settima

Paris

La Chinoise, ou plutôt à la Chinoise: un film en train de se faire [La chinoise] (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)

Mar

19

Howard University Protest

La chinoise (1967)

Yvonne (Juliet Berto) holed up behind piles of Mao's Little Red Book, wielding a machine gun. DP: Raoul Coutard.

Student activism to commemorate the March 19 1968 Howard University Protest

“One must confront vague ideas with clear images”

– slogan on a wall

Five Maoist students theorise, then practice a radical overthrow via terrorism.

 

Loosely based on Dostoyevsky's Бѣсы [The Possessed] (1871–72).

Beaubourg, centre d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou [Beaubourg] (Roberto Rossellini, 1977)

Jan

31

1977

Beaubourg, centre d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou (1977)

Rossellini on site. DPs: Néstor Almendros, Jean Chiabaut & Emmanuel Machuel.

Touche pas à la femme blanche [Don't Touch the White Woman!] (Marco Ferreri, 1974)

Nov

23

potato chips

Touche pas à la femme blanche (1974)

Two white Frenchmen – in a University of Columbia and a CIA sweatshirt respectively – comment on the “period piece” they're in. CIA man (Paolo Villaggio) stuffs his face with potato chips. DP: Étienne Becker.

“Whoever dies for the country hasn't lived in vain. I, on the contrary, will live for the country because I'm not that stupid.”

– George A. Custer

Mélodie en sous-sol [Any Number Can Win] (Henri Verneuil, 1963)

Nov

22

banquet

Mélodie en sous-sol (1963)

Backstage at the Cannes casino, stars and stagehands enjoy their well-deserved end-of-season banquet. Just walking in front of the showgirls is piano player Sam (Jimmy Davis). DP: Louis Page.

Compartiment tueurs [The Sleeping Car Murder] (Costa-Gavras, 1965)

Nov

8

Compartiment tueurs (1965)

Eliane Darrès (Simone Signoret) – comédienne, by herself – takes a long hard look at her table-set-for-two. DP: Jean Tournier.

Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)

Sep

6

Sun

Pickpocket (1959)

The newspaper of Sunday, September 6, announcing a derby. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.

“The pickings were poor and not worth the risk.”

– Michel

E-clip-se (Chris Marker, 1999)

Aug

11

1999

E-clip-se (1999)

A young woman or child at the Jardin des plantes de Paris wears protective glasses while looking up in amazement during the August 11, 1999 solar eclipse, her baguette a vague memory. DP: Chris Marker.

Grands soirs & petits matins [May Days] (William Klein, 1978)

May

24

1968

Grands soirs & petits matins (1978)

Sorbonne students discussing the political situation with an elderly Parisian man. DPs: William Klein & Bernard Lutic.

“Soyez réalistes, demandez l'impossible”

– May 68 slogan

La Femme Bourreau [A Woman Kills] (Jean-Denis Bonan, 1968)

May

20

1943

La Femme Bourreau (1968)

A dark-haired woman lounging on a bed. DP: Gérard de Battista.

“Hélène Picard, born in Lyon, May 20, 1943. A child in care, she is reported as a runaway, a thief and unstable.”

Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)

Mar

12

Pickpocket (1959)

Michel (Martin LaSalle) in a busy café, observing. An emptied water glass next to the thief should make him look like a paying guest. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.

“Can we not admit that certain skilled men, gifted with intelligence, talent or even genius, and thus indispensable to society, rather than stagnate, should be free to disobey laws in certain cases?”

– Michel