Anthology Film Archives

Film Screenings / Programs / Retrospectives

A RISKY LIFE: LETTERS FROM JEAN-CLAUDE ROUSSEAU

June 26 – June 30

Since the 1980s, Jean-Claude Rousseau has created a quiet yet formidable body of lyrically materialist films, forged from the substance and habits of his solitary and deliberate life. Starting without a subject or a script, Rousseau trains his vision on himself, the things he finds around him, and the places he dwells in or passes through – whether it’s in France, Italy, Japan, New York, often in the liminal space of hotel rooms – and out of this accumulation of cinematographic matter he fashions his films, ordering these blocks together with profound respect for the singularity of time and space contained in each durational shot. For Rousseau, it’s not about seeking, but finding, and nothing he finds is taken for granted: the most everyday view from a window or the minutest relation of sound and image can be a site of explosive discovery. “In each stroke I risk my life” – this is a phrase often heard from Rousseau, a quotation from Paul Cézanne. The apparent modesty of this method extends to his choice of formats: his early work was shot in Super-8mm, while his films since the early 2000s have been exclusively made on video. While the scope and means of his films couldn’t be slighter, the object of Rousseau’s cinema is nothing less than the mystery of movement, time, color, and light. And for all its ascetic rigor, there is a latent, lingering romanticism to everything he’s made, founded in his love for popular cinema and old sentimental music.

In this rare and long-overdue series, we are proud to present the entirety of Rousseau’s Super-8mm output for the first time in New York, the majority of which will screen on imported 16mm prints directly from the filmmaker, while his first film, JEUNE FEMME À SA FENÊTRE LISANT UNE LETTRE, will be shown via a new 2K DCP. Also in the program are two films shot on video, including the 2022 short WELCOME, the most recent work he’s made in New York, where he’s lived sporadically during his life (and where he’s been a frequent patron of Anthology Film Archives). Finally, as a counterpoint to Rousseau’s own films, we offer a screening of RUGGLES OF RED GAP by Leo McCarey, a director who, for Rousseau, rivals Robert Bresson in importance.

Guest-programmed by Edward McCarry, co-founder of The Theater of the Matters. The Theater of the Matters is a film screening troupe and publication dedicated to films “lost in the cosmos” and “found on a scrap heap.” For more info visit: theaterofthematters.com

Special thanks to Jean-Claude Rousseau, Carlos Saldaña, and Hannah Yang (Doc Films).

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