The Chambermaid on the Titanic

press release:France | 1997 | 35mm | 101 min. | French with English subtitles

Director: Bigas Luna; Cast: Olivier Martinez, Romane Bohringer, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón

A French foundry worker wins a chance to see the launching of the Titanic in England and becomes obsessed with a woman he meets there. Returning home, he becomes renowned for his (embellished?) tales of his one night of passion spent with the chambermaid. Celebrated Spanish filmmaker Luna (Anguish, Jamon Jamon) has made an “utterly original and beautifully filmed fable about fantasy, desire and storytelling” (Leonard Maltin).

From the Archives at UNCSA

Founded in the 1990s, the Moving Image Archives at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem provided a home for thousands of 35mm film prints once kept at dozens of National Film Service depots across the country. Slated for destruction, the prints were rescued and trucked to a state-of-the-art archival facility, providing a foundation for what is now one of the largest 35mm collections in the world. Consisting primarily of titles released in the 1950s to the early 1990s, the holdings include widely distributed Hollywood classics, subtitled releases of foreign-language titles, grindhouse staples, cult movies, and some truly rare oddities. The series of all 35mm prints will include nine feature-length rarities from three continents and a personal appearance from the UNCSA’s senior curator, David Spencer, who will discuss the history of the collection and its holdings.

All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.