The Bechtler provides museumgoers the opportunity to deepen their experience by viewing films that complement exhibitions through a focus on Bechtler collection artists and their cultural periods. The films are shown in the museum’s video gallery select Mondays throughout the year. The series kicks off this month with two French-themed classics: An American in Paris on December 6 and Breathless on December 13.

An American in Paris is a lighthearted musical, featuring songs by George Gershwin. The movie stars dancer Gene Kelly as an American expatriate painter who moves to Paris. The movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won six including Best Picture, Screenplay and Musical Score.

Breathless (above photo) was written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. This innovative film is associated with Nouvelle Vague, the French New Wave movement. Godard filmed the entire movie on the streets of Paris with a handheld camera and many of the scenes and dialogue were improvised.  The film represents the spontaneity associated with concurrent art movements in the 1950s such as American Abstract Expressionism as well as the European equivalent, School of Paris.

The movies complement the Bechtler’s current exhibition, School of Paris: European Abstraction Post World War II, which features eight artists who worked and lived in Paris after World War II and whose art was defined by an abstract, non-figurative style.

TICKETS

Tickets are free for museum members, $4 for non-members. Purchase tickets online, by phone (704.353.9200) or at the visitor services desk. Cash bar and snack boxes.