The International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) and director René Rozon are continuing to offer Montreal audiences the world’s finest films on art: this year’s crop of 280 films from approximately 30 countries is truly outstanding. From March 9 to 19, 2006, the 24th edition will take art-lovers and film buffs on a journey into the heart of artistic creation, past and present.

 

Embracing music, painting, architecture, contemporary art, dance, literature and more, the 24th FIFA celebrates the creativity and cultural contributions of artists. More than ever, film is proving to be an ideal medium for depicting the diverse forms of artistic expression. Audiences will be able to see for themselves in this dazzling array of artist portraits, biographies, investigations, tributes, analyses and animations. In this year’s lineup, music and architecture have a particularly strong presence.

The selection of films in this year’s edition is once again rich and varied: BUREN ET LE GUGGENHEIM records the preparations for the superlative exhibition devoted to Daniel Buren in 2005, which literally takes over New York’s Guggenheim Museum; ERNEST HEMINGWAY: RIVERS TO THE SEA charts the events that shaped the legendary writer’s life and works; KAREN BLIXEN – OUT OF THIS WORLD sketches a portrait of an eccentric and tormented author, the greatest Danish writer of the 20th century; ECRIVAIN D’O reveals the strange destiny of Dominique Aury, who pseudonymously published the torrid bestseller Histoire d’O in 1954; GLEEN GOULD – AU-DELA DU TEMPS is a portrait of the inimitable Canadian pianist; BACON’S ARENA explores the career of Francis Bacon, whose paintings are among the most vivid, haunting and ferocious in art history; QUI A TUE DADA? chronicles the rise of Dada, which undermined the established order through scandal and absurdist humour; BERGMAN – UNE TRILOGIE: BERGMAN ET LE CINEMA, BERGMANET LE THEATRE, BERGMAN ET L’ILE DE FARO will be presented in its North American premiere, in the presence of director Marie Nyreröd.

A series of special events will allow the public to meet a wide range of artists and specialists. Those interested in architecture and design are invited to a debate entitled Boldness, Innovation, Aesthetics involving Michel Dallaire and Claude Paquin; the historical importance of the Kramlich Collection will be discussed by its curator Christopher Eamon; the world premiere of the film L’INTUITION INTUITIONEE by André Desrochers will launch a retrospective linked to the 50th anniversary of Vie des Arts, with the participation of the periodical’s director and editor-in-chief, Bernard Lévy; the 25th anniversary of La La La Human Steps will be celebrated in the company of its founder and choreographer Édouard Lock; animated film and haiku will be analyzed by filmmakers Co Hoedeman and Jacques Drouin; and French Baroque music, the subject of three films, will be explored by Claire Guimond, the artistic director of the ARION orchestra, and harpsichordist Catherine Perrin.

BACON’S ARENA

A festival tribute to the Toronto production company Rhombus will feature twelve of its films, including MOZARTBALLS (2006). In 2006, we recall, Mozart’s 250th anniversary will be celebrated throughout the world. FIFA is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the publication of Cervante’s masterpiece Don Quixote with two fascinating films: THE WAY OF THE NOBLEMAN and CERVANTES ET LA LEGENDE DE DON QUICHOTTE. And not to be missed is the impressive retrospective of Dutch films on art entitled NORTH WIND (Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Mondrian).

In the field of video art, FIFA is presenting Minima Moralia, a series of seven videos made over a 15-year period by Toronto filmmaker Robert Lee. Another collection not to be missed is Electric Dreams, which documents the effects of the technological revolution on Russian artists. Curator Nicole Gingras has also assembled some 30 recent videos from Quebec and Canada under the banner of Games, Beneath the Eyelids and Observations.

Children’s literature fans will be delighted by two works inspired by fairy tales: MA MERE L’OYE (Mother Goose) is a modern version of Ravel’s ballet based on the Charles Perreault story; LE ROSSIGNOL (The Nightingale) adapts the Hans Christian Andersen tale through digital animation techniques. Music-lovers won’t be left out with such masters as Beethoven and Mozart, jazz legend Miles Davis, opera diva Jessye Norman, tango star Astor Piazzolla, country icon Hank Williams, and modern composer Claude Vivier. Architecture is represented by recent works by Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, Richard Meier and Toyo Ito, and classical masterpieces by Carlo Maderno (1556-1629) and John Soane (1753-1837).

Authors are also well represented with films on Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Pablo Neruda, René Depestre and Marie-Claire Blais. Dance films portray the likes of Serge Diaghilev, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Thierry De Mey, Saburo Teshigawara and Quebecer Lük Fleury. Film history buffs will gain a new understanding of works by Ingmar Bergman and Jean Renoir, as well as legendary actors Marlon Brando, James Dean and Cary Grant. The 24th FIFA also features the contemporary art of Ed Ruscha, the hilarious comics of Franquin, the design of Henry Dreyfuss and Jonathan Ive, the fashion of Christian Dior and model Veruschka and the theatre of André Brassard. Painting is also in the forefront with Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Klee, Nicolas de Staël, Cornelius Krieghoff, Jacques Monory, and many others to discover or rediscover.

QUI A TUE DADA?

The 24th FIFA begins on March 9 in eight downtown theatres: the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the National Film Board cinema, the Cinémathèque québécoise, the Goethe-Institut, the Musée d’art contemporain, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the National Library of Quebec, and Place des Arts. 

Tickets are on sale at the Place des Arts box office, and can also be obtained on-line at www.artfifa.com or by phoning 514 842-2112. The price of tickets is $8.50 each or $75 for a book of 10 tickets, which includes a free copy of the Festival catalogue. The eight theatres will also be selling tickets for their respective films one hour before screenings. Additional information can be obtained by Internet (www.artfifa.com), by phone 514842-2112 & 514 874-1637 or at the FIFA kiosk at Place des Arts.