Wherever you call home, it’s hard to be invested in cinephile culture without a mind towards its health. It was hardly some casual choice when Sean Baker took time during an Oscar-acceptance speech to plea for greater attendance––with each year every purchase at an Anthology, Spectacle, or Maysles feels more and more like an investment in the future, or perhaps a protest vote against our present. And few fight so valiantly as La Clef Revival Collective, a Parisian group who’ve earned praise from Martin Scorsese, Jean-Luc Godard, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, Justine Triet, Leos Carax, Adèle Haenel, and Céline Sciamma (the latter of whom sits on their board).
When La Clef, a Parisian theater initially open since 1973, faced severe risk of closure in 2019, the Revival Collective and aforementioned filmmakers joined forces to save the space. They are seeking $400,000 between now and April to fund renovations, and will visit New York this week to hold promotional screenings. It is––not mincing words––an honor to partner with them and show (via Amnesiascope) Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias this Sunday at the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research, for which tickets are now available. (If you won’t take my recommendation, listen to Brian Cox.)
Below is information on each screening, followed by video appreciations from Scorsese and Carpenter. With all respect for other five-borough happenings, La Clef’s New York jaunt is clearly your best cinematic option this week.
Wednesday March 5 at 8pm
Film Forum (209 W Houston Street)
A Woman Is a Woman by Jean-Luc Godard (1960, 88’)
Angela, an afternoon stripper in the sleazy Zodiac Club, yearns for motherhood, but live-in boyfriend Jean-Claude Brialy “isn’t ready yet,” while hanger-on Jean-Paul Belmondo is more than happy to oblige.
Thursday March 6 at 7.30pm
Anthology Film Archives (32 2nd Avenue)
Earthlight by Guy Gilles (1970, 98’)
Pierre, a young man who lives in Paris with his father, travels to his native Tunisia in search of his early childhood and distant memories, including that of his long-since-deceased mother.
Saturday March 8 at 7.30pm
Spectacle (124 South 3rd Street)
Dernier Maquis by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche (2008, 90’)
The owner of an industrial pallet and truck repair yard, nicknamed Mao by his Arab and African employees, tries to keep everyone happy and productive, as long as it doesn’t affect his bottom line. But the accord between labor and management goes awry when Mao creates a mosque in the yard.
Sunday March 9 at 7.30pm
Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research (251 Huron Street)
Bye Bye Tiberias by Lina Soualem (2023, 82’)
Leaving her Palestinian village to follow her dream of becoming an actress, Hiam Abbass (Blade Runner 2049, Succession) also left behind her mother, grandmother and seven sisters. Thirty years later, her filmmaker daughter Lina returns with her to journey through the vanished places among the scattered memories of four generations.
Monday March 10 at 7pm
Maysles Documentary Center (242 Lenox Avenue / Malcolm X Boulevard)
Xaraasi Xanne (Crossing Voices) by Raphaël Grisey & Bouba Touré (2022, 122’)
Using rare archives, Crossing Voices recounts the adventure of Somankidi Coura, an agricultural cooperative created in Mali in 1977 by western African immigrant living in workers’ residencies in France. The story of this improbable, utopic return to the homeland follows a winding path through the ecological challenges and conflicts on the African continent from the 1970s to the present day.
Wednesday March 12 at 7pm
Alliance New York (22 East 60th Street)
The Temple Woods Gang by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche (2022, 116’)
A retired military man lives in the Temple Woods housing project. Just as he’s burying his mother, his neighbour Bébé, who belongs to a gang of robbers from the area, is preparing to rob the convoy of a wealthy Arab prince.