Capital Celluloid 2012 - Day 309: Mon Nov 5

The Green Ray (Rohmer, 1986): 71A Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4QS, 6.30pm

MUBI Mondays sees the Little White Lies magazine's team selecting a classic film from a repertoire that's already been expertly curated by the programmers at MUBI, and screening it simultaneously with a live web broadcast.

For the fourth MUBI Monday Little White Lies are screening Eric Rohmer's lilting, semi-improvised masterpiece from 1986, The Green Ray, about a Parisian secretary who can't decide where to go on holiday, but ends up embarking on a poetic, metaphysical odyssey. The evening begins at 6.30pm with the screening starting at 7.00, following an illustrated introduction to the film by LWLies reviews editor, David Jenkins. Refreshments will be available on the night.

Time Out review:
'It's July, and Delphine (Rivière), a young Parisian secretary, is suddenly at a loss regarding her holiday; a friend has just backed out of a trip to Greece, her other companions have boyfriends, and Delphine can't bear spending August in Paris. She also hopes to find a dream lover, but receives only the unwelcome attentions of pushy predators, until... There's a whiff of fairytale to this particular slice of realism à la Rohmer, but what's perhaps most remarkable is that the film was almost completely improvised; though not so as you'd know it. It's as flawlessly constructed, shot and performed as ever, with France's greatest living director effortlessly evoking the morose moods of holidaying alone among crowds, and revelling in the particulars of place, weather and time of day. Deceptively simple, the film oozes honesty and spontaneity; the word, quite bluntly, is masterpiece.'Geoff Andrew

Here is the trailer.

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