French film series comes to Violet Crown
‘Summer in Paris’ will feature 8 classic movies
In his first program for the Violet Crown Cinema, local film expert Jon Bowman is bringing a summer in Paris to Santa Fe. The monthlong series, starting August 1, will honor eight classic French motion pictures, some of which have just recently been re-released and converted to digital formats so today’s theatres can screen them. Most, Bowman says, likely haven’t been seen by much of the American public or were never even shown in the U.S., despite their high stature among film buffs and critics.
The “Summer in Paris” series includes two sub-series covering different French genres. The first, “Crimes of Passion,” will focus on old-time gangster films, according to Bowman, while the second, “Into the Macabre,” are more surrealist, black comedy movies.
“They may not be as well known as Hollywood’s pictures and they’re not doing $200 million in films over there, but these are longstanding genres in France,” Bowman said.
“Crimes of Passion” will include 1946’s “Panique,” 1957’s “Le Samourai,” 1960’s “Classe Tous Risque” and 1981’s “Diva.” The second arc features 1991’s “Delicatessen,” 1965’s “Alphaville,” 1960’s “Eyes Without a Face” and 1977’s “That Obscure Object of Desire.” Each film will screen twice and they will all have English subtitles.
This is the first time Violet Crown is doing a foreign film series. According to Bowman, owner Bill Banowsky had the idea of doing a French theme when he approached Bowman to join the theater’s programming team.
Bowman, former executive director of the Santa Fe Film Festival, recently retired as manager of the Jean Cocteau Theater in November.
“I have so much regard for the experience Jon has in film ... . It’s rare to rare to see someone with Jon’s capabilities in a market this size,” said Banowsky.
Banowsky said the series idea was inspired by his neighbors in Austin, Texas, who are French-Canadian and whose young children speak French at home, adding that he wanted to create a series that would resonate with that family. The series will play at all Violet Crown Theaters, which also has locations Austin and Charlottesville, Va.
Pending the program’s success, Bonowsky and Bowman are discussing other series with films from other countries or other genres. Banowsky expects the screenings in this series and others will be well received by Santa Feans, who he said have a deep appreciation for fine film.
“There’s no shortage of outstanding world cinema available,” Banowsky said. “We’re looking for films that deserve to be shown in a theatrical setting, hard to find on Netflix or things like that, and represent something classic about that particular country in terms of the film its produced over time.”
The first part of the series will end August 10 and the second part will show from August 15-24. Each ticket is $9, or moviegoers can purchase a series pass for $36.