On Thursday, the actress and writer Anne Wiazemsky died, at the age of seventy. She was an actress whose earliest roles were in Robert Bresson’s “Au Hasard Balthazar,” from 1966, Jean-Luc Godard’s “La Chinoise,” from 1967, and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Teorema,” from 1968. She was also married to Godard, from 1967 to 1979 (though they separated in 1970). One of her most significant later roles came in the drama “The Secret Child” (“L’Enfant Secret”), from 1979, by Philippe Garrel, a new restoration of which will screen at the New York Film Festival on October 10th. It’s a fierce, passionate, tender, painful romance, based in part on Garrel’s own relationship with the singer Nico; it’s also an ultra-low-budget independent film that aspires to—and often reaches—the imagistic grandeur of the silent cinema, and Wiazemsky’s blend of vulnerability and strength, reminiscent at times of Lillian Gish’s work in the nineteen-teens and twenties, is part of that achievement. “The Secret Child” (“L’Enfant Secret”), from 1979, by Philippe Garrel, a new restoration of which will screen at the New York Film Festival on October 10th. It’s a fierce, passionate, tender, painful romance, based in part on Garrel’s own relationship with the singer Nico; it’s also an ultra-low-budget independent film that aspires to—and often reaches—the imagistic grandeur of the silent cinema, and Wiazemsky’s blend of vulnerability and strength, reminiscent at times of Lillian Gish’s work in the nineteen-teens and twenties, is part of that achievement.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks