Luc Moullet's UP AND DOWN (1993) + L'EMPIRE DE MEDOR (1986)
Presented with Hollywood Entertainment, we close our retrospective with Moullet's most comedic and gag-heavy film, paired with a short about the culture of dog owners.
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Sep 28, 2025, 5:00 PM
Brain Dead Studios, 611 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA
Up and Down (Parpaillon)
directed by Luc Moullet
1993, France, 84m, DCP
Closing night screening, presented with Hollywood Entertainment! Screening as part of Luc Moullet: Hardly Working, a Mezzanine retrospective.
doors: 4:30pm
film: 5pm
Moullet excels at capturing precise observations of human behavior, and no setting is more ripe for this practice than the bike race at Parpaillon, a remote mountain pass in the French alps. A vast ensemble of riders are revisited throughout the ascent, each offering a unique perspective of why they have taken on this gruelling task. Is it for sport? Tourism? Madness? Here, he has considered every possibility for absurdity, assembling the most revealing and surreal, and more importantly, the silliest. At its heart, Parpaillon delights in the gag for its own sake. -Becca Rieckmann, Mezzanine
In French with English subtitles. A Cinema Guild release.
"There are films which are greater. There are others that are funnier. But there are doubtless few films that (in a minor key) are as innovative, as funny, as intelligent, as true and as free as Parpaillon." -Fabien Boully, Rouge
Preceded by:
L’empire de medor
1986, France, 13m
An absurdist exploration of the exalted position dogs hold in society.
Total runtime: 97m