SAT SEP 7, 2024 4:00 PM THE CASTAWAYS OF TURTLE ISLAND $8.00 (member) ; $13.00 (general admission) Los Feliz 3 | West Coast Premiere of New Restoration! ‘Jacques Rozier: An American Cinematheque Retrospective’ Add to Cart
ABOUT THE FILM: In French with English subtitles. Having framed his first two features as seaside holiday films, Rozier used the third, THE CASTAWAYS OF TURTLE ISLAND, to mock the tourist industry and the increasingly popular “going native” movement among first-world vacationers. Things quickly go south when travel agents Jean-Arthur (Pierre Richard) and Joël (Maurice Risch) offer a “fend for yourself” getaway on a deserted island, with their agency forcing them to accompany clients through deep jungle and across barely charted waters to reach a destination that could give Robinson Crusoe a run for his money. Joël enlists younger brother Bernard (Jacques Villeret) to go in his place, but Jean-Arthur isn’t so lucky and soon devolves into a semi-mad purist who will settle for nothing less than the ultimate in survivalist adventure; meanwhile, a motley crew of tourists become divided over how real this shipwreck holiday should be. Far ahead of its time in its satirical targets and mixing of disparate narrative tones, Turtle Island is a hilarious comic send-up that could only have emerged from Rozier’s puckish imagination. FORMAT: DCP DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films COUNTRY: France