The Marriage of Greta Garbo and Sergei Eisenstein and other scandalous revelations
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
Mark Rappaport made a series of outstanding American independent features culminating in Rock Hudson’s Home Movies (1992) and From the Journals of Jean Seberg (1995), before he turned to making video essays in the 2000s from his new base in Paris. Witty and irreverent, many of these probe scandalous connections behind the screen image of stars, and trace revealing connections behind classic films. This selection includes his latest – asking ‘what could have happened if two giants in film history could have declared their love for each other? – plus others that explore the proximity of Marienbad’s palaces to the nearby Dachau concentration camp; the importance of dressing tables in Douglas Sirk’s Hollywood films; Marcel Dalio’s contrasting roles as Jew and typical Frenchman; and a reflection on the metaphysics of the empty screen seen on screen.
‘A resourceful film critic as well as an acute social historian’, in Jonathan Rosenbaum’s words, this is a rare opportunity to sample the range of Rappaport’s penetrating commentary on the cinema he knows so well – and what often lines behind it.
Contact name:
Matthew Barrington