2 – 6 December 2025
“I've always wanted two people sitting next to each other to come to blows when watching my films, one screaming in anger, driven mad by the constant laughter coming from the seat to their left." — Luc Moullet
“Cinema so free it makes your heart fall out" — Jean-Luc Godard
Born in 1937, Luc Moullet was and is the youngest and most overlooked director of the French New Wave. After beginning his career writing for the legendary film journal Cahiers du cinéma aged eighteen — prompting Cahiers doyen Éric Rohmer to remark, “At this rate we’ll soon have critics in short trousers” — Moullet made his first short film, Un steak trop cuit, in 1960. Produced by Georges de Beauregard on the recommendation of Moullet’s friend Jean-Luc Godard, it established the irreverence, directness and modesty of means that would be the salient features of Moullet’s work for the next five decades.
Though much of Moullet’s work occupies a distinctive realm of anarchistic, absurdist comedy — Jean-Marie Straub called him “the only heir to both Buñuel and Tati”, while Jacques Rivette described him as “our Jarry” — he has made films in more genres than perhaps any of his peers: comedy, western, adventure, period drama, travelogue, and social documentary. Working consistently — and usually with extremely low budgets — across both cinema and television, Moullet has carved out a path unique not only in a French context but in world cinema, as a kind of one-man version of the Hollywood Poverty Row which produced many of his own favourite directors.
Following retrospectives across the USA, this programme, curated by the international film magazine Narrow Margin, presents a selection of Moullet’s shorts and features, recently restored in 4K. Spanning almost forty years of Moullet’s output, from the early masterpiece Les Contrebandières (1967) to the riotous, self-parodic Le Prestige de la mort (2006), it aims to introduce new viewers to work that has often been difficult to find outside of (and sometimes within) France, and to give long-time devotees a rare chance to see Moullet’s films on the big screen.
In addition, Luc Moullet himself will be joining us via video link for a Q&A to discuss his films, following the programme on 4 December.
“I've always wanted two people sitting next to each other to come to blows when watching my films, one screaming in anger, driven mad by the constant laughter coming from the seat to their left." — Luc Moullet
“Cinema so free it makes your heart fall out" — Jean-Luc Godard
Born in 1937, Luc Moullet was and is the youngest and most overlooked director of the French New Wave. After beginning his career writing for the legendary film journal Cahiers du cinéma aged eighteen — prompting Cahiers doyen Éric Rohmer to remark, “At this rate we’ll soon have critics in short trousers” — Moullet made his first short film, Un steak trop cuit, in 1960. Produced by Georges de Beauregard on the recommendation of Moullet’s friend Jean-Luc Godard, it established the irreverence, directness and modesty of means that would be the salient features of Moullet’s work for the next five decades.
Though much of Moullet’s work occupies a distinctive realm of anarchistic, absurdist comedy — Jean-Marie Straub called him “the only heir to both Buñuel and Tati”, while Jacques Rivette described him as “our Jarry” — he has made films in more genres than perhaps any of his peers: comedy, western, adventure, period drama, travelogue, and social documentary. Working consistently — and usually with extremely low budgets — across both cinema and television, Moullet has carved out a path unique not only in a French context but in world cinema, as a kind of one-man version of the Hollywood Poverty Row which produced many of his own favourite directors.
Following retrospectives across the USA, this programme, curated by the international film magazine Narrow Margin, presents a selection of Moullet’s shorts and features, recently restored in 4K. Spanning almost forty years of Moullet’s output, from the early masterpiece Les Contrebandières (1967) to the riotous, self-parodic Le Prestige de la mort (2006), it aims to introduce new viewers to work that has often been difficult to find outside of (and sometimes within) France, and to give long-time devotees a rare chance to see Moullet’s films on the big screen.
In addition, Luc Moullet himself will be joining us via video link for a Q&A to discuss his films, following the programme on 4 December.
Programme
Tuesday 2 December, 6.30pm
Le Litre de lait + Les Contrebandières
This programme presents two products of Moullet’s proud Alpine heritage: his early adventure comedy Les Contrebandières, brimming with pre-68 anti-authoritarian energy, and the late short Le Litre de lait, a favourite of the director himself, which recreates an ominous episode from Moullet’s youth.
Thursday 4 December, 6.15pm
Les Sièges de l'Alcazar + shorts
The 1980s saw Moullet experiment with short forms. Barres and Essai d’ouverture, two works built around increasingly absurd variations on a single scenario, are among the director’s most enduringly popular films, while the featurette Les Sièges de l’Alcazar lovingly pokes fun at the cinephilia of 1950s Paris.
Saturday 6 December, 4pm
Le Fantôme de Longstaff + Le Prestige de la mort
Departing from the premise of a Cecil B. DeMille silent melodrama, Le Prestige de la mort sees Moullet play himself in a hilarious examination of the lengths a lowly filmmaker will go for recognition (and remuneration). It is here presented alongside Le Fantôme de Longstaff, an arresting adaptation of a Henry James short story that reveals a facility for melodrama rarely explored elsewhere in Moullet’s oeuvre.
Tuesday 2 December, 6.30pm
Le Litre de lait + Les Contrebandières
This programme presents two products of Moullet’s proud Alpine heritage: his early adventure comedy Les Contrebandières, brimming with pre-68 anti-authoritarian energy, and the late short Le Litre de lait, a favourite of the director himself, which recreates an ominous episode from Moullet’s youth.
Thursday 4 December, 6.15pm
Les Sièges de l'Alcazar + shorts
The 1980s saw Moullet experiment with short forms. Barres and Essai d’ouverture, two works built around increasingly absurd variations on a single scenario, are among the director’s most enduringly popular films, while the featurette Les Sièges de l’Alcazar lovingly pokes fun at the cinephilia of 1950s Paris.
Saturday 6 December, 4pm
Le Fantôme de Longstaff + Le Prestige de la mort
Departing from the premise of a Cecil B. DeMille silent melodrama, Le Prestige de la mort sees Moullet play himself in a hilarious examination of the lengths a lowly filmmaker will go for recognition (and remuneration). It is here presented alongside Le Fantôme de Longstaff, an arresting adaptation of a Henry James short story that reveals a facility for melodrama rarely explored elsewhere in Moullet’s oeuvre.
no. 236848.