Early French avant-garde film explored visual abstraction, lyricism, futurism and surrealism. French filmmakers today reveal their legacy and the influence of American counterparts in the collective practice of “hands-on,” hand-painted and direct manipulation of surface, lyrical personal forms, echoes from French filmic philosophic essay, as well as direct engagement with culture and politics. Others reflect a generation moving easily between European and North African influences, exposing internal conflicts that such meetings imply. This program of recent works includes Patrick Bokanowski’s Éclats d’Orphée, Frédérique Devaux’s K (Rêves/Berbères), Cécile Fontaine’s Holy Woods, Olivier Fouchard’s Nûr: Cosmos Spiritus/Nûr Version 1, Rose Lowder’s Cote Jardin, Vivian Ostrovsky’s Fone Für Follies, Marc Plas’ Peribole, Martine Rousset’s Mer, Marcelle Thirache’s Fenice and Jean Painlevé’s 1978 crystal-growth classic Cristaux Liquides. (Sandra Davis)
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Encounters with Contemporary French Film
curated and presented by Sandra Davis in association with the Consulat général de France
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts