Fatal Femmes: Two Parisian Crime Films by Women

Fatal Femmes: Two Parisian Crime Films by Women

From the neon-drenched underworld of early 1980s Paris come two stylish crime stories by French women filmmakers, both of whom passed at the young age of 42. A creative collaborator with Jacques Rivette on Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), actress Juliet Berto (1947–1990) pivoted behind the camera for her directorial debut with Neige (1981), a grimy vision of Paris's carnivalesque Pigalle neighborhood, best known as the home of the Moulin Rouge and the city’s red-light district. Berto also stars as Anita, a barmaid who steps in to help peddle heroin to the desperate clients of a murdered drug dealer. Prolific film and television actress Christine Pascal (1953–1996) directs her second feature, La Garce (1984), with Isabelle Huppert starring as the mysterious woman at the heart of a Hitchcockian tale set in the world of French haute couture. After serving time for sexual assault, a disgraced cop (Richard Berry) is released from prison and finds work as a private detective. His first case takes him to Paris’s garment district, where he becomes enmeshed in a bizarre web of relations and events. Both making their Los Angeles premieres with brand-new 4K restorations courtesy of Fun City Editions, these features offer a fascinating conversation between two unique filmmaking sensibilities.  

Programmed and note by K.J. Relth-Miller.  
 
Neige (Snow)  
Los Angeles Restoration Premiere DIRECTED BY: Juliet Berto, Jean-Henri Roger. WRITTEN BY: Marc Villard. WITH: Juliet Berto, Jean-François Stévenin, Robert Liensol, Patrick Chesnais. 1981. 90 min. France, Belgium. Color. French. 4K DCP. Restoration by L’Immagine Ritrovata, JHR Films, and Studio Canal. 

La Garce
(The Bitch)  
Los Angeles Restoration Premiere 
DIRECTED BY: Christine Pascal. WRITTEN BY: André Marc Delocque-Fourcaud, Pierre Fabre, Laurent Heynemann, Christine Pascal. WITH: Isabelle Huppert, Richard Berry, Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Jean Benguigui. 1984. 89 min. France. Color. French. 4K DCP. Restoration by Studio Canal. 

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation. 

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