Julien Duvivier: Poetic Craftsman of Cinema

10/2/09 to 10/31/09

“This great technician, this rigorist, was a poet,” Jean Renoir said of his countryman Julien Duvivier. Encompassing an astounding array of genres and featuring extremely rare works as well as favorites like Pépé le Moko, this retrospective is a chance to discover a master of French poetic realism.

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  • Pépé le Moko, October 8, 9

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • The Whirlwind of Paris

    Friday, October 2 6:30 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1927). Judith Rosenberg on piano. This rare silent features Lil Dagover, a star of German Expressionist cinema, as an opera singer who becomes restless in her marriage and longs to return to the Parisian stage. (108 mins)
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  • Poil de Carotte

    Friday, October 2 8:50 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1932). Duvivier's favorite among his own films is a poignant portrait of a lonely farm boy, a “classic chronicle of childhood.”-Lenny Borger (91 mins)
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  • La vie miraculeuse de Thérèse Martin

    Sunday, October 4 4:00 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1929). Judith Rosenberg on piano. A stark and striking biography of sainted Carmelite nun Thérèse de Lisieux. (113 mins)
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  • Pépé le Moko

    Thursday, October 8 6:30 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1937). Duvivier's most influential film stars Jean Gabin as a suave Parisian jewel thief who eludes capture by taking refuge in the Casbah. “I cannot remember (a picture) which has succeeded so admirably in raising the thriller to a poetic level.”-Graham Greene (94 mins)
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  • Au bonheur des dames

    Friday, October 9 6:30 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1930). Judith Rosenberg on piano. Depicting the life of a Parisian department store and a small shop trying to survive in its shadow, Duvivier's final silent film is “an orgy of pure cinema (and an) alternately sincere and cynical hymn to capitalist endeavor.”-Village Voice (c. 85 mins)
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  • Pépé le Moko

    Friday, October 9 8:30 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1937). See October 8. (94 mins)
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  • Allo Berlin? Ici Paris!

    Wednesday, October 14 7:00 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France/Germany, 1932). Young switchboard operators in Paris and Berlin flirt across telephone lines, national borders, and romance languages in this celebration of continental cosmopolitanism between the wars. A major rediscovery that reveals Duvivier's lighter, more experimental side. (89 mins)
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  • La bandera

    Friday, October 16 6:30 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1935). Duvivier's sensuous and brooding Foreign Legion melodrama made Jean Gabin a star. “It looks like an exquisite newsreel taken away and baked brown to give you the feel of the air.”-Alistair Cooke (100 mins)
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  • The Great Waltz

    Saturday, October 17 5:15 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1938). Duvivier made his Hollywood debut with this opulent MGM musical, a symphony of lavish set pieces depicting the romantic early years of composer Johann Strauss. (103 mins)
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  • La belle équipe

    Sunday, October 18 5:00 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1936). Made in an era of political and social tumult, Duvivier's film uses beautifully fluid camerawork, pastoral settings, and popular song to trace five workers' efforts to rise out of poverty. Jean Gabin leads the ensemble cast. (101 mins)
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  • La fin du jour

    Wednesday, October 21 7:00 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1938). One of French cinema's most poignant, and caustic, portraits of the world of theater depicts an old-age home for destitute actors who wistfully relive their past triumphs and defeats. With Michel Simon, Louis Jouvet, Victor Francen, and other greats. (100 mins)
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  • La tête d'un homme

    Saturday, October 24 6:30 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1933). Harry Baur stars in “one of the first great screen incarnations of Georges Simenon's famous sleuth, Inspector Maigret. . . . Both a classic film noir and a seminal police procedural.”-Lenny Borger (98 mins)
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  • Anna Karenina

    Sunday, October 25 3:00 pm
    Julien Duvivier (U.K., 1948). Vivien Leigh stars in Duvivier's lavish adaptation of Tolstoy's novel. This gorgeous print highlights Henri Alekan's moodily atmospheric cinematography. (111 mins)
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  • Holiday for Henrietta

    Thursday, October 29 6:30 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1952). Two screenwriters dispute the fate of their charming heroine in this enchanting classic that sends up the clash between comedy and drama. (118 mins)
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  • Deadlier Than the Male

    Friday, October 30 8:25 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1956). Danièle Delorme plays the quintessential femme fatale, hooking restaurateur Jean Gabin, in “Duvivier's darkest study of moral depravity.”-Lenny Borger (114 mins)
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  • Pot-Bouille

    Saturday, October 31 6:30 pm
    Julien Duvivier (France, 1957). Adapting a Zola novel, Duvivier creates a scintillating satire of the Second Empire bourgeoisie. The sterling cast is headed by Gérard Philipe and Danielle Darrieux. (115 mins)
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