Picks from Speed Cinema Intern Madelyn Carey

Speed Cinema Intern Madelyn Carey is a student at the University of Louisville and the head of UofL’s Film Liberation Unit, a film society on campus.  She offers her streaming recommendations:

Saute ma ville
Directed by Chantal Akerman, 1968
(Available on the Criterion Channel)
Chantal Akerman was 18 years old when she made her first film, a 13-minute short called Saute Ma Ville. Akerman sets the film entirely in her apartment as she stars as a restless woman with destructive tendencies. It’s chaotic, fun, and a bit unnerving, and Akerman’s exercise proves in this scary time that you can still be creative, even if you’re trapped at home.

Peppermint Soda
Directed by Diane Kurys, 1977
(Available on Kanopy)
This gentle tale follows two sisters, 13-year-old Anne and 15-year-old Frederique, as they come of age in 1962 Paris. The dialogue is hilarious and the direction is warm. As I find myself quarantined with my younger sister, I am thankful for this movie and its portrayal of sisterhood, which isn’t sentimental at all—just quietly observant and oh-so-loving. I especially love the dedication that Kurys tags onto the opening of the film: “For my sister, who still hasn’t returned my orange sweater.”

Fish Tank
Directed by Andrea Arnold, 2009
(Available on the Criterion Channel)
I just watched this for one of my classes a few weeks ago and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Fish Tank is a masterwork in observation, following a tough 15-year-old girl, Mia, who is trapped in the “fish tank” of an impoverished British neighborhood. It is gritty and real, and sometimes very painful, but there is a dreamlike quality to the way it flows; and Andrea Arnold is so good at finding the moments of beauty amongst the ugly stuff. It’s stuck in my head, on a loop, like one of the hip-hop songs Mia dances to in the film.

From Dean Otto:

Gerhard Richter Painting

While the Met Breuer is closed this spring due to COVID-19, their major exhibition Gerhard Richter: Painting After All is no longer on view.  They are, however, making one element of the exhibition available for free.  The film Gerhard Richter Painting will be available for free streaming starting on Saturday, April 11 at 7 pm through early July. Stop back here for more information.

The documentary by Corina Belz follows Richter as he creates a series of paintings in his studio in Cologne, Germany in 2009. Belz had first directed a short documentary on Richter’s stained glass commission for the Cologne Cathedral. The film will be available starting on Saturday, April 11 at 7 pm through early July.

A Silent Film Restoration from The Film Foundation

The Film Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to the restoration of international film classics started by Martin Scorsese, has released the 1919 silent film The Broken Butterfly by Maurice Tourneur.  This gorgeous film follows a beguiling young woman who inspires a symphony.  This melodrama is filled with rejection, lost love, betrayal, lies, and adherence to strict social constructs that keep lovers apart.  It’s not to be missed.