Capital Celluloid 2023 — Day 247: Tue Sep 5

The Lost Sorrows of Jean Eustache (Diaz, 1997): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 6.15pm

This documentary is an intimate look at Jean Eustache through his films and collaborators, followed by a discussion about the remarkable director.

Chicago Reader review:
Eustache, who made his mark on French cinema with The Mother and the Whore (1973) and committed suicide eight years later, is said to have revealed more of himself on-screen than in real life. As a consequence, this 52-minute documentary by Angel Diaz takes a mosaic approach, combining clips from Eustache’s work, voice-over excerpts from his writings, and recollections from noted collaborators (Jean-Pierre Leaud, Francois Lebrun, Jean-Michel Barjol). Some of Eustache’s statements are surprising (the great renegade once said he wanted to return to the 19th-century origins of the cinema), but he remains a mysterious figure; whatever his sorrows were, they seem to have been lost for good.
JR Jones

Here (and above) is a trailer for a Jean Eustache retrospective.