The Cinematheque

“The precariousness of the single take, the intuitive filming of events reflected in human faces, the amorous contemplation of looks and bodies: this is what makes Garrel one of the greatest filmmakers of his time.”

Alain Philippon, Cahiers du cinéma

Casualties of the heart weigh heavy in Philippe Garrel’s poignant, deeply-felt political noir, one of the French director’s more mainstream and miraculous achievements. The film, an artisanal, slow-burn thriller set in Paris during the Algerian War, was made in tribute to Garrel’s parents, whose support of Algerian independence during the seven-year conflict put them at risk of terrorist retaliation by the right-wing paramilitary group OAS. Fittingly, the director’s father Maurice Garrel has the lead as an aging FLN partisan whose estranged wife (the late, luminous Emmanuelle Riva) is murdered. Love is later rekindled with a French-Algerian (Christine Boisson), closely watched by his wife’s killers.

Print courtesy Institut Français, thanks to the Cultural services of the French Embassy in New York.

preceded by

Rue Fontaine
France 1984
Philippe Garrel
17 min. 35mm

The suicide of Jean Seberg haunts this 1984 short film starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, created by Garrel as part of the omnibus Paris vu par… 20 ans après.

Print courtesy Institut Français, thanks to the Cultural services of the French Embassy in New York.