Wednesdays & Sundays 2.30pm ------ 30 May - 8 July

The Walter-Guillaume Collection, which comprises the exhibition Renoir to Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, was for the most part assembled between the wars, and is an extraordinarily interesting reflection of the achievements and aspirations of that time.
   Overcoming the traumatic destruction and losses sustained during World War 1, Paris recovered its gaiety and its cosmopolitanism, extending a welcome to gifted foreigners and encouraging artistic experiment. Including cinematic masterpieces by René Clair and Jean Renoir, this film programme documents a marvellous epoch.

• May 30 & June 3
  Gertrude Stein: When This You See, Remember Me
  Dir: Perry Miller Adato
  1971 89 mins 16mm
  Recounts the Paris years (1905-1930s) of American author and art collector Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) and her circle (among them Picasso, Hemingway, Matisse, Laurencin and Sherwood Anderson). Four Saints in Three Acts, one of the two operas Stein wrote in collaboration with composer Virgil Thomson, forms part of the soundtrack.
  
  Paris qui Dort (The Crazy Ray)
  Dir: Rene Clair
  1923 39mins B&W 16mm silent
  Irreverent and lyrical story of a mad scientist who invents an invisible ray to immobilize all of Paris except for six persons who eventually take up residence in the Eiffel Tower.

• June 6 & 10
  La Grande Illusion
  Dir: Jean Renoir
  1936 113 mins B&W 16mm
  Cast: Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim
  French with English subtitles
  Often described as the greatest film about war ever made, this monumental French film examines why men submit to warfare’s ‘grand illusions’. Contains magnificent ensemble playing by all of its leading actors, as well as the best performance of Erich von Stroheim’s career.

• June 13 & 17
  Montparnasse 19
  Dir: Jacques Becker
  1958 108 mins B&W 16mm
  Cast: Gerard Philippe, Anouk Aimée, Gerard Sety, Lili Palmer, Lino Ventura
  French with English subtitles
  Set in the Bohemian quarter of Montparnasse (Paris), this drama follows the last days of the life of painter, Modigliani.

• June 20 & 24
  La Sirène des Tropiques
  Dir: Henri Etievant & Mario Nalpas
  1927 25 mins B&W 16mm silent
  The only surviving fragment of Josephine Baker’s first feature film -- a fictionalized replay of Baker’s biography of a girl from a St Louis ghetto who becomes the toast of Paris. Baker was ahead of her time in creating a positive and stylish image for black African American women and dealing with inter-racial sex.
  
  In a Jazz Way: a Portrait of Mura Dehn
  1985 27 mins colour and B&W VHS
  Provides a colourful portrait of dancer Mura Dehn. Born and trained in Russia, she went to Paris in 1925, met Josephine Baker and discovered jazz. Includes interviews and archival footage.
  
  Charleston
  Dir: Jean Renoir
  1927 17mins B&W 16mm silent
  Cast: Catherine Hessling, Johnny Huggins
  A black explorer in the year 2028 flies from Central Africa to the Terra Incognita of Europa Deserta. Near the Eiffel Tower he meets a savage maiden with a pet gorilla who introduces him to her native dance, the Charleston.

• June 27 & July 1
  Rousseau le Douanier (Henri Rousseau)
  Dir: Lo Duca
  1950 16 mins B&W 16mm
  Poetic depiction the life of French painter Henri Rousseau as revealed by his paintings.
  
  Jean Cocteau: Autoportrait d’un Inconnu
  Dir: Edgardo Cozarinsky
  1983 90 mins colour 16mm
  French with English subtitles
  A ‘first-person’ documentary in which Cocteau recounts the intellectual life in Paris after World War 1, the birth of the avant-garde movement with the Ballets Russes and the uproar that accompanied the staging of Parade.

• July 4 & 8
  Paris la Belle
  Dir: Pierre Prevert, Marcel Duhamel
  1959 20 mins colour and B&W 16mm
  French with English subtitles
  Experimental documentary evoking two faces of Paris through the photographs of Man Ray and French cinematographer Sacha Vierny. Uses excerpts from the 1928 film Paris Express.
  
  Paris was a Woman
  Dir: Greta Schiller
  1997 75 mins colour 16mm
  Focuses on the lives of female expatriate writers and artists living in Paris between the world wars. Among those discussed are writer Gertrude Stein, American photographer Berenice Abbott, German photographer Gisele Freund, American artist Romaine Brooks & Marie Laurencin. Uses archival film and photographs, interviews and home movies.