the Films of Louis Malle

Thursday-Friday, August 11-12

THE LOVERS / LES AMANTS (1958)

Louis Malle, France 1958; 88 min **

The great Jeanne Moreau enjoyed one of her finest roles as Jeanne Tournier in Malle's wildly successful but controversial second feature. Married to a domineering provincial newspaper magnate and involved with a polo-playing Spanish aristocrat, Jeanne meets archaeology student Bernard (Jean-Marc Bory) when her car breaks down and he gives her a lift home. Invited to spend the night, Bernard and the rest of the evening's guests suffer through a dinner with Henri (an excellent Alain Cluny), Jeanne's husband, berating all of them while expressing his love for his wife. Later that night, a restless Bernard chances upon Jeanne in the garden, and the rest is…. ? Considered scandalous at the time for the casualness with which a married woman slipped in and out of marriage and love affairs; there's little hint of remorse or consequences, just a powerful sense of following the emotion of the moment. The ending is as daring as it is masterful. Henri Decae's magical photography and Brahm's Second Quartet create an atmosphere of luminous romanticism.

(1:15), 5:10, 9:10

MURMUR OF THE HEART / LE SOUFFLE AU COEUR (1971)

Louis Malle, France/Italy/West Germany, 1971; 110 min **

One of Malle's best-loved films is this irrepressible tale of youthful angst and a rather surprising sexual awakening. We're in France in the mid-50s; 15-year-old, somewhat bookish Laurent (BenoÓt Ferreux) spends his days to the beat of Charlie Parker, reading The Story of O and avoiding being the object of his elder brothers' pranks. When he develops a heart murmur, he's packed off to a spa in the company of his Maman (a wonderful Lea Massari). Their time away together will prove crucial for both of them; both will find and lose love, and remarkably, and touchingly, find comfort in each other before they head home. Murmur turned more than a few heads with its frank rendition of incest, yet Malle's characters are so richly detailed, so nuanced, that when the notorious moment arrives it feels completely unforced.

An exhilarating film.

— Pauline Kael

(3:00), 7:00

Saturday, August 13

ATLANTIC CITY (1980)

Louis Malle, France/Canada, 1980; 105 min

Winner of a Golden Lion at Venice and nominated for five Academy Awards, ATLANTIC CITY tells the story of Lou Pascal (Burt Lancaster), a small-time gangster spending his twilight years as the retainer for a mob widow in the shadow of the Jersey shore's newly-built casinos. He takes a shine to a much younger woman, Sally (Susan Sarandon), who works in a fish restaurant but who dreams of becoming a croupier and moving to Monaco. Sally's estranged husband Dave arrives on the scene with a parcel of drugs that he needs to sell right away; Lou agrees to help, and does — but not soon enough to save Dave. And worse, now things become hot for Lou and Sally, who must decide how much they might really mean to each other. An absolute gem: it still feels like a crime that Burt Lancaster could have lost out on the Best Actor Oscar to anyone, even Henry Fonda (who won it for On Golden Pond). Sarandon shows what to do when life hands you lemons. Screenplay by John Guare.

(2:45), 7:00

PRETTY BABY (1978)

Louis Malle, U.S., 1978; 110 min

For his first truly American project, Malle decided to make a film inspired by the figure of E.J. Bellocq, a legendary photographer of prostitutes and the New Orleans demi-monde whose richly detailed glass slides had only recently been discovered. Keith Carradine plays Bellocq, whose frequent visits to houses of ill repute just to take photographs make him an intriguing figure to 12-year-old Violet (Brooke Shields). Violet lives with her prostitute mother Hattie (Susan Sarandon) in Storyville, the still-legal red-light district. Hattie meets a rich client, marries him and moves to St. Louis, leaving Violet to fend for herself now as a full-time professional. There's little comfort for the still teen-aged anywhere in Storyville, however, and soon Violet must turn to Bellocq for support and eventually love. While capturing her youthful beauty and sensuality, Malle doesn't shy away from showing the brutality of this world. The gorgeous cinematography is by Sven Nykvist.

(12:35), 4:50, 9:05

Sunday, August 14

PHANTOM INDIA Part One (1968-69)
THE IMPOSSIBLE CAMERA
THINGS SEEN IN MADRAS
Intermission
THE INDIANS AND THE SACRED

Louis Malle, France, 1968-69; Part One: 162 mins
Each episode is 58 minutes. (They can be seen in any order) **

Had Louis Malle only made PHANTOM INDIA, an honored place in the history of film would have still been his. Made with cinematographer Etienne Becker and sound man Jean-Claude Laureux — the full extent of the crew for the vast bulk of the shoot — PHANTOM INDIA is not only a remarkable document of a time and place, but it's also a meditation on the difficulty of truly knowing the Other, the way that a camera's "view" always betrays an attitude or position beyond an objective recording. Long out of circulation, PHANTOM INDIA can now be seen only at the Balboa. Originally presented on French and British television in seven separate episodes, we have divided it for these screenings into two parts, labeled One and Two; however, each episode was designed to be completely autonomous, so that you can watch them in any order.

In the autumn of 1967 I was asked by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to present in India a series of eight French films, including THE FIRE WITHIN — films more or less representative of the new French cinema. And I said yes. So I went to Delhi and Calcutta and Madras and Bombay presenting those films. I was supposed to stay two weeks but I ended up staying almost two months….After those two months I realized that although India was impossible to understand for a foreigner — it was so opaque — yet I was so completely fascinated by it that I would have to come back. So I returned to France at the end of 1967, and in a couple of weeks I raised the money I needed, which was almost nothing, and went back in early January with two friends of mine, a cameraman and a sound man. My proposition was that we would start in Calcutta, look around and eventually shoot. No plans, no script, no lighting equipment, no distribution commitments of any kind…. The interesting aspect of those documentaries for me was that I took one month just to examine the material, and then stayed in the cutting room for a year, until the end of 1969 practically. I was in Paris, I was going to the editing room every day and it was as if I was still in India…It's been like a big chunk of my life. It was enormously important for me, and I'm still trying to make sense of it today.

— Louis Malle, in Malle on Malle, edited by Philip French

(Part Two plays Sunday, August 21)

Complete shows at (1:00), 4:30, 8:00

Monday, August 15

MY DINNER WITH ANDRÉ (1981)

Louis Malle, U.S., 1981; 111 min

Wallace Shawn, a late-thirty-something still trying to establish himself as an actor and playwright, goes to meet his friend André Gregory for dinner at an old-fashioned French restaurant. André is a celebrated avant-garde theater director, but several years before he dropped out of the scene and spent some time wandering the world. After pleasantries and exchanges of news, Wally asks André to tell him what he's been doing during his extended sabbatical; therein begins Andre's tale of a search for truth with mystical figures on four continents. Wally grows increasingly skeptical, both of these experiences and their ultimate value, while André defends the process over the results. Written by the actors, MY DINNER WITH ANDRÉ raises the art of conversation to the level of a fine art; the beauty of the writing, as well as the exceptional skill with which it's delivered, brings the audience into the very flow of their exchanges. And through it all there's Louis Malle and his remarkably perceptive camera, gently molding and shaping the evening through his visual presentation. A tour-de-force, and an extraordinary delight.

(2:30), 7:00

VANYA ON 42ND STREET (1994)

Louis Malle, U.S., 1994; 119 min

Louis Malle's new film sees him reunited with André Gregory and Wallace Shawn, the two actors who turned MY DINNER WITH ANDRE into such a charming night out. Based on Gregory's recent, critically acclaimed, modern-dress version of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya —it also featured a new translation by playwright and director David Mamet — Malle's film brings together most of the principals who were involved in the New York stage production…. Malle brings his rigorous cinematic eye to this adaptation. Not a straight transliteration from stage to screen, we are treated to a imaginative, highly detailed, beautifully tailored production…. The film is a total delight, peopled by characters of immense humanity, acted by a cast that meshes perfectly, and presided over by a master of cinema. Malle meets Chekhov, a match made in heaven.

— 1994 Toronto International Film Festival

(12:10), 4:40, 9:10

Tuesday-Wednesday, August 16-17

THE FIRE WITHIN / LE FEU FOLLET (1963)

Louis Malle, France, 1963; 107 min **

Among Louis Malle's very finest films THE FIRE WITHIN was the revelation of the 1964 New York Film Festival. Alain Leroy (Ronet) is nearing the completion of his treatment for alcoholism in a well-appointed clinic outside Paris. His physician feels it's time for Alain to get back into society. Alain starts to make the rounds of his old friends and hangouts, but everywhere he finds only compromise and betrayal. Made at a moment in which France was still reeling from the war in Algeria and the subsequent right-wing terrorist campaign, THE FIRE WITHIN captures the dark mood of a country forced to re-evaluate its most basic ideals and positions.

[THE FIRE WITHIN] is a very pessimistic, very dark film, but I think for me it was completely liberating. At the same time, as a filmmaker, it was a moment where I felt I was capable of expressing certain things that I had been trying to deal with before, but not totally successfully. Because I had written the screenplay myself, I felt that I was completely in charge, that it was all my own work…

— Louis Malle, from Malle on Malle, edited by Philip French.

Brilliantly scored by Erik Satie.

A small gem, polished to perfection.

— Time Out

(2:35), 7:00

THE THIEF OF PARIS / LE VOLEUR (1967)

Louis Malle, France/USA/Italy, 1967; 120 min **

I'm going to make a generalization, even though I hate generalizations. My films are about people who suddenly find something in their way, that diverts them from their expected path, and makes them ask themselves questions that most people manage to avoid in the course of their everyday lives.

In the middle of a burglary, Georges Randal (Jean-Paul Belmondo) thinks back on the events that led to his becoming one of Paris's master thieves. An orphan raised by his uncle, Georges enjoyed the security of a trust fund left to him by his dead parents and the admiration of his beautiful cousin Charlotte (Genevieve Bujold). But when he returns from military service, he discovers that his uncle has embezzled his money and that his cousin is engaged to marry someone else. At Charlotte's engagement party, Georges literally makes off with the family's jewels, and develops in the process a taste for robbery. He's aided in his new interest by the Abbé Margelle, who works as a fence for stolen goods when not raising money for missions in China. One of Malle's most underrated films, THE THIEF OF PARIS features a wonderful ensemble cast that together create a vibrant portrait of the Paris demi-monde that becomes Georges' new home.

(12:15), 4:40, 9:05

Thursday, August 18

DAMAGE (1992)

Louis Malle, U.K./France, 1992; 110 min

At a well-appointed reception, Dr. Stephen Fleming (Jeremy Irons), a former general practitioner now in Parliament, catches sight of a beautiful young woman. She is Anna Barton (Juliette Binoche), daughter of a British father and French mother now working in a London auction house. Their mutual attraction continues to build, until Anna reveals that she has been going out with Stephen's son Martyn (Rupert Graves). Thus begins DAMAGE, Malle's taut study of romantic obsession based on a screenplay by British playwright David Hare, adapted from Josephine Hart's novel. Stephen has everything — a beautiful wife, social status, a successful career, money - but soon he becomes possessed with Anna. As so often in Malle's work, an unexpected experience shoves his protagonist off on a journey he could have never imagined, but perhaps never before had Malle created a character — aided powerfully by Jeremy Irons' sensitive performance — who seemed so painfully aware of the disaster towards which he was heading. As Peter Travers wrote in Rolling Stone, "[Malle] puts a touchingly human face on sexual obsession."

(2:50), 7:00

BLACK MOON (1975)

Louis Malle, France/Italy, 1975; 100 min **

After enjoying two of his greatest critical and commercial successes — MURMUR OF THE HEART and LACOMBE, LUCIEN — Malle decided to go for something completely different, something much more experimental and free-form. Always a great fan of myth and fantasy, and especially of the work of Lewis Carroll, Malle in BLACK MOON tries to create the special, charged atmosphere of a world in which actions, objects and creatures are never quite what they seem. The film begins as the teenaged Lily (Cathryn Harrison) has a road accident and discovers she's landed smack in the middle of some kind of civil war. Fleeing into some nearby fields, she comes upon a lonely mansion inhabited by an old lady (Therese Giehse) who knows how to talk to animals. There's also a brother and sister (Joe Dallessandro and Alexandra Stewart) and soon more and more children, as the surrounding battles seem to draw ever nearer. Shot by the great Sven Nykvist, BLACK MOON offers a distinctively different approach to the theme of adolescent self-realization that has been such a constant preoccupation in Malle's work.

(12:50), 5:00, 9:10

Friday-Saturday, August 19-20

LACOMBE, LUCIEN (1974)

Louis Malle, France/West Germany/Italy; 137 min **

A long, close look at the banality of evil…Without ever mentioning the subject of innocence and guilt, Lacombe, Lucien, in its calm, leisurely, dispassionate way, addresses it on a deeper level than any film I know.

— Pauline Kael

June, 1944. 17-year-old Lucien Lacombe leaves his job in a nursing home to pay a visit to his mother in the south of France. When his bicycle has a flat — forcing him to stay out past curfew — French collaborators of the German occupying army arrest him. Once they realize he's no threat, they begin filling him with drinks and introducing him their leaders: a former cycling champion, a fading movie actress, a small-time aristocrat. Feeling he's finally found a place for himself, Lucien becomes one of them, taking part in their fight against an increasingly bold French Resistance. Meanwhile, Lucien meets the comely daughter of a Jewish tailor hiding out in the area, and begins pursuing her, eventually even moving in with her, her father and grandmother. In Le nouvel observateur, critic Jean-Louis Bory called LACOMBE, LUCIEN "the first real film — the first true film — about the Occupation." Louis Malle neither tries to explain a character like Lucien nor much less, as some critics charged, offer a sympathetic portrait of a young collaborator; as so often in Malle's films, the true subject is really the world his characters inhabit, and in LACOMBE, LUCIEN he powerfully expresses the texture of life in that most terrible time.

(2:05), 6:45

AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS (1987)

Louis Malle, France, 1987; 103 min **

It's the winter of 1944; as Julien Quentin (Gaspard Manesse) and his schoolmates prepare for the start of the new semester at their Catholic boarding school, three new students are admitted. One of them, Jean (Raphael Fejto) becomes Julien's roommate. Circling each other warily, the boys become friends; Jean is bright and talented but seems to be harboring some kind of secret he shares with the other two new arrivals. The eventual revelation of that secret — surely one of the most powerful sequences in Malle's entire body of work — will not only rob Julien of the rest of his childhood but, the film implies, will decisively shape the man that he will eventually become. Few films have ever more effectively revealed the day-to-day atmosphere of the Nazi occupation of France, the suspicions and fears and misplaced glances that can suddenly bring on disaster.

…a truthful, deeply-felt and beautifully-acted picture…virtually flawless.

— Philip French, Observer.

Won the 1987 Venice Lion D'Or.

(12:05), 4:40, 9:20

Sunday, August 21

PHANTOM INDIA Part Two
DREAMS AND REALITY
A LOOK AT CASTES
Intermission
ON THE FRINGES OF INDIAN SOCIETY
BOMBAY — THE FUTURE OF INDIA

Part Two: 216 min (each episode is 58 min and may be viewed in any order) **

A very personal labour and a densely informative account of its subject. Though the film opens with the avowed intention of 'not making up one's mind…of just following the camera', Malle's own commentary continually betrays a need to interpret what he sees, to tease out symbols from his visual impressions (a blinkered horse endlessly circling a mill as an image of a society unchanging and blind to the necessity of change, for instance). This compulsion seems limiting, but is always counteracted by a deliberate sense of irony at Malle's own expense, and the reminder that in India there are always at least two ways of looking at things. Seen together, the seven episodes provide an excellent picture of a very complicated society in its several aspects: the religion, predominantly Hindu but accommodating 50 million Muslims, as well as minority sects; the caste system, officially abolished in 1947 but still all-pervasive; the rival cultures of the North and South, Aryan and Dravidian; and political differences, ranging from xenophobic and racist minority groups preaching persecution of the Muslims to Communist parties operating in societies without trade union consciousness even in industrialized communities. Well worth seeing if you've any interest in India at all.

Complete shows at (12:00), 4:10, 8:20

Monday, August 22

A VERY PRIVATE AFFAIR / VIE PRIVÉE (1961)

Louis Malle, France/Italy, 1961; 103 min

Brigitte Bardot and Marcello Mastroianni in one picture? Yes, and that film is A VERY PRIVATE AFFAIR. A look at the phenomenon of media stardom, in which people are famous for being famous, the film chronicles the rise and fall of Jill (Bardot), spoiled daughter of a wealthy family. Blessed with beauty and connections, Jill has the world at her feet. She runs off to Paris with her lover, a choreographer named Dick, but soon goes off on her own. Within no time she's become a movie star, increasingly better known for her adventures off the screen than on it. Needing a break, she returns home, and once again takes up with Fabio (Mastroianni), the now former husband of her best friend with whom she had enjoyed an earlier fling. Fabio is a serious theater designer, but his tryst with Jill drags him into the media whirlpool that come to define her daily life. In interviews, Malle claimed to have been unsatisfied with the film; his stars were barely on speaking terms, and what he thought would be a critique of "star culture" seemed to transform into something else. Seen today, however, the virtues of A VERY PRIVATE AFFAIR seem more apparent, not the least being the touching performance Malle gets from Brigitte Bardot, with whom he would go on to work on two other projects.

(please note a dubbed version on the film will be screened)

(12:40), 4:55, 9:15

115 min **

VIVA MARIA (1965)

We thought it could be fun to put Bardot and Moreau in the same situation as Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster in Vera Cruz and do a pastiche of those buddy films. We started from that.

— Louis Malle

Perhaps only Louis Malle could have imagined teaming international sex symbol Brigitte Bardot with New Wave icon Jeanne Moreau; despite reports of feuds on the set, it seems that in fact everyone got along just fine. Itinerant Irish revolutionary Maria O'Malley (Bardot) escapes into the Central American jungle after her father is killed during an attempted bombing in a British colony. She happens upon a traveling circus, and soon becomes part of an act with another Maria (Moreau). As the circus caravan rumbles through poor, broken-down villages, the two women became increasingly aware of the desperate condition of the people, and of the movement that's forming to liberate them from the vicious exploitation of the landowners. A potent and highly comic mix of travelogue, circus story, politics and a little bit of striptease, VIVA MARIA has an infectious energy that sweeps you into the parallel stories of the two Marias, as each learns from and gradually seems to take on the most distinctive qualities of the other. Largely shot in Mexico, VIVA MARIA marked the first collaboration between Louis Malle and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere, who would become one of his closest collaborators.

(2:40), 7:00

Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday, August 23-24-25

MAY FOOLS / MILOU EN MAI (1989)

Louis Malle, France/Italy, 1989; 108 min **

The story it tells is projected against the events of May 1968 when, all over France, a wave of radicalism threatened to leave sweeping social changes in its wake. The film's setting, though, is far away from the strikes and the riots and the free-thinking students who led them. At the rather ramshackle old country estate where the movie takes place, these upheavals are threatening only in a distant, abstract way. Life for Milou (Michel Piccoli), the amiable older son who presides over the house with help of the family matriarch (Paulette Dubost) and their meager staff, is as it has been for most of his 60-odd years — peaceful, unstructured and geared to the rhythms of nature. But with the mother's death and the gathering of the clan for her funeral, Milou's world teeters as precariously on the edge of revolution as the rest of the country. Everywhere, change is in the air…. Malle has called MAY FOOLS a "divertimento," and throughout, his touch remains musical, delicate and precise. All the elements — including Renato Berta's luxuriant images and Stephane Grappelli's kicky jazz score — are kept in perfect balance. The acting too. At the center of it all is Piccoli's Milou, the rumpled hedonist, and this graceful, resonant actor gives him just the right touch of charming laziness and self-absorption.

— Hal Hinson, The Washington Post

(12:45), 4:50, 8:55

ZAZIE IN THE METRO / ZAZIE DANS LE MÉTRO (1960)

Louis Malle, France, 1960; 93 min **

The first signs of the importance of surrealism in (his) oeuvre were demonstrated in Malle's decision to adapt Raymond Queneau's Zazie dans le métro. Queneau, an ex-surrealist and ex-Marxist, had become a literary hit after publishing the novel on which the film was based. It is the simple story of the misadventures of the rambunctious and frequently cursing Zazie's first trip to Paris. Swearing and shouting her way through the city, she is obsessed with her mission to take a ride on the métro…. In narrating a little girl's crazy experience of a weekend in Paris, Malle demonstrated an enormous range of cinematic techniques and styles: eight - and 12- frame-per-second photography; slow-motion acting; mirrored background effects; collapsing sets; as well as numerous destabilizing effects. The result is a truly unique filmic collage that does not leave the viewer more than a second to catch breath before a new visual style is demonstrated.

Called "an exceedingly funny picture…funny in a bold, delicate, freakish, vulgar, outrageous, and occasionally nightmarish way…From start to finish, the picture is crammed with sight gags and preposterous photographic stunts. Zazie is a film like Alice in Wonderland; Zazie is a foul-mouthed little cynic, age 11, who comes to Paris for a weekend with her uncle (Philippe Noiret), a female impersonator, and nobody and nothing are quite what they seem" (Pauline Kael).

(2:55), 7:00