NYC’s Film Forum to host three-week Jeanne Moreau retrospective

New York City”™s Film Forum is hosting a three-week retrospective celebrating Jeanne Moreau, with the first two weeks (March 3-16) dedicated to her most celebrated performances and the third week (March 17-23) offering her rarely-seen feature films as a director.

Dubbed “the thinking man”™s sex symbol” by Pauline Kael, Moreau came to audience attention during the French New Wave in films including Louis Malle”™s “Elevator to the Gallows” (1958) and “The Lovers” and Francois Truffaut”™s “Jules and Jim” (1962). From the 1960s through the 1980s, she starred in films directed by the world”™s greatest filmmakers. Among the classics being screened at this retrospective are Moreau”™s collaborations with Michelangelo Antonioni (“La Notte,” 1961), Joseph Losey (“Eva,” 1962), Marguerite Duras (“Nathalie Granger,” 1972), Rainer Werner Fassbinder (“Querelle,” 1982) and Orson Welles (“The Trial” in 1962, “Chimes at Midnight” in 1966 and “The Immortal Story” in 1968).

Behind the camera, Moreau wrote and directed a trio of critically acclaimed features: the semi-autobiographical drama “Lumiere” (1976), the coming-of-age drama “The Adolescent” (1979) and the documentary “Lillian Gish” (1983). As a companion to the documentary, three of Gish”™s classics will be screened: “The Scarlet Letter” (1926), “The Wind” (1928) and “The Night of the Hunter” (1955).

More information on screening dates and times is available on the Film Forum website.

Photo: Jeanne Moreau in “Eva” (1962), courtesy of Rex Films