Celebrating Louis Malle
LOUIS MALLE FILM FESTIVAL
When I first heard of French auteur Louis Malle, his name immediately conjured up images of what the word meant in Hindi. From gangster booty to desirable ladies of the night, from innocent merchandise in seedy warehouses to sinful substances in back alleys. The word always had a contentious connotation attached to it, much like the director it shares its name with. Louis Malle was indeed a daring and controversial filmmaker. Though a part of the rousing French New Wave, Malle always remained on the periphery. While directors like Truffaut and Godard walked away with the glory, Malle quietly continued to do his work. His debut feature Elevator To The Gallows remains one of the finest examples of the French New Wave. He was just 26 then.
Credited with discovering some of the hottest screen sirens, Malle made Jeanne Moreau an international sex symbol and cast a sixteen year Brooke Shields in the role of an underage prostitute. It is little wonder that his films continue to spark debates in cinephiles. Be it the subtlety comedic Murmur of The Heart, the story of an incestuous relationship between a mother and a son or the bittersweet Goodbye, Children, an exploration of Louis Malle’s own past during the Nazi occupation of France. Malle never shied away from bold subjects. In fact these two films form beautiful companion pieces to each other; both are about adolescents viewing the world of adults, full of mirth and mire.
Comedy was a tool Malle rarely used but when he did, it resulted in laugh-out-loud gems like Zazie In The Metro and May Fools. The latter is a story of a family brought together by the death of the rich matriarch, set against the backdrop of the student riots of 1968 France. One look at the family bickering over the dead body of the old lady and you would realise why French humour is so much superior to Hollywood trash (in fact that scene continues to inspire many American filmmakers even today).
Louis Malle avoided repeating himself and tried to explore something new with every film. Which is why he went from documenting India in the 60s to making the fantasy drama Black Moon in 1975. While his documentaries on India present a view of the country we are no longer familiar with, Calcutta and the Phantom India series hold an intimate account of a foreigner who never ran away from a challenge and never feared to speak the truth through his films.
Hollywood came calling towards the end of his career and life as France lost one her finest. India beckons now….
….And celebrating the monumental work of the exceptional Louis Malle, NDTV Lumiere & The Alliance Française of Madras present The 2nd Edition of The Louis Malle Film Festival after the stupendous success of the first one held last year. Catch the films of Louis Malle from 5th- 9th October 2009 at South Indian Film Chamber Theatre,Chennai, daily at 6.30pm. Entry is free so don’t miss it!
Mon 5th Oct : Black Moon
In the not-so-distant future, the war of the sexes is getting ugly. Bullets are flying and mass executions are taking place. A young girl, Lily, is looking for shelter out of harm’s way when her car is stopped by soldiers. She escapes into the woods, where a unicorn leads her to an abandoned house. Lily enters and is transported into a strange fantasy world. Talking rats, a psychic gardener, sobbing flowers, children, snakes and insects all combine in this bizarre, colorful tribute to Surrealism from master director Louis Malle.
Tue 6th Oct : May FoolsMatching the chaos of the 1968 riots to the chaos within a family, May Fools is a sly comedic attack on bourgeois French society. When his ageing mother dies, Milou calls his family to the estate for the reading of the will. The riots are in full swing in nearby Paris, and even the priest who was to perform the funeral is on strike. As tensions escalate outside the compound, family secrets are revealed and old scores settled. French society is on the brink of change, but can one family unite in the face of long standing issues?
Wed 7th Oct : Calcutta
Twenty years after Independence, Calcutta remains a city of contrasts, a city where the vast economic divide is pushing it slowly into oblivion. Enamoured with the city, Louis Malle celebrates the resilience of the human spirit that – against all odds – hopes for a better future, in his 1969 Palme d’Or nominated documentary.
Thu 8th Oct : Murmur Of The Heart
Louis Malle’s critically acclaimed 1971 drama combines elements of comedy, drama, and autobiography in a candid portrait of a precocious adolescent boy’s sexual maturation. Both shocking and deeply poignant, the film received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay in 1972 and was in official selection at the 1971 Festival de Cannes.
Fri 9th Oct : Goodbye, Children
Winner of the Golden Lion at the 1987 Venice International Film Festival, and nominated for an Academy Award, Louis Malle’s Goodbye, Children is a cinematic tour de force. Set during the Holocaust, the film explores the friendship between a Catholic and a Jew, secretly hiding from the Gestapo.
Blogged by Mehul Suri – NDTV Lumiere
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Is it going to happen in Mumbai? when? where?
I have only seen Elevator to the Gallows and it is absolutely brilliant in my opinion. I was surprised I could like a thriller so much. Fell in love with Jeanne Morreau as she was walking down the streets of Paris, lit exclusively by the lights from shop windows, as Miles Davis displayed his magic in the background.
Too bad I don’t have a teleportation machine to go to Chennai for the screenings.
Wow! Sounds awesome! Will it be travelling around India???
Hi Abhivyakti, Rajika,
Yes, the fest will soon be taken to other cities as well…
Cheers
Shamath