Melinda interviews Louis Malle for the Paris Post, 1975

Having completed his 13th and most puzzling film, Black Moon, Louis Malle is still a very young 40 year old. It is no coincidence, he says, that his recent films have all had adolescent heroes or heroines. It seems evident to anyone who has followed his development that he will never give up his restless searching, his self-questioning and his earnestness. Many of his “Nouvelle Vague' friends, with whom he made a startling entry into the cinema, have found a formula and have lived by it, Louis Malle regards each film as a new beginning and challenge.

“The more one goes on in life, the more the past becomes a burden. In my life and films I have always tried to cut off from the past and start again. But each time, it requires greater effort. It is only by breaking with habit that one can get rid of all that is anecdotal. If not, you let a mask come between you and the reality of your situation. It is a protection, like clothes. But it is wonderful to be naked from time to time, and it's also a good idea to change one's clothes of context.”

Read the full article here.

MelindaCamberPorter.com

MCP Archive Director to speak at Wim Wenders Conference

AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON WIM WENDERS, University of Richmond, VA, February 24th-25th 2017

Change is Possible and Necessary:

New Perspectives on Wim Wenders as Filmmaker and Visual Critic

Selected for Conference Presentation:

“Melinda Camber Porter In Conversation With Wim Wenders

(on the film set of Paris, Texas 1983)

[Newly published book, Blake Press 2016]”

Presentation Abstract: The conversation between Wim Wenders and Melinda Camber Porter (1953-2008) took place on location in December 1983, while Mr. Wenders was shooting his first American Feature Film, Paris, Texas. America was a place of European immigrants, German immigrants, and a vast land stretching to California. Men and women were becoming disillusioned and seeking ‘that something’ just out of reach. Melinda Camber Porter asked Wim Wenders: “When you say men have certain expectations of women, what exactly do you mean? Wim Wenders explains, “We still have to find out what we mean by that, because ‘the character’ hasn’t really understood that yet [in shooting his film, Paris, Texas]. The character is getting ready to confront the issue. I do not work so a film is laid out and people can spell it out. I work much more on intuition … Sometimes film making is very much based on very subconscious choices or intuitions.” Paris, Texas directed by Wim Wenders and written by Sam Shepard with adaptation by L.M. Kit Carson, and starring Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, and Hunter Carson among others. 

The conference will take place on Friday, February 24 and Saturday, February 25, on the campus of the University of Richmond, in Richmond, Virginia. It is organized by Drs. Olivier Delers and Martin Sulzer-Reichel and hosted by the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Funding for the conference comes from the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Richmond and the Tucker-Boatwright Festival for the Arts. For more information, click here.