Film Screenings / Programs / Series
THE MIDDLE AGES ON FILM
April 11 – June 9
April 11-27 & May 22-June 9, 2013
This spring, in collaboration with medieval scholar Martha Driver, Anthology presents Parts 1 & 2 of a multi-part series focusing on films that depict the Middle Ages. A chronologically and geographically diverse selection – from SANSHO THE BAILIFF (1954) to JOAN THE MAID (1994), and from SALADIN (Egypt) and LEGEND OF SURAM FORTRESS (Georgia) to ROBIN AND MARION (UK) and THE VIRGIN SPRING (Sweden) – this survey demonstrates the rich history of the cinema’s encounters with this fascinating era, one that is near enough for its people, societies, and cultures to be in some ways recognizable, but remote enough that depictions of them can be as strange as something out of science fiction.
One way or another, the Middle Ages have inflamed the imaginations of a wide variety of filmmakers, who have been inspired to create some of their most extraordinary films. The plethora of worthy medieval-themed works has meant that we’ve split the series into multiple parts – this calendar we’ll be devoting one section (April) to films that portray historical figures or events, and another to movies adapting medieval myths or works of literature (May). And stay tuned for more this fall, including a focus on King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable!
“To characterize the fluid content of medieval texts, the critic Paul Zumthor used the term ‘mouvance’. The team means, alive, ‘moving’, unfixed. Zumthor described medieval literature as a ‘sequence of productions’. Like retellings of stories of the Crusades or of Joan of Arc or Tristan and Isolt on film, medieval texts are multi-valenced and often open-ended, familiar tales told and retold in a range of versions across time, in many cultures and in many languages. Like film, medieval literature and art were collaboratively produced, with authors like Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio drawing on rich sources of folktale and earlier narrative to tell their stories. In 1934, the art historian Erwin Panofsky famously compared the making of movies to the building of a medieval cathedral, noting that both enterprises were the product of group effort: ‘It might be said that a film, called into being by a cooperative effort in which all contributions have the same degree of permanence, is the nearest modern equivalent of a medieval cathedral; the role of the producer corresponding, more or less, to that of a bishop or archbishop; that of the director to that of the architect in chief; that of the scenario writers to that of the scholastic advisors establishing the iconographical program; and that of the actors, cameramen, cutters, sound men, makeup men and the divers technicians to that of those whose work provided the physical entity of the finished product.’ The films with medieval themes in the first two series presented this spring at Anthology Film Archives are monuments, too, some of them seldom seen but all well worth a visit.” –Martha W. Driver, Pace University
Curated in collaboration with Martha Driver, Distinguished Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at Pace University, and the co-editor (with Sid Ray) of THE MEDIEVAL HERO ON SCREEN and SHAKESPEARE AND THE MIDDLE AGES (McFarland & Co.).
Special thanks to Sara Driver, Brian Belovarac (Janus Films), Chris Chouinard (Park Circus), Marine Goulois (Les Films du Losange), Florence Hugues (Pierre Grise Productions), Christopher Lane & Michael Horne (Sony), Mona Nagai & Jon Shibata (Pacific Film Archive), Gary Palmucci (Kino), John Poole, Jr. (Corinth Films), Caitlin Robertson & Joe Reid (20th Century Fox), Jerome Rudes (LVT Laser Subtitling), Delphine Selles-Alvarez & Laura Pertuy (Cultural Services of the French Embassy), and John Sinno (Arab Film Distribution).
Unless otherwise noted, all film descriptions are by Martha Driver.
HISTORICAL FIGURES/EVENTS
Youssef Chahine
SALADIN / EL NASER SALAH EL DINE
1963, 145 min, 35mm-to-video. In Arabic with English subtitles.
An Egyptian blockbuster and the most expensive Arabic film ever made, SALADIN tells the 12th-century story of Saladin during the Third Crusade. Providing a counterpoint to Western Crusade movies, SALADIN portrays the Arabs as moral victims of Western colonialism in the Holy Land. The historical Saladin insured safe passage of pilgrims of all faiths; a Crusader attack on a group of merchants that precipitated the battle of Hattin is transformed by Chahine into the slaughter of religious pilgrims en route to Mecca. The screenplay was written in part by Naguib Mahfouz, who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for fiction.
Thurs, April 11 at 7:00, Mon, April 15 at 7:30, and Fri, April 26 at 7:30
Andrei Tarkovsky
ANDREI RUBLEV
1966, 205 minutes, 35mm. In Russian with English subtitles.
COMPLETE DIRECTOR’S CUT!
Set in the fifteenth century, ANDREI RUBLEV presents eight scenes from the life of one of Russia’s greatest icon painters (about whom little is actually known) and concludes with photographs of images of the objects the historical Rublev actually made. The film is a parable of the struggle of a creative artist in a repressive society and has been read by some Western critics as reflective of Tarkovsky’s own struggles to make movies under the Soviet regime.“ANDREI RUBLEV is itself more an icon than a movie about an icon painter. (Perhaps it should be seen as a “moving icon”, in the same sense that the Lumière brothers made “moving pictures”.) This is a portrait of an artist in which no one lifts a brush. The patterns are God’s, a close-up of spilled paint swirling into pond water or the clods of dirt Rublev flings against a whitewashed wall. But no movie has ever attached greater significance to the artist’s role. It’s as though Rublev’s presence justifies creation.” –J. Hoberman, CRITERION COLLECTION
Fri, April 12 at 7:00, Sun, April 14 at 4:30, and Sat, April 27 at 6:30
Robert Bresson
THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC / PROCÈS DE JEANNE D’ARC
1962, 65 minutes, 35mm. In French with English subtitles.
Bresson’s version of the story of Joan of Arc opens with Joan’s parents requesting that the Church reconsider its condemnation and then moves to a flashback of her trial and death at the stake. Bresson’s story is drawn from the published historical records of Joan’s trial and uses, as Bresson said, “historical words…to find a non-historical truth.” Film critic Barthélemy Amengual has described Bresson’s Joan as both inflexible and assured, as a woman warrior who “defends herself and even attacks.”
Sat, April 13 at 3:00 and Tues, April 16 at 9:00
Jacques Rivette
JOAN THE MAID / JEANNE LA PUCELLE
1994, Part I: 160 min / Part II: 176 min, 35mm. In French with English subtitles.
Almost six hours long, Rivette’s film begins with Joan’s decisive victory for the French at Orleans, details her journey with the dauphin to his crowning at Rheims, her subsequent capture and trial, and finally her death. The film combines documentary with reenactment footage, and uses clips of talking heads of the actors and actresses who play the role of witnesses giving their testimonies, which are drawn from the transcript of Joan’s rehabilitation trial.“[P]erhaps the only movie that offers a plausible portrait of what the 15th-century teenager who led the French into battle was actually like. […] As Joan, Sandrine Bonnaire, who’s seldom been better, gives a singular poignancy to the line ‘I know what I must do, but at times I don’t know how.’ For his part, Rivette seems to know what he’s doing every step of the way.” –Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER
Part I: Sat, April 13 at 4:45 and Wed, April 17 at 7:00
Part II: Sat, April 13 at 8:00 and Thurs, April 18 at 7:00
John Huston
A WALK WITH LOVE AND DEATH
1969, 90 min, 35mm
Set in France during the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) between France and England, Huston’s film examines the fragility of romantic love against a backdrop of violence and warfare. Loosely based on the 1358 revolt of French peasants (and drawn from Hans Koningsberger’s 1961 novel of the same title), Huston’s classic antiwar film marks the debut of Anjelica Huston.
Sun, April 14 at 8:30 and Tues, April 16 at 7:00
MEDIEVAL LITERATURE/LEGEND
Pier Paolo Pasolini
THE DECAMERON
1971, 112 min, 35mm. In Italian with English subtitles.
The best version of Boccaccio’s classic collection of medieval stories ever made, this film retains the sexiness, impudence, and hilarity of the original. Pasolini himself turns up as the painter’s assistant in the fifth story told on day six, a debate between the historical jurist and politician Forese da Rabatta and Giotto, the most important Italian painter of the fourteenth century.“Taking 10 tales out of the 100 in Boccaccio’s DECAMERON, Pasolini has created one of the most beautiful, turbulent, and uproarious panoramas of early Renaissance life ever put on film.” –Vincent Canby, NEW YORK TIMES
Wed, May 22 at 6:45, Sun, May 26 at 8:45, and Thurs, May 30 at 6:30
Sergei Paradjanov
LEGEND OF SURAM FORTRESS
1986, 88 min, 35mm. In Georgian with English subtitles.
“After films set in the 19th and 18th centuries, this one goes all the way back to the Middle Ages, and medieval art, theater, and literature form much of the basis of the style here. While the frontal shooting style of THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES is partially echoed, a deeper use of space and a much more expansive use of landscape makes the visual style closer to tapestries than to icons.” –Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER
Wed, May 22 at 9:15, Mon, May 27 at 7:00, and Mon, June 3 at 9:15
Ingmar Bergman
THE VIRGIN SPRING
1960, 89 min, 35mm. In Swedish with English subtitles.
Set in thirteenth-century Sweden, this film concerns the rape and death of a young girl, her father’s vengeance, and finally his redemption. The script is based on the Swedish ballad “Töre of Vänge’s Daughters” (or “Per Tyrsson’s daughters in Vänge”). Along with Bergman’s SEVENTH SEAL, this film has elements of “medieval noir”, in which film noir is linked “to the apocalyptic and millennial discourses associated with the Middle Ages” (John M. Ganim, “Medieval Noir: Anatomy of a Metaphor,” in Anke Bernau & Bettina Bildhauer’s MEDIEVAL FILM). Both are widely considered to be among the best of films with medieval themes.
Thurs, May 23 at 7:00 and Mon, May 27 at 9:00
Kenji Mizoguchi
SANSHO THE BAILIFF
1954, 124 min, 35mm. In Japanese with English subtitles.
“Mizoguchi’s packed compositions express the harrowing pull of the narrative line – and the residual humanity that tugs against it. Every positive action in this movie has an opposite reaction, leaving an increment of glory in defeat. […] The movie explores the strengths and the tenuousness of family ties in scenes that are freshets of feeling. In Mizoguchi, as in Faulkner, the past isn’t dead – as Faulkner said, ‘It’s not even past.’ When Sansho sees the freed and elevated Zushio, he exclaims, ‘It’s like a fairy tale! A slave becoming a governor!’ But in this fairy tale no one lives happily ever after. Terrifying and cathartic, SANSHO THE BAILIFF is a morality play without easy moralism.” –Michael Sragow, CRITERION COLLECTION
Thurs, May 23 at 9:00, Tues, May 28 at 6:45, and Thurs, May 30 at 9:00
Richard Lester
ROBIN AND MARIAN
1976, 106 min, 35mm
Lester’s film tells the later history of the legendary outlaw Robin Hood. Rather than portraying him as an energetic (and perpetual) youth, this film presents a man who has faced disappointment and is scarred from his years of warfare with Richard the Lionheart in the Holy Land. After twenty years of fighting, Robin Hood returns to Sherwood to reunite with Maid Marion who is now an abbess. ROBIN AND MARION fearlessly shows the death of the hero, a common representation in medieval and later texts of the Robin Hood story though not a feature in other films.
Fri, May 24 at 7:15, Tues, May 28 at 9:15, and Mon, June 3 at 6:45
Grigori Kozintsev
DON QUIXOTE
1957, 110 min, 35mm. In Russian with English subtitles.
“This masterful adaptation of Cervantes' novel features Nikolai Cherkasov (IVAN THE TERRIBLE) as Quixote, who is so impressed with tales of chivalry that he becomes a knight errant and takes up arms to defend the poor and oppressed. Kozintsev brings a great sense of color, spectacle, and comedy to the table, but preserves Don Quixote’s dignity.” –FACETS
Fri, May 24 at 9:30, Wed, May 29 at 9:00, and Tues, June 4 at 7:15
Eric Rohmer
CATHERINE DE HEILBRONN
1980 138 min, digital video. In French with English subtitles.
“Rohmer returned to THE MARQUISE OF O author Heinrich von Kleist for this gorgeous staging (from Rohmer’s own translation) of the author’s popular medieval play, performed at the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre in 1979 and filmed for French television. Pascale Ogier stars as the beautiful armourer’s daughter who becomes infatuated with a gallant knight and leaves home to follow him, whereupon she finds herself in the crosshairs of a jealous rival, Kunigunde de Thurneck (played by frequent Rohmer muse Arielle Dombasle).” –Film Society of Lincoln Center
Sat, May 25 at 4:15 and Sun, June 9 at 5:30
Kaneto Shindo
ONIBABA
1964, 103 min, 35mm. In Japanese with English subtitles.
“A creepy, interesting, and visually striking [film], set in the 16th century in the midst of a civil war, about two poor women who live in the marshes and support themselves by luring wounded samurai to their deaths and then selling their possessions. Things get more complicated when the partnership is threatened by the younger of the two women becoming romantically involved with a neighbor, and the film builds to a macabre and eerie climax.” –Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER
Sat, May 25 at 7:15, Sat, June 1 at 9:30, and Sun, June 9 at 8:30
Kaneto Shindo
KURONEKO
1968, 99 minutes, 35mm. In Japanese with English subtitles.
“As it slides between realism and extreme artifice, using cinematic and theatrical devices, KURONEKO becomes increasingly, pleasurably difficult to predict. It’s alternately abstract and down to earth, recognizable and strange, and consistently surprising. […] Using spare dialogue…Mr. Shindo creates a supernatural story that combines folkloric elements with social commentary and a touchingly sad love story.” –Manohla Dargis, NEW YORK TIMES
Sat, May 25 at 9:30, Wed, May 29 at 6:45, and Sun, June 2 at 8:30
Yvan Lagrange
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
1972, 60 min, 16mm. In French with projected English subtitles.
Lagrange’s TRISTAN AND ISOLDE cannot precisely be described as narrative. Episodes from the story of the doomed lovers are evoked though “images of violence and explicit eroticism.” Only Isolde speaks; the rest of the story is told through visual sequences that sometimes draw on medieval iconography, representing “the naked myth set beyond anecdotal tradition” (Jean Marcel, “Le Dernière métamorphose de Tristan: Yvan Lagrange”).
Sun, May 26 at 3:45 and Tues, June 4 at 9:30
Frantisek Vlácil
MARKETA LAZAROVA1967, 180 min, 35mm. In Czech with English subtitles. Archival print courtesy of Pacific Film Archive.
“In 1960s Czechoslovakia, historical themes provided a way in which controversial ideas could be smuggled onto the screen, but they had their own artistic raison d’être as well. Filmed under treacherous conditions in the mountains of southern Bohemia, MARKÉTA LAZAROVÁ plays out a parallel between barbarism and ‘civilized’ brutality in the 13th century with a dazzling visual sensibility and uncanny realism, both physical and psychological. Its achievement in dynamic, widescreen cinematography at the time was paralleled only by the Japanese and Soviet epic film styles. […] Vlácil creates a narrative that is more poetic than linear, like a dream of an ancient age.” –PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE
Sun, May 26 at 5:15
