In a commission for French television, Pialat was given the time to fully stretch his wings over the course of six hours. The director’s emotional meticulousness and astonishing naturalism is fully explored through many disrupted lives in the French countryside during World War I. Focusing on Hervé—one of a few children sent to the provinces from a war-torn Paris to stay with a rural couple on their farm—the series is child-centric; the toll of the war is expressed through the antics and reactions of its youth, including Michel Tarrazon from Naked Childhood. The immersive details of the opening build the foundation from which a freer, more improvisational and even fanciful Pialat takes flight, where—as Joel Magny from Cahiers du Cinéma notes—“hidden or manifested suffering alternates with an astonishing happiness to be alive.”

The House in the Woods will be presented with an hour-long break after Episode 4 (at approx. 7:15pm) but no other intermissions. The screening will end at approx. 11:15pm.