Trent Film Society

A map by Peter Greenaway, seen in the film A Walk Through H.:...

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:51:34 -0400

A map by Peter Greenaway, seen in the film A Walk Through H.: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist - screening tonight at the Blue Tomato

Зеркало (Mirror), Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975. Mirror screens at...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:23:10 -0400

Зеркало (Mirror), Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975.

Mirror screens at Artspace on Wednesday, March 28th.

From Тіні забутих предків (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors) (top)...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:24:28 -0400

From Тіні забутих предків (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors) (top) and Սայաթ-Նովաg (The Colour of Pomegranates) (bottom).

Our mini-retrospective of the films of Sergei Parajanov begins Wednesday with The Colour of Pomegranates, at Artspace, and continues Friday with Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, at Traill College, SH105.

Masks, from Sergei Parajanov’s Тіні забутих...

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 17:27:54 -0400

Masks, from Sergei Parajanov’s Тіні забутих предків (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors), 1964

pnoom: Dancing scene from Тіні забутих предків (Shadows of...

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 17:21:32 -0400

pnoom:

Dancing scene from Тіні забутих предків (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors), Sergei Parajanov, 1964

harpy: Sergei Parajanov photographed behind bars and...

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 17:20:11 -0400

harpy:

Sergei Parajanov photographed behind bars and wires.

Some context:

Nearly all of his film projects and plans from 1965–1973 were banned, scrapped or closed by the Soviet film administration almost without discussion until he was finally arrested in late 1973 on fabricated charges of rape, homosexuality and bribery. Parajanov was imprisoned until 1977, despite a plethora of pleas for pardon from various esteemed artists.

While incarcerated Parajanov produced a large number of miniature doll-like sculptures (some of which were lost) and some 800 drawings and collages, many of which were later displayed in Yerevan, where the Parajanov Museum is now permanently located. His efforts in the camp were repeatedly compromised by prison guards, who deprived him of materials and called him mad, their cruelty only subsiding after a statement from Moscow admitted “the Director is very talented.”

Upon his return from prison to Tbilisi, the close watch of Soviet censors prevented Parajanov from continuing his cinematic pursuits and steered him towards artistic outlets which he had nurtured during his time in prison. He crafted extraordinarily intricate collages, created a large collection of abstract drawings and pursued numerous other avenues of non-cinematic art, sewing more dolls and some whimsical suits.

Sergei Parajanov’s 1968 film The Colour of Pomegranates screens on Wednesday, March 21st at Artspace. We will follow up the screening on Friday with a special presentation of Parajanov’s first feature, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, on Friday, March 23rd.

From Սայաթ-Նովաg (The Colour of Pomegranates), Sergei Parajanov,...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:22:56 -0400

From Սայաթ-Նովաg (The Colour of Pomegranates), Sergei Parajanov, 1968

Massoumeh and Zahra Naderi, stealing apples in Samira...

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:01:39 -0500

Massoumeh and Zahra Naderi, stealing apples in Samira Makhmalbaf’s The Apple.

Samira Makhmalbaf, 7 years old, eating an apple in Mohsen...

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:45:00 -0500

Samira Makhmalbaf, 7 years old, eating an apple in Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The Cyclist.

The Apple, directed by Samira Makhmalbaf and made ten years after The Cyclist, is set to screen next Wednesday at Artspace.

“Already forgotten, still prohibited, always invisible –...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:52:01 -0500

“Already forgotten, still prohibited, always invisible – such is our cinema. One never saw it, one had to love it blindly, by heart.” (JLG)

More images from Makhmalbaf’s The Cyclist.

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 03:05:27 -0500

More images from Makhmalbaf’s The Cyclist.

The Cyclist (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1987). Screens at Artspace on...

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 03:01:00 -0500

The Cyclist (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1987).

Screens at Artspace on Wednesday, February 29th at 8PM. The first of three Iranian films to be shown over the next three weeks.

Spanish poster for Los Olvidados. Playing at Artspace on...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:42:32 -0500

Spanish poster for Los Olvidados. Playing at Artspace on Wednesday February 22nd at 8PM.

Mexican poster for Los Olvidados.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:38:27 -0500

Mexican poster for Los Olvidados.

Japanese poster for Luis Buñuel’s 1950 film Los Olvidados....

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:05:37 -0500

Japanese poster for Luis Buñuel’s 1950 film Los Olvidados. Screening on Wednesday, February 22nd at Artspace.

Production still from Made in U.S.A., Jean-Luc Godard,...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:11:00 -0500

Production still from Made in U.S.A., Jean-Luc Godard, 1966

We’ll conclude our series of crime films with a film that takes an entirely detached and self-reflexive position in relation to the conventions of the genre that it employs. Godard’s rarely-seen 1966 film Made in U.S.A. is, expressly, a political film, a labyrinthine mystery about the death of a leftist radical – the lover of Paula Nelson (Anna Karina), who takes on the persona of a private detective in her search for the truth of his death.

Godard constantly plays with cinematic conventions, diverting our attention away from the plot by treating it as a medium for reflection rather than as something to immerse oneself in. Narrative tension and drama are eschewed in favour of active reflection on the part of the viewer – Brechtian distancing effects abound – and the film becomes less a detective story and more a reflection on the nature of the detective story. Later in his career Godard would speak of cinema as “une forme qui pense” – a form for thought, a form that thinks – and this film from Godard’s earliest period shows that Godard was already trying to realize what he saw as cinema’s ultimate potential.

Godard’s film is radically different from the two preceding crime films in our series, which are in turn widely divergent from one another. Hitchcock’s Rope is a filmic experiment and morality play which deconstructs the logic of the sophisticated criminal with the privilege of taking life. Melville’s Le Samourai grasps at the aesthetic perfectibility of crime, both in its lead character and in the film’s formal execution. Godard’s film uses cinematic aesthetics to make its audience reflect on our ordinary engagement with cinematic aesthetics – and in doing so it confounds all notions of what a film can and should be. But while it is a somewhat heady film, it plays at being the opposite – a Cinemascope, Technicolour extravaganza with big stars and bright colours.

Made in U.S.A. screens at Artspace on February 15th at 8PM.

German poster for Made in U.S.A., Jean-Luc Godard, 1966

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:10:02 -0500

German poster for Made in U.S.A., Jean-Luc Godard, 1966

In Le Samouraï (as in his other films), Jean-Pierre Melville...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:09:56 -0500

In Le Samouraï (as in his other films), Jean-Pierre Melville approaches crime as an art - one that can be formally perfected by only the most masterful artist.

Cover of Sight and Sound, Summer 1968, featuring an image of...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:53:13 -0500

Cover of Sight and Sound, Summer 1968, featuring an image of Alain Delon in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï. TFS will screen the film tomorrow night (Feb. 8) at Artspace.

Puppets and puppeteers, from the opening scene of Masahiro...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:59:00 -0500

Puppets and puppeteers, from the opening scene of Masahiro Shinoda’s Double Suicide.