Raúl Ruiz, Dialogues of the Exiled

Raúl Ruiz (1941 – 2011) was a prolific Chilean director, making over one hundred films in his lifetime. Fleeing Chile in 1973 after the military coup that brought General Pinochet to power, Ruiz moved to Paris, where he continued to work until his death in 2011.

Dialogues of the Exiled (1974) was the first film directed by Ruiz in Paris and observes the community of Chilean exiles of which he became a part. Ruiz had barely been living in Paris more than a month when he started filming Dialogues of the Exiled, an ironic, thinly fictionalised depiction of the city’s Chilean exile community and its tense rapport with its allies on the French left. In this semi-documentary film, patterned after Bertolt Brecht’s Refugee Conversations (1940 – 41), Ruiz explores what it means to live in exile, chronicling the conversations of Chileans in Paris, who resolutely hang onto their cultural identity while navigating life in another country.

This screening of Dialogues of the Exiled forms part of ​‘Slow Retrospective’, a project by artist Aurélien Froment that presents the complete works of Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz in a potentially lifelong retrospective. Screenings follow the chronology of the films’ production and are hosted around the world in theatres, galleries and other spaces. Previous screenings include La Maleta, Cinema Liberty, Mumbai, 2015; Trailer for El Tango del Viudo, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, 2016; Tres Triste Tigre, Le Cratère, Toulouse, 2016; La Colonia Penal/​Ahora te vamos a llamar hermano, Le Cratère, Toulouse, 2016; Nadie dijo nada, M Museum, Leuven, 2017; and El realism socialista, AV Festival, Newcastle, 2018.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Froment and is presented in conjunction with Aurélien Froment, 464 Years of Cinematography, a series of films by the artist as part of GFT’s ​‘Crossing the Line’ strand on 20 May.

Programme:

Raúl Ruiz, Diálogos De Exiliados (Dialogues of the Exiled), 1974, DVD, 100 min

The film is in Spanish and French, with English subtitles.

Raúl Ruiz (1941 – 2011) was born in Puerto Montt, Chile and is arguably one of Chile’s most internationally renowned and prolific filmmakers, having completed over one hundred films in numerous national cinemas. Ruiz’s works are often obsessed with questions of theology, philosophy, psychoanalysis, literature and visual expression. After the military coup in 1973, Ruiz began living in exile in Paris, only visiting Chile following the lifting of martial law in 1990.

Ruiz’s first feature film, Tres Tristes Tigres (1968) won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival in 1969. Ruiz subsequently gained a reputation as an avant-garde filmmaker, with titles such as L’Hypothèse du tableau volé (1978), Les Destins de Manoel (1985) and L’île au trésor (1985), before moving on to collaborations with high-profile stars like John Hurt (Dark at Noon, 1992) and Catherine Deneuve (Genealogies of a Crime/​Généalogies d’un crime, 1997).

Aurélien Froment (b.1976) was born in Angers and currently lives and works in Edinburgh. He studied at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, from which he graduated in 2000. Recent solo exhibitions include Even Scratched to Death, a Simple Rectangle, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels, 2018; Double Tales, M‑Museum, Leuven, 2017 and Allegro Largo Triste, Passerelle Centre d’art contemporain, Brest, 2017. Selected group exhibitions include: The Keeper, The New Museum, New York, 2016; Sydney Biennale, 2014; 55^th Biennale di Venezia, 2013; Curiosity, Hayward Touring, 2013; Our Magic Hour, Yokohama Triennale, 2011.