NEW YORK, July 13, 2016— On Friday, July 29, Films on the Green will present a rare screening of Boyfriends and Girlfriends by legendary French New Wave director, Eric Rohmer. The sixth film in Rohmer’s Comedies et Proverbes cycle, Boyfriends and Girlfriends tells the story of shifting and crisscrossing romantic ties between four characters living in the newly constructed Parisian suburb of Cergy-Pontoise. Marked by Rohmer’s characteristic cerebral mood and the geometric, distanced treatment of relationships in his films, Boyfriends and Girlfriends offers a lighter and more playful version of Rohmer’s refreshingly clean and classic aesthetic—“like icing on a particularly rich cake” (Senses of Cinema).
Rarely depicted in French cinema, the “ville nouvelle” is unifying force in Boyfriends and Girlfriends. The Parisian suburb high-rise community, complete with vast shopping malls and simple, clean architecture, which some experience as cold or austere, serves as a backdrop for the characters’ relationships, which are remote and dimmed. As The Washington Post’s Hal Hinson put it, “During the course of the picture, partners are exchanged, new alliances formed, tears are shed, time passes, and nobody is much offended or saddened or upset. In the end, as the new couples pair off for their vacations together, the mood is one of mild contentment.”
Critics have often analyzed the interplay between the film’s scenery and the relationships that illustrate it. As Robert Ebert posits, “Rohmer knows exactly what he is doing here. He has no great purpose, but an interesting small one: He wants to observe the everyday behavior of a new class of French person, the young professionals.”
The screening will take place on Friday, July 29th at 8:30pm at Tompkins Square Park. The film is in French with English subtitles and is free and open to all.
DJs from WNYU, New York University’s radio station, will play French tunes prior to the screening.
SCREENER AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
Friday, July 29 | 8:30 pm – Tompkins Square Park
BOYFRIENDS AND GIRLFRIENDS (L’AMI DE MON AMIE)
Directed by Eric Rohmer
with Emmanuelle Chaulet, Sophie Renoir, Eric Viellard, Anne-Laure Meury, François-Eric Gendron
1987 | Romance | PG | 1h42 | France
In Cergy-Pontoise, Blanche, an uptight clerk, falls for the handsome Alexandre, whom she meets through her vibrant new friend, Léa. Unfortunately for her, Alexandre is dating the artistic Adrienne, while Léa is seeing Fabien. Before long, these relationships shift, leading to new romantic pairings.
2016 Films on the Green Festival Schedule
The festival offers this year a striking portrait of the City of Lights, its urban landscape, and cultural diversity.A selection of classic, New Wave, and contemporary films will showcase the city’s aesthetic, cultural, and cinematic history from a dramatically unconventional angle through stories of love, romance, adolescence, female identity, and urban life in Paris and its surrounding suburbs.All films are shown with English subtitles. Screenings begin at 8:30pm, except the Columbia screening, which begins at 7:30pm.
June 7 – Central Park (79th street and Fifth Avenue): Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard, preceded with The Red Balloon by Albert LamorisseJune 10 – Washington Square Park: The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe by Yves RobertJune 17 – Washington Square Park: Air of Paris by Marcel CarnéJune 24 – Transmitter Park (Greenpoint, Brooklyn): Subway by Luc BessonJuly 1 – Transmitter Park (Greenpoint, Brooklyn): The 400 Blows by François TruffautJuly 8 – Riverside Park, Pier I (at 70th Street): April and the Extraordinary World by Christian Desmares & Franck EkinciJuly 15 – Riverside Park, Pier I (at 70th Street): Un Flic by Jean-Pierre MelvilleJuly 22 – Tompkins Square Park: Cleo from 5 to 7 by Agnès VardaJuly 29 – Tompkins Square Park: Boyfriends and Girlfriends by Eric RohmerSept. 8 – Columbia University (at 116th St): Girlhood by Céline Sciamma
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy, FACE Foundation and the City of New York Parks & Recreation would like to thank Films on the Green’s 2016 official sponsors: Air France, BNP Paribas and TV5 Monde.
Tandem Paris-New York 2016 is a large-scale transatlantic cultural exchange between Paris and New York. From June through October 2016, cultural institutions in New York and Paris will present an extraordinary selection of events in a variety of cultural disciplines including music, dance, cinema, literature, theatre, the visual arts, language, gastronomy, and digital innovation from the partner city. Tandem Paris – New York 2016 is organized by the City of Paris and the French Institute, in partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States and the Embassy of the United States of America in France, with the support of the City of New York.
About
The Cultural Services of the French Embassy promotes the best of French arts, literature, cinema, digital innovation, language, and higher education across the US. Based in New York City, Washington D.C., and eight other cities across the country, the Cultural Services brings artists, authors, intellectuals and innovators to cities nationwide. It also builds partnerships between French and American artists, institutions and universities on both sides of the Atlantic. In New York, through its bookshop Albertine, it fosters French American exchange around literature and the arts.
FACE Foundation is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting French-American relations through innovative cultural and educational projects. In partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, FACE promotes artistic, literary and educational exchange and collaboration between creative professionals from both countries. With additional corporate, foundation, and individual support, FACE administers grant programs in the performing and visual arts, cinema, translation, and secondary and higher education, while providing financial sponsorship to French-American festivals and other cultural initiatives. FACE focuses on new and recent work of living artists and the promotion of bilingualism and the French language. FACE Foundation (French-American Cultural Exchange) is a 501(c)(3) organization chartered by the state of New York.
NYC Parks is the steward of approximately 29,000 acres of land — 14 percent of New York City — including more than 5,000 individual properties ranging from Coney Island Beach and Central Park to community gardens and Greenstreets. We operate more than 800 athletic fields and nearly 1,000 playgrounds, 550 tennis courts, 66 public pools, 48 recreational facilities, 17 nature centers, 13 golf courses, and 14 miles of beaches. We care for 1,200 monuments and 23 historic house museums. We look after 650,000 street trees, and two million more in parks. We are New York City’s principal providers of recreational and athletic facilities and programs. We are home to free concerts, world-class sports events, and cultural festivals.