Train of Shadows: The Specter of Le Thuit


. . . A Valparaíso

(Tren de sombras: El espectro de Le Thuit). The work of the innovative, influential Catalan filmmaker José Luis Guerín has only recently been shown in the United States. In this meditative, beautiful film, Guerín pays tribute to another artist, Gérard Fleury, an amateur filmmaker who disappeared in 1930 while scouting a location for a silent film. Home movies, re-creations, and present-day visits to key locations are intertwined and scenes are repeated and restaged, blurring fiction and nonfiction and questioning our ability to judge what is authentic. Fragile and decaying images reveal one view of Normandy, including provocative glimpses into intimate family life; contemporary images suggest another, populated by anonymous people. Underlying the film is the compulsion to salvage a lost and threatened past, a conviction that resonates with the films of Fleury, with cinema in the broadest sense, and with Catalan history.

—Kathy Geritz

• Written by Guerín. Photographed by Tomàs Pladevall. With Juliette Gaultier, Ivon Orvain, Anne Céline Auche. (88 mins, In French and Spanish with English subtitles, From Films 59)

Preceded by short:
. . . A Valparaíso (Joris Ivens, France, 1963). In this city symphony, Joris Ivens sketches daily life on a Chilean city’s steep streets, on the funiculars traversing its hills, and in dancehalls and bars, to create one of his most poetic films. Renowned film-essayist Chris Marker provided the commentary. (37 mins, In French with English subtitles, From French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, permission Tamasa Distribution)

• (Total running time: 125 mins, B&W/Color, 35mm)