1945
Dir. Marcel Carné
190 minutes
French with English Subtitles
DCP

Join us for a special screening of director Marcel Carné’s classic Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise), widely considered one of the greatest and most beautiful French films ever made. Set in nineteenth-century Paris and filmed during World War II, the film features the iconic performance of Jean-Louis Barrault as the mime Baptiste, a figure who has served as inspiration for several works in Shary Boyle’s Outside the Palace of Me.

The film will be introduced by Bessie and Obie Award-winning performance artist and writer John Kelly. Kelly will speak about the inspirations and pleasures to be found in the film, his own performances using the figure of Baptiste, and the importance of Children of Paradise to New York’s downtown scene.

About the artist

John Kelly is a performance and visual artist. His performance works dramatize the lives of characters— whether actual or fictional— revealing their challenges, foibles, and humanity: sometimes autobiographical, other times inspired by the realities of cultural outsiders, and the hurdles and political realities they navigate.  These original works, both solo and ensemble, have been performed at MET Live Arts, The Kitchen, La MaMa, Lincoln Center, the Warhol Museum, the Whitney Biennial, NY Live Arts, BAM’s Next Wave Festival, REDCAT, and London’s Tate Modern. His latest dance theatre work Underneath the Skin (based on the life of the twentieth-century gay novelist and tattoo artist Samuel Steward) was commissioned by the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts and had a recent run at La MaMa. He is currently a Baryshnikov Arts Fellow at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, NY.

Kelly’s visual art is based in self-portraiture, including drawing, painting, photography, and video.  Two of his films are in the permanent collection of MoMA. He recently completed his first graphic memoir A Friend Gave Me A Book, based on a near catastrophic trapeze accident.

Kelly’s works have received 2 Bessie Awards, 2 Obie Awards, 2 NEA Awards American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius Awards, a CalArts/ Alpert Award in Dance/Performance, a Visual AIDS Vanguard Award, the Ethyl Eichelberger Award, and a Mabou Mines ‘Ruthie’ Award. Fellowships include The Rome Price in Visual Art at American Academy in Rome, The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, The Guggenheim Foundation, The Sundance Theatre Institute, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, Art Matters, Inc., and USA Artists.  Creative residencies include Yaddo, MacDowell, The Park Avenue Armory, Civitella Ranieri, and The Bogliasco Foundation.  He was a Guest lecturer at Harvard University and Visiting Artist in Residence at Bard College.  Mentorship involvement includes the Queer Art Mentorship program, the Helix Queer Performance Network.