Screening & Live Event
Almayer’s Folly (La folie Almayer) with Chantal Akerman in person
Opening night film, followed by reception
France. Dir. Chantal Akerman. 2011, 127 mins. With Stanislas Merhar, Marc Barbé, Aurora Marion. Akerman’s masterful and mesmerizing Almayer’s Folly freely adapts Joseph Conrad’s first novel. A European trader’s dreams of striking it rich in Malaysia have faded; all he has is his ruptured relationship with his half-Malay daughter. From its startling opening—the stabbing of an entertainer at an outdoor music bar to Dean Martin’s “Sway”—the film unfolds with trancelike power. Beautifully photographed in thick jungle terrain, Almayer’s Folly synthesizes the long-take formalism of Akerman’s earlier work with the spontaneity of her documentaries; it is as much influenced by F. W. Murnau and Robert Flaherty’s Tabu as it is by Conrad.
Reception made possible with support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, and from The Department of Media & Communication Arts at The City College CUNY.
This event is sold out, but some tickets may be available at the door. Names will be added to a waiting list one hour before the start of the event at the Museum. Tickets, if available, are $15 public / Free for Museum members.
