Trevor Steele Taylor
EMINENT French documentary filmmaker Marcel Ophuls, renowned not only for his extraordinary exposes of Nazi war crimes but also for his volatile lawsuits against producers, has withdrawn from the South African International Film Festival.
Ophuls, who was due to arrive yesterday for the opening of the festival, cancelled his visit at the last moment. Ophuls was scheduled to present two of his films, The Troubles We’ve Seen and Memory of Justice, at the festival, and was to be the guest of a Guardian Interview with British film critic Derek Malcolm.
Earlier this year Ophuls cancelled his trip to the Cannes Film Festival and had an associate deliver a broadside against the French nation — and the festival in particular — after The Troubles We’ve Seen was screened out of competition. At the Edinburgh festival, he left shortly after arriving because he did not find his hotel room suitable.
The troubles with Ophuls’ South African visit began when he withdrew because his air ticket was to be financed by the French government. In a faxed message he wrote: “I would never again accept any kind of award, medal, decoration, grant or favour from a government presided over by Francois Mitterrand, as long as we both shall live.” When the festival assured him his ticket would be paid for out of festival funds, he was mollified for a while. However, in a fax received on Monday this week, he withdrew once more. Telephonic attempts to persuade him to change his mind proved fruitless.
The Guardian Debate scheduled for Saturday October 1 at 2.30pm has therefore been cancelled. The screening of Memory of Justice which was to follow the debate has, due to rights problems with the print, been replaced by A Sense of Loss, Ophuls’ remarkable examination of the troubles of Northern Ireland. The screening of The Troubles We’ve Seen on Sunday October 2 at noon will go ahead as planned.
A French filmmaker who has arrived at the festival is director Clair Denis, accompanied by actor Alex Descas. On Saturday October 1 at 8pm, Denis and Descas will introduce the South African premiere of her latest film, I Can’t Sleep (J’ai Pas Sommeil). An official selection in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year, the film is the controversial story of a black transvestite serial killer in Paris. First-time actor Richard Courcet takes the difficult role of the killer; Descas plays the role of the killer’s brother.
Clair Denis and “the godfather of black American cinema”, Melvin van Peebles, will be interviewed by Guardian film critic Derek Malcolm at the Constantia Rosebank cinema on Saturday October 8 at 2.30pm