Films on the Green, New York’s only outdoor French Film Festival kicks-off Tandem Paris-New York, a cultural exchange between the two cities, and begins its 9th season with a screening of Breathless starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg on June 7th in Central Park with Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo Present.
NEW YORK, May 12, 2016— On Tuesday, June 7th, Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, will simultaneously kick off the ninth season of Films on the Green and the Tandem Paris-New York, a large-scale transatlantic cultural partnership between Paris and New York, initiated by the Mayor of Paris and the Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio.
Films on the Green will open this year with a double screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (A bout de souffle) preceded by Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon (Le ballon rouge), in Central Park.
Breathless, the iconic New Wave masterpiece, follows a French-American romance and epitomizes both the Films on the Green 2016 theme, “A Summer in Paris,” and the spirit of the Tandem Paris-New York, which aims to encourage cultural exchange in each city by presenting an extraordinary selection of events including music, dance, cinema, literature, theatre, the visual arts, language, gastronomy, and digital innovation from the partner city, from June to October 2016.
Called “revolutionary” by director Martin Scorsese, Breathless is Jean-Luc Godard’s jazzy riff on American Film Noir that helped launch the French New Wave and forever altered the path of cinema. It follows petty thug Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and his skeptical aspiring journalist girlfriend, Patricia (Jean Seberg), as they hide out in her Paris apartment while Michel tries to pull together enough money to flee to Italy.
Breathless won the 1960 Silver Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival as well as the prestigious Prix Vigo.
Preceding Breathless will be a screening of Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon, the 34 minute-long beloved children’s film that follows a young boy as he chases a red balloon through the streets of Paris. The film has won an Academy Award in 1957 and a grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956.
The screening will take place on Tuesday, June 7th at 8:30pm at Cedar Hill (79th Street and Fifth Avenue) in Central Park in presence of Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, and Director of Institut français Anne Tallineau. The film is in French with English subtitles and is free and open to all.
Tuesday, June 7 - 8:30pm - Central Park
BREATHLESS (A bout de souffle)
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger
1960 | Drama | UR | 1h30 | France
Petty thug Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) considers himself a suave bad guy in the manner of Humphrey Bogart, but panics and impulsively kills a policeman while driving a stolen car. On the lam, he turns to his aspiring journalist girlfriend, Patricia (Jean Seberg), hiding out in her Paris apartment while he tries to pull together enough money to get the pair to Italy. But when Patricia learns that her boyfriend is being investigated for murder, she begins to question her loyalties.
Preceded by THE RED BALLOON (Le ballon rouge)
Directed by Albert Lamorisse
1956 | UR | 34 min. | France
Albert Lamorisse’s exquisite The Red Balloon remains one of the most beloved children’s films of all time. In this deceptively simple, nearly wordless tale, a young boy discovers a stray balloon, which seems to have a mind of its own, on the streets of Paris. The two become inseparable, yet the world’s harsh realities finally interfere. With its glorious palette and allegorical purity, the Academy Award–winning The Red Balloon has enchanted movie lovers, young and old, for generations.
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 Lamorisse
June 10 – Washington Square Park: The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe by Yves Robert
June 17 – Washington Square Park: Air of Paris by Marcel Carné
June 24 – Transmitter Park (Greenpoint, Brooklyn): Subway by Luc Besson
July 1 – Transmitter Park (Greenpoint, Brooklyn): The 400 Blows by François Truffaut
July 8 – Riverside Park, Pier I (at 70th Street): April and the Extraordinary World by Christian Desmares & Franck Ekinci
July 15 – Riverside Park, Pier I (at 70th Street): Un Flic by Jean-Pierre Melville
July 22 – Tompkins Square Park: Cleo from 5 to 7 by Agnès Varda
July 29 – Tompkins Square Park: Boyfriends and Girlfriends by Eric Rohmer
Sept. 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 organized by the City of Paris and the Institut français, 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.