In Addition to the Coen Brothers Movie Series @ AFI we are totally lucking out with the film series this month.
And while Cale will announce that this is all way “up my snobbish European art film alley”, there was never a way I was not going to tell you about the 2 other extraordinary filmmakers being honored and remembered this month.
So, here is what to expect from: The Bergman retrospective at AFI and Istvan Szabo series at National Gallery of Art.
BERGMAN: February 8th to March 4th
When Ingmar Bergman died at 89 last year (the same week as Antonioni, as a further blow to the film world) one thing was for sure:
many, many, many retrospectives were to come. National Gallery of Art had one earlier last year and now AFI is joining in with a 2 parter,the first one of which starts today and involves:SUMMER INTERLUDE [Sommarlek], SUMMER WITH MONIKA [Sommaren with Monika], SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT [Sommarnattens leende], SAWDUST AND TINSEL a.k.a. NAKED NIGHT [Gycklarnas afton], WILD STRAWBERRIES [Smultronstället], THE MAGICIAN a.k.a. THE FACE [Ansiktet], THE SEVENTH SEAL [Det sjunde inseglet] and THE VIRGIN SPRING [Jungfrukällan].
If you are a fan (in which case you can count yourself in good company everyone from Woody Allen to Godard to Scorcese your favorite film student) this is a treat (I assume “Persona” and “Fanny and Alexander” are coming in part 2) and if you are not familiar, now is a unique chance to acquaint yourself with the master of lyrical filmmaking and the man that people that write schmancy film articles like to call “the director’s director”
more details here:http://www.afi.com/silver/new/nowplaying/2008/v5i1/bergman.aspx
SZABO: February 9th to March 2nd
To celebrate Istvan Szabo’s 70th birthday and over 40 years of filmmaking National Gallery of art is throwing a retrospective including the director’s most widely acclaimed and popular work (you’ve probably seen “A Date with Venus” and “Being Julia”) alongside a number of rarely seen early productions (including this Saturday’s screening of “Koncert”). While Szabó has explored various forms of filmic representation, the most characteristic aspects of his cinema remain rooted in the fate of twentieth-century Central Europe (he is Hungarian). His narratives appear as recurring explorations of the influence of history on individual lives and interpersonal relationships, often heartbreaking but just as often devastatingly charming and humorous.
Bonus: The series is free and to boot Mr. Szabó will be present on the concluding weekend of the series (March 1–2) to introduce the programs.
more details here: http://www.nga.gov/programs/film/istvan_szabo.shtm
svet - you have probably already seen it, but if not, you HAVE to see summer with monika. i hadn’t seen it until the janus festival here, and holy shit. monika is unlike any other bergman character that i have seen (and i will certainly admit to not having seen everything) - devious, overly sexual, a little mean. you don’t know if you love her or hate her. it is really fun - in a devastate-your-heart kind of way, uhh, like most bergman…
yay! i’m jealous!! i know where i would be if i were there!
February 8, 2008 at 4:06 pm