In an early indelible scene in Austrian director , the camera lingers on a wide shot of Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant, playing an elderly couple seated together in the audience for a piano recital. The image resounds throughout this exquisite chamber piece about the coda of a marriage, a film that has garnered accolades from its debut at Cannes last spring to its current awards season buzz which announced Thursday morning.
While the French octogenarian thespians never played opposite each other before Haneke鈥檚 film, TIFF Cinematheque has 鈥渃ast鈥 Riva and Trintignant side by side in 鈥淎 Man and a Woman,鈥 , which opens at the Lightbox Friday to coincide with the release of Amour.
The complement of classic and rarely seen titles offers 海角社区官网filmgoers a unique venue to enrich their appreciation of the pair鈥檚 work in Amour 鈥 not to mention revisit key films from a diverse cross-section of, mostly, prominent French and Italian directors on the big screen.
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The series takes its title from Claude Lelouch鈥檚 stylishly romantic 1969 film, the celebrated A Man and A Woman (screening Sunday), an international hit in its day and featuring Trintignant, who grew up in the world of professional racing, as a racecar driver who falls in love with a young mother played by the alluring Anouk Aim茅e.
But the series鈥 guiding credo is the Jean-Luc Godard quotation Cinematheque senior programmer James Quandt cites in his written introduction: 鈥淓very film is a documentary of its actors.鈥
Certain titles had to be included. Series opener Bernardo Bertolucci鈥檚 masterful 1970 political drama The Conformist (worth watching for the cinematography and art direction alone) is widely regarded as providing Trintignant with a turning-point role 鈥 one of his greatest 鈥 as a repressed man who joins Mussolini鈥檚 fascists and is ordered to assassinate his former mentor.
Riva鈥檚 best known role is the memory-haunted French actress visiting her Japanese lover in Alain Resnais鈥 influential Hiroshima Mon Amour (screening Saturday). The 1959 release of the film caused Cahiers du Cinema to publish its second ever roundtable discussion by its famed editorial board, during which Godard said, 鈥淲ith Hiroshima I feel as if I am seeing something I didn鈥檛 expect at all鈥 鈥 an effect Riva鈥檚 earlier screen performances still have on viewers today.
Quandt wanted to avoid a greatest-hits approach and instead chose films that bring out the qualities of these two actors sought out by so many famed directors.
鈥淭rintignant is often portrayed as a cerebral actor, but what鈥檚 often missed is the fine sense of irony in his work, which verges on the comic,鈥 Quandt explains. This quality is certainly evident in Amour, which Haneke wrote with the actor in mind, and films like Francois Truffaut鈥檚 1983 film noir homage Confidentially Yours and Dino Risi鈥檚 1962 Il Sorpasso (The Easy Life), both screening at the Lightbox.
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While Riva had a more erratic screen career than Trintignant, Quandt says: 鈥淪he is indelible in every single film, and has an incredible vivacity and refinement that carries through most of her roles.鈥
He points to her role as a woman tormented by her love for a priest in Jean-Pierre Melville鈥檚 L茅on Morin, Priest (screening Jan. 27) in which she plays opposite that other French New Wave icon Jean-Paul Belmondo.
The series also includes films in which the actors play key supporting roles 鈥 Riva in Gillo Pontecorvo鈥檚 controversial 1959 Holocaust drama Kapo (Jan. 19), and Trintignant in Roger Vadim鈥檚 legendary . . .And God Created Woman (Jan. 26).
鈥淚 think there are key moments in Amour where Haneke actually italicizes the fact he鈥檚 drawing on the personas of these two actors,鈥 Quandt says. With the Oscar nominations shining the spotlight on Amour over the coming weeks, 鈥淎 Man and a Woman鈥 allows 海角社区官网cinema lovers to appreciate their artistry more deeply.
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