“MALPERTUIS” 1971 | 2h05’ [BE\FR\DE] | LIGHTS IN THE CAVE XII Cinema Screenings

## Ciclo LUZES NA CAVERNA XII | ”A imagem como labirinto narrativo.”:

[Lights in the Cave XII Cinema Screenings: “The image as narrative labirinth.”]

#### MALPERTUIS” 1971 | M/13 | 2h05’ [BE\FR\DE]

De Harry Kümel

Sábado Dia 20/06 às 19h30 [Saturday 06/20 at 7:30pm]
IMDB
Trailer

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More info and reservations:
https://prosacultural.org/malpertuis

There are films that seem to be born already as ruins. Not the ruins of something destroyed, but of something too ancient to remain fully alive. MALPERTUIS belongs to that rare territory of European cinema where narrative ceases merely to tell a story and instead becomes a space for the survival of forgotten forces. Every face, every corridor and every shadow appears to carry the memory of a world that no longer finds its place within modernity.
Rarely seen outside the circles of European fantastic cinema, “MALPERTUIS” has, over the decades, become a deeply singular cult work. Directed by Harry Kümel following the international success of “DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS” (1971), the film brings together names such as Orson Welles, Michel Bouquet and Mathieu Carrière in a cinematic experience that fuses expressionism, decadent theatre, surrealism and classical mythology. The production itself became legendary for its visual ambition and for the challenge of adapting the dense and fragmented literary universe of Jean Ray (1887–1964).

In a decaying mansion lost among corridors, locked rooms and unsettling presences, a family awaits the death of the patriarch Cassavius. Yet within this suspended space, where time no longer seems to obey the laws of the outside world, something deeper lies hidden: the ancient gods of classical mythology now live imprisoned within human bodies, condemned to the erosion of memory, desire and eternity itself.
Directed by Harry Kümel and adapted from the novel by Jean Ray, “MALPERTUIS” is one of the most singular works of European fantastic cinema: a film in which horror, fantasy, surrealism and metaphysical melancholy coexist within a hypnotic and labyrinthine atmosphere. Amid mirrors, candlelight, suffocating corridors and figures that seem to emerge from a fever dream, the film transforms the house of Malpertuis into a kind of spiritual mausoleum of the West — a place where myths survive not as glory, but as decay.

(Curatorship by Alexandre Braga)

All Cinema PROSA films will be shown on an illuminated pixel (65’’ QLED screen) in a room with a maximum capacity of 24 spectators.

Come and have a glass of wine or a non-alcoholic drink in the cinema room with us!