Pierre Étaix is one of the great, unsung treasures of French cinema, though his work has remained little known in the United States. After getting his start as an assistant to Jacques Tati on MR. HULOT’S HOLIDAY in 1953, Étaix subsequently made five feature films and three shorts between 1961 and 1971. Praised by directors as diverse as Truffaut, Bresson, Godard, and David Lynch, comedian, illustrator, gagman, and director Étaix’s films combine exquisite physical comedy with inventive sight gags and a slightly surreal visual sensibility. Through a collaboration between the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema, and Janus Films, the original negatives have been restored, providing the opportunity to discover a neglected master of comic filmmaking on new 35mm prints. “Pierre Étaix may be the funniest filmmaker you’ve never heard of.”—Susan King, The Los Angeles Times

Claire Denis occupies a unique place in world cinema, one not easily categorized or associated with any particular “wave” or style. Both sensual and rigorous, languid yet at times explosively energetic, her films are highly idiosyncratic and often focus on those living on the margins of society—both in colonial and post-colonial Africa (where she spent her early youth) and in her native France. Denis got her start as an assistant director to such legends as Dušan Makavejev, Costa-Gavras, Jim Jarmusch, and Wim Wenders and in the decades since has established key, long-term collaborations with cinematographer Agnès Godard, screenwriter Jean-Pol Fargeau, the British rock band Tindersticks, and actors Grégoire Colin and Alex Descas, among others. “No one in modern cinema has a more elastic syntax, the guts to build each movie according to its subject from the atoms up … See them all.”—David Edelstein, New York Magazine

The Film Center is pleased to present this retrospective of Denis’s work with the assistance of Delphine Selles-Alvarez and Laura Pertuy of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York, Denis Bisson and Nora Orallo of the French Embassy in San Francisco, Dean Otto of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Alliance Française de Portland. Thanks to all.

Discounted series passes for The Lyrical Space of Claire Denis are available for $45 each.

In conjunction with an eight-week School of Film class taught on Monday evenings by Pietro Ferrua, we are pleased to screen this eclectic selection of films that explore the various ways film directors interpret literary works—from short stories and plays to novels—converting prose into cinematic language and structure. While each film can be seen individually, those enrolled in the class will consider them together while exploring issues of creative interpretation and ethics, reading and discussing the original texts, and coming to a deeper appreciation of the aesthetic choices at play in moving from page to screen. Class registration includes admission to all of the films in the series. Pietro Ferrua, professor emeritus at Lewis and Clark College, is an author, essayist, translator/interpreter, mixed media artist, and scholar of the artistic and literary avant gardes.

To enroll in the Literature into Film class, click here.

The ongoing Northwest Tracking series focuses a spotlight on the work of independent filmmakers living across the Northwest—Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington—whose work reflects the vibrant cinematic culture of the region.