Visions of the East: Asia through French Eyes

Calcutta, Oct 9, 1:30pm
Director Louis Malle, while most notorious for his skin flick Damage in the 90s, directs this sensitive and searing documentary about the origins and cultures of the capital of the state of West Bengali during the 60s.
India Song, Oct 9, 4pm
This audio-visual tone poem by experimental filmmaker, novelist and playwright explores India’s decadent colonialism and the impossibilities of love.
Images of Singapore from French television 1964–1973, Oct 10, 8pm
Want to know what Singapore looked through a TV set like during the 60s and 70s? These images culled from the vaults of the Institut National De L’Audiovisuel in Paris explore the perpetuation of common perceptions of Asia at that time.
Hiroshima Mon Amour, Oct 11, 8pm
This sensitive portrayal of the aftermath of the nuclear holocaust seen through the eyes of a pair of lovers is poetic and affecting. Directed by Alain Resnais.
Inju: The Beast in the Shadow, Oct 13, 8pm
The latest film by the elusive Barbet Schroeder (Single White Female) centers on a French crime writer who falls in love with a geisha, and where the lines between dream and nightmare, reality and fiction, are blurred.
La 317ème Section, Oct 14, 8pm
One of France’s most popular war documentaries, director Pierre Schoendoerffer searingly explores the depths of hell during the French-Vietnam war.
Far from Vietnam, Oct 15, 1:30pm
Directors Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude LeLouch, Agnes Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker and Alain Resnais knit a tapestry of images and sound bites centering on America’s fascination with Vietnam.
Indochine, Oct 15, 4pm
In this Oscar winning film, a luminous Catherine Deneuve plays a French woman who owns a rubber plantation in Vietnam who gets embroiled with a sexy naval officer played by Vincent Perez. Regis Wargnier directs.
The Lover, Oct 15, 8pm
Jean-Jacques Annaud’s sexy film features torrid and explicit love scenes between a teenage French girl (Jane March) and a wealthy Chinese man (Tony Leung) set in 1929 Vietnam.
All films are shown at Gallery Theatre, National Museum of Singapore.