7:30pm Nathalie Granger; 9pm Marguerite, A Reflection of Herself
Nathalie Granger (1972) is a story of two women (Jeanne Moreau and Lucia Bosé) who worry about a daughter’s violent behavior at school, listen to radio accounts of a murderer at large, and are visited by a traveling washing-machine salesman (Gérard Depardieu). Less formally experimental than later works, it refuses conventional narrative payoffs and powerfully evokes the emotional bonds between the two women and the tensions which pervade their off-screen world. The hour-long Marguerite, A Reflection of Herself (2002) is an eloquent portrait of Duras by her collaborator and editor Dominique Auvray. It incorporates a rich array of archival materials from Duras’ childhood in what is now Vietnam and throughout her long career as both writer and filmmaker.