The Austrian-born actress Romy Schneider (1938-1982) began her career as the teen-aged star of a series of popular films about the young Austro-Hungarian Empress Elisabeth (SISSI). But the “German Shirley Temple” soon transformed herself into a sensual, intelligent young actress who garnered international attention when Italian director Luchino Visaconti featured her in his segment of the 1962 omnibus film BOCCACCIO’70. She rose to further prominence through a wide range of often challenging collaborations with some of the world’s most renowned film directors, including work with Orson Welles in THE TRAIL, Otto Preminger in THE CARDINAL, Claude Sautet in LES CHOSES DE LA VIE, Joseph Losey in THE ASSISSINATION OF TROTSKY, and Bertrand Tavernier in DEATH WATCH. Twenty years after her tragic and untimely passing, these films serve as a testament not only to her stunning screen presence but her great versatility as an actress.
The program is co-presented with the Goethe Institut, Boston; the German Consulate General, Boston; French Cultural Services, Boston; the Boston Public Library; the French Library and Cultural Center of Boston; and the National Center for Jewish Film.
PREMIERE
An Evening with Yusup Razykov
Born in 1957 into a military family, Yusup Razykov studied philology at Tashkent State University before beginning his training in the Department of Screenwriting at the State Institute of Filmmaking (VGIK) in Moscow. He has worked as both a screenwriter and film and television director on such pieces as Orator and Women’s Paradise, and has served as General Director of Uzbekfilm Studios. Razykov has proven a major figure contributing to the emergence of a New Uzbek Cinema.
Director Yusup Razykov in Person
Thursday (October 27) 7 pm
THE DANCE OF MEN (Dilxiro)
Directed by Yusup Razykov
Uzbekistan 2002, color, video, 77 min.
With Tuti Yusupova, Zikir Mukhammedzhanov, Seving Muminova
Uzbek with English subtitles
With the titled dance serving as a sign of the communal joy taken in the cyclic events of social life, Uzbek director Razykov creates an observational narrative that follows a young man’s entry into the adult world of Islamic Uzbekistan. The boy endures physical pain as his bride-to-be undergoes her own rite of passage. The complications that impede the marriage of this young couple not only suggest the actual conflicts that abound in the culture, but give the work a spiritual and philosophical dimension.
WOMEN’S PARADISE(Avollar Saltanati)
Uzbekistan 2000, 35mm, color, 74 min.
Russian with English subtitles
In WOMEN’S PARADISE, a college professor and writer is separated from his wife after committing adultery and discovers a women's paradise where his lover, a female student, and his wife are living happily together. Could this truly be paradise or just the projection of a male fantasy? Maintaining a realistic and humorous tone, the film gradually departs from reality and shifts between magic realism and actuality, bringing the viewer into a mesmerizing state.
This event is co-presented by the Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus at Harvard University.
The Harvard Film Archive is located on the lower level of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy St. Cambridge. Tickets: $8 General Public, $6 students, Sr. Citizens. www.harvardfilmarchive.org.