Blanche

Director: Walerian Borowczyk, Walerian Borowczyk, Walerian Borowczyk, Walerian Borowczyk, Walerian Borowczyk, Walerian Borowczyk, Walerian Borowczyk, Walerian Borowczyk

1968 / 108min / DCP

“Arguably Borowczyk’s most ambitious film, a meticulous recreation of medieval life by way of references from the history of art, not least Giotto’s religious paintings. Occupying the space between Pasolini and Parajanov as a sort of flat, two-dimensional moving tapestry, Blanche is based on a drama by the great Polish romantic poet Juliusz Słowacki, Mazepa. Featuring one of the last performances by the Swiss actor Michel Simon, not to mention as spirited turn by the late Jacques Perrin (also serving as an uncredited producing partner here), Blanche herself is played by Ligia Branice as a Sadean stock character whose innocent gothic beauty evokes male lust inevitably followed by bloody violence.”—Daniel Bird, series curator Screens with Rosalie.