“French Cinema” photo exhibition

The photo exhibition “French Cinema,” organized by Afisha magazine, is taking place in Shevchenko Park.

The open-air art show seems well-timed for the Indian summer that finally arrived in Kyiv. Walking through the sunlit alleys of the park, you will be able to admire photographs of French movie stars taken by Carole Bellaiche and Frederic Poletti, photographers of influential French film magazine Cahier du Cinema (Notebooks on Cinema), which was founded in 1951.

Future cult directors Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and Claude Chabrol used to write reviews of their favorite films for this legendary magazine. Cahier du Cinema re-invented the basic tenets of film criticism and theory. The magazine's authors also championed the work of directors Jean Renoir, Roberto Rossellini, Kenji Mizoguchi, Max Ophuls, and Jean Cocteau by centering their critical evaluations on a film’s mise en scene. Also the magazine was essential to the creation of the Nouvelle Vague, or New Wave of French cinema, which centered on films directed by Cahiers authors such as Godard and Truffaut.

Stars of French cinema Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Charlotte Rampling, Louis Garrel, Jane Birkin, Jean Rochfort, as well as cult directors Aki Kaurismaki and Philippe Garrel appeared in different times on the pages of Cahier du Cinema. Now we can see their portraits in Kyiv. Among them is a beautiful photograph of actress Fanny Ardant who was the last muse of Francois Truffaut. Ardant appeared in two of his last films, “Confidentially Yours” and “The Woman Next Door.” Francois Truffaut died in 1984, a year after Fanny gave birth to their daughter Josephine. Fanny Ardant refused to stop filming. She played in 68 films, receiving a Silver Berlin Bear and Cesar.

SHEVCHENKO PARK. Through Nov. 9