A retrospective of comedy across genres, countries and decades.
Nine films subverting the relationship to faith, marriage, bourgeois morality, work and prejudice.
Tuesday, April 8 – 3.30 pm
Simon du désert by Luis Buñuel
1965 / Mexico / Fiction / 45′
Simon lives as a hermit at the top of a tower built in the middle of the desert. His activities are reduced to fasting and meditation. Sometimes he gets bored, and it’s in his moments of slackness that the devil comes to tempt him, appearing in various forms.
Renzo et Luciana by Mario Monicelli
1962 / Italy / Fiction / 43′
Renzo and Luciana work for the same large company, but because Luciana’s employment contract stipulates that she must remain single and not become pregnant, they are reduced to getting married in secret, on the pretext of a dental appointment.
Tuesday, April 8 – 5.45 pm
À nous deux, France ! by Désiré Ecare
1970 / Ivory Coast / Fiction / 60′
Evoking mixed marriages and their difficulties on the part of the black community in particular, the author depicts the wanderings of a young black husband, an elegant dandy, who comes to Paris to find his young white wife and their little girl…
Tuesday, April 8 – 8.30 pm
Six of a Kind by Leo Mccarey
1934 / United States / Fiction / 60′
J. Pinkham Whinney and his wife, Flora, want to go on a second honeymoon and decide to share the cost of the trip with a wacky couple. None of them realise that they are carrying a suitcase containing loot stolen by Ferguson, Whinney’s scheming colleague.
Wednesday, April 9 – 6 pm
Les Sièges de l’Alcazar by Luc Moullet
1989 / France / Fiction / 54′
Paris, 1955. Guy, a critic for ‘Cahiers du cinéma’, often goes to see Vittorio Cottafavi’s films in a local cinema. There he spots Jeanne, a critic for the enemy magazine ‘Positif’, who seems to be following him.
Le Roi d’Yvetot by Jean Renoir
1970 / France / Fiction / 40′
In Provence, Edmond Duvallier is convinced that he is not meeting the expectations of his wife, who is much younger than he is. The couple befriend André, the village vet. When Edmond discovers that Isabelle and André are lovers, he seeks advice from his neighbours…
Film in partnership with INA
Wednesday, April 9 – 8.30 pm
Tiens ton foulard, Tatiana by Aki Kaurismaki
1994 / Finland / Fiction / 60′
Finland in the 1960s. Two men Vlato and Reino, criss-cross the countryside in a black Volga. They are joined by Tatiana, an Estonian, and Klaudia, a Russian. They want to get to Helsinki before setting off for Tallinn…
Thursday, April 10 – 2 pm
Noche terrible by Rodolfo Kuhn
1967 / Argentina / Fiction / 47′
On his last night as a bachelor, a man imagines what would happen if he ran away and avoided marriage, and wonders if he would be able to avoid “conventions” and have a sincere relationship with his girlfriend.
L’Homme qui cherche son assassin by Robert Siodmak
1931 / Germany / Fiction / 53′
A man in dire straits hires a burglar to kill him later, then changes his mind when his fortune turns; he must then track down the contract killer before it’s too late.