13.01.26, 20:30, Max, Mon Amour (1986)

All men are trash, date a chimpanzee! In Paris, Margaret and Peter live the kind of neat, glossy life that can only be derailed by something completely outlandish. And that's exactly what happens: Margaret turns out to be in a relationship with a chimpanzee, Max. The couple are said to be madly in love, and Margaret manages to convince Peter to allow her to bring the sensitive but dangerous animal home.

It is almost impossible to tell when director Nagisa Ôshima is being serious, when he is being ironic, when he is trying to make a metaphorical point about evolution, or when he is commenting on the state of contemporary aristocratic European society. In Max, Mon Amour, he serves up madness with a deadly seriousness that allows the absurd to slip into the everyday, and that is precisely where it becomes irresistibly funny.

The sober, unforced manner in which the often excessive events are presented is reminiscent of Luis Buñuel, a friend of the crew. Charlotte Rampling also succeeds in evoking Margaret's burning love for Max with a deadly serious expression. The result is a tightly served chamber piece, in which the impossible is received with porcelain politeness.

This screening will be introduced by filmmaker Nina de Vroome.