Promotional advertisement for Yvonne Rainer screening
(3/14/1991)
YVONNE RAINER FILM SERIES FEBRUARY 7 - MARCH 14 Yvonne Rainer, one of the most significant filmmakers in the American cinema, has been the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" fellowship and the American Film Institute’s distinguished "Maya Deren Award." Her most recent film, Privilege, premiered in the 1990 New York Film Festival. Feb. 7 Lives of Performers (1972) Feb. 14 Film About a Woman Who . . . (1974) Feb. 21 Kristina Talking Pictures (1976) Feb. 28 Journeys from Berlin/1971 (1980) Mar. 7 The Man Who Envied Women (1985) Mar. 14 Privilege (1990) - YVONNE RAINER IN PERSON - THURSDAYS AT 5:30 p.m. THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART THEATER Admission is $4.00 ($3.00 for students, senior citizens, and members of The Carnegie) For more information contact The Department of Film & Video The Carnegie Museum of Art 4400 Forbes Avenue (412) 622-3212 Co-sponsored with the Film Studies Program and the Women’s Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh YVONNE RAINER SERIES Trained as a modern dancer, Yvonne Rainer was one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater. Her early feature-length films developed from mixed-media performances, and she has since produced one of the most distinguished bodies of work in contemporary film. All of Rainer’s films, which have been internationally acclaimed, are especially inventive in their disjunctive combination of audio and visual scenarios that deal with issues of narrative, the public and private self, and relations between men and women. Rainer will appear in person on March 14 to introduce her latest film, Privilege. Lives of Performers (1972) Yvonne Rainer. USA. 90 min,________________ Yvonne Rainer, who had a notable influence on dance and performance art in the early 1960s, turned her interests to film in the 1970s. Her first feature-length film unfolds in fourteen episodes, several of which explore real or imagined relationships between the performers. Rainer is both the choreographer of the dancers during the performance and the director of the film. February 7. Film About a Woman Who... (1974) Yvonne Rainer. USA. 105 min.________________ In this extraordinary synthesis of narrative form, Rainer fashions a film that defies a single interpretation. The film is rich with references to the "fine" arts, as well as to conventions of the movies. Rainer’s serene, humorous, and thoughtful work combines melodrama and autobiographical elements as a deceptive device, while constantly shifting modes of communication. February 14. Kristina Talking Pictures (1976) Yvonne Rainer. USA. 92 min.________________ On the surface a story about a European (female) lion tamer who comes to the United States to take up choreography, this film also reflects upon psychology. With a constant stream of dialogue culled from Simone de Beauvoir, John Cage, Susan Sontag, and others, the central, emerging idea is the disparity between individuals’ political ideology and their public action. February 21. Journeys from Berlin/1971 (1980) Yvonne Rainer. USA, 125 min._____________ This melancholic, coolly beautiful film counterpoints information about political violence in Germany with a middle-aged woman’s psychoanalytic session, which gradually reveals the terrible inner loneliness that led to her suicide attempt in Berlin in 1971. An ambitious, relentless meditation on the politics of the early '70s, the film deals essentially with the relation of the private to the political. February 28. The Man Who Envied Women (1985) Yvonne Rainer. USA. 125 min._______________ With a script compiled from the writings of over a dozen figures - including Raymond Chandler, Michel Foucault, B. Ruby Rich, Frederic Jameson, Peter Wollen, and Rainer herself - the film veers from witty one-liners to lengthy arguments. Built around the familiar theme of the breakup of a marriage, this multi-layered work explores issues of aging, sexuality, power, and political activism. March 7. Privilege (1990) Yvonne Rainer, USA, 100 min._______________ Rainer uses a searing intelligence and a wicked wit to tackle the last frontier in film subjects - menopause. With a collage technique that uses old educational films, data shot off a computer, and stories by a melange of characters, Rainer has made an intense and entertaining film about sexual identity and the unequal realities of race, gender, and class. Ms. Rainer will introduce her film in person. March 14.
