Version Restauree/Restored Version - Destroy, She Said and Dark Night, Calcutta

Destroy, She Said screening with Dark Night, Calcutta

Destroy, She Said
Dir. Marguerite Duras, 1969, France, 100min, DCP
Starring Catherine Sellers, Michael Lonsdale, Henri Garcin, Nicole Hiss, Daniel Gélin

Destroy, She Said, adapted, from Duras’ own novel, suffused with mystery much like her script for the revered Hiroshima, Mon Amour, but far more claustrophobic in look and setting.  Four people appear to be the only people in a hotel, despite sounds heard but not seen.  Duras directs with languorous pans, and distinctive camera movement and composition of a true film artist.  While making the film Duras said, “I was really quite comfortable. Even though I was afraid.  And at the same time, completely free.  But frightened to death of being free.”

Dark Night, Calcutta
Dir. Marin Karmitz, 1964, France, 24min, DCP
Starring Maurice Garrel, Natasha Parry, Nicole Hiss

Dark Night, Calcutta, a commissioned work by a pharmaceutical company advertising an alcoholism cure, was taken over by Karmitz, and transformed from a straightforward work into something much greater, when he thought to ask Duras to contribute the text for the film. Featuring Maurice Garrel as a blocked, inebriated writer, trying to find his way back to the page.

Version restauree/Restored Version

Whenever Version restaurée appears in a festival program guide, trailer (bande-annonce), or before the start of a film, it indicates a new and exciting chance to revisit a beloved classic, or make a significant discovery. In recent years, extraordinary ‘restored versions’, particularly from the French speaking world, have been made available by archives, cinémathèques, rights holders and studios. Most of these restorations have never screened in the U.S., and in some cases, haven’t been shown since their original release, if ever released in the U.S. at all.

For the Fall 2024 season, L’Alliance New York presents an expansive series consisting exclusively of New York, U.S. and world premieres of Version restaurée films. Running from September 10 to December 17, the series will comprise over twenty features and short films from France, Senegal, Tunisia, Switzerland, Burkina Faso, and the Louisiana Bayou, including a 1929 muet (Gaston Modot’s Conte Cruel) to a masterpiece of the new century (Godard’s Éloge de l’amour), and films by Frederick Wiseman, Marguerite Duras, Fernando Arrabal, Idrissa Ouédraogo, Christian-Jacque, Jacques Deray, Yolande Zauberman, Samba Félix Ndiaye and Jean Cocteau.

Event Pricing:
Member Price: Free
Non Member Price: $16
Under 28 Price: $8
Buy Series Pass $50 for 2 months

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