The Garden That Tilts
(Le jardin qui bascule)
Screening on Film
Directed by Guy Gilles.
With Delphine Seyrig, Patrick Jouané, Sami Frey.
France, 1975, 35mm, color, 80 min.
French with English subtitles.
Print source: Cinémathèque française
With Delphine Seyrig, Patrick Jouané, Sami Frey.
France, 1975, 35mm, color, 80 min.
French with English subtitles.
Print source: Cinémathèque française
Le Jardin qui Bascule was one of several films and stage productions that Seyrig starred in alongside Sami Frey, her partner until her death in 1990. This post-New Wave deep cut— directed by Guy Gilles, a pioneer of queer cinema in France whose films were often deemed “unclassifiable”—unfolds a pulpy crime plot involving a hitman out to kill Seyrig’s Kate. Instead, he falls in love—unsurprisingly, considering his fabulous target. Moody and romantic with the help of Gilles’s signature fragmentary editing style, Le Jardin qui Bascule also includes a cameo by Jeanne Moreau (the only time she and Seyrig would appear in the same film), who delivers an unexpected musical performance.