Eugène Green

[portnoy]

With just three features and two shorts, American ex-pat French filmmaker Eugene Green has carved out a unique niche in world cinema, combining Bresson, Ozu, and Rohmer into gripping low-budget pageants. He's been the subject of retrospectives at the Telluride Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, and BAM Rose Cinemas, and his films remain tragically unreleased on DVD in R1 land. LE PONT DES ARTS and LE MONDE VIVANT are getting R2 releases (without English subs ) on August 23rd.

I've only had the opportunity to see LE PONT DES ARTS about a year ago, which I absolutely fell in love with, and I've been desperately seeking out English-subbed editions of his films ever since.

Anyone else a fan?

[zedz]

Yes. Again, I've only seen Pont des Arts, but it lodged itself in my brain for a long time. It's one of the few films I can think of that seems to be strongly influenced by Gertrud, specifically in its presentational acting style. As with that film, it becomes extremely moving despite the austerity and distanciation of the style.

And fans of eccentric movie performances should crawl across broken glass to see Denis Podalydes' baroque sadist.

[portnoy]

There are a whole host of great side performances in the film - Olivier Gourmet, who turned the Dardennes onto Green and got them to coproduce the film, is excellent. In general, I'd say the satire of the academic arts is nearly as strong as the central love narrative. Oh!

[fred]

The French DVD of Toutes les nuits has English subtitles.

Eugene Green's films are very striking and distinctive. He's one of the most exciting directors to emerge in Europe in the last several years. I can't wait to see the new short he had at Cannes.

[portnoy]

The French DVD of Toutes les nuits has English subtitles.

This sentence just made my week.

[brunosh]

Count me in as another fan of this stylistically unique filmmaker. I saw Pont des Arts at the London Film Festival a couple of years ago and then Le monde vivant and Toutes les nuits in London late last year at a showing following which Green answered questions from the audience.

I particularly like the style of acting – the actors are often shown face on to camera and are instructed to remain as still as possible while speaking as if they are talking to themselves. Green explained that he dislikes intensely what he called the usual “psychological method of actingâ€

[brunosh]

I'm just back from seeing Green's latest film, Les Signes, at the London Film Festival. It's a 30-minute 'mini-film' commissioned by a regional arts authority in France, required to feature, within a fictional framework, an item of Green's choice from the regional museum's collection - Green chose a photo-triptych by a Basque photographer, Maitetxu Etchevarria. Suffice it to say that Les Signes is very much up to the standard of, and stylistically on all fours with, Green's feature films - a little bit of Bresson, a little bit of Ozu and a lot of the mischievous Green himself. Christelle Prot from Toutes les Nuits and Monde Vivant plays a major role, as this time does Mathieu Amalric, for once forsaking his usual restless idiosyncracies for Green's preferred acting method.

I was one of the very few members of the audience who took advantage of the chance to chat with Green in the bar after the film. When I told him how disappointed I was to hear that the French DVD releases of Pont des Arts and Monde Vivant have no English subtitles, he told me that they do, he having just before their release persuaded Editions Montparnasse that there is a monoglot English-speaking market for these films! Their website confirms this and I have just ordered both, showing there is such a market of at least one.

More disappointingly, Green said that, although he has three more feature films scripted and in preparation, he has so far been unable to find financing for any of them.

[fred]

When I told him how disappointed I was to hear that the French DVD releases of Pont des Arts and Monde Vivant have no English subtitles, he told me that they do, he having just before their release persuaded Editions Montparnasse that there is a monoglot English-speaking market for these films! Their website confirms this and I have just ordered both, showing there is such a market of at least one.

Make that two. Best news I've heard in a long time. These are very special films. I'm thrilled that more people will be able to see them this way.

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

I was one of the very few members of the audience who took advantage of the chance to chat with Green in the bar after the film.

Lucky you! He may look like a mad scientist but from what I've seen of him he's got a lot of interesting and considered views.

And thanks for the DVD news too! =D>

[Ted Todorov]

That is great news -- I've seen all three of his feature films -- at the NYFF & Anthology Film Archives and I am very happy to hear of the subtitled DVDs -- I have Toutes les nuits already and will be very happy to order the other two.

I absolutely love his style, and hope that he gets financing for more features.

[portnoy]

This makes me so happy. I can't wait to get these films now!

[franco]

Most of you who haven't been able to catch a theatrical screening of The Portuguese Nun probably have already watched it here, haven't you?

I cannot even start to describe my insurmountable love for this movie. I think it's Green's best. I wish I could win a lottery and then finance his other 2 (or more) movies.

[zedz]

Just reporting that the French DVD of The Portugese Nun is lovely. The feature has English subs, as does the major extra Correspondances, the half-feature Green made after Le Pont des Arts. There's also a very good 20 minute interview with Green about The Portugese Nun. He discusses the film's literary antecedents and the function of music in the film (and Le Pont des Arts). Unfortunately, this interview is unsubbed.

Correspondances is a must-see. In a filmography as slender as Green's, a forty minute film is a big deal, and this exquisite long short marks an interesting departure from / development upon Le Pont des Arts, while also anticipating elements of The Portugese Nun. The film unfolds entirely in close-ups (of people, things, and a wonderful cat) over narration provided by a series of email exchanges between almost-strangers. The characteristic direct gaze of Green's models is more intense than ever in such reduced and intimate surroundings, and the dramaturgy (in which the main characters are isolated from one another) means that that gaze is more than ever directed at us. The big payoff of this strain of minimalism comes with the unexpected advent of a certain third party, in close-up, staring us down.

[swo17]

I finally caught up with Le monde vivant and it might just be the greatest film ever made. It certainly is if you restrict your definition of the word "film" to include only those that wholeheartedly embrace a level of production value normally espoused only by high school drama clubs. The film's lion budget was obviously pilfered at some point, and the battle scenes are among the most hilarious things ever filmed. And yet there's such a relaxed sincerity to the whole enterprise that it's all just as moving as it would have been if a bunch of money had been thrown at it (perhaps even more so).

I'm to the point now with Eugène Green that pretty much everything he throws at the screen elicits a wide grin from me. His films up to this point would make a lovely Eclipse set (or dare I dream for more?)

[John Cope]

An excellent assessment of Green and the drives behind his work.

More and more I think that The Portuguese Nun may be one of the greatest of all films about love.

[therewillbeblus]

Green's short film Le nom du feu is a classic piece of deadpan absurdism, manipulating the nuances of social mannerisms into a diluted monotone whilst retaining those modulations in meaning during the dialog. Sarcasm, flirtation, condescension, validation, desperation, etc. are all present and emphasized simultaneously as they're rendered impotent of their expected signifiers. That emphasis is the crucial strength: Green doesn't negate their worth the way many surreal art does these days via a form of de-emphasized drainage, which is less a cop-out than an extra, difficult wavelength to locate and meditate on. The last act of this >20 min short is basically melodrama, admirably sustained for several minutes of back-and-forth, but this is primarily just hilarious low-budget antisocial humor. The first half is absolute fire, and it's impressive to see that Green had mastered aspects of his style right from the get-go.