Golden Eighties + Rue Mallet-Stevens
From Sun 02 to Thu 06 MarThe exuberant enchantments of the singing, dancing musical meet the feminist, formalist sensibility of cinematic visionary Chantal Akerman in this uniquely captivating vision of love and survival in the age of late capitalism. Amid the consumerist wonderland of a shopping mall, a cadre of store employees bounce in and out of one another’s arms in a cycle of breakups, makeups, misunderstandings, and reunions, their romantic roundelay punctuated by imaginatively stylised production numbers. Working with frequent star Delphine Seyrig and a remarkable team of writers—who between them penned everything from Jules and Jim to Desperately Seeking Susan—Akerman deftly balances the shiny pop pleasures of the genre with piercing variations on her signature themes, including a startlingly moving reflection on Jewish resilience and the legacy of the Holocaust.
Bonus
Preceded by the screening of short film Rue Mallet-Stevens
About Rue Mallet-Stevens
Fra | 1986 | dir. Chantal Akerman, with Sonia Wieder-Atherton | in French with English Subtitles | 7 mins
Commissioned for the centenary of the famous French architect and designer Robert Mallet-Stevens and shot on the street that bears his name in Paris’ 16th arrondissement, Rue Mallet-Stevens depicts a mysterious, nocturnal scene of romance (featuring Akerman and her partner, the cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton) unfolding before and inside one of the street’s modernist constructions.
