Adieu Philippine [LAST SCREENING]

New 4K Restoration

Paired with short film Bardot & Godard (1964)
Bardot et Godard (Jacques Rozier, France, 1964, 9 minutes)

A behind-the-scenes documentary as only Rozier could make, this film finds him tagging along with Jean-Luc Godard, Brigitte Bardot, and Michel Piccoli as they arrive in Capri to film Godard’s seminal Contempt (1963).

Adieu Philippine (Jacques Rozier, France, 1962, 111 minutes)

In his bold yet playful feature debut, and in one of the great overlooked gems of the French New Wave, Jacques Rozier satirizes several major cultural currents of early-60s France: its political blindness, romantic escapism, and commercial corruption. Young Michel (Jean-Claude Aimini) works as a camera technician for a television studio, where he meets two would-be actresses, Liliane (Yveline Céry) and Juliette (Stefania Sabatini). Their demeaning work in advertising allows them to connect Michel with an unscrupulous director (Vittorio Caprioli) who subsequently stiffs him on a job. Fed up with their exploitative industry, Michel, Liliane, and Juliette head to Corsica for a holiday and to track down the director – all while a developing love triangle strains the girls’ friendship. With confidence and panache Rozier expertly employs documentary-style shooting, improvisational acting (among a mostly nonprofessional cast), and kinetic montage sequences to capture the disparity between blithe youth and the societal pressures – especially Michel’s imminent military service in Algeria – that threaten its innocence.