CINEMATHEQUE ONTARIO - Mode In France

Cinematheque Ontario is a theatre in Ontario [near Toronto], in Canada. As part of a season of films dedicated to William Klein, they will be showing "MODE IN FRANCE", the 1985 film satire on the fashion industry. Grace has a part in this film, but not many people have seen it because it is so rare. So all you people in the Toronto area have a great chance to see an early perfomace by Grace! Below is a bit of information about Klein, and the times and dates of the films showing, including Mode In France.

CINEMATHEQUE ONTARIO PRESENTS CINEMA OUTSIDER: THE FILMS OF WILLIAM KLEIN
May 14, 1999 For Immediate Release Toronto * As part of CONTACT '99, the city-wide festival of photography, Cinematheque Ontario is pleased to host a selected retrospective of the films of William Klein entitled CINEMA OUTSIDER: THE FILMS OF WILLIAM KLEIN (May 28 - June 3). The retrospective presents eight features and three shorts by an artist whose films are marked by their radical politics and radical form. (A press and public screening schedule follows.)

A distinguished photographer/filmmaker who has not received nearly as much attention in North America as he has in Europe, Klein is an American who has lived in Paris for most of his life. Perhaps best known as a fashion photographer and photojournalist (his epochal book on New York captured the interest of Louis Malle and Federico Fellini), Klein and his work have been the subject of major retrospectives at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

Klein's films are too little known in North America, falling outside the already marginalized movements of independent, experimental and cinéma-vérité filmmaking. Nevertheless, his cinematic career traverses fascinating territory -- he has directed feature-length narratives and documentaries, short films, television programmes and hundreds of commercials. His visionary satirical fantasy about the fashion world and the media, WHO ARE YOU, POLLY MAGGOO? (1965-66), and his expressionistic, anti-American allegory MR. FREEDOM (1967-68) influenced such luminaries as Stanley Kubrick. Klein began making films in the late Fifties with BROADWAY BY LIGHT (1958). Produced by Anatole Dauman and made with the assistance of Alain Resnais and Chris Marker, the short film includes extraordinary, almost surreal images of blinking and flickering advertising billboards and neon signs, cigarette ads exhaling smoke, and larger-than-life representations of comic strip figures such as Little Lulu. Orson Welles reportedly called BROADWAY BY LIGHT "the first film . . . in which the colour is absolutely necessary."

Klein*s unique documents on American cultural and political icons such as Muhammad Ali, Eldridge Cleaver and Little Richard stand as important records of our times. MUHAMMAD ALI THE GREATEST (1974), his incendiary account of the life of Muhammad Ali, stretches from Ali's conversion to the Muslim religion in the early 1960s to the infamous fight with George Foreman in Zaire. The film took a decade to make and stresses Ali's political significance, his international importance and chronicles his friendship with slain civil rights leader Malcolm X. (The version Cinematheque Ontario will show is a new 35mm print of the director's extended cut.) His documentary portraits-- ELDRIDGE CLEAVER, BLACK PANTHER (1970) and THE LITTLE RICHARD STORY (1980)-- offer incisive looks at the black experience in America and the phenomenon of celebrity.
The series also includes his anatomy of the dream factory, HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA: A LOSER'S OPERA (1977), which travels from the city's board rooms to its corporate underbelly. Other highlights include his one-of-a-kind look at 1980s fashion, MODE EN FRANCE (1985), featuring the work of Gaultier, Agnes B. and Castelbajac as well as appearances by Grace Jones and Bambou. Also included on the slate are his exquisite short films -- RALENTIS (1984), an extraordinary slow-motion look at athletes in action; CONTACTS (1983), his revealing and incisive account of how he analyses a contact sheet and selects those images which will make the strongest photographic prints; and BROADWAY BY LIGHT.

CINEMA OUTSIDER: THE FILMS OF WILLIAM KLEIN is presented with the generous assistance of Bruce Jenkins and Dean Otto, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; William Klein, Films Paris New York, Paris; Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago; Stephen Bulger and Lesley Sparks, Contact '99, Toronto.
Videocassettes are available for press preview purposes.

PRESS SCREENING SCHEDULE
Wednesday, May 19
10: 00 a.m. BROADWAY BY LIGHT (France 1958, 12 minutes)/ WHO ARE YOU, POLLY MAGGOO? (France 1965-66, 105 minutes)
1:00 p.m. THE LITTLE RICHARD STORY (Germany 1980, 90 minutes)
LOCATION: Cinematheque Ontario Screening Room
2 Carlton St., Ste. 1600

PUBLIC SCREENING SCHEDULE
Friday, May 28
6:30 p.m. BROADWAY BY LIGHT/WHO ARE YOU, POLLY MAGGOO?
8:45 p.m. THE LITTLE RICHARD STORY

Saturday, May 29
6:30 p.m. CONTACTS/ELDRIDGE CLEAVER, BLACK PANTHER
8:30 p.m. MUHAMMAD ALI THE GREATEST

Wednesday, June 2
6:30 p.m. MR. FREEDOM
8:45p.m. HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA: A LOSER'S OPERA/RALENTIS

Thursday, June 3
6:30 p.m. THE MODEL COUPLE
8:45 p.m. MODE EN FRANCE

All Cinematheque Ontario screenings are held at the Art Gallery of Ontario's Jackman Hall, 317 Dundas St. West, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. Ticket prices (including G.S.T.) are $8.00 for non-members, $4.80 for Cinematheque Ontario members, $4.25 for student members and seniors. Screenings are restricted to individuals 18 years of age and older. Call the Bell Infoline 416-968-FILM for more information.

Please call Steve Gravestock at 416-934-3255 for more information.