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METAPHYSICS OF THE PRATFALL: JERRY LEWIS AND JEAN-LUC GODARD
March 19 – 31

In his 1957 review of Frank Tashlin’s HOLLYWOOD OR BUST, Jean-Luc Godard described Jerry Lewis’s face as one in which “the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” Godard was, in a sense, prophesying the films he would later make, where the same dialectic can be found: an oft-overlooked strain of improvisation, bald-faced artifice, and pure antics coexisting with unvarnished reality. To pay tribute to these two contemporaries and their deep entanglements, we present a series that places films by Lewis and Godard in dialogue with each other. Both turned comedy into a form of modernist experimentation: Lewis through his elastic body, elaborate gags, and self-reflexive use of technology; Godard through his deconstruction of genre and his playful, anarchic sense of form. Each viewed cinema as a laboratory for testing the boundaries between art and entertainment, sincerity and absurdity, self and persona. Seen together, their films reveal a shared commitment to invention and a profound suspicion of the very illusions they so brilliantly created. We hope the encounter activates their respective work in new and explosive ways – and perhaps, as Lewis once dreamed, offers the chance to “say something on emulsion that will stop a soldier from firing into nine children somewhere, sometime. Now; next year; five years from now.”

Guest-programmed by Edward McCarry and Ethan Spigland.

@_edwardmc
@theaterofthematters

METAPHYSICS OF THE PRATFALL: JERRY LEWIS AND JEAN-LUC GODARD
March 19 – 31

In his 1957 review of Frank Tashlin’s HOLLYWOOD OR BUST, Jean-Luc Godard described Jerry Lewis’s face as one in which “the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” Godard was, in a sense, prophesying the films he would later make, where the same dialectic can be found: an oft-overlooked strain of improvisation, bald-faced artifice, and pure antics coexisting with unvarnished reality. To pay tribute to these two contemporaries and their deep entanglements, we present a series that places films by Lewis and Godard in dialogue with each other. Both turned comedy into a form of modernist experimentation: Lewis through his elastic body, elaborate gags, and self-reflexive use of technology; Godard through his deconstruction of genre and his playful, anarchic sense of form. Each viewed cinema as a laboratory for testing the boundaries between art and entertainment, sincerity and absurdity, self and persona. Seen together, their films reveal a shared commitment to invention and a profound suspicion of the very illusions they so brilliantly created. We hope the encounter activates their respective work in new and explosive ways – and perhaps, as Lewis once dreamed, offers the chance to “say something on emulsion that will stop a soldier from firing into nine children somewhere, sometime. Now; next year; five years from now.”

Guest-programmed by Edward McCarry and Ethan Spigland.

@_edwardmc
@theaterofthematters

METAPHYSICS OF THE PRATFALL: JERRY LEWIS AND JEAN-LUC GODARD
March 19 – 31

In his 1957 review of Frank Tashlin’s HOLLYWOOD OR BUST, Jean-Luc Godard described Jerry Lewis’s face as one in which “the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” Godard was, in a sense, prophesying the films he would later make, where the same dialectic can be found: an oft-overlooked strain of improvisation, bald-faced artifice, and pure antics coexisting with unvarnished reality. To pay tribute to these two contemporaries and their deep entanglements, we present a series that places films by Lewis and Godard in dialogue with each other. Both turned comedy into a form of modernist experimentation: Lewis through his elastic body, elaborate gags, and self-reflexive use of technology; Godard through his deconstruction of genre and his playful, anarchic sense of form. Each viewed cinema as a laboratory for testing the boundaries between art and entertainment, sincerity and absurdity, self and persona. Seen together, their films reveal a shared commitment to invention and a profound suspicion of the very illusions they so brilliantly created. We hope the encounter activates their respective work in new and explosive ways – and perhaps, as Lewis once dreamed, offers the chance to “say something on emulsion that will stop a soldier from firing into nine children somewhere, sometime. Now; next year; five years from now.”

Guest-programmed by Edward McCarry and Ethan Spigland.

@_edwardmc
@theaterofthematters

METAPHYSICS OF THE PRATFALL: JERRY LEWIS AND JEAN-LUC GODARD
March 19 – 31

In his 1957 review of Frank Tashlin’s HOLLYWOOD OR BUST, Jean-Luc Godard described Jerry Lewis’s face as one in which “the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” Godard was, in a sense, prophesying the films he would later make, where the same dialectic can be found: an oft-overlooked strain of improvisation, bald-faced artifice, and pure antics coexisting with unvarnished reality. To pay tribute to these two contemporaries and their deep entanglements, we present a series that places films by Lewis and Godard in dialogue with each other. Both turned comedy into a form of modernist experimentation: Lewis through his elastic body, elaborate gags, and self-reflexive use of technology; Godard through his deconstruction of genre and his playful, anarchic sense of form. Each viewed cinema as a laboratory for testing the boundaries between art and entertainment, sincerity and absurdity, self and persona. Seen together, their films reveal a shared commitment to invention and a profound suspicion of the very illusions they so brilliantly created. We hope the encounter activates their respective work in new and explosive ways – and perhaps, as Lewis once dreamed, offers the chance to “say something on emulsion that will stop a soldier from firing into nine children somewhere, sometime. Now; next year; five years from now.”

Guest-programmed by Edward McCarry and Ethan Spigland.

@_edwardmc
@theaterofthematters

METAPHYSICS OF THE PRATFALL: JERRY LEWIS AND JEAN-LUC GODARD
March 19 – 31

In his 1957 review of Frank Tashlin’s HOLLYWOOD OR BUST, Jean-Luc Godard described Jerry Lewis’s face as one in which “the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” Godard was, in a sense, prophesying the films he would later make, where the same dialectic can be found: an oft-overlooked strain of improvisation, bald-faced artifice, and pure antics coexisting with unvarnished reality. To pay tribute to these two contemporaries and their deep entanglements, we present a series that places films by Lewis and Godard in dialogue with each other. Both turned comedy into a form of modernist experimentation: Lewis through his elastic body, elaborate gags, and self-reflexive use of technology; Godard through his deconstruction of genre and his playful, anarchic sense of form. Each viewed cinema as a laboratory for testing the boundaries between art and entertainment, sincerity and absurdity, self and persona. Seen together, their films reveal a shared commitment to invention and a profound suspicion of the very illusions they so brilliantly created. We hope the encounter activates their respective work in new and explosive ways – and perhaps, as Lewis once dreamed, offers the chance to “say something on emulsion that will stop a soldier from firing into nine children somewhere, sometime. Now; next year; five years from now.”

Guest-programmed by Edward McCarry and Ethan Spigland.

@_edwardmc
@theaterofthematters

METAPHYSICS OF THE PRATFALL: JERRY LEWIS AND JEAN-LUC GODARD
March 19 – 31

In his 1957 review of Frank Tashlin’s HOLLYWOOD OR BUST, Jean-Luc Godard described Jerry Lewis’s face as one in which “the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” Godard was, in a sense, prophesying the films he would later make, where the same dialectic can be found: an oft-overlooked strain of improvisation, bald-faced artifice, and pure antics coexisting with unvarnished reality. To pay tribute to these two contemporaries and their deep entanglements, we present a series that places films by Lewis and Godard in dialogue with each other. Both turned comedy into a form of modernist experimentation: Lewis through his elastic body, elaborate gags, and self-reflexive use of technology; Godard through his deconstruction of genre and his playful, anarchic sense of form. Each viewed cinema as a laboratory for testing the boundaries between art and entertainment, sincerity and absurdity, self and persona. Seen together, their films reveal a shared commitment to invention and a profound suspicion of the very illusions they so brilliantly created. We hope the encounter activates their respective work in new and explosive ways – and perhaps, as Lewis once dreamed, offers the chance to “say something on emulsion that will stop a soldier from firing into nine children somewhere, sometime. Now; next year; five years from now.”

Guest-programmed by Edward McCarry and Ethan Spigland.

@_edwardmc
@theaterofthematters

METAPHYSICS OF THE PRATFALL: JERRY LEWIS AND JEAN-LUC GODARD
March 19 – 31

In his 1957 review of Frank Tashlin’s HOLLYWOOD OR BUST, Jean-Luc Godard described Jerry Lewis’s face as one in which “the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” Godard was, in a sense, prophesying the films he would later make, where the same dialectic can be found: an oft-overlooked strain of improvisation, bald-faced artifice, and pure antics coexisting with unvarnished reality. To pay tribute to these two contemporaries and their deep entanglements, we present a series that places films by Lewis and Godard in dialogue with each other. Both turned comedy into a form of modernist experimentation: Lewis through his elastic body, elaborate gags, and self-reflexive use of technology; Godard through his deconstruction of genre and his playful, anarchic sense of form. Each viewed cinema as a laboratory for testing the boundaries between art and entertainment, sincerity and absurdity, self and persona. Seen together, their films reveal a shared commitment to invention and a profound suspicion of the very illusions they so brilliantly created. We hope the encounter activates their respective work in new and explosive ways – and perhaps, as Lewis once dreamed, offers the chance to “say something on emulsion that will stop a soldier from firing into nine children somewhere, sometime. Now; next year; five years from now.”

Guest-programmed by Edward McCarry and Ethan Spigland.

@_edwardmc
@theaterofthematters

METAPHYSICS OF THE PRATFALL: JERRY LEWIS AND JEAN-LUC GODARD
March 19 – 31

In his 1957 review of Frank Tashlin’s HOLLYWOOD OR BUST, Jean-Luc Godard described Jerry Lewis’s face as one in which “the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” Godard was, in a sense, prophesying the films he would later make, where the same dialectic can be found: an oft-overlooked strain of improvisation, bald-faced artifice, and pure antics coexisting with unvarnished reality. To pay tribute to these two contemporaries and their deep entanglements, we present a series that places films by Lewis and Godard in dialogue with each other. Both turned comedy into a form of modernist experimentation: Lewis through his elastic body, elaborate gags, and self-reflexive use of technology; Godard through his deconstruction of genre and his playful, anarchic sense of form. Each viewed cinema as a laboratory for testing the boundaries between art and entertainment, sincerity and absurdity, self and persona. Seen together, their films reveal a shared commitment to invention and a profound suspicion of the very illusions they so brilliantly created. We hope the encounter activates their respective work in new and explosive ways – and perhaps, as Lewis once dreamed, offers the chance to “say something on emulsion that will stop a soldier from firing into nine children somewhere, sometime. Now; next year; five years from now.”

Guest-programmed by Edward McCarry and Ethan Spigland.

@_edwardmc
@theaterofthematters

METAPHYSICS OF THE PRATFALL: JERRY LEWIS AND JEAN-LUC GODARD
March 19 – 31

In his 1957 review of Frank Tashlin’s HOLLYWOOD OR BUST, Jean-Luc Godard described Jerry Lewis’s face as one in which “the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” Godard was, in a sense, prophesying the films he would later make, where the same dialectic can be found: an oft-overlooked strain of improvisation, bald-faced artifice, and pure antics coexisting with unvarnished reality. To pay tribute to these two contemporaries and their deep entanglements, we present a series that places films by Lewis and Godard in dialogue with each other. Both turned comedy into a form of modernist experimentation: Lewis through his elastic body, elaborate gags, and self-reflexive use of technology; Godard through his deconstruction of genre and his playful, anarchic sense of form. Each viewed cinema as a laboratory for testing the boundaries between art and entertainment, sincerity and absurdity, self and persona. Seen together, their films reveal a shared commitment to invention and a profound suspicion of the very illusions they so brilliantly created. We hope the encounter activates their respective work in new and explosive ways – and perhaps, as Lewis once dreamed, offers the chance to “say something on emulsion that will stop a soldier from firing into nine children somewhere, sometime. Now; next year; five years from now.”

Guest-programmed by Edward McCarry and Ethan Spigland.

@_edwardmc
@theaterofthematters

METAPHYSICS OF THE PRATFALL: JERRY LEWIS AND JEAN-LUC GODARD
March 19 – 31

In his 1957 review of Frank Tashlin’s HOLLYWOOD OR BUST, Jean-Luc Godard described Jerry Lewis’s face as one in which “the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” Godard was, in a sense, prophesying the films he would later make, where the same dialectic can be found: an oft-overlooked strain of improvisation, bald-faced artifice, and pure antics coexisting with unvarnished reality. To pay tribute to these two contemporaries and their deep entanglements, we present a series that places films by Lewis and Godard in dialogue with each other. Both turned comedy into a form of modernist experimentation: Lewis through his elastic body, elaborate gags, and self-reflexive use of technology; Godard through his deconstruction of genre and his playful, anarchic sense of form. Each viewed cinema as a laboratory for testing the boundaries between art and entertainment, sincerity and absurdity, self and persona. Seen together, their films reveal a shared commitment to invention and a profound suspicion of the very illusions they so brilliantly created. We hope the encounter activates their respective work in new and explosive ways – and perhaps, as Lewis once dreamed, offers the chance to “say something on emulsion that will stop a soldier from firing into nine children somewhere, sometime. Now; next year; five years from now.”

Guest-programmed by Edward McCarry and Ethan Spigland.

@_edwardmc
@theaterofthematters

From the past year

From the past year

From the past year

From the past year

From the past year

From the past year

From the past year

From the past year

From the past year

From the past year

From the past year

From the past year

From the past year

From the past year

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Two Evenings for SUMIKO HANEDA & PAULO ROCHA

A two-part program featuring Rocha’s immense, decades-in-the making Luso-Japanese co-production THE ISLAND OF LOVES at @js_film_nyc on March 13. Plus, a rare 16mm screening of Haneda’s epic THE POEM OF HAYACHINE VALLEY at @lightindustry on March 14.

“I am a filmmaker, and until now I believed that I would be closer to the truth if I approached it through fiction. But now, after seeing The Poem of Hayachine Valley, I realize that the idea is an arrogant one. We must take advantage of this opportunity, we must learn to see reality correctly in order to know the truth.” - Paulo Rocha

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Two Evenings for SUMIKO HANEDA & PAULO ROCHA

A two-part program featuring Rocha’s immense, decades-in-the making Luso-Japanese co-production THE ISLAND OF LOVES at @js_film_nyc on March 13. Plus, a rare 16mm screening of Haneda’s epic THE POEM OF HAYACHINE VALLEY at @lightindustry on March 14.

“I am a filmmaker, and until now I believed that I would be closer to the truth if I approached it through fiction. But now, after seeing The Poem of Hayachine Valley, I realize that the idea is an arrogant one. We must take advantage of this opportunity, we must learn to see reality correctly in order to know the truth.” - Paulo Rocha

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Two Evenings for SUMIKO HANEDA & PAULO ROCHA

A two-part program featuring Rocha’s immense, decades-in-the making Luso-Japanese co-production THE ISLAND OF LOVES at @js_film_nyc on March 13. Plus, a rare 16mm screening of Haneda’s epic THE POEM OF HAYACHINE VALLEY at @lightindustry on March 14.

“I am a filmmaker, and until now I believed that I would be closer to the truth if I approached it through fiction. But now, after seeing The Poem of Hayachine Valley, I realize that the idea is an arrogant one. We must take advantage of this opportunity, we must learn to see reality correctly in order to know the truth.” - Paulo Rocha

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Two Evenings for SUMIKO HANEDA & PAULO ROCHA

A two-part program featuring Rocha’s immense, decades-in-the making Luso-Japanese co-production THE ISLAND OF LOVES at @js_film_nyc on March 13. Plus, a rare 16mm screening of Haneda’s epic THE POEM OF HAYACHINE VALLEY at @lightindustry on March 14.

“I am a filmmaker, and until now I believed that I would be closer to the truth if I approached it through fiction. But now, after seeing The Poem of Hayachine Valley, I realize that the idea is an arrogant one. We must take advantage of this opportunity, we must learn to see reality correctly in order to know the truth.” - Paulo Rocha

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Two Evenings for SUMIKO HANEDA & PAULO ROCHA

A two-part program featuring Rocha’s immense, decades-in-the making Luso-Japanese co-production THE ISLAND OF LOVES at @js_film_nyc on March 13. Plus, a rare 16mm screening of Haneda’s epic THE POEM OF HAYACHINE VALLEY at @lightindustry on March 14.

“I am a filmmaker, and until now I believed that I would be closer to the truth if I approached it through fiction. But now, after seeing The Poem of Hayachine Valley, I realize that the idea is an arrogant one. We must take advantage of this opportunity, we must learn to see reality correctly in order to know the truth.” - Paulo Rocha

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Two Evenings for SUMIKO HANEDA & PAULO ROCHA

A two-part program featuring Rocha’s immense, decades-in-the making Luso-Japanese co-production THE ISLAND OF LOVES at @js_film_nyc on March 13. Plus, a rare 16mm screening of Haneda’s epic THE POEM OF HAYACHINE VALLEY at @lightindustry on March 14.

“I am a filmmaker, and until now I believed that I would be closer to the truth if I approached it through fiction. But now, after seeing The Poem of Hayachine Valley, I realize that the idea is an arrogant one. We must take advantage of this opportunity, we must learn to see reality correctly in order to know the truth.” - Paulo Rocha

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Two Evenings for SUMIKO HANEDA & PAULO ROCHA

A two-part program featuring Rocha’s immense, decades-in-the making Luso-Japanese co-production THE ISLAND OF LOVES at @js_film_nyc on March 13. Plus, a rare 16mm screening of Haneda’s epic THE POEM OF HAYACHINE VALLEY at @lightindustry on March 14.

“I am a filmmaker, and until now I believed that I would be closer to the truth if I approached it through fiction. But now, after seeing The Poem of Hayachine Valley, I realize that the idea is an arrogant one. We must take advantage of this opportunity, we must learn to see reality correctly in order to know the truth.” - Paulo Rocha

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Two Evenings for SUMIKO HANEDA & PAULO ROCHA

A two-part program featuring Rocha’s immense, decades-in-the making Luso-Japanese co-production THE ISLAND OF LOVES at @js_film_nyc on March 13. Plus, a rare 16mm screening of Haneda’s epic THE POEM OF HAYACHINE VALLEY at @lightindustry on March 14.

“I am a filmmaker, and until now I believed that I would be closer to the truth if I approached it through fiction. But now, after seeing The Poem of Hayachine Valley, I realize that the idea is an arrogant one. We must take advantage of this opportunity, we must learn to see reality correctly in order to know the truth.” - Paulo Rocha

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Two Evenings for SUMIKO HANEDA & PAULO ROCHA

A two-part program featuring Rocha’s immense, decades-in-the making Luso-Japanese co-production THE ISLAND OF LOVES at @js_film_nyc on March 13. Plus, a rare 16mm screening of Haneda’s epic THE POEM OF HAYACHINE VALLEY at @lightindustry on March 14.

“I am a filmmaker, and until now I believed that I would be closer to the truth if I approached it through fiction. But now, after seeing The Poem of Hayachine Valley, I realize that the idea is an arrogant one. We must take advantage of this opportunity, we must learn to see reality correctly in order to know the truth.” - Paulo Rocha

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Two Evenings for SUMIKO HANEDA & PAULO ROCHA

A two-part program featuring Rocha’s immense, decades-in-the making Luso-Japanese co-production THE ISLAND OF LOVES at @js_film_nyc on March 13. Plus, a rare 16mm screening of Haneda’s epic THE POEM OF HAYACHINE VALLEY at @lightindustry on March 14.

“I am a filmmaker, and until now I believed that I would be closer to the truth if I approached it through fiction. But now, after seeing The Poem of Hayachine Valley, I realize that the idea is an arrogant one. We must take advantage of this opportunity, we must learn to see reality correctly in order to know the truth.” - Paulo Rocha

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Two Evenings for SUMIKO HANEDA & PAULO ROCHA

A two-part program featuring Rocha’s immense, decades-in-the making Luso-Japanese co-production THE ISLAND OF LOVES at @js_film_nyc on March 13. Plus, a rare 16mm screening of Haneda’s epic THE POEM OF HAYACHINE VALLEY at @lightindustry on March 14.

“I am a filmmaker, and until now I believed that I would be closer to the truth if I approached it through fiction. But now, after seeing The Poem of Hayachine Valley, I realize that the idea is an arrogant one. We must take advantage of this opportunity, we must learn to see reality correctly in order to know the truth.” - Paulo Rocha

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
JEAN-LUC GODARD x JERRY LEWIS: DOUBLE BILLS

“…where the height of artifice blends at times with the nobility of true documentary.” -JLG on Jerry Lewis’ face.

A series of double features pairing works by (and starring) Godard and Lewis. March 20-26 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Co-programmed by Ethan Spigland and Edward McCarry. Full lineup soon.

The Theater of the Matters & @archipelagobooks present…

THESE ENCOUNTERS OF THEIRS

A special 35mm presentation of the film by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, in celebration of the release of “The Leucothea Dialogues” by Cesare Pavese, translated by Minna Zallman Proctor, published by Archipelago Books.

In their final collaboration before Danièle’s death in 2006, Straub and Huillet worked with the nonprofessional actors of the Teatro Comunale di Buti—a working class theatre company in Tuscany—to recite the last five dialogues from Pavese’s “Leucothea.” In the forests and the hills, under the sun and in the shadows, the workers and peasants declaim the words of mythical figures, ancient gods, and poets, musing on the toils and predicaments of mortals.

Dec. 10, 2025 at @bamfilmbrooklyn, w/ an introduction from translator Minna Zillman Proctor. One-night-only.

The Theater of the Matters & @archipelagobooks present…

THESE ENCOUNTERS OF THEIRS

A special 35mm presentation of the film by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, in celebration of the release of “The Leucothea Dialogues” by Cesare Pavese, translated by Minna Zallman Proctor, published by Archipelago Books.

In their final collaboration before Danièle’s death in 2006, Straub and Huillet worked with the nonprofessional actors of the Teatro Comunale di Buti—a working class theatre company in Tuscany—to recite the last five dialogues from Pavese’s “Leucothea.” In the forests and the hills, under the sun and in the shadows, the workers and peasants declaim the words of mythical figures, ancient gods, and poets, musing on the toils and predicaments of mortals.

Dec. 10, 2025 at @bamfilmbrooklyn, w/ an introduction from translator Minna Zillman Proctor. One-night-only.

The Theater of the Matters & @archipelagobooks present…

THESE ENCOUNTERS OF THEIRS

A special 35mm presentation of the film by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, in celebration of the release of “The Leucothea Dialogues” by Cesare Pavese, translated by Minna Zallman Proctor, published by Archipelago Books.

In their final collaboration before Danièle’s death in 2006, Straub and Huillet worked with the nonprofessional actors of the Teatro Comunale di Buti—a working class theatre company in Tuscany—to recite the last five dialogues from Pavese’s “Leucothea.” In the forests and the hills, under the sun and in the shadows, the workers and peasants declaim the words of mythical figures, ancient gods, and poets, musing on the toils and predicaments of mortals.

Dec. 10, 2025 at @bamfilmbrooklyn, w/ an introduction from translator Minna Zillman Proctor. One-night-only.

The Theater of the Matters & @archipelagobooks present…

THESE ENCOUNTERS OF THEIRS

A special 35mm presentation of the film by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, in celebration of the release of “The Leucothea Dialogues” by Cesare Pavese, translated by Minna Zallman Proctor, published by Archipelago Books.

In their final collaboration before Danièle’s death in 2006, Straub and Huillet worked with the nonprofessional actors of the Teatro Comunale di Buti—a working class theatre company in Tuscany—to recite the last five dialogues from Pavese’s “Leucothea.” In the forests and the hills, under the sun and in the shadows, the workers and peasants declaim the words of mythical figures, ancient gods, and poets, musing on the toils and predicaments of mortals.

Dec. 10, 2025 at @bamfilmbrooklyn, w/ an introduction from translator Minna Zillman Proctor. One-night-only.

The Theater of the Matters & @archipelagobooks present…

THESE ENCOUNTERS OF THEIRS

A special 35mm presentation of the film by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, in celebration of the release of “The Leucothea Dialogues” by Cesare Pavese, translated by Minna Zallman Proctor, published by Archipelago Books.

In their final collaboration before Danièle’s death in 2006, Straub and Huillet worked with the nonprofessional actors of the Teatro Comunale di Buti—a working class theatre company in Tuscany—to recite the last five dialogues from Pavese’s “Leucothea.” In the forests and the hills, under the sun and in the shadows, the workers and peasants declaim the words of mythical figures, ancient gods, and poets, musing on the toils and predicaments of mortals.

Dec. 10, 2025 at @bamfilmbrooklyn, w/ an introduction from translator Minna Zillman Proctor. One-night-only.

The Theater of the Matters & @archipelagobooks present…

THESE ENCOUNTERS OF THEIRS

A special 35mm presentation of the film by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, in celebration of the release of “The Leucothea Dialogues” by Cesare Pavese, translated by Minna Zallman Proctor, published by Archipelago Books.

In their final collaboration before Danièle’s death in 2006, Straub and Huillet worked with the nonprofessional actors of the Teatro Comunale di Buti—a working class theatre company in Tuscany—to recite the last five dialogues from Pavese’s “Leucothea.” In the forests and the hills, under the sun and in the shadows, the workers and peasants declaim the words of mythical figures, ancient gods, and poets, musing on the toils and predicaments of mortals.

Dec. 10, 2025 at @bamfilmbrooklyn, w/ an introduction from translator Minna Zillman Proctor. One-night-only.

𝗝𝗼𝗮̃𝗼 𝗖𝗲́𝘀𝗮𝗿 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗶𝗿𝗼: 𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗟𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲
𝗢𝗰𝘁 𝟭𝟲–𝗡𝗼𝘃 𝟲, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 at MoMA Film

in May of 2012, I invited that human lightning rod of film criticism Richard Brody to come to Spectacle and give an impassioned introduction to a DVR rip of a movie called A COMEDIA DE DEUS (GOD'S COMEDY), selected by @barbaranastacio and directed by the great (and, at that time, new to me) Portuguese filmmaker/critic/poet João César Monteiro. Then and now, GOD'S COMEDY was easily one of the most insane movies I have ever seen.

In October 2024, the indefatigable cineaste Ed McCarry came to my workplace to pitch my colleague Francisco Valente on a full Monteiro retrospective, offering NYC premieres of new restorations alongside vintage 35mm prints, short films, odds and ends, and films beloved by Monteiro. It's happening - an unprecedented, massive series that kicks off next week. (Feel free to contact me for free tickets!)

I contributed nothing to the meeting beside this portrait of Monteiro, an unofficial series poster which has since been lost. But I wanted to do my part to promote, as Ed and Francisco put a hell of a lot of work into the series, most of these films have been impossible to see anywhere in the US until now, and often the deepest cuts get the least attention. Francisco's text opens:

"João César Monteiro (1939–2003) is often mentioned alongside Manoel de Oliveira as one of the most influential Portuguese directors of the 20th century. Yet while Oliveira’s fascination with religious and theatrical representations of life made him an obsessive formalist, Monteiro was inspired by the Marquis de Sade and symbolist and surrealist literary movements to bring an anarchistic, anticlerical spirit to his films. A true libertine, Monteiro subverted trends and definitions in a body of work that, in the vein of Erich von Stroheim, focuses on the perverted mysteries of pleasure, decay, and the poetic translation of the sublime into art—whether film, music, or literature—while striking out at a corrupt sociopolitical status quo he identified with fascism in its many guises..."

PS: this man was a perv. Tread with caution.

Olivia & the cliffs

Olivia & the cliffs

Olivia & the cliffs

Olivia & the cliffs

In just over a week, Luc Moullet will be in New York to show his films at Lincoln Center. Moullet was a friend and fellow traveler of Godard, Rivette, Straub-Huillet, and on and on. He’s the last link to the Nouvelle Vague—we’re very lucky to still have him.

It’s been a long road to get here. Please come out, see the films, and say hi to Luc.

(New poster by Fred Davis)

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Marguerite Duras’ THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE: A Theatrical Reading

An All Invention Theater production.

Join us on Friday, July 25th, 6pm at the Emily Harvey Foundation (@emilyharveyfoundation) on Broadway, for two hours with Marguerite Duras. The program includes a screening of Duras’s 1979 film, Aurélia Steiner (Vancouver), and a theatrical reading of her 1962 stage adaptation of Henry James’s “The Beast in the Jungle,” in a new translation by Nicholas Byrne.

Text by Marguerite Duras, after the eponymous Henry James story, as translated by Nicholas Byrne.

With Claire Hilton & Michael Khalid Karadsheh

Directed by Tommy Cunningham

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Marguerite Duras’ THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE: A Theatrical Reading

An All Invention Theater production.

Join us on Friday, July 25th, 6pm at the Emily Harvey Foundation (@emilyharveyfoundation) on Broadway, for two hours with Marguerite Duras. The program includes a screening of Duras’s 1979 film, Aurélia Steiner (Vancouver), and a theatrical reading of her 1962 stage adaptation of Henry James’s “The Beast in the Jungle,” in a new translation by Nicholas Byrne.

Text by Marguerite Duras, after the eponymous Henry James story, as translated by Nicholas Byrne.

With Claire Hilton & Michael Khalid Karadsheh

Directed by Tommy Cunningham

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Marguerite Duras’ THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE: A Theatrical Reading

An All Invention Theater production.

Join us on Friday, July 25th, 6pm at the Emily Harvey Foundation (@emilyharveyfoundation) on Broadway, for two hours with Marguerite Duras. The program includes a screening of Duras’s 1979 film, Aurélia Steiner (Vancouver), and a theatrical reading of her 1962 stage adaptation of Henry James’s “The Beast in the Jungle,” in a new translation by Nicholas Byrne.

Text by Marguerite Duras, after the eponymous Henry James story, as translated by Nicholas Byrne.

With Claire Hilton & Michael Khalid Karadsheh

Directed by Tommy Cunningham

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Marguerite Duras’ THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE: A Theatrical Reading

An All Invention Theater production.

Join us on Friday, July 25th, 6pm at the Emily Harvey Foundation (@emilyharveyfoundation) on Broadway, for two hours with Marguerite Duras. The program includes a screening of Duras’s 1979 film, Aurélia Steiner (Vancouver), and a theatrical reading of her 1962 stage adaptation of Henry James’s “The Beast in the Jungle,” in a new translation by Nicholas Byrne.

Text by Marguerite Duras, after the eponymous Henry James story, as translated by Nicholas Byrne.

With Claire Hilton & Michael Khalid Karadsheh

Directed by Tommy Cunningham

The Theater of the Matters presents…
Marguerite Duras’ THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE: A Theatrical Reading

An All Invention Theater production.

Join us on Friday, July 25th, 6pm at the Emily Harvey Foundation (@emilyharveyfoundation) on Broadway, for two hours with Marguerite Duras. The program includes a screening of Duras’s 1979 film, Aurélia Steiner (Vancouver), and a theatrical reading of her 1962 stage adaptation of Henry James’s “The Beast in the Jungle,” in a new translation by Nicholas Byrne.

Text by Marguerite Duras, after the eponymous Henry James story, as translated by Nicholas Byrne.

With Claire Hilton & Michael Khalid Karadsheh

Directed by Tommy Cunningham

The Theater of the Matters presents…
NICHOLAS RAY x VICTOR ERICE

A special double bill of Ray’s WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES and Erice’s THE DREAM OF LIGHT, both presented on 35mm. One-night-only at @metrograph, July 26.

In 1962 Víctor Erice covered the Cannes Film Festival for a magazine called Nuestro Cine, and over the next 7 years wrote at least a dozen articles for the Marxist journal modeled after Guido Aristarco’s Italian counterpart Cinema Nuovo. He wrote articles about Charlie Chaplin, Mizoguchi, and Henry King, but one director, Nicholas Ray, is the only filmmaker given a book length study (co-written with Jos Oliver in 1986). Erice wrote, ‘Ray lived to film and filmed to stay alive.’ The same could be said about Erice.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
NICHOLAS RAY x VICTOR ERICE

A special double bill of Ray’s WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES and Erice’s THE DREAM OF LIGHT, both presented on 35mm. One-night-only at @metrograph, July 26.

In 1962 Víctor Erice covered the Cannes Film Festival for a magazine called Nuestro Cine, and over the next 7 years wrote at least a dozen articles for the Marxist journal modeled after Guido Aristarco’s Italian counterpart Cinema Nuovo. He wrote articles about Charlie Chaplin, Mizoguchi, and Henry King, but one director, Nicholas Ray, is the only filmmaker given a book length study (co-written with Jos Oliver in 1986). Erice wrote, ‘Ray lived to film and filmed to stay alive.’ The same could be said about Erice.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
NICHOLAS RAY x VICTOR ERICE

A special double bill of Ray’s WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES and Erice’s THE DREAM OF LIGHT, both presented on 35mm. One-night-only at @metrograph, July 26.

In 1962 Víctor Erice covered the Cannes Film Festival for a magazine called Nuestro Cine, and over the next 7 years wrote at least a dozen articles for the Marxist journal modeled after Guido Aristarco’s Italian counterpart Cinema Nuovo. He wrote articles about Charlie Chaplin, Mizoguchi, and Henry King, but one director, Nicholas Ray, is the only filmmaker given a book length study (co-written with Jos Oliver in 1986). Erice wrote, ‘Ray lived to film and filmed to stay alive.’ The same could be said about Erice.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
NICHOLAS RAY x VICTOR ERICE

A special double bill of Ray’s WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES and Erice’s THE DREAM OF LIGHT, both presented on 35mm. One-night-only at @metrograph, July 26.

In 1962 Víctor Erice covered the Cannes Film Festival for a magazine called Nuestro Cine, and over the next 7 years wrote at least a dozen articles for the Marxist journal modeled after Guido Aristarco’s Italian counterpart Cinema Nuovo. He wrote articles about Charlie Chaplin, Mizoguchi, and Henry King, but one director, Nicholas Ray, is the only filmmaker given a book length study (co-written with Jos Oliver in 1986). Erice wrote, ‘Ray lived to film and filmed to stay alive.’ The same could be said about Erice.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
NICHOLAS RAY x VICTOR ERICE

A special double bill of Ray’s WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES and Erice’s THE DREAM OF LIGHT, both presented on 35mm. One-night-only at @metrograph, July 26.

In 1962 Víctor Erice covered the Cannes Film Festival for a magazine called Nuestro Cine, and over the next 7 years wrote at least a dozen articles for the Marxist journal modeled after Guido Aristarco’s Italian counterpart Cinema Nuovo. He wrote articles about Charlie Chaplin, Mizoguchi, and Henry King, but one director, Nicholas Ray, is the only filmmaker given a book length study (co-written with Jos Oliver in 1986). Erice wrote, ‘Ray lived to film and filmed to stay alive.’ The same could be said about Erice.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
NICHOLAS RAY x VICTOR ERICE

A special double bill of Ray’s WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES and Erice’s THE DREAM OF LIGHT, both presented on 35mm. One-night-only at @metrograph, July 26.

In 1962 Víctor Erice covered the Cannes Film Festival for a magazine called Nuestro Cine, and over the next 7 years wrote at least a dozen articles for the Marxist journal modeled after Guido Aristarco’s Italian counterpart Cinema Nuovo. He wrote articles about Charlie Chaplin, Mizoguchi, and Henry King, but one director, Nicholas Ray, is the only filmmaker given a book length study (co-written with Jos Oliver in 1986). Erice wrote, ‘Ray lived to film and filmed to stay alive.’ The same could be said about Erice.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
NICHOLAS RAY x VICTOR ERICE

A special double bill of Ray’s WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES and Erice’s THE DREAM OF LIGHT, both presented on 35mm. One-night-only at @metrograph, July 26.

In 1962 Víctor Erice covered the Cannes Film Festival for a magazine called Nuestro Cine, and over the next 7 years wrote at least a dozen articles for the Marxist journal modeled after Guido Aristarco’s Italian counterpart Cinema Nuovo. He wrote articles about Charlie Chaplin, Mizoguchi, and Henry King, but one director, Nicholas Ray, is the only filmmaker given a book length study (co-written with Jos Oliver in 1986). Erice wrote, ‘Ray lived to film and filmed to stay alive.’ The same could be said about Erice.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
NICHOLAS RAY x VICTOR ERICE

A special double bill of Ray’s WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES and Erice’s THE DREAM OF LIGHT, both presented on 35mm. One-night-only at @metrograph, July 26.

In 1962 Víctor Erice covered the Cannes Film Festival for a magazine called Nuestro Cine, and over the next 7 years wrote at least a dozen articles for the Marxist journal modeled after Guido Aristarco’s Italian counterpart Cinema Nuovo. He wrote articles about Charlie Chaplin, Mizoguchi, and Henry King, but one director, Nicholas Ray, is the only filmmaker given a book length study (co-written with Jos Oliver in 1986). Erice wrote, ‘Ray lived to film and filmed to stay alive.’ The same could be said about Erice.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
NICHOLAS RAY x VICTOR ERICE

A special double bill of Ray’s WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES and Erice’s THE DREAM OF LIGHT, both presented on 35mm. One-night-only at @metrograph, July 26.

In 1962 Víctor Erice covered the Cannes Film Festival for a magazine called Nuestro Cine, and over the next 7 years wrote at least a dozen articles for the Marxist journal modeled after Guido Aristarco’s Italian counterpart Cinema Nuovo. He wrote articles about Charlie Chaplin, Mizoguchi, and Henry King, but one director, Nicholas Ray, is the only filmmaker given a book length study (co-written with Jos Oliver in 1986). Erice wrote, ‘Ray lived to film and filmed to stay alive.’ The same could be said about Erice.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
A RISKY LIFE: LETTERS FROM JEAN-CLAUDE ROUSSEAU

A 7-film retrospective of the romantically materialist films of Rousseau, including all of his Super-8mm work screening (mostly) on 16mm prints. June 26-30 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Since the 1980s, Jean-Claude Rousseau has created a quiet yet formidable body of lyrically materialist films, forged from the substance and habits of his solitary and deliberate life. Starting without a subject or a script, Rousseau trains his vision on himself, the things he finds around him, and the places he dwells in or passes through—whether it’s in France, Italy, Japan, or New York, often in the liminal space of hotel rooms—and out of this accumulation of cinematographic matter he fashions his films, ordering these blocks together with profound respect for the singularity of time and space contained in each durational shot. For Rousseau, it’s not about seeking, but finding, and nothing he finds is taken for granted: the most everyday view from a window or the minutest relation of sound and image can be a site of explosive discovery. “With each stroke, I risk my life”—this is a phrase often heard from Rousseau, a quotation from Paul Cézanne. The apparent modesty of this method extends to his choice of formats: his early work was shot in Super-8mm, while his films since the early 2000s have been exclusively made on video. While the scope and means of his films couldn’t be slighter, the object of Rousseau’s cinema is nothing less than the mystery of movement, time, color, and light. And for all its ascetic rigor, there is a latent, lingering romanticism to everything he’s made, founded in his love for popular cinema and old sentimental music.

More info on website.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
A RISKY LIFE: LETTERS FROM JEAN-CLAUDE ROUSSEAU

A 7-film retrospective of the romantically materialist films of Rousseau, including all of his Super-8mm work screening (mostly) on 16mm prints. June 26-30 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Since the 1980s, Jean-Claude Rousseau has created a quiet yet formidable body of lyrically materialist films, forged from the substance and habits of his solitary and deliberate life. Starting without a subject or a script, Rousseau trains his vision on himself, the things he finds around him, and the places he dwells in or passes through—whether it’s in France, Italy, Japan, or New York, often in the liminal space of hotel rooms—and out of this accumulation of cinematographic matter he fashions his films, ordering these blocks together with profound respect for the singularity of time and space contained in each durational shot. For Rousseau, it’s not about seeking, but finding, and nothing he finds is taken for granted: the most everyday view from a window or the minutest relation of sound and image can be a site of explosive discovery. “With each stroke, I risk my life”—this is a phrase often heard from Rousseau, a quotation from Paul Cézanne. The apparent modesty of this method extends to his choice of formats: his early work was shot in Super-8mm, while his films since the early 2000s have been exclusively made on video. While the scope and means of his films couldn’t be slighter, the object of Rousseau’s cinema is nothing less than the mystery of movement, time, color, and light. And for all its ascetic rigor, there is a latent, lingering romanticism to everything he’s made, founded in his love for popular cinema and old sentimental music.

More info on website.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
A RISKY LIFE: LETTERS FROM JEAN-CLAUDE ROUSSEAU

A 7-film retrospective of the romantically materialist films of Rousseau, including all of his Super-8mm work screening (mostly) on 16mm prints. June 26-30 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Since the 1980s, Jean-Claude Rousseau has created a quiet yet formidable body of lyrically materialist films, forged from the substance and habits of his solitary and deliberate life. Starting without a subject or a script, Rousseau trains his vision on himself, the things he finds around him, and the places he dwells in or passes through—whether it’s in France, Italy, Japan, or New York, often in the liminal space of hotel rooms—and out of this accumulation of cinematographic matter he fashions his films, ordering these blocks together with profound respect for the singularity of time and space contained in each durational shot. For Rousseau, it’s not about seeking, but finding, and nothing he finds is taken for granted: the most everyday view from a window or the minutest relation of sound and image can be a site of explosive discovery. “With each stroke, I risk my life”—this is a phrase often heard from Rousseau, a quotation from Paul Cézanne. The apparent modesty of this method extends to his choice of formats: his early work was shot in Super-8mm, while his films since the early 2000s have been exclusively made on video. While the scope and means of his films couldn’t be slighter, the object of Rousseau’s cinema is nothing less than the mystery of movement, time, color, and light. And for all its ascetic rigor, there is a latent, lingering romanticism to everything he’s made, founded in his love for popular cinema and old sentimental music.

More info on website.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
A RISKY LIFE: LETTERS FROM JEAN-CLAUDE ROUSSEAU

A 7-film retrospective of the romantically materialist films of Rousseau, including all of his Super-8mm work screening (mostly) on 16mm prints. June 26-30 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Since the 1980s, Jean-Claude Rousseau has created a quiet yet formidable body of lyrically materialist films, forged from the substance and habits of his solitary and deliberate life. Starting without a subject or a script, Rousseau trains his vision on himself, the things he finds around him, and the places he dwells in or passes through—whether it’s in France, Italy, Japan, or New York, often in the liminal space of hotel rooms—and out of this accumulation of cinematographic matter he fashions his films, ordering these blocks together with profound respect for the singularity of time and space contained in each durational shot. For Rousseau, it’s not about seeking, but finding, and nothing he finds is taken for granted: the most everyday view from a window or the minutest relation of sound and image can be a site of explosive discovery. “With each stroke, I risk my life”—this is a phrase often heard from Rousseau, a quotation from Paul Cézanne. The apparent modesty of this method extends to his choice of formats: his early work was shot in Super-8mm, while his films since the early 2000s have been exclusively made on video. While the scope and means of his films couldn’t be slighter, the object of Rousseau’s cinema is nothing less than the mystery of movement, time, color, and light. And for all its ascetic rigor, there is a latent, lingering romanticism to everything he’s made, founded in his love for popular cinema and old sentimental music.

More info on website.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
A RISKY LIFE: LETTERS FROM JEAN-CLAUDE ROUSSEAU

A 7-film retrospective of the romantically materialist films of Rousseau, including all of his Super-8mm work screening (mostly) on 16mm prints. June 26-30 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Since the 1980s, Jean-Claude Rousseau has created a quiet yet formidable body of lyrically materialist films, forged from the substance and habits of his solitary and deliberate life. Starting without a subject or a script, Rousseau trains his vision on himself, the things he finds around him, and the places he dwells in or passes through—whether it’s in France, Italy, Japan, or New York, often in the liminal space of hotel rooms—and out of this accumulation of cinematographic matter he fashions his films, ordering these blocks together with profound respect for the singularity of time and space contained in each durational shot. For Rousseau, it’s not about seeking, but finding, and nothing he finds is taken for granted: the most everyday view from a window or the minutest relation of sound and image can be a site of explosive discovery. “With each stroke, I risk my life”—this is a phrase often heard from Rousseau, a quotation from Paul Cézanne. The apparent modesty of this method extends to his choice of formats: his early work was shot in Super-8mm, while his films since the early 2000s have been exclusively made on video. While the scope and means of his films couldn’t be slighter, the object of Rousseau’s cinema is nothing less than the mystery of movement, time, color, and light. And for all its ascetic rigor, there is a latent, lingering romanticism to everything he’s made, founded in his love for popular cinema and old sentimental music.

More info on website.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
A RISKY LIFE: LETTERS FROM JEAN-CLAUDE ROUSSEAU

A 7-film retrospective of the romantically materialist films of Rousseau, including all of his Super-8mm work screening (mostly) on 16mm prints. June 26-30 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Since the 1980s, Jean-Claude Rousseau has created a quiet yet formidable body of lyrically materialist films, forged from the substance and habits of his solitary and deliberate life. Starting without a subject or a script, Rousseau trains his vision on himself, the things he finds around him, and the places he dwells in or passes through—whether it’s in France, Italy, Japan, or New York, often in the liminal space of hotel rooms—and out of this accumulation of cinematographic matter he fashions his films, ordering these blocks together with profound respect for the singularity of time and space contained in each durational shot. For Rousseau, it’s not about seeking, but finding, and nothing he finds is taken for granted: the most everyday view from a window or the minutest relation of sound and image can be a site of explosive discovery. “With each stroke, I risk my life”—this is a phrase often heard from Rousseau, a quotation from Paul Cézanne. The apparent modesty of this method extends to his choice of formats: his early work was shot in Super-8mm, while his films since the early 2000s have been exclusively made on video. While the scope and means of his films couldn’t be slighter, the object of Rousseau’s cinema is nothing less than the mystery of movement, time, color, and light. And for all its ascetic rigor, there is a latent, lingering romanticism to everything he’s made, founded in his love for popular cinema and old sentimental music.

More info on website.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
A RISKY LIFE: LETTERS FROM JEAN-CLAUDE ROUSSEAU

A 7-film retrospective of the romantically materialist films of Rousseau, including all of his Super-8mm work screening (mostly) on 16mm prints. June 26-30 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Since the 1980s, Jean-Claude Rousseau has created a quiet yet formidable body of lyrically materialist films, forged from the substance and habits of his solitary and deliberate life. Starting without a subject or a script, Rousseau trains his vision on himself, the things he finds around him, and the places he dwells in or passes through—whether it’s in France, Italy, Japan, or New York, often in the liminal space of hotel rooms—and out of this accumulation of cinematographic matter he fashions his films, ordering these blocks together with profound respect for the singularity of time and space contained in each durational shot. For Rousseau, it’s not about seeking, but finding, and nothing he finds is taken for granted: the most everyday view from a window or the minutest relation of sound and image can be a site of explosive discovery. “With each stroke, I risk my life”—this is a phrase often heard from Rousseau, a quotation from Paul Cézanne. The apparent modesty of this method extends to his choice of formats: his early work was shot in Super-8mm, while his films since the early 2000s have been exclusively made on video. While the scope and means of his films couldn’t be slighter, the object of Rousseau’s cinema is nothing less than the mystery of movement, time, color, and light. And for all its ascetic rigor, there is a latent, lingering romanticism to everything he’s made, founded in his love for popular cinema and old sentimental music.

More info on website.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
A RISKY LIFE: LETTERS FROM JEAN-CLAUDE ROUSSEAU

A 7-film retrospective of the romantically materialist films of Rousseau, including all of his Super-8mm work screening (mostly) on 16mm prints. June 26-30 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Since the 1980s, Jean-Claude Rousseau has created a quiet yet formidable body of lyrically materialist films, forged from the substance and habits of his solitary and deliberate life. Starting without a subject or a script, Rousseau trains his vision on himself, the things he finds around him, and the places he dwells in or passes through—whether it’s in France, Italy, Japan, or New York, often in the liminal space of hotel rooms—and out of this accumulation of cinematographic matter he fashions his films, ordering these blocks together with profound respect for the singularity of time and space contained in each durational shot. For Rousseau, it’s not about seeking, but finding, and nothing he finds is taken for granted: the most everyday view from a window or the minutest relation of sound and image can be a site of explosive discovery. “With each stroke, I risk my life”—this is a phrase often heard from Rousseau, a quotation from Paul Cézanne. The apparent modesty of this method extends to his choice of formats: his early work was shot in Super-8mm, while his films since the early 2000s have been exclusively made on video. While the scope and means of his films couldn’t be slighter, the object of Rousseau’s cinema is nothing less than the mystery of movement, time, color, and light. And for all its ascetic rigor, there is a latent, lingering romanticism to everything he’s made, founded in his love for popular cinema and old sentimental music.

More info on website.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
A RISKY LIFE: LETTERS FROM JEAN-CLAUDE ROUSSEAU

A 7-film retrospective of the romantically materialist films of Rousseau, including all of his Super-8mm work screening (mostly) on 16mm prints. June 26-30 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Since the 1980s, Jean-Claude Rousseau has created a quiet yet formidable body of lyrically materialist films, forged from the substance and habits of his solitary and deliberate life. Starting without a subject or a script, Rousseau trains his vision on himself, the things he finds around him, and the places he dwells in or passes through—whether it’s in France, Italy, Japan, or New York, often in the liminal space of hotel rooms—and out of this accumulation of cinematographic matter he fashions his films, ordering these blocks together with profound respect for the singularity of time and space contained in each durational shot. For Rousseau, it’s not about seeking, but finding, and nothing he finds is taken for granted: the most everyday view from a window or the minutest relation of sound and image can be a site of explosive discovery. “With each stroke, I risk my life”—this is a phrase often heard from Rousseau, a quotation from Paul Cézanne. The apparent modesty of this method extends to his choice of formats: his early work was shot in Super-8mm, while his films since the early 2000s have been exclusively made on video. While the scope and means of his films couldn’t be slighter, the object of Rousseau’s cinema is nothing less than the mystery of movement, time, color, and light. And for all its ascetic rigor, there is a latent, lingering romanticism to everything he’s made, founded in his love for popular cinema and old sentimental music.

More info on website.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
A RISKY LIFE: LETTERS FROM JEAN-CLAUDE ROUSSEAU

A 7-film retrospective of the romantically materialist films of Rousseau, including all of his Super-8mm work screening (mostly) on 16mm prints. June 26-30 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Since the 1980s, Jean-Claude Rousseau has created a quiet yet formidable body of lyrically materialist films, forged from the substance and habits of his solitary and deliberate life. Starting without a subject or a script, Rousseau trains his vision on himself, the things he finds around him, and the places he dwells in or passes through—whether it’s in France, Italy, Japan, or New York, often in the liminal space of hotel rooms—and out of this accumulation of cinematographic matter he fashions his films, ordering these blocks together with profound respect for the singularity of time and space contained in each durational shot. For Rousseau, it’s not about seeking, but finding, and nothing he finds is taken for granted: the most everyday view from a window or the minutest relation of sound and image can be a site of explosive discovery. “With each stroke, I risk my life”—this is a phrase often heard from Rousseau, a quotation from Paul Cézanne. The apparent modesty of this method extends to his choice of formats: his early work was shot in Super-8mm, while his films since the early 2000s have been exclusively made on video. While the scope and means of his films couldn’t be slighter, the object of Rousseau’s cinema is nothing less than the mystery of movement, time, color, and light. And for all its ascetic rigor, there is a latent, lingering romanticism to everything he’s made, founded in his love for popular cinema and old sentimental music.

More info on website.

The Theater of the Matters presents…
A RISKY LIFE: LETTERS FROM JEAN-CLAUDE ROUSSEAU

A 7-film retrospective of the romantically materialist films of Rousseau, including all of his Super-8mm work screening (mostly) on 16mm prints. June 26-30 at @anthologyfilmarchives.

Since the 1980s, Jean-Claude Rousseau has created a quiet yet formidable body of lyrically materialist films, forged from the substance and habits of his solitary and deliberate life. Starting without a subject or a script, Rousseau trains his vision on himself, the things he finds around him, and the places he dwells in or passes through—whether it’s in France, Italy, Japan, or New York, often in the liminal space of hotel rooms—and out of this accumulation of cinematographic matter he fashions his films, ordering these blocks together with profound respect for the singularity of time and space contained in each durational shot. For Rousseau, it’s not about seeking, but finding, and nothing he finds is taken for granted: the most everyday view from a window or the minutest relation of sound and image can be a site of explosive discovery. “With each stroke, I risk my life”—this is a phrase often heard from Rousseau, a quotation from Paul Cézanne. The apparent modesty of this method extends to his choice of formats: his early work was shot in Super-8mm, while his films since the early 2000s have been exclusively made on video. While the scope and means of his films couldn’t be slighter, the object of Rousseau’s cinema is nothing less than the mystery of movement, time, color, and light. And for all its ascetic rigor, there is a latent, lingering romanticism to everything he’s made, founded in his love for popular cinema and old sentimental music.

More info on website.

I helped my friend @matiaspineiro make a trailer for his film YOU BURN ME. He sent me a video he shot in Buenos Aires on his phone, then he recorded a voiceover from a hotel room in Tokyo, and we put it together. We’re opening the film next Friday at Anthology Film Archives, along with a series of films curated by Matías. Please come see it.