HFA x Brattle: Melville and Company (Melville et Cie)
Friday, July 5 – Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Co-presented with the Harvard Film Archive, this series offers a preview of a much larger program that the HFA will present this fall featuring a full retrospective of the revered French director Jean-Pierre Melville and the other filmmakers within his circle. Our brief series highlights a number of recently restored titles including the brand new 4K of Melville’s influential stunner LE SAMOURAÏ as well as stunning crime classics LE TROU, CLASSE TOUS RISQUES, and LE DOULOS and rarities LÉON MORIN PRIEST and WHEN YOU READ THIS LETTER.
Descriptions by Carson Lund
Le doulos (The Informer)
- Fri, Jul 5
- Sat, Jul 6
- Mon, Jul 8
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville Run Time: 108 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1962 Language: French with English subtitles
Starring: Jean Desailly, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani
No one can be trusted in the guarded, duplicitous milieu of Le doulos, Melville’s first decisive plunge into the...
Le samouraï
- Fri, Jul 5
- Sat, Jul 6
- Sun, Jul 7
- Tue, Jul 9
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville Run Time: 101 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1967 Language: French with English subtitles
Starring: Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon
New 4K Restoration!
Le trou (The Hole)
- Sat, Jul 6
- Mon, Jul 8
Director: Jacques Becker Run Time: 131 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1960 Language: French with English subtitles
Starring: Jean Keraudy, Marc Michel, Raymond Meunier
Four years after Bresson’s A Man Escaped, Jacques Becker directed his own film about prison escape, this time asking...
Classe tous risques (The Big Risk)
- Sat, Jul 6
- Tue, Jul 9
Director: Claude Sautet Run Time: 110 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1960 Language: French with English subtitles
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Lino Ventura, Sandra Milo
New 4K Restoration!
When You Read This Letter (Quand tu liras cette lettre…)
- Sun, Jul 7
- Tue, Jul 9
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville Run Time: 104 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1953 Language: French with English subtitles
Starring: Juliette Gréco, Philippe Lemaire, Yvonne Sanson
Dismissed by Melville in its time as “a very conventional, very sensible film” made in part to fund...
Léon Morin, Priest (Léon Morin, prêtre)
- Sun, Jul 7
- Mon, Jul 8
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville Run Time: 117 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1961 Language: French with English subtitles
Starring: Emmanuelle Riva, Irène Tunc, Jean-Paul Belmondo
Based on a novel by Béatrix Beck that Melville described as “the most accurate picture I have read...