By Jack Arnhold, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – From Wednesday, October 17th, until Wednesday, October 31st, CCBB ‘Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil’ (Bank of Brazil Cultural Center) Rio will be screening the most complete retrospective of French film-maker Philippe Garrel ever held in Brazil.
Philippe Garrel is widely regarded as one of the most important European filmmakers still working today, and is without a doubt one of the most significant French filmmakers of the post ‘nouvelle vague’ (new wave) era.
Over the next two weeks, CCBB will be showing 24 of Garrel’s films, spanning his entire career, from 1964’s ‘Les Enfants Désaccordés’ (Discordant Children) to his most recent film, 2017’s ‘L’Amant d’un Jour’ (Lover for a Day).
Alongside twenty feature films and four short films by Garrel, CCBB will also be showing five films from artists and directors with whom Garrel engaged in an artistic dialogue.
These films include ‘Screen Tests’ and ‘Imitation of Christ’ by Andy Warhol, ‘Le Père Noël a Les Yeux Bleus’ (Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes) and La Maman et la Putain’ (the Mother is a Whore) by Jean Eustache, and finally ‘Home Movie Autour du Lit de la Vierge de Philippe Garrel’ (Home Movie: On the Set of Philippe Garrel’s ‘Le lit de la vierge’) by Frédéric Pardo.
Of Garrel, Tony Rayns in ‘Cinema: A Critical Dictionary’ states, “Only a country as adept as France at subsuming its avant-garde into its mainstream culture could have produced a film-maker as idiosyncratic as Philippe Garrel.”
The exhibition kicks off on Wednesday, October 17th with four films from Garrel’s early career: 1967’s ‘Marie pour mémoire’ (Marie for Memory), which is showing at 5:30 PM, 1964’s ‘Les Enfants Désaccordés’ (Discordant Children) which will be shown at 7PM and followed by the short film ‘Droit de Visite’ (Right of Visit), from 1965, and ‘Le Révélateur’ (The Developer), from 1968.
Highlights of the festival include screenings of Garrel’s 2005 classic, ‘Les amants réguliers’ (Everyday Lovers), a coming of age drama set in the revolutionary Paris of 1968 and starring the director’s son, and renowned actor, Louis Garrel. This film will be shown on Thursday, October 24th at 5:30 PM and again on Sunday, October 28th at 2:30PM.
Other notable works by Garrel include 1972’s ‘La Cicatrice Intérieure’ (The Inner Scar), a dreamy, visually beautiful film starring the director and his then partner, German singer Nico. This film is showing on Thursday, October 18th at 7:50PM and again on Saturday, October 27th at 8PM.
1979’s ‘L’Enfant Secret’ (The Secret Child) is often seen as the high mark of Garrel’s career, marking his shift from experimentalism to a more narrative structure, and winning the director the ‘Prix Jean Vigo’ (Jean Vigo Prize). It will be shown at 3:30 PM on Friday, October 19th and again on Thursday, October 31st at 7:30PM.
Festival organizers Maria Chiaretti and Mateus Araújo state that, “In offering this retrospective, the CCBB reaffirms its support for cinematographic art and maintains its commitment to quality programming, as well as giving the public the opportunity to get closer to the work of Philippe Garrel and aesthetics relevant to world cinema.”
What: ‘O cinema interior de Philippe Garrel’
When: October 17th to October 31st; screening and event times vary
Where: Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro, Rua Primeiro de Março, 66 – Centro
Entrance: Free, tickets available one hour before at the box office