(Le Cochon). “An extraordinarily concentrated study in artisanal process” (Nick Pinkerton, Moving Image Source), The Pig dispassionately observes the slaughter and processing of a hog in the southern Massif Central, depicting a rural tradition in all its social and physical detail. The same event was shot by two crews, one directed by Eustache, one by Jean-Michel Barjol; the footage was then combined into a single film, creating a fascinating doubling of points of view. The butchers’ patois is nearly unintelligible, even to most speakers of French, so the film is shown without subtitles.

—Juliet Clark

• Photographed by Philippe Théaudière, Renan Polles. (50 mins, In French, B&W, 16mm, From MAE, permission Tamasa/Connaissance du Cinéma)

Preceded by:
Bosch’s Garden of Delights (“Le jardin des délices” de Jérôme Bosch) (Jean Eustache, France, 1979). Writer Jean-Noël Picq looks at a reproduction of Hieronymus Bosch’s grisly phantasmagoria The Garden of Earthly Delights and talks about what he sees. But what does his narration tell us? The attempt to describe the painting becomes a study in the failure of meaning, and a sly parody of the act of criticism: “Actually,” Picq says in the midst of holding forth from his pompous armchair, “discussing this work is very hard.” (34 mins, In French with English subtitles, Color, Beta SP, From MAE)

• (Total running time: 84 mins)