Five auteur rarities that redefine the boundaries of French fantasy, from vampire films to horror documentaries.
Wednesday, April 9 – 4 pm
Le Cas Howard Phillips Lovecraft by Patrick-Mario Bernard and Pierre Tridivic
1998 / France / Documentary / 45′
A literary and biographical portrait of the American writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft, continuator and renovator of the Gothic tradition and master of fantastic literature. His unique setting is a poor, dilapidated flat. It may be the New York flat where Lovecraft spent the painful years of his descent into hell. But perhaps it is also, and above all, the writer’s mental landscape. A landscape haunted by fear, ravaged by the pain of social failure and inner exile.
In partnership with INA
Fantasmagorie by Patrice Molinard
1963 / France / Fiction / 41′
In 1743 in the Val d’Oise: a vampiric epidemic spreads death and panic. The region is deserted. Two centuries later, the memory of past horrors has faded, civilisation has returned and modernity has taken hold. But one night, a mysterious black figure breaks into a couple’s home and steals the woman’s portrait. The next day, the husband, who has gone on a trip, leaves his wife at home alone. She sleepwalks and wanders through cemeteries. The nightmare begins…
Thursday, April 10 – 5.15 pm
Les Gens de l’été by Claude Chabrol
1974 / France / Fiction / 52′
Two pensioners decide to extend their holiday beyond the usual date, near a lake where they have a villa. From then on, everything turns hostile: the butcher stops delivering meat, there’s no milk, their electricity is cut off and their car is sabotaged. Don’t we want to show them that when you’ve done your time, on holiday or in life, it’s not a good idea to linger and that you should disappear?
In partnership with INA
Friday, April 11 – 2 pm
La Fenêtre by Jacques Pierre
1970 / France / Fiction / 45′
Two suicides take place in the same room of a hotel in Paris. The police investigate the reasons why two previous tenants hanged themselves in this very spot.
In partnership with INA
Le Récit de Rebecca by Paul Vecchiali
1964 / France / Fiction / 43′
In 18th-century Spain, Rebecca, the daughter of a great cabbalist promised a spiritual union with the Gemini, tries out her powers in a night of magic and conjurations
In partnership with INA