Modern Dance and French Cinema

This weekend was relatively light in terms of events. We had two, one on Friday night and one Sunday night. On Friday, we went to the Joyce Theater to see the Martha Graham Dance Company. Martha Graham started choreographing in the late 1920s and is considered "modern." This performance included four dances and a video. Two dances were Graham originals and the other two were homages to Graham. It was an excellent performance and the theater was BEAUTIFUL. The red velvet seats were comfy and I felt like I was right there, practically on stage next to the dancers. Also, seeing Graham was crucial to the dance timeline we've been constructing in our heads. Graham comes after traditional ballet and before Trisha Brown, Karole Armitage, and Yvonne Rainer. What's interesting about Graham is that towards the end of her career, she actually slid back towards traditional dance elements, basically defeating her purpose: rebelling against ballet and other traditional dance. Nevertheless, it was an important performance to up my dance knowledge.

During the day on Saturday, Whitney and I went on yet another walking adventure. We spent Saturday night catching up with some Coe alums living in the city and enjoying the night life. 

Sunday was my day of relaxation before our other event. This event was at the IFC Center and was a French film. IFC along with BAM, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and Unifrance Films presented Rendez-Vous With French Cinema. This is the eighth year of this festival which brings the best of French cinema to us. The best part of this festival is that the directors or actors are available at some of the showings and do a talk-back after the film. 

The film we saw was Dans La Maison (In the House) by Francois Ozon. The movie was originally released in France around 2012, but is just coming to the United States. Last night, we saw the movie and then Ozon was there, along with a translator, to answer questions and discuss the film.

I kind of forgot how much I love French cinema. In high school, our French teacher was insistence on watching films and in my short film class, my teacher showed us La Haine (The Hate). There is a subtle difference between French and American cinema. The French seem to experiment more and it just looks different than the Blockbuster movies I've grown up with. That's cinematography for you.

The talk-back was interesting. The audience was on the older side and asked a lot of plot based questions. While the plot was interesting, it definitely wasn't what kept me going throughout the film. I'm still thinking over the film before I write my response. And now I've got a French cinema bug. I need to see more French cinema. ASAP. Thank goodness I work at a library ;)

Speaking of library, work was good today. It feels so nice to stride confidently into the Mid-Manhattan branch and know exactly where I'm going. It was a slower day, I answered letters and worked on some advertisement for the Music and Memory drive.