Even the most avid of French film lovers may not be as
familiar with the career and oeuvre of Claude Sautet. Well, the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New
York is about to address it, offering the iconic French director a well-seeded
retrospective of his major and minor works, most not seen in theaters for over
30 years. This is the kind of homage that brings the French auteur to the
forefront along with his better known contemporaries and allows American
audiences the chance to discover a formidable film talent. CLAUDE SAUTET: THE THINGS OF LIFE ran from August 1 to 9 and
showcased the director’s films, including his masterpiece MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS which will have its long awaited US
theatrical premiere with a one week run beginning August 10th at the Society’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, in a
new 35mm restoration from Rialto
Pictures.
Hailed as a master filmmaker by Jean-Pierre Melville, Francois
Truffaut and film critic Pauline Kael, Claude Sautet ranked
among the most popular French directors of his generation at home and abroad,
though today his body of work has slipped into anonymity. The 13-film lineup –
complete save for Sautet’s disavowed debut feature BONJOUR SOURIRE – includes a new digital restoration of the 1965
thriller THE DICTATOR’S GUNS
starring Lino Ventura; the Venice
Film Festival award winner A HEART
IN WINTER, a brilliantly acted relationship drama set against the world of
classical music; the Oscar-nominated A
SIMPLE STORY, featuring a stunning performance by longtime muse Romy
Schneider; and his international breakthrough THE THINGS OF LIFE, remade in the U.S. decades later as the Richard
Gere/Sharon Stone starrer INTERSECTION.
The series also includes an intimate look at the filmmaker himself in the
documentary, CLAUDE SAUTET OR THE
INVISIBLE MAGIC, culled hours of audio interviews in which he discussed his
body of work in extraordinary and candid detail.
“Claude Sautet was a master of la vie quotidienne, whether that happened to be the lives of petty criminals or of his favorite subject, the haute bourgeoisie,” said the Film Society’s Associate Program Director Scott Foundas, who programmed the series. “With an unshowy style and keenly observed detail, he captured the ways people sit in cafés, browse in bookshops, talk around the dinner table. Above all, he peered deeply into the mysteries of attraction, creating a rich body of unconventional, unpredictable, vividly human love stories.” For more information, visit: www.filmlinc.com
No comments:
Post a Comment