The Single Standard / Carnival in Flanders

Sunday | July 15, 2007 7:00 pm

The Single Standard

Directed by John S. Robertson

Carnival in Flanders

Directed by Jacques Feyder

Live Piano Accompaniment by Robert Humphreville
Screening on Film

Garbo doesn’t yet talk but she fills the screen with her own unique incandescence in one of her final MGM silents, The Single Standard. She portrays a socialite who refuses to conform to the double standard that permits men to reject monogamy while women are expected to commit. Patriarchy gets another challenge in Jacques Feyder’s rowdy romp Carnival in Flanders. When Spaniards arrive to invade the Flemish town of Boon, the men run and hide while the women take charge. Amidst the frivolity, the film offers a timely critique of occupation which caused the Nazis to ban it from screenings in Germany.

PROGRAM

The Single Standard

Directed by John S. Robertson.
With Greta Garbo, Nils Asther, Johnny Mack Brown.
US, 1929, 35mm, black & white, silent, 73 min.
Carnival in Flanders

Directed by Jacques Feyder.
With Françoise Rosay, Micheline Cheirel, Lyne Clevers.
France, 1935, 16mm, black & white, 95 min.
French with English subtitles.