This is a great and rare opportunity to see the highly-praised films of Jean Rouch. Finally Criterion is releasing his
Chronicle of a Summer (1961), but before that, there was nary a single Jean Rouch film anyone could find on video. I first got all jazzed on him, without seeing anything, by reading the
Cahiers du cinéma critics heaping praise on him in their '60s articles, available in translation from various sources. So far I only had one chance to see a film by him, which I think if memory serves was "Les Maîtres fous" ("The Mad Masters") at a rare screening in L.A. at Pacific Design Center. And it was great! It was a cultural anthropological documentary on the native rituals still being performed by a very isolated African tribe. Great stuff.
But now, the opportunity arises to see not one, not two, but a whole mess load of Jean Rouch films-- predominantly on film, for those who care-- and see if those
Cahiers du cinéma boys were on to anything with this fellow. At the very least, you can go back in time and immerse yourself in the heady intellectualism of 1960s French cinema as it intermingled with new philosophical currents. Don't miss it! Criterion may be releasing one film by him, but I've been waiting at least 15 years since first reading about him to see anything other than that one short film, so let it be known, this is rare, rare, rare, cinephiles!
And okay, so maybe you don't know me from Adam, so I'll let Werner Herzog convince you (from the UCLA site):
"Les Maîtres Fous—The Mad Masters—one of the truly great films." - Werner Herzog
Here is all the info, thank you UCLA screening series for always being awesome!
http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2013-01-25/farther-far-cinema-jean-rouch
I can't figure out how to quote a full Web page yet, so these are cut off, just click to read the full version.
PS - I am remiss in just noticing now that additional screenings are taking place at Redcat
http://www.redcat.org/event/jean-rouch and L.A. Film Forum
http://www.lafilmforum.org/index/Current_Schedule/Entries/2013/1/27_Jean_Rouchs_Horendi.html. Even better!!
