Robinson's Place
Jean Eustache's second narrative short continued to cement the template for his subsequent fictions: a portrait of emotionally immature men on the prowl for female companionship. Aristide Demonico and Daniel Bart play Parisian friends who try to pick up the same young woman (Dominique Jayr). Their competitive barbs and repeated failures in flirtation lead them to band together for petty revenge against their would-be conquest. In less than forty minutes Eustache delineates the parameters of his moral universe, in which characters fool themselves into believing that life is completely defined by romantic prowess. (Jean Eustache, France, 1963, 40 min.) In French with English subltitles
followed by:
Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes
French New Wave icon Jean-Pierre Leaud stars in Jean Eustache’s third narrative short as Daniel, a thief, schemer, and would-be ladies’ man who loafs around Paris with his ne’er-do-well friends in search of easy money and pretty young women. Daniel believes a new job playing a street-greeting Santa will provide him with golden opportunities to meet girls, but his own desperation continually stands in the way of success. By turns comic and melancholy, and filmed with Eustache’s signature documentary-style black-and-white cinematography, Le Père Noël marks an important stepping stone among the director’s unsentimental explorations of awkward young men who avoid self-reflection while pursuing the opposite sex. (Jean Eustache, France, 1966, 48 min.) In French with English subtitles
