Cinema St. Louis’ CLASSIC FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL Kicks off This Weekend with THE 317th PLATOON at Washington University

Cinema St. Louis presents the 11th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival which takes place  March 8-10, 15-17, and 22-24, 2019. The location this year is Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium, Forsyth & Skinker boulevards. 

The 11th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — presented by TV5MONDE and produced by Cinema St. Louis — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1930s through the 1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema. The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features seven such works: Pierre Schoendoerffer “The 317th Platoon,” Marcel Pagnol’s “The Baker’s Wife,” Olivier Assayas’ “Cold Water,” Jacques Becker’s “The Hole,” Jacques Rivette’s “The Nun,” Agnés Varda’s “One Sings, the Other Doesn’t,” and   Diane Kurys’ “Peppermint Soda.” The schedule is rounded out by Robert Bresson’s final film, “L’argent,” and two 1969 films celebrating their 50th anniversaries: Luis Buñuel’s “The Milky Way” and Eric Rohmer’s “My Night at Maud’s.” This year’s edition of the fest is held at Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium.

Every program features introductions and discussions by film or French scholars and critics. The discussions will place the works in the contexts of both film and French history and provide close analyses.

TV5MONDE serves as the presenting sponsor. The global French-language entertainment network, TV5MONDE presents up to 300 films and dramas every year. Title-sponsor support is provided by the Jane M. & Bruce P. Robert Charitable Foundation, and additional support is provided by Arts & Education Council, American Association of Teachers of French, Alliance Française de Saint Louis, Centre Francophone at Webster University, Les Amis, Missouri Arts Council, Regional Arts Commission, Ann Repetto, Washington University’s Film & Media Studies, and Whitaker Foundation.

The fest kicks off this Friday March 8th with THE 317th PLATOON at 7:30pm (Pierre Schoendoerffer, 1965, 100 min., B&W, new restoration, DCP projection source)

Hosted by Joshua Ray, film critic for Cinema St. Louis’ The Lens. Ticket information can be found HERE

n Pierre Schoendoerffer’s film adaptation of his own well-regarded novel — shot by the great Raoul Coutard — a platoon of French soldiers and Laotian allies fight their way through enemy territory and dense jungle to meet up with their compatriots as the Indochina War grinds to a halt. The New York Times hails “The 317th Platoon” as “a genuinely revelatory war movie,” describing it as “a staggeringly engrossing and effective movie, its settings both beautiful and oppressive, its incidents tense and eye-opening.”

The Guardian’s Antony Beever boldly declares: “In my view, the greatest war movie ever made is ‘The 317th Platoon.’ This was the original ‘platoon movie,’ whose format later directors followed but failed to match in its portrayal of characters and their interaction, to say nothing of the moral choices and the corruption of combat.” Director Bertrand Tavernier writes: “‘The 317th Platoon’ is a masterpiece. It’s raw, real, gripping, laconic. Schoendoerffer caught, with the help of Raoul Coutard, the essence of this colonial war without being patronizing.” And no less of an authority than Oliver Stone asserts that “The 317th Platoon” and Schoendoerffer’s documentary “The Anderson Platoon” remain the only films that “seem to me to give a realistic image of the war in Indochina.”

The Series continues Saturday March 9th with THE MILKY WAY at 7:30pm. (Pierre Schoendoerffer, 1969, 101 min., Color). With an introduction and post-film discussion by Pier Marton, video artist and unlearning specialist at the School of No Media. Marton has lectured with his work at the Museum of Modern Art, the Carnegie Museum, and the Walker Art Center and has taught at several major U.S. universities.. Ticket information can be found HERE

The first of what Luis Buñuel later proclaimed a trilogy (along with “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” and “The Phantom of Liberty”) about “the search for truth,” “The Milky Way” daringly deconstructs contemporary and traditional views on Catholicism with ribald, rambunctious surreality. Two French beggars (Michel Piccoli and Paul Frankeur), present-day pilgrims en route to Spain’s holy city of Santiago de Compostela, serve as Buñuel’s narrators for an anticlerical history of heresy, told with absurdity and filled with images that rank among Buñuel’s most memorable (stigmatic children, crucified nuns) and hilarious (Jesus considering a good shave). Co-starring Delphine Seyrig, the film is co-written by Buñuel with frequent collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière. A diabolically entertaining look at the mysteries of fanaticism, “The Milky Way” remains a hotly debated work from cinema’s greatest skeptic.

Dave Kehr in the Chicago Reader writes: “Released in France during the revolutionary uproar of 1968, Luis Buñuel’s film takes the form of a religious parable — two pilgrims come across a range of figures from the history of Catholicism, including the devil and the Virgin Mary, as they make their way across the countryside. Buñuel is fascinated with the twists and turns of Catholic doctrine as only a fallen Catholic can be, and he constructs a series of elegant, witty paradoxes that parody theological argument while holding fast to its methods.”

The Series continues Sunday 7:00 March 10th with THE NUN (1966 – 140 minutes color, new restoration, DCP projection source)With an introduction and post-film discussion by Pete Timmermann, interim director of the Webster U. Film Series and adjunct film professor at Webster U.

In 18th-century France, novice Suzanne (a luminous Anna Karina) is compelled by her family to take her vows and become a nun. Doing what she can to resist, Suzanne is shuttled between convents with widely different Mothers Superior, ranging from maternal to sadistic to amorous. Based on the novel by Denis Diderot, Jacques Rivette’s film was banned on its initial release and its fate became a long-running scandal. New York Times critic J. Hoberman writes: “Elliott Stein, an American journalist living in Paris, reported in the British film magazine Sight and Sound that ‘Le Monde ran a day-to-day feature, “L’Affaire de La Religieuse,” to which one opened as if to a daily horoscope or weather report.’ His article gave examples of the heated discourse Rivette’s movie inspired. A writer for the right-wing weekly Carrefour declared: ‘If, in the name of freedom, we let this film be shown, we might just as well throw open the doors of France to all the dirty hairy beatniks of the earth.’”

Hoberman also notes that the film debuted in the U.S. at the remarkably deep 1968 New York Film Festival: “The festival that year included two masterpieces by Jean-Luc Godard (‘Weekend’ and ‘Two or Three Things I Know About Her’), Robert Bresson’s ‘Mouchette’ and John Cassavetes’s ‘Faces,’ along with first features by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet; Werner Herzog; and new movies from Bernardo Bertolucci, Milos Forman, Miklos Jancso, Norman Mailer and Orson Welles. Even in this crowd, ‘La Religieuse’ stood out, less for its notoriety than its brilliant filmmaking and impassioned restraint. ‘La Religieuse’ is founded on contradictions. The movie is as sumptuous in its color photography as it is austere in its mise-en-scène. Suzanne is victimized equally by repression and license. Her situation simultaneously evokes pre-Revolutionary France and 20th-century Europe. Rivette’s direction is both theatrical and cinematic.”

Look for continued coverage of Cinema St. Louis’ CLASSIC FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL in the coming weeks at We Are Movie Geeks