Tough & Tender: The Films of Gérard Depardieu August 3 – 19, 2007
At a certain moment in European cinema, in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, a new sensibility clicked into place: politically forthright yet disenchanted with the romanticism and fervor of the ‘60s, far from hopeless but just as far from optimistic. A new, adult world––frank, open and apt to go a little crazy. And if there was one screen presence who embodied the many contradictory impulses and moods of this era, one of the most creative in moviemaking, it was Gérard Depardieu, former delinquent, patient of the legendary psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and apparently effortless actor. For an array of filmmakers as diverse as Alain Resnais, François Truffaut, Bertrand Blier, Maurice Pialat, André Téchiné, Marguerite Duras and many, many others, Depardieu became the new European man, though in multiple colors and variations. He was neurotic and inwardly berserk for Truffaut, Resnais and Téchiné, all sensual impulse and unconscious forward motion for Pialat and Blier. And he has brought the work of countless other filmmakers to vivid life with his instinctual genius and fearless, adventuresome spirit.
This is not a complete retrospective. Depardieu, one of the busiest men in show business, has made somewhere in the neighborhood of 170 films, with several, for the moment, unavailable. This is, nevertheless, a healthy portion of his work. It's a good chance to discover (or see again) the poetry of one of the cinema’s most magical actors. Our special Series Pass ($40 for the public, $30 for Film Society members ~ only available for purchase at the Walter Reade Theater box office) admits one person to five titles in the series.
Presented with the support of the French Cultural Services
