About this Event
Paradise Theatre presents CONTOURS: a bimonthly screening series which compounds historic and theoretical practices of the art world with the cinematic, programmed by critic and curator Saffron Maeve.
Ten years after abandoning a great unrealized work, “La Belle Noiseuse,” an aging painter (Michel Piccoli) finds inspiration in a new model (Emmanuelle Béart), the fiancée of a rival artist. In Honoré de Balzac’s original story The Unknown Masterpiece, the scenario makes for a tantalizing parable of art-historical change, suggesting that a masterpiece before its time is no masterpiece at all. In his 1991 film La Belle Noiseuse, however, French New Wave director Jacques Rivette offers something quite different: a meditation on the relation between artist and model, one that doubles as a reflection on the complex collaboration between filmmaker and actor.
“I want to break you up to see the inside. I want the invisible,” the painter announces. Much of the film’s absorbing four-hour runtime will chart his attempts to plumb the core of his model’s being, as well as her resistance to the very same. What finally emerges in this struggle for dominance, which is by turns sadistic and sensual, is an enthralling look at the process of artistic creation. -Lawrence Garcia
Preceded by the short film LIVING SCULPTURES: FILM STUDY FOR THE SCREEN ARTIST (1903)
(Courtesy of Cohen Media)
This screening is presented in partnership with
Sunday, August 18th, 5 PM/4 PM Doors. Presented with a 15 minute intermission.
General Admission $15.00 | Student/Senior (with valid ID) $12.50 + HST/eventbrite fees
Door tickets are available for purchase on the day of screening. Refunds can be requested up to 12 hours before the screening. All refunds must be requested and processed through eventbrite.
Looking for pre or post show snack or sip? Check out our amazing options right next door!
Blue Door Wine Shop | Café Paradise
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Paradise Theatre, 1006c Bloor Street West, Toronto, Canada
CAD 16.54 to CAD 19.56