“French Cinema” photo exhibition

The photo exhibition “French Cinema,” organized by Afisha magazine, is taking place in Shevchenko Park. The open air art show seems well-timed for Indian summer that finally came to Kyiv. Walking through the sunlit alleys of the park, you will be able to admire photographs of French movie stars taken by Carole Bellaiche and Frederic Poletti, photographers of influential French film magazine Cahier du Cinema (Notebooks on Cinema), which was founded in 1951.

Future cult directors Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and Claude Chabrol used to write reviews on their favorite films for this legendary magazine. Cahier du Cinema re-invented the basic tenets of film criticism and theory. A 1954 article by Truffaut attacked “La Qualite Francaise” (“The French Quality”) and was the manifesto for “la Politique des Auteurs,” in which Andrew Sarris later termed the auteur theory — resulting in the re-evaluation of Hollywood films and directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Robert Aldrich, Nicholas Ray, Fritz Lang, and Anthony Mann. Cahiers du Cinema authors also championed the work of directors Jean Renoir, Roberto Rossellini, Kenji Mizoguchi, Max Ophüls, and Jean Cocteau, by centering their critical evaluations on a film's mise en scène. The magazine also was essential to the creation of the Nouvelle Vague, or New Wave of French cinema, which centered on films directed by Cahiers authors such as Godard and Truffaut.

Stars of French cinema Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Charlotte Rampling, Louis Garrel, Jane Birkin, Jean Rochfort, Asia Argento as well as cult directors Aki Kaurismaki and Philippe Garrel appeared in different times on the pages of Cahier du Cinema. Now we can see their portraits in Kyiv. Among them is a beautiful photograph of actress Fanny Ardant who was the last muse of Francois Truffaut. Ardant appeared in two of his last films “Confidentially Yours” and “The Woman Next Door.” François Truffaut died in 1984, a year after Fanny gave birth to their daughter Joséphine. Fanny Ardant refused to stop filming. She played in 68 films, got Silver Berlin Bear, and Cesar.

SHEVCHENKA PARK

Through Nov. 9

Oksana Faryna for "Kyiv Post"