This year, Cinnehill presents as many as two winners of the Maverick Honorary Award – Jafar Panahi is joined in Fužine by celebrated French director Catherine Breillat
One of the most daring and provocative contemporary filmmakers, Catherine Breillat, is coming to Cinehill this summer, where she will receive the honorary Maverick Award and present a retrospective of her films.
It is the first time in the history of the festival that the Maverick Award will be presented to two film greats. Catherine Breillat is a French director and successful writer whose uncompromising artistic approach has resulted in a rich and polarizing career marked by films about female sexuality and how it clashes with contemporary patriarchal society.
Launched in 2008, the Maverick Honorary Award is given to filmmakers who have demonstrated artistic boldness and gone against the current, expanded the boundaries of cinematic expression with their work. Breillat’s work embodies all of these core values – she is a director whose innovations both fascinate and disturb the viewer. Her rejection of conventional directorial procedures in favour of exposing uncomfortable gender, family and other (inter)human dynamics puts her at the very height of the so-called “New French Extremity”. Coined to describe a band of disparate French directors whose films in one way or another feature transgressive or explicit scenes of extreme human behaviour, the group includes filmmakers such as Bruno Dumont, Claire Denis, Gaspar Noé and others.
Known for creating complex female characters, Breillat’s deeply personal and often uncomfortable depictions of female desire from the very start touched the nerve of the broader public, unaccustomed to such provocations in the so-called mainstream cinema. This is evident from the long history of censorship she has faced since the beginning of her career.
As a 17-year-old, she published her first book, the erotic novel L’homme facile, which, in an ironic twist of fate, resulted in a ban for under-18s. She made her first foray into film as a supporting actress in Bernardo Bertolucci’s cult classic – Last Tango in Paris (1972), but soon found her sweet spot behind the camera. She made a splash with her directorial debut – an adaptation of her own novel about an adolescent girl’s erotic awakening, titled A Real Young Girl (1976), shocking the censors of the time so much so that the film only saw the light of day (and the darkness of cinemas) 25 odd years later.
She attracted international attention with her third feature, 36 Fillette (1988), about a rebellious 14-year-old girl who embarks on a troubled and manipulative relationship with an aging playboy while on holiday with her family. Although not without controversy, the film was a big success with international critics.
After her sixth title, Romance X (1999), about a sexually frustrated teacher, earned her an X-rating, Breillat once again demonstrated her resistance to censorship stating that the rating was closely related to the X-chromosome and provocatively highlighted it as part of the film’s poster. In it, she hired the Italian porn star, Rocco Siffredi, whose appearance sparked an international debate about pornography, expanding the boundaries of what is acceptable on mainstream film.
Her most popular film is probably My Sister (2001), a brutally honest and unsentimental coming-of-age of two sisters, the chubby 12-year-old Anais and 15-year-old beauty, Elena, and the depiction of their relationship. Through the story of sisterly rivalry, Breillat tackles the complexities of girlhood, adolescent insecurities, and the struggle to form one’s own identity under the pressure of inexorable social norms. The film won several awards and is now considered one of her best achievements and, in general, films about growing up as a girl.
Cinehill’s audience will also have the opportunity to see My Sister, in a retrospective of films from Breillat’s prolific career. To secure a spot at these screenings, the best option would be to purchase one of the ticket bundles at the most affordable prices as soon as possible, since these are in presale online only until 7 July, when individual tickets hit the box office.
Cinehill is supported by the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, the Kvarner and Gorski Kotar Tourism Boards, and is co-organised with the Municipality of Fužine.
