Belmondo Retrospective: Une femme est une femme

4101 Reservoir Rd NW, Washington,Washington DC 20007

23 September, 2022

Description

Alliance Française of Washington, DC is thrilled to be back with its second Film Festival "BELMONDO RETROSPECTIVE," to pay homage to the beloved French actor’s early career. An icon of the French New Wave, who became an overnight star after playing a gangster in Godard's Breathless, Jean-Paul Belmondo died last year on September 6 at the age of 88. His crooked boxer's nose (Belmondo did have an undefeated, but brief boxing career), dashing grin and cynical manner alone made him one of the most recognizable men in cinema. Called the French Marlon Brando, Belmondo was known for refusing to play in Hollywood films, but attracting nearly 160 million spectators in his 50-year career back home. Mostly remembered for his roles as police officers and gangsters, has he been overlooked in his more "serious" (but no less extraordinary) roles, for example, as a priest in Léon Morin, prêtre? We invite you to join us in our rétrospective and (re-)discover this iconic French actor. The Film Festival is also a great chance to enjoy some of the best French film directors, including Godard, Melville, Resnais and Truffaut. We will also screen a documentary written by Belmondo's son and directed by Régis Mardon, in which Jean-Paul Belmondo returns to the locations of some of his great films and shares some secrets. We will open the Festival with a screening of a 1961 French musical romantic comedy film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, Une femme est une femme (A Woman Is A Woman). The film will be shown at La Maison Française on Friday, September 23 at 7:00 pm (doors open at 6:30pm). The screening will be followed by a discussion with Nicholas Elliott, a writer, translator, and film programmer, who will be visiting from New York City, and a Q&A with the public. This film festival is brought to you by the Alliance Française of Washington, DC in collaboration with Rialto Pictures, France Channel, Villa Albertine, La Maison Française, Westfield Montgomery, AMC Montgomery 16, Instituto Italiano di Cultura, NYU Washington, AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, and The VEN at Embassy Row. Scroll down for the full Film Festival schedule. Entrance policy at the Embassy Doors open at 6:30 pm. Due to strict security measures, please arrive on time, and allow extra time for security screening. Registration, valid ID and full vaccination required. Masks recommended. No parking inside the embassy. No large bags, helmets and suitcase. About the film Une femme est une femme (A Woman is A Woman), 1961 | 84 min | France | in French with English subtitles By Jean-Luc Godard Starring Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy "Featuring French superstars Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy at their peak of popularity, A Woman Is a Woman is a sly, playful tribute to—and interrogation of—the American musical comedy, showcasing Godard's signature wit and intellectual acumen. The film tells the story of exotic dancer Angéla (Karina) as she attempts to have a child with her unwilling lover Émile (Brialy). In the process, she finds herself torn between him and his best friend Alfred (Belmondo). A dizzying compendium of color, humor, and the music of renowned composer Michel Legrand, A Woman Is a Woman finds the young Godard at his warmest and most accessible, reveling in and scrutinizing the mechanics of his great obsession: the cinema." (Source: The Criterion Collection). About Jean-Paul Belmondo Born in Neuilly in 1933, the son of sculptor Paul Belmondo, Jean-Paul Belmondo studied acting at the Paris Conservatory and became a star overnight in Godard’s Breathless (1960). The quintessential New Wave actor, Belmondo went on to work with most of the major directors of the 60s and 70s. He climaxed his Godardian phase with Pierrot le fou (1965), swashbuckled and globe-trotted in Philippe de Broca’s Cartouche (1962) and That Man from Rio (1964), wore a cassock and a trenchcoat for Jean-Pierre Melville’s Léon Morin, prêtre and Le Doulos (both 1961 and future Rialto Pictures releases), romanced Catherine Deneuve in Truffaut’s Mississippi Mermaid (1969), stood up to screen veterans Jean Gabin and Charles Vanel in Henri Verneuil’s Un Singe en hiver (1962) and Melville’s L’Ainé des Ferchaux (1963), and embodied one of the 20th century’s most daring swindlers in Alain Resnais’s Stavisky (1974). By the late 1970s, Belmondo had abandoned art house films for action vehicles which shifted the dramatic emphasis from acting talent to acrobat prowess (Belmondo priding himself on being his own stuntman). By the mid-80s his popularity was on the wane, though he made a comeback of sorts in Claude Lelouch’s Itinéraire d’un enfant gaté (1988) and Les Misérables (1995). His other credits include Patrice Leconte’s Half a Chance (1998), Cedric Klapisch’s Peut-être (1999) and Bernard Stora’s made-fortelevision remake of L’Ainé des Ferchaux (2001), in which Belmondo reprised the role played by Charles Vanel in the 1963 version. Owner of the prestigious Théâtre des Varietés in Paris, Belmondo made his stage comeback in 1987 and has portrayed Edmund Kean, Cyrano and Frédérick Lemaître (the brilliant ham actor of Children of Paradise fame) and starred in two Feydeau revivals. In 1999 and 2001, Belmondo suffered strokes that forced him into retirement. (Souce: Pressbook © 2003, Rialto Pictures LLC). Jean-Paul Belmondo died on September 6, 2021 in Paris at the age of 88. About Nicholas Elliott Nicholas Elliott is a writer, translator, and film programmer based in New York City. He is a contributing editor for film for BOMB magazine and was the American correspondent for French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma from 2009 to 2020. His writing on film has also appeared in Film Comment, The Criterion Collection, 4 Columns, Extra Extra Magazine and anthologies on the films of Chantal Akerman, Philippe Garrel and Ryusuke Hamaguchi. His translations from French to English include two essays by William Marx, professor at the Collège de France (The Hatred of Literature, Harvard University Press; The Tomb of Oedipus, Verso), a biography of Gustave Flaubert by Michel Winock (Flaubert, Harvard University Press), a collection of conversations between Marguerite Duras and Jean-Luc Godard (Duras/Godard, The Film Desk), and The Falling Sky by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert (Harvard University Press, winner of the 27th French-American Foundation Non-Fiction Translation Prize, 2013). He has programmed film series at French cultural centers in New York, Washington DC, Tokyo, and Kyoto and was a member of the programming committee for the Locarno Film Festival from 2018 to 2020. He has been a trustee of the Flaherty Film Seminar since 2017. Nicholas is the writer and director of three short films, which have screened internationally at New Directors New Films (MoMA/Film at Lincoln Center), Rotterdam International Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives and Chicago Underground, among others. He has worked extensively in theater between the United States and France as a producer, assistant director, dramaturg, translator, and occasional performer for artists including Richard Maxwell, The Wooster Group, Jeanne Balibar, Daniel Fish, and Pascal Rambert. Sign up to watch more films! Below is the full Film Festival Schedule: Friday, September 23, 7:00 pm at La Maison Française at the French Embassy | Une femme est une femme (1961), by Jean-Luc Godard | 84 min | France | in French with English subtitles . Sign up here. Monday, September 26, 7:00 pm, at AMC Montgomery 16 | A bout de souffle (1960), by Jean-Luc Godard | 90 min | France | in French with English subtitles. Sign up here. Wednesday, September 28, 6:30 pm, at Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Washington, DC | Le Doulos (1962), by Jean-Pierre Melville 108 min | France | in French with English subtitles. Sign up here. Friday, September 30, 7:00 pm, at The Ven Hotel at Embassy Raw | Léon Morin, prêtre (1961), by Jean-Pierre Melville | 117 min | France | in French with English subtitles. Sign up here. Tuesday, October 4, 6:30 pm, at NYU Washington, DC | Pierrot Le Fou (1965), by Jean-Luc Godard |110 min | France | in French with English subtitles. Sign up here. Thursday, October 6, 6:45 pm, at AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center | La Sirène du Mississippi (1969), by François Truffaut |123 min | 35 mm | France | in French with English subtitles. Registration link to come. Tuesday, October 11, 7:00 pm, at Alliance Française of Washington, Stavisky (1974), by Alain Resnais |117 min | France, Italy | in French. Sign up here. Friday, October 14, 7:00 pm, at La Maison Française at the French Embassy | Belmondo par Belmondo (2016), by Régis Mardon | 90 min | France | in French with English subtitles. Sign up here.