Film series: Picasso goes to the movies – ground-breaking films from a century of cinema 9 November 2011 – 21 January 2012
Still from 2001: A space odyssey 1968, photo: courtesy of Roadshow Films
Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) is among the rarest figures in our cultural history: as esoteric, revolutionary artist who achieved not only universal fame, but genuine popularity. Spanning seven decades of the 20th century, his work became synonymous with modern art itself.
Like Picasso, cinema was born during the last decades of the 19th century and rose to become the dominant art form of the 20th century. It became the historian and conscience of its time, mirroring the upheavals in society and great changes in technology and aesthetics. Consequently, our memory of 20th century tends to merge with images from the cinema. Cinema recorded the disasters of war, the absurdities of fashion, the clash of cultures, and modern living’s challenges to traditional values, commonsense, logic and morality. It opened free spaces for the imagination – just like the revolutionary art produced by Picasso and others of his generation.
In a parallel to Picasso’s career, this series of ground-breaking films was chosen from a century of cinema. The films in this series not only reflected life throughout the 20th century in the west but challenged and advanced the medium itself.
Films
9, 13 November – The general (director Buster Keaton, United States, 1927, 35mm)
16, 20 November – Zero for conduct (director Jean Vigo, France, 1933, 35mm)
16, 20 November – L’Atalante (director Jean Vigo, France, 1934, 35mm)
19 November, 3 December – Visit to Picasso (director Paul Haesaerts, Belgium, 1950, 35mm)
19 November, 3 December, 21 January – Guernica (director Alain Resnais, France, Robert Hessens, 1950, 35mm)
23, 27 November – The raven (director Henri-Georges Clouzot, France, 1943, 35mm)
30 November, 4 December – Bicycle thieves (director Vittorio de Sica, Italy, 1949, 35mm)
7, 11 December – Beauty and the beast (director Jean Cocteau, France, 1946, 35mm)
14, 18 December – Mr Hulot’s holiday (director Jacques Tati, France, 1952, 35mm)
4, 8 January – The third man (director Carol Reed, United Kingdom, 1949, 35mm)
7 January – The mystery of Picasso (director Henri-Georges Clouzot, France, 1956, 35mm)
11, 15 January – Orphée (director Jean Cocteau, France, 1950, 35mm)
18, 22 January – I Vitelloni (director Federuico Fellini, Italy, 1953, 35mm)
21 January – Jean Cocteau: self-portrait of an unknown man (director Edgardo Cozarinsky, France, 1983, 16mm)
25, 29 January – La strada (director Federico Fellini, Italy, 1954, 35mm)
1, 5 February – The cranes are flying (director Mikhail Kalatozov, Soviet Union, 1957, 35mm)
8, 12 February – Hiroshima, mon amour (director Alain Resnais, France, 1959, 35mm)
15, 19 February – Breathless (director Jean Luc Godard, France, 1959, 35mm)
22, 26 February – The exterminating angel (director Luis Bunuel, France, 1962, 35mm)
29 February, 4 March – Billy liar! (director John Schlesinger, United Kingdom, 1963, 35mm)
7, 11 March – The passenger (director Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1975, 35mm)
14, 18 March – Come and see (director Elem Klimov, Soviet Union, 1985, 35mm)
21, 25 March – 2001: A space odyssey (director Stanley Kubrick, United States, 1968, 35mm)
Still from 2001: A space odyssey 1968, photo: courtesy of Roadshow Films
Still from Bicycle thieves 1949, photo: courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment
Still from Billy liar! 1963, photo: courtesy of Tamasa Distribution
Still from Breathless 1959, photo: courtesy of Institut Francais
Still from La strada 1954, photo: courtesy of Madmen Entertainment
Still from Orphée 1950, photo: courtesy of Institut Francais
Still from The cranes are flying 1957, photo: courtesy of ACMI
Still from The general 1927, photo: courtesy of Chapel Distribution
Still from The raven 1943, photo: courtesy of Institut Francais