Predominantly well known outside of France as a writer, particularly for the largely autobiographical L’Amant (1986), Marguerite Duras also had a distinguished film career, a noted highlight of which was her script for the enduring and widely acclaimed Hiroshima mon amour (1959).

Before Le Navire night, an experimental treatise on anonymous love and desire, Duras had already been awarded the Grand Prix for direction from the French Film Academy for her somewhat more accessible India Song (1975). However, in Le Navire night, Duras investigates new possibilities for the cinematic form by drawing out relationships between people who never actually meet. Using the unlisted phone lines remaining from the German occupation of Paris, Duras’ cast – Dominique Sanda, Bulle Ogier and Mathieu Carrière – carry out illicit conversations, which reveal almost all but their identity. (Notes by Alice Butler.)

A rare opportunity to see this on 35mm.

This film is screening as part of Les Films du Losange: 50th Anniversary Programme (October 7th – 20th).