[Keskydee] Palo Alto French Film Society Film Series

[Kapil]

In honor of Luis Buñuel's centenary, and for the second time around,
Palo
Alto French Film Society launches a classic film series in the spring.
The retrospective focuses on Luis Buñuel's last great period of
filmmaking.  Upon his return to Europe after a forced exile in Mexico
and
the US, Luis Buñuel collaborated with producer Serge Silberman and
writer
Jean-Claude Carrière and made six extraordinary final masterpieces. 

Palo Alto French Film Society is proud to present in association with
the
exclusive sponsorship of Interwoven, Inc. five of these masterpieces.

Starting from March 11 and running until April 22, Palo Alto French Film
Society will present Sunday matinees at the Guild Theatre (949 El Camino
Real, Menlo Park) of Luis Buñuel's films that have since become
landmarks
of international cinema.

This series is launched as part of Palo Alto French Film Society's
mission
to link the past with the present in an effort to embrace modern cinema
as
a continuity and a testimony to past cinematographies.

All films are in French with English subtitles.  Tickets $7 regular and
$5
for seniors over 62, students with ID, children under 11.  For full
details visit www.pafff.org.  Tickets available only at the theatre.

In March…

Sunday, March 11, 2001, 10:30am, Diary of a Chambermaid/Le Journal d'une
Femme de Chambre, 1964 (98') with Jeanne Moreau and Michel Piccoli. (a
restored print)

Adapted from a book by Octave Mirbeau, the film tells the story of the
arrival of Celestine, a chambermaid, at the house of a bourgeois family.
It is the most straightforward film by Buñuel yet it retains all the
mystery and humor of his later works in the depiction of the
shortcomings
and whims of the bourgeoisie in the countryside.

Sunday, March 25, 2001, 10:30am, Belle de Jour, 1967 (105') with
Catherine
Deneuve, Michel Piccoli, Francisco Rabal, Pierre Clémenti, Françoise
Fabian. Winner of the Golden Lion in Venice Film Festival in 1967.

Séverine is the young and unsatisfied wife of a doctor.  She cannot
resolve to give herself to her husband.  Instead she indulges in
fantasies
and eventually becomes a prostitute a few hours a day while staying
chaste
with her husband.

In April…

Sunday, April 1, 2001, 10:30am, Tristana, 1970 (95') with Catherine
Deneuve, Fernando Rey and Franco Nero. Nominated as Best Foreign Film at
the Oscars in 1970

"Tristana (Catherine Deneuve) is a virginal young girl who goes to live
with her guardian Don Lope (Fernando Rey), an older man who eventually
breaks through his facade of respectability and seduces her. She repays
him a hundred-fold, preying on his jealousy and taunting him with
perverse
whimsies." -Pacific Film Archive 


Sunday, April 8, 2001, 10:30am, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie/Le
Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie, 1972 (100') with Fernando Rey,
Delphine
Seyrig, Bulle Ogier, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel and Claude
Piéplu. Winner Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1973

Hilariously funny yet indubitably sarcastic in its depiction of a failed
dinner between the Thévenot, the Sénéchal and the Ambassador, the film
which was nominated for a best screenplay award for Luis Buñuel and
Jean-Claude Carrière who collaborated on five projects altogether.  A
must
see!


Sunday, April 22, 10:30am, That Obscure Object of Desire/Cet Obscur
Objet
du Désir, 1977
(103') with Fernando Rey, Angela Molino, Carole Bouquet, Muni.

An eternal story of man chasing woman to assuage his lust.  Fernando Rey
plays Mathieu, a man mad with desire, at times cruel, at times
disoriented
in front of Conchita, the literally ever-changing woman of his desires
interpreted in a brilliant tour de force by two beautiful actresses,
Angela Molina and Carole Bouquet in her first appearance on screen that
led to her fame.


Sunday, April, 29, 2001, 10:30am, A Proposito de Buñuel /About Buñuel by
José Luis López-Linares and Javier Rioyo, 2000 (105') To be confirmed

In honor of Luis Buñuel's centenary, the two filmmakers José Luis
López-Linares and Javier Rioyo have done justice to a truly talented man
whose cinematic art, at times almost documentary, at times fictional,
spans several decades and across several countries.  The unique mix of
surrealist humor and social melancholy of his films position him as one
of
the few along with Federico Fellini who managed to convey a story in a
narrative form while introducing here and there surrealist qualities.
This
excellent documentary intersperses archival footage, film clips, and
interviews with the actors that starred in his films and his
collaborators.
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