A festival of French films is underway at Kyiv’s Cinematographers’ Home. The French modifier is used somewhat inaccurately. Of course, it mostly features French movies, but they are united not by the country where they were produced, but by one name, one person, the producer under whose guidance a given film was made. The name of this in many respects outstanding cinematographer is Marin Karmitz.
He was born, in Romania in 1938. When he was nine, he and his parents moved to France, where he graduated from the Higher School of Cinematographic Art. He began as an original professional film director, first working as an assistant to important directors, among them Jean-Luc Godard and AgnОs Varda. The current festival presents his first full-length motion picture Sept jours ailleurs (1968). The next two movies, Comrades (1970) and Blow for Blow (1972), won him the scandalous Leftist reputation and resulted in Karmitz’s becoming a pariah in the French cinema. This, however, did not prevent Karmitz setting up a largely successful company known as MK Productions, later to become MK2 Productions. In fact, Karmitz made his name as a producer. His first such experience went down in all cinematographic annals when the greatest twentieth century playwright Samuel Beckett made his first and only motion picture La Comedie under Karmitz’s guidance. His subsequent endeavors as a producer were a series of victories and discoveries of fresh talent, bringing forth names that would become world cinema classics. In 1977, Brothers Traviani’s Padre padrone (Father Master), produced by Karmitz, won the Golden Palm in Cannes. In the next five years, five pictures produced or distributed by MK2 registered successful premieres and received Cannes awards, starring giants such as Jean-Luc Godar, Claude Chabrol, Alain Renais, Paolo and Vittorio Traviani, Alain Tanner, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Arturo Ripstein, Jacques Doillon, and Michael Haneke. He also helped excellent Iranian directors Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Abbas Kiarostami, Russian director Pavel Lungin, etc., make their films.
In fact, some of the above productions will be played at the Cinematographers’ Home. The festival began with the Austrian Michael Haneke’s Code Unknown (2000), a stunning combination of cruelty and perfect camerawork, winner of the Cannes Ecumenical Jury Prize. And then every name marking a separate chapter in world moviemaking history. Kyiv film buffs will be fortunate enough to watch one of the most controversial French director Alain Renais’s Melo (1986), with two Ceasars (the highest French Film Academy award) conferred on Sabine Azema as the best actor and Pierre Ardit, as best supporting role. Claude Chabrol’s Une Affaire des Femmes, as usual, stars the singular Isabelle Huppert (awarded Venice Festival’s Silver Lion for the role). Venice also came up with another favorite, Abbas Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us (1999: Grand Prix and FIPRESSI Prize). Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Karmitz-produced Blue (1993) of the Three Colors Collection (Juliette Binoche winning Caesars as the best actor); Goya (recognized as the best European film); the Golden Lion awarded for the best Cannes film; Levi Juliette Binoche and cameraman Slavomir Idjak.
Code Unknown seems as good a description of Karmitz as any, for the man can somehow succeed in producing good films as well as — and even more importantly — in raising them to the level of universal public recognition. Although the notions of the author’s, noncommercial, filmmaking and box office movies appear incompatible. Perhaps such a broad retrospective will help our producers to learn something new, that is, if there are any left.
