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Thursday, March 16, 2006
Alliance Française Auditorium
7pm
RSVP (415) 775-7755
Admission: $7 AFSF mbrs $10 others
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Selections from "Les Vampires" by Louis Feuillade with live musical accompaniment by
The Ahl-I Nafs
This program offers a selection from the legendary seven hour serial,
"Les vampires", one of the earliest and strangest gangster films. It tells
the story of an evil gang who seeks the political, social, economic and
sexual domination of the city of Paris. They are led by a mysterious, seductive and powerful
woman, named Irma Vep (vampire, get it?), played by the unforgettable Musidora.
Sometimes seductively garbed in a black body stocking and a black hood, sometimes
disguised as a boy, or hidden in plain view as a maid, stenographer or bourgeois spinster,
and feared and desired by both her cohorts and stalkers, Irma is perhaps the first liberated
screen woman. In any case, she is a frightening, disturbing presence. Filmed on the
streets and back alleys of World War I Paris, Feuillade achieves a subversive, nightmarish
atmosphere amid the everyday goings-on of the city. The 1915 picture was a huge
commercial success, though temporarily banned by Paris's chief of police for glamorizing
crime. What more reason to see it do you need? |
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