Terres noires. 1964. France. Directed by Luc Mollet. DCP. 19 min. In French; English subtitles.
Luc Moullet’s second short film parodies the codes of “serious” ethnographic documentaries to evoke the reality of mountain villagers marginalized by their geographical isolation as well as the often-condescending gaze of those who observed them. Courtesy Les Films d’Ici
Un steack trop cuit. 1960. France. Written and directed by Luc Mollet. With Mollet, Jacqueline, Finneart, Patrice Moullet. DCP. 19 min. In French; English subtitles.
Luc Moullet, who joined Cahiers du cinéma as its youngest writer in 1956, made his filmmaking debut with this burlesque of domesticity, playing with language in delightfully inventive ways. Moullet embodied the French New Wave at its most comically and joyously radical, appearing in the film disguised as Jean-Luc Godard as he tears up a copy of Cahiers. Courtesy Les Films d’Ici
Snobs! 1962. France. Directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky. Screenplay by Mocky, Alain Moury. With Francis Blanche, Elina Labourdette, Véronique Nordey. 35mm. 88 min. In French; English subtitles.
The most inventive comedians of the time, among them Francis Blanche and Pierre Dac, rub shoulders with the great actors of French auteurist cinema, some already well known like Elina Labourdette—who was unforgettable in Robert Bresson’s Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne —and others soon to become familiar, like Michael Lonsdale. This zany and cruel social comedy was the third feature (but the real turning point) in the prolific career of Jean-Pierre Mocky, a lifelong maverick of cinema. Courtesy Cine Patrimoine Concept