Presented by, “Lisez l’Europe–the meeting place for European books“, with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute of Montréal. This film series consists of literary adaptations as well as films with a literary theme.
Lisez l’Europe consists of a group of European cultural institutions whose mission is to present a contemporary perspective on European literature in Montreal.
Please note that these films are shown in 3 different locations.Free admission, except for the September 22nd projection at the Cinémathèque québécoise (the Cinémathèque rates apply).
(Catalan film)
Saturday, September 22 2018, 7 pm, Cinémathèque Québécoise
Title: Incerta Glòria
Original version in Catalan with French subtitles.
Adaptation of: Incerta Glòria (Uncertain Glory), the most famous work of Catalan writer, poet, translator and publisher Joan Sales. He is also the co-founder oft he publishing house Club Editor, which has published several emblematic works of contemporary Catalan literature, and has been the promotor of the magazine Quaderns de l’exili (Exile notebooks).
Film director: Agustí Villaronga.
Director’s biography: Agustí Villaronga began his professional career as a professor of image science, film critic and artistic director of a theater, while at the same time pursuing an acting career. After making several short films, in 1986 he presents his first feature film Tras el cristal. His filmography is marked by works generally far from commercial channels. He won several Goya awards for his works.
Film duration: 115 minutes.
Public: Not recommended for children under the age of 12.
Film summary: the Battlefields of Aragon, 1937. Lluís, a young Republican soldier, falls under the spell of Carlana, a widow who does not hesitate to use him to become the most powerful woman in the canton. Very quickly, Lluís’ best friend discovers what is happening. An adaptation of the work of Joan Sales anchored in the dark context of the civil war, which tells us another war, intimate and moral.
(Portuguese film)
Monday September 24 2018, 6:30 pm, Goethe-Institut Montreal
Title: Os Maias: Cenas da Vida Romântica
Original version in Portuguese with French subtitles.
Based on the 19th century novel Os Maias by the Portuguese writer Eça de Queirós.
Masterpiece of the Portuguese writer, this naturalist fresco is compared to Zola and Thomas Mann.
Film director: João Botelho.
Director’s biography: João Botelho is a Portuguese director and screenwriter. He regularly draws on classical literary works in his work. His films have won several awards.
Film duration: 135 minutes.
Film summary: The tragi-comedy of Carlos’ life begins, continues and ends as that of Portugal. In the company of his close friend, João da Ega, a supposedly brilliant writer, Carlos, who leads an idle life as an aristocratic doctor, spends his time enjoying his friends and having adventures. Until he falls in love. She is a new character in this revolutionary novel. It is a vertiginous passion that goes beyond the gloom of the past to reach a new and darker abyss, incest.
(Italian film)
September 26 2018, 6:30 pm, Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal
Title: La solitudine dei numeri primi (2010)
Original version in Italian with English subtitles.
Adaptation of the novel of the same name by Paolo Giordano, published in 2008.
Born in 1982 in Turin, Giordano received the prestigious Strega Prize for La solitudine dei numeri primi in 2008, becoming the youngest winner of this award.
Film director: Saverio Costanzo
Director’s biography: An Italian film director, he is the son of journalist and TV presenter Maurizio Costanzo. His debut film, Privato, won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2004. La solitudine dei numeri primi was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.
Film duration: 114 minutes
Audience: General
Film summary: Franco-German-Italian collaboration, released in 2010. The film traces the difficult and solitary journey of Alice and Mattia through four moments of their life, in 1984, 1991, 1998, and 2007. It’s a love story influenced by the codes of giallo*.
* The giallo is a kind of exploitation film, mainly Italian, bordering on detective cinema, horror cinema and eroticism, which had its heyday in the years 1960 to 1980.
(French film)
September 27 2018, 6:30 pm, Goethe-Institut Montreal
Title: Rosalie Blum
Original version in French.
Adaptation of Camille Jourdy’s graphic novel.
Camille Jourdy, born in 1979 in Chenove, is an illustrator, screenwriter and author of French comics.
Film director: Julien Rappeneau
Director’s biography: Julien Rappeneau is a French screenwriter. He is the son of director Jean-Paul Rappeneau. He has 13 years of career and 17 films.
Film duration: 95 minutes.
Audience: General
Movie summary: Vincent Machot knows his life by heart. He shares it between his hairdresser, his cousin, his cat, and his mother, who is too invasive. But life sometimes has surprises, even for the most cautious… His path crosses that of Rosalie Blum, a mysterious and lonely woman, whom he is convinced to have already met. But where? Intrigued, he decides to follow her everywhere, hoping to find out more. He does not suspect that this sleuthing will lead him into an adventure filled with the unexpected, where he will discover characters as fantastic as endearing. One thing is certain: Vincent Machot’s life will change…
(Spanish film)
September 28 2018, 6:30 pm, Goethe-Institut Montreal
Title: La Novia
Original version in Spanish with French subtitles.
Adaptation of: Bodas de Sangre (Federico García Lorca).
Blood Wedding (Bodas de Sangre) is one of the central plays of the work of Federico García Lorca. Drama inspired by the traditional life of the Andalusian villages, this piece traces the tragic story of an impossible but irrepressible passion, in the closed society of a small village.
Film director: Paula Ortiz
Director’s biography: Paula Ortiz is a Spanish director, screenwriter and producer. She studied film at New York University and the University of California in Los Angeles.
Film duration: 93 minutes.
Audience: General
Film summary: Since childhood, Leonardo, the boyfriend and the girlfriend have formed an inseparable triangle, but when the date of the wedding approaches, things get complicated because between her and Leonardo there has always been something more than friendship. The growing tension between the two is like an invisible thread that cannot be explained, but it cannot break either.
(Austro-German film)
September 29 2018, 6:30 pm, Goethe-Institut Montreal
Title: Die Fälscher
Original version in German with French subtitles.
The story is inspired by Operation Bernhard, a Nazi secret operation during the Second World War to print and flood Britain with fake pound sterling. The story was taken from the memoirs of Adolf Burger, a Slovak Jewish printer involved in Operation Bernhard who survived the Holocaust.
Film director: Stefan Ruzowitzky.
Director’s biography: Stefan Ruzowitzky is an Austrian film director and scriptwriter. He studied drama and art history at the University of Vienna. His film “The Counterfeiters” won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007.
Duration: 98 minutes.
Audience: 16 years +
Film summary: Berlin 1936: Solomon “Sally” Sorowitsch, an exceptional forger, is arrested and sent to a concentration camp. In 1942, he leaves Mauthausen and is sent to supervise a team of Jewish printers, illustrators, bankers and typographers in the Sachsenhausen camp to make counterfeit notes (pounds sterling and dollars). The group is then torn between the desire to save their skin by collaborating and that of sabotaging the Nazi operation.