JEAN GENET AND CINEMA - CRIMINAL DESIRES

Jean Genet
Un Chant d’Amour
1950, 25’, 35mm, b/w, silent

Tony Richardson
Mademoiselle
1966, 103’, 35 mm, b/w, sound, English Spoken

Carole Roussopoulos
Jean Genet parle d’Angela Davis
1970, 10’, video, b/w, sound, French spoken

The work of the French author and playwright Jean Genet (1910 - 1986) turns itself against the prevailing system of bourgeois norms and values from the perspective of the social outcast. The way he poetizes the marginal and the criminal, his participation in radical politics, his obsession with roleplay and identity, the stylization of violence and obscenity, anticipate many post-modern notions and techniques. His only film, Un Chant d’amour, is a poetical glorification of homosexual desire, the criminal urge and the force of the imagination. A number of writings of Genet were filmed, like the short story Les Rêves Interdits/L’Autre Versant du Rêve, which was adapted in 1966 by Marguerite Duras and directed by Tony Richardson as Mademoiselle, with Jeanne Moreau in the lead.The short, ironical document Jean Genet parle d’Angela Davis shows Genet in his role of political activist, reading out a statement in October 1970 in which he reacts against the arrest of Black Panther member Angela Davis, simultaneously drawing a bead on the racist politics of the United States.

The Ecran d’Art series is a monthly screening of artists’ film and/or video jointly organised by argos and Cinema Arenberg, in collaboration with La Cambre Academy.