Pêcheur d’Islande (Island Fishermen). 1924. Directed by Jacques de Baroncelli

Film

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Held on Sun, Aug 4, 2024, 4:00 p.m.

With piano accompaniment by Makia Matsumura

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2

Pêcheur d’Islande (Iceland Fishermen). 1924. France. Directed by Jacques de Baroncelli. Courtesy of Lobster Films.

Pêcheur d’Islande (Island Fishermen). 1924. France. Directed by Jacques de Baroncelli. Screenplay by de Baroncelli, Pierre Loti. With Sanda Milovanoff, Charles Vanel, Thomy Bourdelle. Digital restoration courtesy Film Preservation Associates/Blackhawk Films. New York restoration premiere. 93 min.

Pierre Loti’s 1886 novel was filmed several times, but never as hauntingly as this 1924 French silent feature directed by Jacques de Baroncelli. The Iceland fishermen are the flinty Bretons who depart every summer for months of cod fishing in the subarctic waters of the North Atlantic; a supernatural encounter leaves one of their number, Yann (Carles Vanel), so deeply affected that he can no longer accept the conventional domestic life proposed by his sweetheart (Sandra Milovanoff): he has fallen in love with death. Baronicelli’s direction blends ethnographic realism with a misty abstraction in the best tradition of French poetic realism.

This film accompanies Silent Movie Week 2024.

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