World Premiere Film Screening: Dinner with Robbe-Grillet in Naples
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Sunday, October 9
Time: 3:00 pm
Place: La Napoule Art Foundation – Château de la Napoule
Avenue Henry Clews, 06210 Mandelieu-la-Napoule, France
Contact: Daniel Rothbart? Christian Depardieu? Nelcy Mercier?
Email: daniel@danielrothbart.org
MANDELIEU-LA-NAPOULE: La Napoule Art Foundation – Château de la Napoule and the Galerie Depardieu, Nice, present the world premiere screening of Daniel Rothbart’s Dinner with Robbe-Grillet in Naples.
“Guided by Wayne Koestenbaum’s inspired commentary, we watch as the forms of Rothbart’s
sculptures illuminate the precarious beauty of our world and entangle themselves, elegantly, in
themes that range from the nature of time to the allure of melancholy… An astonishing film.”
-Carter Ratcliff
Contributing Editor: Art in America
“This short film is a gem – a rare insight into a personal and artistic union–the ‘sacred stuff’
of a lasting bond between two like-minded artists and writers – in focus here,
Daniel Rothbart and the film’s narrator Wayne Koestenbaum.”
-David Ebony
Contributing Editor: Art in America
As an artist living in Naples during the early 1990s, Daniel Rothbart met writer and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet. The occasion was a conference and they dined together. In the words of Wayne Koestenbaum, “…this moment from so long ago in Naples in 1992, lodged in the artist Daniel’s consciousness and sprouted decades of fantasy and itineraries.”
Robbe-Grillet felt very comfortable and at home in Naples. Endless corridors of Last Year at Marienbad echo the baroque splendor of Naples’ Royal Palace, while monsters akin to La Belle Captive might inhabit the Prince of San Savero’s alchemical laboratory or the ancient alleyways of the Spanish Quarter.
Dinner with Robbe-Grillet in Naples revisits Naples of that time, and presents Romolo Runcini’s musings on the fantastic as a response to social upheavals that had recently shaken Europe. Artist, writer, and cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum explores themes in the writing of Alain Robbe-Grillet, Marguerite Duras, and Adolfo Bioy Casares, revenant Surrealism, and Rothbart’s studio practice. Koestenbaum artfully plumbs still deeper into the nature of friendship, melancholy, and the genesis of creativity.
Daniel Rothbart // Director and Editor
Daniel Rothbart (born 1966) is a multi-disciplinary artist and writer. From October 13 through November 26, 2022, ten of Rothbart’s digital collages and a kinetic sculpture will be on view at the Galerie Depardieu in Nice. Rothbart holds a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design, and an M.F.A. from Columbia University. He is the author of three books. Rothbart’s work can be found in public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Learn more about his work here.
Wayne Koestenbaum // Writer and Narrator
Wayne Koestenbaum, an American writer and artist, has published 22 books of poetry, fiction, and criticism, two of which have been translated into French: Anatomie de la folle lyrique (Philharmonie de Paris), and Humiliation (Climats/Flammarion). He received an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature in 2019. Koestenbaum is a Distinguished Professor of English, French, and Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Learn more about his work here.
Alan Raymond // Cinematographer
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alan Raymond is among America’s most distinguished documentary producer-directors whose work has changed the landscape of American television. Alan and Susan Raymond’s films are in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Paley Center for Media, The Bibliotheque Nationale de France and have been screened at The Tate Museum in London and as well as art galleries throughout Europe and the United States. Learn more about Alan’s work here.