FINE MADNESS: THE FILMS OF PATRICE LECONTE

French filmmaker Patrice Leconte defies easy categorization. Since making his directorial debut in the mid-'70s Leconte has established himself as one of France's most respected directors, at ease tackling subjects ranging from mental illness to sexuality and canny deconstructions of wit and society. Born in Paris in 1947, Leconte grew up in Provence and attended France's prestigious film school, IDHEC, but emerged to become a professional cartoonist for the French satrical magazine "Pilote." On the side he made a series of comic-fantasy shorts, developing a brand of humor that would become one of his hallmarks. After finding commercial success with a string of commercial French-market comedy and suspense-action films in the late '70s and '80s, Leconte was freed to pursue the personal themes for which he has become famous: madness, obsession, sexual desire, the complexities of love and the nuances of male friendship-served up with dark humor, keen social insight and great cinematic skill.

Beyond provocative themes, Leconte has employed a generation of France's greatest actors, among them Jean Rochefort, Michel Blanc, Richard Bohringer, Thierry Lhermitte, Philippe Noiret and Daniel Auteuil, who have etched characters that take up permanent residence in memory. Leconte burst upon the international scene with the dark and compelling MONSIEUR HIRE (1989), followed by the more fanciful THE HAIRDESSER'S HUSBAND (1990), both explorations of the link between desire and mental imbalance.

Throghout the '90s an astonishing range of provocative films emerged, earning him wide-spread critical praise, a plethora of international awards and a following as one of contemporary cinema's most intriguing voices. His most recent film THE MAN ON THE TRAIN (2002), one of last year's most highly regarded films, has brought him an even wider audience. His new film, TOO INTIMATE SECRETS, will be released in 2004. Until then, we offer the opportunity to catch up with nine of his accomplished visions.
SEPT 12 13 FRI 7 P.M., Sat 8:45 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
THE HAIRDRESSER'S HUSBAND
FRANCE 1990
DIRECTOR: PATRICE LECONTE A May-December romance with a twist, THE HAIRDRESSER'S HUSBAND tells the story of a man with a unique fetish who gets everything he ever wanted, if only briefly. As a boy, Antoine (Jean Rochefort) develops a fixation with hairdressers after a buxom widow cuts his hair in his town barbershop. His life-long dream becomes to marry one. Now an old man, he has lived a failed existence never finding the perfect woman. But one hot day he walks into a salon and finds the sensual Mathilde, a beautiful young woman whom he immediately asks to marry. Her salon becomes their "chambre d'amour" as they embark on a strange, hermetic love centered on Antoine's desires. But happiness proves to be fleeting when an innocent foray into the real world meets with tragic consequences. Leconte's erotically charged tale of obssesion is a
playful fantasy about the nature and elusiveness of love.
(82 mins.)

SEPT 12 13 fri 9 P.M., Sat 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
MONSIEUR HIRE
FRANCE 1989
DIRECTOR: PATRICE LECONTE On the surface, MONSIEUR HIRE plays out as a first-rate murder mystery, but is better viewed as an intense psychological drama of obsessional love. Set in a nameless urban world and shot to great effect in cinemascope, the story follows Hire (Michel Blanc), an enigmatic loner who quietly moves between work and home where he spends his nights listening to Brahms and staring out his darkened window at his beautiful young neighbor (Sandrine Bonnaire). Though a seasoned voyeur, one evening, unbeknownst to him, he is discovered by the object of his distant affection when lightening illuminates his silhouette in the window. At first suprised, she decides to not let him know he has been caught and soon turns the game to her own ends with surprising results. Meanwhile, a young woman has been murdered,
and a taxi driver has seen a nondescript man running toward the courtyard of the apartment complex. As Monsieur Hire watches Alice, the police and his neighbors watch him. With great subtley, Laconte examines the complex motivations underlying desire and fantasy, sensuality and duality, and the contrasting realities of public and private worlds. (88 mins.)

SEPT 18 20 THU 7 P.M., Sat 9 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
FELIX AND LOLA
FRANCE 2000
DIRECTOR: PATRICE LECONTE FELIX AND LOLA is a constrained romance between two lost souls. Felix (Philippe Torreton) is a lonely carnival worker who lives his life traveling from city to city in a trailer, accompanied by an eccentric extended family of carnies. While working the bumper cars, he meets and falls for Lola (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a portrait of the classic French chain-smoking wanderer. They embark on a stilted romance, with the smitten Felix doting over the distracted Lola, while Lola's ex-lover (Alain Bashung) watches from afar. Leconte takes full advantage of the spectacle of the colorful amusement-park setting, with the background of the film spinning and flashing while the story meanders about like a young man in love (86 mins.)

SEPT 25 27 THU 7 P.M. , WHITSELL SAT 7 P.M
GUILD THEATRE
TANGO
FRANCE 1993
DIRECTOR: PATRICE LECONTE A wildly absurd comedy with a hint of the darkness of MONSIEUR HIRE, TANGO is a masculine meditation on love's difficulties. In retaliation for his latest serial indiscretion, Paul's wife decides to take a lover of her own-and finally leave him too. Disconsolate, his only recourse, of course, is to kill her. He can't stop cheating and can't stand the idea of her being with another man. It will, obviously, be better for her too. His wise and helpful uncle, a judge, has the perfect hit man-Vincent, a wife-murderer who luckliy managed to beat the charges again him. If Vincent doesn't agree to do the job, the judge just might find new evidence that would reopen his case. Vincent, with his commissioners in tow, does the deed and Paul is suddenly feeling light and carefree. . . but not exactly happy. Maybe living without a woman is harder than living with one. It does, after all, take two to Tango. (88 mins.)

SEPT 26 28 FRI 7 P.M., SAT 9 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
WIDOW OF SAINT-PIERRE
FRANCE 2000
DIRECTOR: PATRICE LECONTE Leconte's dark, epic drama is an unconventional love story set in 1850 on the isle of St. Pierre, a small French territory off the coast of Newfoundland. A condemned murderer (Serbian director Emir Kusturica) awaits execution while the French government ships a guillotine to the island for the event. Meanwhile, his custodians, the military commander (Daniel Auteuil) and his compassionate wife (Juliet Binoche), wanting to help him live out his remaining days productively, actually transform him into a cherished member of the community. By the time the guillotine finally arrives and "justice" is to be delivered, no one wants the sentence to be carried out. (113 mins.)

SEP 28 SUN 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
GIRL ON THE BRIDGE
FRANCE 1999
DIRECTOR: PATRICE LECONTE Preposterous but heartfelt, GIRL ON THE BRIDGE is as close as one can get to a black screwball comedy. Gabor (Daniel Auteuil) is a professional knife thrower with failing eyesight who finds Adele, a woman on the verge of jumping off of a bridge and ending it all. He offers her a job as his human target. If he does his job well and she survives, she gets to travel and live a new life as a performer. If he misses a throw and she gets killed-well, c'est la vie. The hardened peformer and his suicidal subject soon find that they have a deep, almost telepathic connection to each other, and together their fortunes begin to improve. Leconte uses a darkly slapstick situation to illuminate the possibility of love between the unlikeliest of pairs. (90 mins.)

OCT 2 THU 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
RIDICULE
FRANCE 1996
DIRECTOR: PATRICE LECONTE An astute observer of human nature, Leconte shows just how little things have changed since the 18th century. Gregoire Ponceludon de Malavoy (Charles Berling), a mildly blue-blooded baron and idealistic engineer, ventures the sycophantic court of Versaille to beg Louis XVI for resources to drain the mosquito-infested swamps of his home region and save his countrymen from disease. Soon the naive Gregoire is sucked into the rotting culture of an aristocracy in decline, where neither sincerity or decency, but cruel wit and the ability to ridicule others open the doors to the few favors the King has left to bestow. Caught between his love for Mathilde (Judith Godreche), a free-spirited young scientist raised on Rousseau, and the attentions of a conniving courtesan (Fanny Ardant), Gregoire struggles between means and ends until he realizes he's being used. Rich with ideas, moral passion and wit, Leconte's ambitious mix of historical drama and Restoration comedy provides a remarkable portrait of a society about to experience the sweep of revolution. RIDICULE won the French Caesar for Best Film of 1996. "An intellectual treat for those who think, a cruel comedy for those who feel."–Alexander Walker, LONDON EVENING STANDARD. (89 mins.)

OCT 5 6 SUN 7 P.M., MON 7 P.M
GUILD THEATRE
YVONNE'S PERFUME
FRANCE 1994
DIRECTOR: PATRICE LECONTE A classic French love story told in the style of a thriller, YVONNE'S PERFUME is a portrait of lost love made mythological by fading memory. Set in the early 60's, but recalling a romantic summer on Lake Geneva in 1958, it tells the story of Victor Chmara (Hippolyte Giradot), a would-be writer of mysterious means avoiding military service in the Algerian War by hiding out at an luxurious French resort on the Swiss border. There, he mets Yvonne (Sandra Majani), a beautiful young aspiring actress living with her enigmatic "uncle," Dr. Meinthe (Jean-Pierre Marielle). Flirtation turns to romance, and passion to the love of a lifetime. But there are mysteries surrounding Yvonne more deep than his own and his temporary escape from the real world proves to be just that-a moment suspended in time. "Leconte's sensous film is diaphanous in content but rich in visual and aural atmospherics. There's a heady whiff of pleasure to be gained from its piquant bouquet."-TIME OUT. (90 mins.)

OCT 12 SUN 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
MAN ON THE TRAIN
FRANCE 2002
DIRECTOR: PATRICE LECONTE "In this superbly imagined and deeply moving film, Leconte strips away artifice and extraneous detail to focus on two unlikely men. MAN ON THE TRAIN features two of France's most famous entertainers-Jean Rochefort and singer-actor Johnny Hallyday-providing them both with a vehicle to display their dazzling talents. Hallyday plays Milan, a grizzled, aging gangster-cum-thief whose next job is to hit the bank in a small, quiet provincial French town. He arrives by train and
immediately heads to the pharmacy to have a prescription filled. There, he attracts the attention of Monsieur Manesquier (Rochefort), a rather elegant and refined retired schoolteacher who lives in casual, unpretentious splendor in a rambling mansion. Upon realizing there is no hotel in town, Milan is forced to accept the hospitality Manesquier offers him. This film is, above all, about friendship, and Leconte draws the details of Milan and Manesquier's connection with an uncanny mix of sharply observed humor and finely tuned emotion."-Toronto Film Festival. (90 mins.)