Nottingham Contemporary

A SUBVERSIVE ART

Raiding the archives of Amos Vogel’s legendary film club, Cinema 16

Jules et Jim (1962) François Truffaut, 106 mins. Cert 12A. BFI

The Screen at Contemporary returns. This season we celebrate the act of people gathering in a darkened room to watch films together. We present a selection of shorts and features from the infamous film society Cinema 16 (1947–63), run by Amos and Marcia Vogel, which proposed an alternative canon of avant-garde, underground and commercial film. Cinema 16 strived to show only the most pioneering films, and in the process was a major influence on postwar cinema.

Set in the years before and after the First World War we follow best friends Jules & Jim. They meet, and subsequently fall in love with the free-spirited Catherine, creating the ultimate cinematic ménage à trois. At the time this was radical in both form and content. The film explores love, desire, and loyalty with all of its complicated and ridiculous beauty. Truffaut was one of the most important filmmakers of the French New Wave, a new era of filmmakers of the sixties and seventies that were first and foremost cinephiles, who then began to create a new film language- his love of cinema shines through throughout.

For the full programme of films, please click here