Événement

Lars Von Trier + Busby Berkeley

Nocturne
1980
Dir. Lars von Trier
8min, Digital Projection
With Yvette, Solbjørg Højfeldt and Anne-Lise Gabold

This tense, experimental look at a woman who is disrupted by shattered glass and afraid of sunlight recalls the work of avant-garde pioneers Maya Deren and Luis Buñuel, using visual poetry to create tension with the narrative. Made while at the National Film School of Denmark, Nocturne won von Trier the Best Film Award at the 1981 Munich Film Festival.

Screens with

Footlight Parade
1933
Dir. Lloyd Bacon with sequences by Busby Berkeley
104min, 35mm
With James Cagney, Joan Blondell, and Ruby Keeler

Following a Broadway producer who starts producing musical "prologues" for movie theatres, Footlight Parade is one of the most vital works showcasing the transition of the spectacle from stage to screen. Made during the Pre-Code era, its humor is quite risqué, with many references to prostitution and suggestions of profanity largely unseen in studio films until the 1960s, when the Production Code collapsed. Selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being, the film includes some of Busby Berkeley's biggest dance numbers that would come to define the Hollywood musical spectacle.