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Back by popular demand! Punch Brothers returns with Chris Thile. who. the Washington
Post says, "may well be the most virtuosic American ever to play the mandolin."
Hodgson Concert Hall
Saturday, February 19 • 8:00 pm
ORDER YOUR TICKETS TODAY!
Box Office: 706-542-4400/Toll Free: 888^280-8497 / Online: www.uga.edu/pac
UGA Performing Arts Center
MURING
NEWS OF ATHENS' CINEMA SCENE
A Crucial Omission: So, the nonetheless-quite-
arresting poster image for Claude Chabrol's
A Girl Cut in Two, which depicts Ludivine
Sagnier, on all fours in high heels and little
else, looking brightly past the camera with
shoulders and eyebrows arched, is absent the
detail that, in the film itself, provides most of
its outrageousness and pathos: peacock feath
ers. "You don't feel humiliated?" Sagnieris
much older lover (Francois Berleand) tenderly
asks as she crawls almost clumsily to his feet,
her funny/sad plumage waving unsteadily
behind her. "Not even ridiculous," she replies.
It's a private moment
in a happy and fully
consensual relation
ship that, as we are
reminded by the very
act of watching it
on film, takes on a
salacious aspect only
when, and because,
it is removed from its
intimate context and
submitted to public
view.
The transforma
tion of private sexual
practices into lurid
spectacle when they
are exposed to the
glaring gaze of outsid
ers turns out to be
a central subject of
the film, the French
director's second-to-
last feature before
his d‘'' ,f h at 80 last
September. That's in
addition, of course, to
a few of Chabrol's more
familiar concerns, notably the decadence and
decay he so pointedly—-and here, somehow,
poignantly—identifies in the outwardly gen
teel leisure class.
I haven't seen many of Chabrol's later
films—I think the last was 2003's The Rower
of Evil—but it seems to me that here he is
engaging in some of those odd, bold, invigo
rating stylistic choices that one often finds
in the late-career work of great directors. One
of the characters in A Girl Cut in Two has a
penchant for carelessly weaving his spoils car
through the quiet lanes of Lyon and its vicin
ity; Chabrol appears at times to oe piloting
the film in much the same way, with quick
fade-outs and dissolves impatiently hurry
ing the story through the kinds of elliptical
temporal progressions that conventional film-
making generally demands be afforded a more
"poetic" languor. There's not much room for
sentimentality in Chabrol's work, but that's
not to say it lacks warmth or empathy. In this
film, as always, he offers his characters—even
cads and murderers—the courtesy of his curi
osity and, above all, his good humor.
A Girl cut in Two isn't out on DVD yet in
this country (!), but Netflix has it available
for streaming. If that's not an option for you,
the Sundance Channel will next broadcast it
at midnight Saturday (Friday night, that is),
Mar. 12..
AJFF Returns: The Athens Jewish Film
Festival, which opens Feb. 19 at Cine, has
quickly blossomed into one of the year's most
eagerly anticipated local film events, con
sistently bringing in imaginatively selected
films from around the world and presenting
them with introductions by experts and, often,
the filmmakers themselves. This year, the
festival's third, is no different, and may even
be the most exciting to date. One highlight
is the festival-opening 2008 British comedy
The Infidel; the Sunday, Feb. 20 schedule is
packed with good stuff including the Israeli
drama Bruriah, introduced by UGA English
Professor Elissa Henken, a shorts program
featuring appearances by filmmakers Ben
Fefferman and Ari Mark, and the Mexican
drama Nora's Will, introduced by UGA English
Professor Elizabeth Kraft. UGA Professor of
German Martin Kagel will introduce the stun
ning documentary A Film Unfinished Monday,
Feb. 21, and UGA film studies' Richard Neupert
will introduce Andre Techine's French drama
The Girl on the Train the following day. That's
far from the full schedule; you can get all the
details at www.athensjff.org. See you there.
Odds & Ends: The French Film Festival is still
underway at UGA's Tate Center theater, so I
hope you're keeping your 8 p.m. Monday time
slots open. Feb. 21 is Claude LeLouch's 2007
Roman de gare, which I haven't seen but
looks wonderful, and Feb. 28 is Olivier Assayas'
Summer Hours, one of my very favorite films
from 2008. Go to www.drama.uga.edu for more
info... Also at UGA, the Speak out for Species
Animal Voices Film Festival wraps up Feb. 22
with The Whale Warrior at 7:30 in Rm. 171
of the Miller Learning Center. Learn more at
www.uga.edu/sos/filmfest... The iFilms series
at the ACC Library has What Are Dreams at 7
p.m. Feb. 17 and The Wind Journeys at 6:30
p.m. Feb. 24. Find out more at www.clarke.
public.lib.ga.us... My apologies, but I don't
have details on the ICE-Vision screenings for
this week and next; seek 'em out on Facebook
(and perhaps curator Will Stephenson will be
kind enough to post them in the online com
ments at www.flagpole.com). But the UGA art
school's Ideas for Creative Exploration unit
is announcing an intriguing documentary,
Meeting Andrei Turkovsky, which explores
the great Russian filmmaker's legacy through
interviews around the globe, at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 22 in Rm. 265 of Park Hall.
Dave Marr tilm@flagpole.com
A Film Unfinished plays at Cine Feb. 21 as part of the Athens Jewish Film Festival.
14 FLAGPOLE.COM FEBRUARY 16,2011
