a two-part, 33-film series (part 1: October 3-7; part 2: November 29-December 3)—is a colossal summation of what we’ve been doing since November 2014.
THE two sides of our promo postcard (available soon in the Roxie lobby!) dramatically display the scope of our “grand finale.” All in all, festival goers will see 23 new rediscoveries, as well as ten (10) re-screenings of past festival favorites.
We’ll cover all four decades (1930s-1960s) of what I’ve called the “lost continent” of French film noir. In a series that has been defiantly singular from the outset, our finale is even more so.
BEFORE we focus on Part 1 (14 films: seven in the Big Roxie, seven in the Little Roxie specifically for our feisty, beloved “film club”), here are some more details about the overall series:
--Familiar names (Jean Gabin, Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Bardot, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Simone Signoret, Louis Jouvet, Erich von Stroheim) in unfamiliar, fascinating films;
--A spectacular presentation of the 1934 version of LES MISERABLES, a three-part epic that shows just how solidly film noir elements were already established in France during the decade before American film noir emerged.
--A showcase for yet another unsung director: André Cayatte (seven films from the 1940s to the 1960s)
--Re-screenings from THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT’s early years: films that many of the current festival audience haven’t seen before!
--Pass holders for Part 1 will receive a special printed copy of my 2020 BRIGHT LIGHTS essay “The Big Sigh,” a first look at the “lost continent” of French film noir that will serve as a warmup for my 400+ page book (conveniently entitled THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT!) that will be available during Part 2.
The films screening in the Big Roxie (October 3-6-7) are designed to draw in viewers who have gotten separated from us since the pandemic. Opening night starts with a bang as we re-screen the only film co-starring Brigitte Bardot and Jean Gabin: LOVE IS MY PROFESSION aka EN CAS DE MALHEUR, based on a Georges Simenon roman dur. Our ballyhoo for it is as follows: it totally lives up to its ballyhoo! (Read the extract from our upcoming festival program to get a sense of what you’ll be seeing.)
It’s followed by a significantly darker film, LA NEIGE ETAIT SALE—the colloquial English translation of which (THE SNOW WAS BLACK) tells you all you need to know. It might be the bleakest of all Simenon’s romans durs, with a performance by Daniel Gélin that can only be described as frostbitten.
We follow with two days of programming for our “film club” folks. First, on Friday October 4, a further expansion into early 1930s noir (Robert Siodmak’s TUMULTES, with a volatile Charles Boyer, and Maurice Tourneur’s JUSTIN DE MARSEILLE, a consummately French gangster film).
Then, on Saturday October 5, the “film club” will delve deeply into the career of neglected director André Cayatte, where we’ll feature five films from the 1940s and 1950s that show his evolution as a filmmaker (including a re-screening of the beloved LES AMANTS DE VERONE, the big hit from FRENCH 5 in 2018).
Part 1’s piece de resistance occurs on Sunday October 6, when the total greatness of Harry Baur is unleashed upon film lovers as he gives a performance for the ages as Jean Valjean, the embattled hero of Victor Hugo’s LES MISERABLES, a three-part, four-hour epic (with two intermissions!) where director Raymond Bernard collides his sense of silent-era spectacle with film noir. The result is simply the best film version of this timeless classic (which has been filmed more than a dozen times).
Silent film aficionados will find much to admire here, thanks to the photography of Jules Kruger (the man behind the camera for Abel Gance’s NAPOLEON).
And I’d be remiss not to mention that we also have a Jean Gabin double feature as our matinee on the 6th! From the dawn of film noir, there is COEUR DE LILAS, where Gabin is a roughneck; it’s followed by LA BELLE EQUIPE, with Gabin as the stalwart cog in a quintet of friends looking for economic success, valiantly trying to keep their faltering dream on course...
October 6 will be one of the most memorable days in the history of THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT.
AND there’s still monstre sacré Michel Simon to bring Part 1 to a shattering close on Monday, October 7. The hulking, eccentric Simon is a type of actor unique to France: a leading man by virtue of his larger-than-life persona—and our two films on Part 1’s closing night are right in that pocket.
First, he is a member of the Resistance who, along with some of his “friends,” has gone undercover in an insane asylum in the intriguing UN AMI VIENDRA CE SOIR, which also features the forgotten Madeleine Sologne, who became France’s “answer” to Veronica Lake when she dyed her hair blonde. (Festival regulars will recognize her as the blind girl entangled with Erich von Stroheim in LA FOIRE AUX CHIMERES, screened in FRENCH ‘22.)
Then we reprise his towering “ascent into madness” in NON COUPABLE, a film that brought the house down when we first screened it in 2016—he’s a provincial doctor who gets away with a murder…only to conclude that he can get away with any murder! Simon is sublimely macabre (or is that vice-versa?) in this truly singular role, delivered with all the force and fury in his arsenal. You are cordially invited not to miss it!
SO as you can see, there is so much to look forward to as our “Grand Finale” approaches. (And this is just Part 1!)
All-festival passes for Part 1 of FRENCH ’24 will go on sale on Monday, August 19. They will be available via our usual PayPal link: the price is $89.
We’ll be back to remind you on the 19th, and supply the link for purchasing your portal to the first of two one-of-a-kind experiences we’re proud to provide you this fall. Thanks so very much for your support!