THE RETROSPECTIVES
Brisbane
is noted internationally for its fine retrospectives.
Our credentials handling rare and fragile prints allow
us to screen films that few audiences get to see on
the big screen. Discover or re-discover the films and
filmmakers that have made world cinema what it is today
through our very special retrospective programmes.
Click
on the programme titles below to find out more information.
Jean Cocteau -
The Naked Dandy
Hiroshi
Shimuzu
Czech
Gothic
James
Benning
Proust
on Screen
Jean
Cocteau – The Naked Dandy
The
Naked Dandy retrospective lights on the films by and
of the works of Jean Cocteau. A poet, a painter, a novelist,
a screenwriter, a director, an actor...Jean Cocteau
is on of the twentieth century's most significant artists,
a master of many forms.
His
work has had profound influence on modern cinema. Not
only is his influence easily detectable in the films
of the French New Wave, particularly those of Truffaut,
Godard, Demy and Resnais, but he has also influenced
many of the great directors — Bergman, Pasolini, Visconti,
Bertolucci, Almodovar, Jarman and Tim Burton to name
but a few.
The
expansive retrospective not only includes some of his
own major films works — including the entire Orphic
Trilogy — but also films by other directors from Cocteau
screenplays, novels or poems. Watch the essays page
for more information on this fascinating artist.
Titles:
Blood
of a Poet
(Jean Cocteau) – A
radical film for its time, the first film in the Orphic
Trilogy is a 'Cocteau-teaser' providing great insight
into all that is Cocteau.
The
Eternal Return (Jean Delannoy) - An
intoxicating modern dress telling of Tristan and Isolde,
combining the tragic unrequited love story with contemporary
aspects of family, honor and relationships.
The
Phantom Baron (Serge de Poligny) - An
atmospherically Gothic whimsy, scripted by Cocteau,
of interest as a dress rehersal for his later, more
personal excursions into the genre. Worth seeing,
too, is his own brief cameo as the baron.
Les
Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)
- Cocteau's cold, clipped dialogue
is the perfect complement for Bresson's visual style
in this drama of sexual intrigue much beloved by other
directors.
Beauty
and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, René Clement)
—
Luminous, brilliant adaptation
of the classic fairytale. One of the all-time great
movie fantasies, and one of the most gorgeous pictures
ever made.
The
Eagle has Two Heads (Jean Cocteau) — Political
intrigue and psychological drama run parallel when a
young anarchist comes to kill the gorgeous queen, but
stays to love her...
Les
Parents Terribles (Jean Cocteau) — A
guilt-ridden father discovers that his mistress has
become engaged to his son, based on Cocteau's play of
the same name.
Orpheus
(Jean Cocteau) — The
second film in the Orphic trilogy, based on the myth
of Orpheus and Eurydice, is considered by many Jean
Cocteau's greatest work.
Les
Enfants Terribles (Jean-Pierre Melville) —
Melville's adaptation of
Cocteau's novel of the same title is considered one
of the finest interpretations of the artist's work.
The
Testament of Orpheus (Jean Cocteau) — The
final film in the Orphic trilogy is a whimsical self-reflexive
film populated by Picasso, Yul Brynner, Serge Lifar
and, of course, Cocteau himself.
Thomas
the Imposter (Georges Franju) — A
poetic film about a teenage boy impersonating an officer
during the First World War, adapted from Cocteau's novel
a year after his death.
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| Orpheus |
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| Les Enfants Terribles |
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Beauty and the Beast |
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Hiroshi
Shimuzu
The
Western film world has learned to look East for inspiration.
When the acclaimed Japanese directors who have inspired
many Western directors talk about who inspired them,
one name re-occurs: Shimuzu Hiroshi.
Almost
unheard of outside Japan, Shimuzu was a prolific and
radical filmmaker who produced more than 160 films in
a career that spanned four decades. He refused to be
pigeon-holed in any one genre. Despite pushing the bounds
of cinema, he was also a studio hit-maker.
The
selection of his films screening at BIFF provide a brilliant
entrée to one of the leading lights of World Cinema:
Japanese
Girls at the Harbour - A
bittersweet, exotic melodrama following the intertwined
fortunes of two Yokohama schoolgirls.
The
Masseurs and a Woman - A
sparkling comedy about the encounter of a wandering
blind man and a wandering Tokyo beauty on the road.
Ornamental
Hairpin - A simple
hairpin is the trigger for the guests at a holiday resort
to develop relationships.
Notes
of an Itinerant Performer - A tea wholesaler
invites a travelling troupe player into his home. After
his death, tensions develop between her and his son.
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Ornamenantal Hairpin |
Japanese Girls at the Harbour |
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entire Shimuzu programme
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Czech
Gothic
Czechoslovak
cinema has a long and distinguished history of producing
memorable horror and fantasy films. Steven Jay Schneider,
author of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
, has curated this special season of astonishing,
diverse films for BIFF and will join us during the Festival
to share his insights into these startling films which
we guarantee will be like nothing you've ever seen before.
As
well as the features listed below, the season includes
four rare, creepy short films — three by surrealist
master of stop-motion animation, Jan Svankmayer, and
a rarely seen short by Jirí Barta, whose brilliant version
of The Pied Piper also screens.
Titles:
The
Fifth Horseman is Fear
(Zbynek Brynych) — A Jewish doctor's search for
morphine in Nazi-occupied Prague becomes a powerful
portrait of tyranny.
Who
Killed Jessie?
(Václav Vorlícek) — When
a scientist gives her husband a serum to erase his dreams
about Jessie, a voluptuous comic strip character, the
dreams become reality.
The
Cremator
(Juraj Herz) — A chilling,
occasionally terrifying black comedy about the death-obsessed
owner of a crematorium.
Morgiana
(Juraj Herz) — A visual marvel, blending art nouveau
and the Gothic in opulent splendour in a hallucinatory
horror adapted from a story by Aleksandr Grin, “Russia's
Edgar Allan Poe”.
Valerie
and Her Week of Wonders
(Jaromil Jires) — One
of the most sought-after cult films, this is a ravishingly
beautiful gothic fairytale about a young girl's coming-of-age.
The
Damned House of Hajn
(Jirí Svoboda) — A re-telling of the classic "lunatic-in-the-attic"
tradition, teeming with lust, insanity, incest, hysteria,
and blackmail.
In
the Flames of Royal Love
(Jan Nemec) — A Prince
marries a cleaning woman who leads a revolution against
her husband.
The
Pied Piper
(Jirí Barta) — A stunning
animated adaptation of the classic German legend, one
of the most ambitious puppet animations ever made.
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Valerie and Her Week of Wonders |
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The Cremator |
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entire Czech Gothic programme
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James
Benning
Acclaimed experimental
(for want of a better word) filmmaker James Benning
joins BIFF for this distinctive season of his work,
which includes a screening of Reinhard Wulf's documentary
on his work.
In a film career
spanning 30 years, Benning has made at least 36 films,
including 14 feature length titles and a number of video
installations. His works defies labels and has been
variously described as structuralist, formalist and
minimalist. While these definitions have some logic
they fail to do justice to Benning's idiosyncratic approach
to filmmaking, which blends concerns with form and structure
with a deeply personal exploration of social and historical
issues.
Join us for a
unique journey into the work of one of the world's most
interesting filmmakers, with the auteur himself as your
guide.
Titles:
11
x 14 — A laconic
mosaic of single-shot sequences invite the viewer to
abandon narrative in favour of sound and image.
American
Dreams — Handwritten
transcriptions from the diary of a would-be assassin
are overlaid on a series of Hank Aaron baseball cards.
Landscape
Suicide — Explores
the mundane motivations of two American murderers, Ed
Gein and Bernadette Protti.
Four
Corners — One of
Benning's series of portraits of American landscapes
and history focussing on the intersection of Utah, Colorado,
New Mexico, and Arizona,
Los
— The second film in Benning's
Californian-landscape trilogy investigates and captures
Greater Los Angeles.
James
Benning: Circling the Image
(Reinhard Wulf) — Meticulous,
patient and sensitive portrait of acclaimed experimental
filmmaker James Benning, made in his style.
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Circling The Image |
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entire Benning programme
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Proust
on Screen
Marcel
Proust's labrynthian, multi-volume novel ”Remembrance
of Things Past” is considered by many one of the most
difficult works in literature. Perhaps because of this,
numerous directors have been tempted over the years
to attempt an adaptation.
We
are delighted to screen for you two of the best of those
adaptations: Raoul Ruiz' highly acclaimed Time Regained
and Chantal Akerman's magisterial adaptation of
the fifth volume (“The Prisoner”), La Captive .
Don't
worry if you haven't read the novel, these films supply
all the information you need — and may inspire you to
tackle Proust's original work.
Praise
for Time
Regained directed by Raul Ruiz
"Spectacular...ravishing...a
tour de force. As near as anyone could have hoped to
the Holy Grail of Proustian cinema." - Sight
and Sound
Praise for
La
Captive directed by Chantal Ackerman
“A contemporary surrealist
masterpiece...Somber in tone but punctuated with hilariously
absurd details, it has, from beginning to end, the quality
and logic of a dream.” – The Village Voice.
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Time Regained |
Raul Ruiz (director) |
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