by Agnès Varda
Introduction by Oskar Hallberg
Thursday 18 April 2019
7pm

L’une chante, l’autre pas / One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977), 127min

Agnès Varda’s enchanting ode to female liberation chronicles the lives of two friends over the course of a decade, as they separately experience trials of womanhood: abortion, heartbreak, marriage, and motherhood. Pomme and Suzanne meet when Pomme helps Suzanne obtain an abortion after a third pregnancy which she cannot afford. They lose contact but meet again ten years later. Pomme has become an unconventional singer, Suzanne a serious community worker – despite the contrast they remain friends and share the various dramas of each others’ lives in the process of affirming their different female identities. Set against France’s pro-choice struggle—of which Varda herself was on the frontlines—this tender and intimate epic celebrates the power of women to lift one another up.
In French with English subtitles.

As a starter:
Harun Farocki
Der Ausdruck der Hände / The Gesture of Hands (1997), 30 min

Historically, the cinema close-up was initially employed to convey emotions through facial expressions. But soon filmmakers also began focusing their attention on hands. Using film extracts, Farocki explores this visual language, it’s symbolism, Freudian slips, automatisms and its music. Often, hands betray an emotion which the face tries to dissimulate. They can also function as a conduit (exchanging money) or witness to a form of competence (work).
In German with English subtitles.

Oskar’s Gold Nuggets is an ongoing series of film screenings where our neighbor and cineaste Oskar Hallberg from Cinema Panora presents a film in dialogue with the current exhibition on view.