(L-R): Fifi Martingale, Adieu Philippine, Near Orouët, Maine-Océan Express, and The Castaways of Turtle Island

“I was lucky and so excited to discover [Jacques Rozier’s] Adieu Philippine earlier this year
in France, because it is very little known and not available in the U.S.
It’s my new favorite French New Wave film.”
– Richard Linklater

New York, NY (July 15, 2024) – Film at Lincoln Center and Janus Films announce “Jacques Rozier: Chronicler of Summer,” a retrospective of the French New Wave filmmaker’s influential career, featuring all five of his features and a selection of short films. The series will be presented at FLC from August 16 through August 22 and will premiere several new restorations of Rozier’s signature works, including 4K restorations of Near Orouët (1971) and Maine-Océan Express (1986).

It is well-established that the French New Wave forever changed our understanding of what a film could be, playing with both the medium’s formal conventions and Hollywood’s immortal iconography to produce some of cinema’s most stylish and enduringly influential works. Yet, for as large as such figures as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, and Éric Rohmer loom within standard accounts of this incomparably fertile period of film history, less well-known are the works of their contemporary Jacques Rozier, whose 1962 debut feature, Adieu Philippine, was a particular cause for the critic-iconoclasts of Cahiers du Cinéma. 

Across five idiosyncratic, episodic features, and an assortment of fiction and documentary short films, Rozier distinguished himself from his peers through his fixation on the idea of vacations as theatrical staging grounds upon which his magnetic actors could play and simply be, making him something like a more lighthearted (though no less complex) counterpart to his fellow New Waver, Jacques Rivette. It is remarkable that Rozier’s influence has been so profoundly felt considering how rarely his singular films have screened outside of France. 

Born in Paris in 1926, Rozier was at the forefront of the French New Wave movement of the late 1950s and 1960s, and was considered one of the last living contemporaries of that time until his death in 2023. After his first feature, Adieu Philippine (1962), was recognized as “quite simply the best French film of recent years” by fellow New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard upon its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Rozier returned to the festival in 1971 to debut his second film Near Orouët / Du côté d’Orouët. Rozier followed this up with two more vacation comedies, The Castaways of Turtle Island / Les naufragés de l’île de la Tortue (1976) and Maine-Océan Express / Maine-Océan (1986), the former focusing on the plans of two scheming travel agents and the latter following the dynamics of travelers themselves. Fifteen years later, his fifth and final film, Fifi Martingale, one of the funniest depictions of the theater ever committed to celluloid, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2001. In addition to his five feature films and an array of shorts, Rozier also directed a number of French television shows and a music video throughout his varied career. 

On the occasion of an assortment of new restorations of his signature films, Film at Lincoln Center presents a long overdue (and appropriately summer-set) retrospective dedicated to this unheralded legend of French cinema.

Organized by Florence Almozini and Dan Sullivan. Presented in collaboration with Janus Films.

Acknowledgements:
Emilie Cauquy (Cinémathèque Française), Richard Linklater.

Tickets will go on sale on Tuesday, July 16 at 2pm, with an early access period for FLC Members starting Tuesday, July 16 at noon. Tickets are $17; $14 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $12 for FLC Members. See more and save with a 3+ Film Package ($15 for GP; $12 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $10 for FLC Members).

FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
All films will screen at the Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th Street). 

*New 2K Restoration
Adieu Philippine
Jacques Rozier, 1962, France, 110m
French with English subtitles
In his bold yet playful feature debut—an overlooked gem of the French New Wave—Jacques Rozier satirizes several major cultural currents of early-1960s France: political blindness, romantic escapism, and commercial corruption. Young Michel (Jean-Claude Aimini) works as a camera technician for a television studio, where he meets two would-be actresses, Liliane (Yveline Céry) and Juliette (Stefania Sabatini). The duo’s demeaning work in advertising allows them to connect Michel with an unscrupulous director (Vittorio Caprioli), who subsequently stiffs him on a job. Fed up with their exploitative industry, Michel, Liliane, and Juliette head to Corsica for a holiday and to track down the director—all while a developing love triangle strains the girls’ friendship. With confidence and panache, Rozier expertly employs documentary-style shooting, improvisational acting (among a mostly nonprofessional cast), and kinetic montage sequences to capture the disparity between blithe youth and the societal pressures—especially Michel’s imminent military service in Algeria—that threaten its innocence. A Janus Films release.
Friday, August 16 at 6:00pm
Saturday, August 17 at 2:00pm
Sunday, August 18 at 8:15pm
Monday, August 19 at 3:30pm
Tuesday, August 20 at 9:00pm
Wednesday, August 21 at 6:00pm
Thursday, August 22 at 4:15pm

*New 4K Restoration
Near Orouët / Du côté d’Orouët
Jacques Rozier, 1971, France, 160m
French with English subtitles
In early September, three young Parisians—Caroline (Caroline Cartier), her cousin Kareen (Françoise Guégan), and Joëlle (Danièle Croisy)—travel to the sparsely populated oceanside town of Orouët for a carefree holiday. At the house of Caroline’s mother, the trio soon take in Joëlle’s boss Gilbert (Bernard Ménez), and romantic complications inevitably ensue: ever the schlemiel, Gilbert suffers subtle humiliations at the women’s hands in order to remain close to Joëlle, his crush, while Joëlle develops feelings for Patrick (Patrick Verde), a handsome, sporty neighbor who in turn flirts with Kareen. Rozier constructs his love triangle (or, rather, square) without an ounce of melodrama, focusing as much on the vacation’s languorous atmosphere—and its giddy effect on the friends’ inside jokes and childish slapstick—as on the slow-burn plot. Perfectly capturing both the liberating promise and the melancholic effervescence of summer, Near Orouët is a minor masterpiece of the post–New Wave era and a beautiful meditation on the fleeting nature of youth, love, and time. A Janus Films release.
Saturday, August 17 at 4:30pm
Tuesday, August 20 at 3:00pm
Wednesday, August 21 at 8:30pm 

*New 2K Restoration
The Castaways of Turtle Island / Les naufragés de l’île de la Tortue
Jacques Rozier, 1976, France, 140m
French with English subtitles
Having set his first two features at seaside holidays, Rozier used the third, The Castaways of Turtle Island, to mock the tourist industry and the “going native” movement, increasingly popular among first-world vacationers. Things quickly go south when travel agents Jean-Arthur (Pierre Richard) and Joël (Maurice Risch) offer a “fend for yourself” getaway on a deserted island, with their agency making them accompany clients through deep jungle and across barely charted waters to reach a destination that could give Robinson Crusoe a run for his money. Joël enlists younger brother Bernard (Jacques Villeret) to go in his place, but Jean-Arthur isn’t so lucky and soon devolves into a semi-mad purist who will settle for nothing less than the ultimate in survivalist adventure. Meanwhile, a motley crew of sightseers becomes divided over how real this shipwreck holiday should be. Far ahead of its time in its satirical targets and its mixing of disparate narrative tones, Turtle Island is a hilarious comic send-up that could only have emerged from Rozier’s puckish imagination. A Janus Films release.
Sunday, August 18 at 3:00pm
Monday, August 19 at 8:45pm 

*New 4K Restoration
Maine-Océan Express / Maine-Océan
Jacques Rozier, 1986, France, 130m
French, Portuguese, and Spanish with English subtitles
By land, by sea, by air… In Rozier’s quirkiest comedy, a Brazilian dancer’s (Rosa-Maria Gomes) invalid train ticket for a journey from Paris to Saint-Nazaire sparks a shaggy-dog story that encompasses the adventures of a quick-tempered boatman (Yves Afonso), his highfalutin attorney (Lydia Feld), a scheming talent agent (Pedro Armendáriz Jr.), and several other memorable characters as they converge and disperse via various modes of transportation throughout a series of unpredictable coincidences. With the boundlessness of human adaptability as its lodestar, Maine-Océan Express covers a delirious swath of narrative ground, including the roundabout path that returns a hapless train conductor (Bernard Ménez) to his duties after he joins an impromptu samba session and nearly becomes “the next Maurice Chevalier.” Applying his long-take shooting style to a plot of episodic, anarchic zaniness, Rozier once more proves himself a master of making the patently absurd appear completely realistic, and vice versa. A Janus Films release.
Saturday, August 17 at 8:00pm
Monday, August 19 at 6:00pm
Thursday, August 22 at 1:30pm

*New 2K Restoration
Fifi Martingale
Jacques Rozier, 2001, France, 127m
French with English subtitles
Rozier’s final film is a joyful compendium of his major themes and strategies as well as one of the funniest depictions of the theater ever committed to celluloid. When a director (Mike Marshall) decides—out of pure superstition—to overhaul his play after a successful six-month run, he unwittingly instigates changes that appear to doom the production. Enter, by pure coincidence, Gaston (Jean Lefebvre)—a friend of the star, Fifi (Lydia Feld as Lili Vonderfeld), and the possessor of a near-perfect memory that allows him to quickly assume one of the major roles. Everything seems to fall into place until Gaston gambles his advance to raise money for his own struggling theatrical company, loses his recall abilities, and becomes the target of revenge by the man he replaced onstage (Yves Afonso). Filled to the brim with punning wordplay, theatrical allusions, and the delicious chaos of backstage maneuvering, Fifi Martingale is perhaps Rozier’s finest comedic take on the wild digressions and nick-of-time improvisations that comprise both art and life. A Janus Films release.
Sunday, August 18 at 5:45pm
Tuesday, August 20 at 6:30pm

Rozier Shorts Program

*New 2K Restoration
Blue Jeans
Jacques Rozier, 1957, France, 22m
An inventive, breezy sketch that feels like a study for Rozier’s feature debut Adieu Philippine, Blue Jeans captures the flirtatious follies that ensue between four teenagers on the beaches of Cannes. A Janus Films release.

*New 2K Restoration
Bardot, Godard: Le parti des choses
Jacques Rozier, 1963, France, 10m
A behind-the-scenes documentary as only Rozier could make, this film finds him tagging along with Jean-Luc Godard, Brigitte Bardot, and Michel Piccoli as they arrive in Capri to film Godard’s seminal Contempt (1963). A Janus Films release.

*New 2K Restoration
Paparazzi
Jacques Rozier, 1963, France, 22m
Another look at life behind the scenes of the filming of Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt in Capri, Paparazzi finds Rozier turning his camera on the pesky photographers who simply will not leave Brigitte Bardot alone. A Janus Films release.

In Vogue / Dans le vent
Jacques Rozier, 1963, France, 8m
Ever a chronicler of his times, In Vogue finds Rozier (and DP Willy Kurant) hitting the pavement in Paris, documenting the latest fashion trends to take hold in the City of Lights. Featuring a score by none other than Serge Gainsbourg.

Roméos et Jupettes
Jacques Rozier, 1966, France, 11m
In this clever, digressive comic miniature—a striking transitional work for Rozier—three young readers write into a women’s magazine for advice on matters of the heart.

Marketing Mix
Jacques Rozier, 1979, France, 15m
A young, ambitious, and comically naive business school graduate takes a job as a sales rep and aims to ascend the corporate ladder as quickly as possible by way of a new marketing strategy.
Friday, August 16 at 8:30pm
Sunday, August 18 at 1:00pm
Wednesday, August 21 at 4:00pm

JANUS FILMS
Founded in 1956, Janus Films was the first theatrical distribution company dedicated to bringing international art-house films to U.S. audiences. Janus handles rights in all media to an extensive library that ranges from classics by Michelangelo Antonioni, Věra Chytilová, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, Ousmane Sembène, and Agnès Varda to major works by contemporary masters like Jim Jarmusch, Lucrecia Martel, and Wong Kar Wai. Its recent releases have included a record-breaking retrospective of the films of Edward Yang, as well as contemporary titles including Hlynur Pálmason’s GODLAND and RYUICHI SAKAMOTO: OPUS. Janus Films partnered with Sideshow in 2021 on the release of Academy Award® winner DRIVE MY CAR, and Academy Award® nominee EO from director Jerzy Skolimowski. Currently with Sideshow, they have Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s EVIL DOES NOT EXIST and Catherine Breillat’s LAST SUMMER.

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER
Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) is a nonprofit organization that celebrates cinema as an essential art form and fosters a vibrant home for film culture to thrive. FLC presents premier film festivals, retrospectives, new releases, and restorations year-round in state-of-the-art theaters at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. FLC offers audiences the opportunity to discover works from established and emerging directors from around the world with a passionate community of film lovers at marquee events including the New York Film Festival and New Directors/New Films.  

Founded in 1969, FLC is committed to preserving the excitement of the theatrical experience for all audiences, advancing high-quality film journalism through the publication of Film Comment, cultivating the next generation of film industry professionals through our FLC Academies, and enriching the lives of all who engage with our programs. 

Film at Lincoln Center receives generous, year-round support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. For more information, visit filmlinc.org and follow @filmlinc on X and Instagram.

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