Marin Karmitz,
the image man
PostED on 13.10.2024
MK2: behind this cinematic logo stands one of the most influential figures in French and international independent cinema: Marin Karmitz.
© Benoit Linero pour MK2
MK2, the production, distribution and cinema operations company is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Filmmakers Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol, Claire Denis, Abbas Kiarostami, Théo Angelopoulos, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Romain Goupil (Half a Life), and many others that make up MK2 have been guided by Karmitz, leading us to deduce that he is a man with a profound taste for images, all images. Including his own!
Let's go back in time. Marin Karmitz was born in Bucharest in 1938 and left Romania a decade later with his family, who settled in France. He entered IDHEC (present-day FEMIS) in 1957, where he worked with director Yannick Bellon (to whom Lumière is paying tribute this year, screening Jean’s Wife and Anatomy of Los Angeles), Agnès Varda and Jean-Luc Godard. In 1964, he made his first short fiction film, Nuit noire, Calcutta, lit in black and white by the legendary Willy Kurant, with the screenplay penned by Marguerite Duras, starring Maurice Garrel in the role of a writer drowning himself in alcohol. Next came another short, Comédie, a very, very odd little film, so odd in fact that it is now part of the Pinault contemporary art foundation collection. Against a black backdrop, bodies completely swallowed up in three jars, with only their heads sticking out, Delphine Seyrig, Éléonore Hirt and Michael Lonsdale recite a text by Samuel Beckett at 100 km/h. Beckett is also in charge of the lighting of the film! The ‘plot’ revolves around a vaudeville, a woman, her husband and his mistress arguing without being able to move, while emitting weird noises. The film created a scandal. This in no way detracts from Marin Karmitz's highly imaginative taste for singularity. On the contrary, he created his own world of production to put it on full display. In 1967, MK2 production was founded, and in 1974 MK2 distribution and operations were also added, opening a first movie theatre, 14 Juillet Bastille. Over time, the company opened ten cinema complexes in Paris, produced nearly a hundred films, and distributed several hundred others, not counting the video division...
Mourir à 30 ans by Marin Karmitz (1982) © MK2
While Marin Karmitz has produced and distributed many other people's films, his work as a director has been no less militant, as the biography Marin Karmitz: une autre histoire du cinéma (Flammarion) by Antoine de Baecque, reminds us. When he was a teen, Karmitz spoke out against the Algerian war, and felt close to the communists and then the Maoists. His feature films faithfully reflect these views, in particular Comrades (1970), inspired by May ‘68, and Blow for Blow (1972), in which his camera is placed at the heart of a factory where workers revolt and argue. Karmitz filmed this conflict in sublimating tones, thereby relaying the tremendous energy of these women, their joys, their sorrows - in short, underlining the importance of all lives.
Comrades by Marin Karmitz (1970) © MK2
Marin Karmitz also has a third activity, still linked to images, that of a collector, particularly of photographs. Some of these are showcased at Lumière in two exhibitions. The first, Marin Karmitz presents: SMITH & Lukas Hoffmann, focuses on the work of SMITH (Paris, 1985) and Lukas Hoffmann (Zug, 1981), the second is entitled America, America - Marin Karmitz Collection, featuring American photography from the 20thand 21st centuries. Images again, images forever. Each with its own singularity, of course.
V.A.
Screenings
Camarades by Marin Karmitz (Camarades, 1970, 1h24)
Institut Lumière (Hangar) Sun 13 11:30am | Lumière Bellecour Sat 19 4:15pm
Coup pour coup by Marin Karmitz (Coup pour coup, 1972, 1h30, VFSTA)
Lumière Bellecour Mon 14 5:30pm | Institut Lumière (Villa) Wed 16 9:30am | Institut Lumière (Villa) Wed 16 9h45
Mourir à trente ans by Romain Goupil (Mourir à trente ans, 1982, 1h36, VFSTA)
Institut Lumière (Villa) Sun 13 8:45pm | Institut Lumière (Villa) Sun 13 9pm | Comœdia Mon 14 10:45am
Photo exhibitions
America, America - Collection Marin Karmitz
Galerie Photo, 20 rue du Premier-Film, Lyon 8th - From Tuesday, 3 October 2024 through Sunday, 5 January 2025, 11.00 am to 7.00 pm – During the festival: daily from 10.00 am to 8.00 pm
Marin Karmitz presents: SMITH & Lukas Hoffmann
Photo Gallery – 3 rue Pléney, Lyon 1st - From Saturday, 12 October to Sunday, 10 November 2024 , 2.00 pm to 7.00 pm – During the festival: daily from 10.00 am to 8.00 pm
