Tag Archives: Nicole Garcia

JACQUES RIVETTE — DUELLE

I don’t know any filmmaker who protected himself less than he did.André Téchiné, on Jacques Rivette

In DUELLE (Rivette, 1976)—set in Paris—Viva, the Queen of the Sun (Bulle Ogier), and Leni, Queen of the Moon (Juliet Berto) descend to Earth and outmaneuver one another for primacy. This annual battle of wills takes place during the forty days leading up to the first full moon of spring.

Rivette’s telling—which co-stars Nicole Garcia, Hermine Karaghuez, and Jean Babilée—captures an indelible moment of mid-1970s chic, with Ogier modeling a series of Renée Renard ensembles modeled after Yves Saint Laurent’s le smoking.

Mise-en-scène is a rapport with the actors, and the communal work is set with the first shot. What’s important for me in a film is that it be alive, that it be imbued with presence, which is basically the same thing. And that this presence, inscribed within the film, possesses a form of magic. There’s something profoundly mysterious in this. . . . It’s a collective work, but one wherein there’s a secret, too. Jacques Rivette

DUELLE, now streaming.

Jacques Rivette, Duelle (1976), from top: Bulle Ogier; Nicole Garcia (left) and Ogier; French film poster, Gaumont; Hermine Karaghuez; Juliet Berto (left) and Ogier; Berto. Images courtesy and © the filmmaker’s estate, the actors, and Gaumont.

COLCOA — L’ENVOI

Some highlights from the last five days of the 2017 COLCOA FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL:

A glossy biopic of a great star of the sixties and seventies, played by an unknown in a tour-de-force performance—DALIDA, starring Italian model Sveva Alviti. With Riccardo ScamarcioNiels Schneider, and COLCOA favorite Nicolas Duvauchelle as socialite “Le Comte de Saint-Germain.” Friday night, April 28, at 8:30 pm.

A TASTE OF INK / COMPTE TES BLESSURES. The post-punk music scene in Paris sets the stage for an explosive triangle: underground singer Vincent (Kévin Azaïs), his widowed father, and his father’s new, much younger girlfriend. This debut film by writer–director Morgan Simon screens on Saturday afternoon, April 29, at 1:20 pm.

Pre-fest screenings of A BAG OF MARBLES / UN SAC DE BILLES have triggered a strong emotional response. The Christian Duguay film screens early Saturday evening, April 29, at 5 pm.

MONSIEUR ET MADAME ADELMAN—the feature debut of playwright and political satirist Nicolas Bedos, about an egomaniacal writer and his wife—could be as divisive as last year’s Mon Roi. See for yourself on Saturday night, April 29, at 8:30 pm.

Romain Duris is a veteran of trench warfare trying to put his life back together in CEASE–FIRE / CESSEZ–LE–FEU, directed by Emmanuel Courcol, and screening on Monday afternoon, May 1, at 3:10 pm.

Lucie (comic Florence Foresti in a dramatic role) has survived cancer. Now she’s trying to recover from her recovery in Anne-Gaëlle Daval’s LADIES / DE PLUS BELLE, which co-stars Nicole Garcia and Mathieu Kassovitz. Monday evening, May 1, at 5:40 pm.

The story of Seine-Saint-Denis writer–performer Fabien Marsaud—his crippling swimming accident when he was 19, his recovery, and his rise as slam poet Grand Corps Malade—is told in STEP BY STEP / PATIENTS, co-directed by GCM and Mehdi Idir. Monday night, May 1, at 8:30.

In addition to these ticketed events, the following free screenings are available, first come, first served:

PLAYTIME (1967, restored, directed by Jacques Tati)

Saturday morning, April 29 at 10:50 am.

And all four screenings on Tuesday afternoon and early evening, May 2, are free.

These reruns of festival favorites screen in two DGA cinemas at 1 pm, 3:15 pm, 3:45 pm, and 5:45 pm. Titles will be announced the evening before on COLCOA’s website, Facebook, and Twitter.

 

COLCOA FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL

Through May 2.

Directors Guild of America

7920 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood.

Special thanks to Karine Choi at Big Time PR.

Top: Florence Foresti and Mathieu Kassovitz in Ladies / De plus belle.

Above: Romain Duris (left) in Cease-fire / Cessez-le-feu.

Below: Kévin Azaïs in A Taste of Ink / Compte tes blessures. Image credit: Cineuropa