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The Hong Kong Film Archive's (HKFA) forthcoming "Restored Treasures" series will feature the restored comedy "The Suitor" (1963), a perfect introduction to the works of French film master Pierre Étaix.
The screening will be held at 2pm on December 5 at the HKFA Cinema. Additionally, the screening is complemented by a seminar, "Who are you Pierre Étaix?", to be held on December 4 at 3pm at the same venue. The seminar is hosted by HKFA's Programmer Sam Ho, film scholar Frank Bren, representative of the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage, Severine Wemaere and representative of the Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema, Gilles Duval, who will discuss the dramatic story of Pierre Étaix and the resurrection of his cinema. The seminar will be conducted in English, with free admission.
The screening and seminar are presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department in collaboration with Alliance Française de Hong Kong.
The film features a 34-year-old man who, inexperienced in love and urged by his parents to get married, sets out to find a wife. He wanders the streets of Paris like a confused alien, observing the seduction techniques of others before applying them himself ﷿ with hilarious results.
As the first and most commercially successful of the four feature comedies co-written with Jean-Claude Carrière, the film looks increasingly like what it was - a first step in the ascent of a great comic. It immediately placed Étaix in that small group of masters who direct, star in and script their own films, from fellow Frenchman Max Linder through to Charles Chaplin, Jacques Tati and beyond.
After resolving several years of legal imbroglio, Étaix fully recovered his rights and we can now see his complete works, eight feature films including "The Suitor", four other features and three shorts, finally released in restored versions.
The restoration, overseen by two French film foundations, the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage and Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema, involved both photochemical and digital treatment and was conducted under the supervision of Étaix himself.
The film is in French with English subtitles.
Priced at $50, tickets are available now at all URBTIX outlets. Half-price concessionary tickets are available for senior citizens aged 60 and above, people with disabilities, full-time students and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients.
Detailed programme information can be obtained in the "ProFolio 55" leaflet, distributed at all performance venues of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. Credit card bookings can be made by phone on 2111 5999, or on the Internet at www.urbtix.hk. For enquiries, please call 2739 2139/ 2734 2900 or browse the websites: www.filmarchive.gov.hk or www.lcsd.gov.hk/fp.
Ends/Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Issued at HKT 19:18
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