“I am not a one-man woman,” concludes Nola Darling, the protagonist in Spike Lee's 1986 film She's Gotta Have It. This simple yet bold statement answers the central question posed: should a woman wish to belong to a man – or to anyone for that matter? Ultimately, Nola Darling does whatever she pleases: she’s gotta have it, even when faced with multiple possessive and frustrated lovers who pathologize her sexual behaviour. Screening this Wednesday at Cinematek, this “seriously sexy comedy” cleverly undermines stereotypes and mockingly points out the blatant hypocrisy of male expectations.
On Thursday, Cinematek will be screening the silent films Rien que les heures (1926) and La p’tite Lili (1927), both directed by the legendary Brazilian filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti. Rien que les heures is a documentary view of Paris that does not focus on the fancy and fashionable life of the lucky few, a point that Cavalcanti makes clear at the beginning of the film by tearing up a picture of women in expensive evening dresses. Rather, it is a filmic collage depicting the everyday life of the humble Parisian: nothing but hours filled with working, eating, resting and loving.
The short film La p’tite Lili is a “cinematic illustration” of a popular French song by Gravel and Benech. The title character, Lili, played by the actress Catherine Hessling, is sixteen years old and orphaned. Surrendered to the city, Lili quickly loses control over her own fate and is lured into prostitution by a malicious pimp, portrayed by director Jean Renoir. In his unconventional cinematic rendition of the story, Cavalcanti adds a layer of irony and strange comedy to the original tale, borrowing elements from pantomime and slapstick.
Lastly, on Friday, De Cinema is screening Akerman’s Toute une nuit (1982). Against the backdrop of Brussels, the film collects fragments of relationships, spontaneous moments of love, lust, and frustration as they emerge and fade away on a hot summer’s night. Akerman skilfully intertwines these vignettes in a poetic manner, painting an enigmatic picture of Brussels and its residents. The film carefully peers into the windows of different lives and relationships without intruding, slowly and steadily unveiling the common thread of desire.
