Screening Time: Friday, May 2, 8:00 PM, Charles Theatre 1

Director: Gaspar Noé

Cast: Philippe Nahon, Blandine Lenoir, Franckie Pain, Martine Audrain

Country: France
Year: 1998
Running Time: 93 minutes
Format: 35mm

Each year, John Waters has picked a film that he loves to share with Maryland Film Festival audiences, and we’ve never come close to predicting what it will be. This year’s choice is a jolting first time feature from one of France’s new filmmakers, Gaspar Noé (his newest film, Irreversible, also screens at MFF 2003 before it opens in this market). Noe developed I Stand Alone from a short film he also wrote and directed, Carne, and it graphically explores one man’s struggle to accept the violent forces that are within him and in the world he inhabits. The lead character is a butcher by training, and the forces of sexual desire, violence, power, hypocrisy, familial commitments, and trust buffet him with a gale force. While visually powerful, the film is also fueled by the dense script that lets the audience share the philosophical musings that the butcher cannot put to rest.

--Jed Dietz

Presented By: John Waters

John Waters is one of the seminal influences in independent filmmaking, having taught himself and his friends how to make and market movies on their own terms. From his earliest angry and revolutionary work, to the current Broadway musical hit Hairspray, John has sought to get under the surface of our community and help us see all that we are.