Eight Art Films on Detective Novels and Archaeology

For immediate release

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Les génies de la grotte Chauvet, Friday, March 11 and 18, at 5 p.m.
Christian Tran
France | French | 2015 | 52 min
The paintings and drawings of the Chauvet cave in Ardèche are the oldest examples of human artistic expression to date. Their strength and modernity have radically changed all of our ideas about prehistoric art. The creation of an important museum featuring reproductions of the works provides an opportunity to see the paintings, drawings and engravings up close, with commentary by the Catalan painter Miquel Barceló.

CANADIAN PREMIERE
Saving Mes Aynak, Friday, March 11 and 18, at 5 p.m.
Brent E. Huffman
United States | Arabic | English subtitles | 2014 | 60 min
An archaeologist races against time to save a 2,000-year-old Buddhist archaeological site in Afghanistan threatened by a Chinese copper mine and Taliban attacks. Only 10% of Mes Aynak has been excavated and experts believe future discoveries have the potential to redefine the history of Afghanistan and of Buddhism itself. Saving Mes Aynak examines the conflict between cultural preservation and economic opportunity.

Recherche Fred Vargas Désespérément, Friday, March 11 and 18, at 7:30 p.m.
Thibaut Chatel
France | French | 2010 | 53 min
The archaeologist-novelist Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau, alias Fred Vargas, invented Police Chief Adamsberg, a peripatetic cop in a crumpled coat who navigates his way through werewolves, plague victims and strange corpses. Such books as Have Mercy on Us All, An Uncertain Place, Seeking Whom He May Devour and This Night’s Foul Work have earned her the title of queen of the French detective novel. But Vargas herself remains in the shadow. This film tracks her down, interviews her close relations, her twin sister François Bayrou, her editors. A rough portrait of this mysterious writer gradually emerges.

Agatha Christie, maîtresse du mystère, Friday, March 11 and 18, at 7:30 p.m.
François Rivière, Françoise Gallo
France | French | 1994 | 52 min
L'histoire de la littérature se souviendra peut-être d'elle comme « la femme à qui le crime a le plus rapporté depuis Lucrèce Borgia ». Véritable monument de la littérature policière, Agatha Christie fut aussi populaire que secrète. Pour percer ce mystère, le film mène une enquête en suivant les méthodes de Miss Marple ou d'Hercule Poirot.

CANADIAN PREMIERE
The Worlds of Philip K. Dick, Thursday, March 17, at 5 p.m.
Yann Coquart
France | English | 2015 | 56 min
An exploration of the life and works of Philip K. Dick (1928-1982), an extraordinary writer of science fiction, whose tales anticipated the paranoid and technological world of the 21st century, and whose visions have provided a wealth of material for Hollywood, from Blade Runner to Minority Report. Like a character from one of his novels, Philip K. Dick blurs the boundary between reality and imagination, present and future.

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
My name is Fleming, Ian Fleming, Thursday, March 17, at 5 p.m.
André Schäfer
Germany | English / German | English subtitles | 2015 | 52 min
Before appearing as a character in films, the famous British secret agent James Bond was the hero of novels and short stories. He came into being in 1952, the product of the fertile imagination of Ian Fleming. An upper-class Eton dropout and naval intelligence officer during World War II, Fleming drew inspiration from his own life in creating Bond. A portrait of a man whose life and works were closely intertwined.

CANADIAN PREMIERE
Hollywood Censored / La censure à Hollywood, Thursday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m.
Clara Kuperberg, Julia Kuperberg
France | English | French subtitles | 2015 | 52 min
A half-century of censorship in American cinema. From 1930 to 1934, films known as "pre-code" openly addressed topics such as adultery, homosexuality, drugs and organized crime, but the implementation of the Hays code would change everything. Directors such as Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch, Frank Capra and Alfred Hitchcock rivalled each other for their ingenuity in getting around this censorship: their films were replete with innuendos, which allowed artists to express themselves despite the rigidity of the Hays code.

CANADIAN PREMIERE
Los Angeles film Noir / Los Angeles : cité du film noir, Thursday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m.
Clara Kuperberg, Julia Kuperberg
France | English | French subtitles | 2015 | 53 min
A foray into the underbelly of the city of dark angels. Interweaving comments from authors James Ellroy, Eddie Muller and Alain Silver, film clips and archival images, this documentary tells the story of film noir through the city that inspired it: Los Angeles. Set there were such classics as Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Out of the Past, Criss Cross, D.O.A., The Big Combo, Chinatown, The Long Goodbye, L.A. Confidential and Mulholland Drive.

This continuing collaboration between Pointe-à-Callière and FIFA, begun last year, is sure to thrill lovers of art, detective novels and archaeology. For more details, see the FIFA website, or call FIFA at 514 842-2112.

Pointe-à-Callière is subsidized by the city of Montréal.

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Source :
Claude-Sylvie Lemery
Director, Communications and Marketing
514 872-9124
[email protected]