Almayer's Folly (Akerman, 2011): Cine Lumiere, 2pm
The screening will be introduced by Prof. Agnieszka Adamowicz-Pośpiech (University of Silesia, Poland, President of the Joseph Conrad Society, Poland, and author of Adaptations of J. Conrad’s Life and Works in Contemporary Culture, 2022)This is part of the Joseph Conrad and Cinema season. Details here.
Time Out review:
'Returning to feature filmmaking after a lengthy sojourn as a video artist, Belgium’s Chantal Akerman delivers a work as substantive, challenging and unique as her brilliant Proust adaptation from 2000, ‘The Captive’. Billed as a ‘liberal’ take on Joseph Conrad’s little-known first novel, this languid essay in despair sees Stanislas Merhar playing the stuttering, frenzied but ultimately tragic and possibly deranged figure of Almayer, a European ex-pat in Cambodia who idly tends to his failing trading post while ensuring his daughter, Nina (born to a local mother), is instilled with the same enlightened European values as himself. Scenes usually run in single, medium close-up takes (all immaculately framed and executed) and the elliptical narrative can usually be navigated by gauging the griminess of the cast. Tough as the film may be, it still speaks volumes about colonial exploitation and catastrophic clashes of culture, gender and age. The (eight-minute) climactic shot is also sensational.'
David Jenkins
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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