ALMAYER’S FOLLY
aka La Folie Almayer
Dir. Chantal Akerman, 2011
France/Belgium, 127 min.
FRIDAY, JUNE 8 – 7:30 PM
With Introduction by critic/video essayist Scout Tafoya
SATURDAY JUNE 16 – 7:30 PM
Chantal Akerman’s Joseph Conrad adaptation was always too audacious to be written off as an oddity. The muted beaches and ensnaring jungles of Malaysia highlight Akerman’s disciplined formal impulses vividly in her late-career epic, which hits all of the beats of Conrad’s novel before twisting it in on itself; tangling the book like a Rubik’s cube to get closer to the underlying colonialist obsessions and subtly focusing on the mixed race daughter of the tortured protagonist.
“Akerman’s control of the expressive elements, particularly the performances, which are at once subdued and theatrical, and the choreography of the long takes, in which actors move through the encroaching jungle, are exceptional.”—Artforum
“Fervently passionate and formally meticulous, the latest stunning coup for a director who’s made a career of repurposing archetypal storylines.”—Slant Magazine
“A work of engulfing jungles and rivers, vehement and incantatory speeches, and piercing female gazes in front of and behind the camera.”—The House Next Door