Sunday May 28, 4:00pm The Egyptian
Saturday July 15, 1:40pm The Castro (San Francisco)
"Upon the ruins, the future is built!"
A train pulls into a Paris station and off steps Denise Baudu (Dita Parlo), an orphan who has come to live and work with relatives in their dress shop. She arrives to discover her Uncle's tiny establishment is about to be swallowed up by its enormous neighbor, Au Bonheur des dames (The Ladies Paradise), and is forced to seek employment there. Every frame of Julien Duvivier's extraordinary film is composed with an obvious mastery of innovative photography and editing, presenting a vision of harsh urban life and palatial grandeur in a unique and often unexpected way. The film combines this breathtaking visual tableau with a story of heartless progress and its consequences. Duvivier fails to extract great depth from his actors but perfectly times a fascinating use of montage to punctuate key elements of the story. The humor is dry and very Parisian, while the tragedy is consuming and operatic.
Saturday July 15, 1:40pm The Castro (San Francisco)
"Upon the ruins, the future is built!"
A train pulls into a Paris station and off steps Denise Baudu (Dita Parlo), an orphan who has come to live and work with relatives in their dress shop. She arrives to discover her Uncle's tiny establishment is about to be swallowed up by its enormous neighbor, Au Bonheur des dames (The Ladies Paradise), and is forced to seek employment there. Every frame of Julien Duvivier's extraordinary film is composed with an obvious mastery of innovative photography and editing, presenting a vision of harsh urban life and palatial grandeur in a unique and often unexpected way. The film combines this breathtaking visual tableau with a story of heartless progress and its consequences. Duvivier fails to extract great depth from his actors but perfectly times a fascinating use of montage to punctuate key elements of the story. The humor is dry and very Parisian, while the tragedy is consuming and operatic.