Version Restauree/Restored Version - Destroy, She Said and Dark Night, Calcutta

Destroy, She Said
Dir. Marguerite Duras, 1969, France, 100min, DCP
Starring Catherine Sellers, Michael Lonsdale, Henri Garcin, Nicole Hiss, Daniel Gélin

Destroy, She Said, adapted, from Duras’ own novel, suffused with mystery much like her script for the revered Hiroshima, Mon Amour, but far more claustrophobic in look and setting.  Four people appear to be the only people in a hotel, despite sounds heard but not seen.  Duras directs with languorous pans, and distinctive camera movement and composition of a true film artist.  While making the film Duras said, “I was really quite comfortable. Even though I was afraid.  And at the same time, completely free.  But frightened to death of being free.”

Dark Night, Calcutta
Dir. Marin Karmitz, 1964, France, 24min, DCP
Starring Maurice Garrel, Natasha Parry, Nicole Hiss

Dark Night, Calcutta, a commissioned work by a pharmaceutical company advertising an alcoholism cure, was taken over by Karmitz, and transformed from a straightforward work into something much greater, when he thought to ask Duras to contribute the text for the film. Featuring Maurice Garrel as a blocked, inebriated writer, trying to find his way back to the page.