This October, Riga International Film Festival’s (RIGA IFF, 16-26 October) programme section ARCHITECT’S CUT will be dedicated to the image and architecture of Paris on screen. On the first weekend of the festival, at the Ziedonis Hall of the National Library of Latvia, the audiences will have a chance to experience two special screenings – The Great Arch, the Cannes-screened biographical drama on the making of the Grande Arche of Paris, and in collaboration with the prestigious Cinémathèque française (French Cinematheque), a selection of shorts by francophone cinema masters, Paris, As Seen By… La Cinémathèque française. Tickets to ARCHITECT’S CUT screenings are available on the festival website, rigaiff.lv or at Biļešu serviss sales points.

As usual, with this year’s programme section ARCHITECT’S CUT, dedicated to urban research, RIGA IFF continues to offer its view on the tightly woven interplay between architecture and film. Inviting the audiences to one of the most prominent buildings of Riga – the National Library of Latvia –, a special selection of films will be screened, highlighting Paris, its neighbourhoods, buildings, and the history of architecture and cinema.

The first Saturday of the festival, 18 October, ARCHITECT’S CUT will be kicked off by The Great Arch (L’inconnu de la Grande Arche), a drama film screened at Cannes Un Certain Regard competition. Mixing biographical and fictional elements, the 1980s set fiction feature film focuses on the creator of Grande Arche of Paris, the Danish architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen, yet unknown in France at the time, his struggle with bureaucracy, the bitterness of the art of construction, and cultural differences. In his perfect cinematic creation, director Stéphane Demoustier reveals a utopian, almost construction-site-like Paris, being constructed anew, and a nuanced portrait of the architect and his magnum opus. In the amalgamation and contrasts of Danish and French cultures and mentalities, vivid roles are played by the Danish film stars Claes Bang and Sidse Babett Knudsen, Canadian directorial prodigy Xavier Dolan, the French actor Swann Arlaud (Anatomy of a Fall), as well as a wide array of celebrated French actors.

The screening of The Great Arch in Latvia is a special event, as two groups of Latvian architects, Jānis Dripe, Andris Kronbergs, and others, took part in the Grande Arche competition at the time, initiated by the ambitious president François Mitterrand, to create a building aligned in perspective with the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. After the screening on 18 October, they will share their memories and present their submissions to the international competition.

The next day, 19 October, the festivalgoers will get a chance to see a unique short film selection Paris as seen by… La Cinémathèque Française, showcasing the image of Paris over nearly a century on screen. In collaboration with one of the world’s most notable institutions of cinematic memory – the Cinémathèque française in Paris –, RIGA IFF will offer an unorthodox selection, reminiscent of an urban symphony, in a single screening. The six short films made from 1928 to 1999 reveal the most famous and more quiet neighbourhoods of Paris, odes to shapes of buildings, change of seasons, human stories, and the artistic spirit-filled metropolis, which can also inflict hunger, alienation, and cold. Emilie Cauquy, Head of Film Access and Distribution at the French Cinémathèque, introduces the short film selection:

“An unexpected Paris, reflecting the eclecticism of the Cinémathèque française’s collections. Kertész-style (Harmonies of Paris), technicolor scope (Mannequins of Paris), René Clair’s loving, haptic camera (The Tower), wandering the streets and quays like an astronomer in search of the moon, Jonas Mekas-style in 1931 (Arborescent Games), a super-8 reel from Truffaut and Rohmer’s editor (Paris Winter (1986–1987)) and then Chantal Akerman’s little unsung musical (I’m Hungry, I’m Cold).”

Tickets to both ARCHITECT’S CUT screenings – The Great Arch on 18 October,19:00 and short film selection Paris, as seen by… French Cinematheque on 19 October, 19:00 – are available on the festival website, rigaiff.lv or at Biļešu serviss sales points. The section’ partners are the National Library of Latvia, Cinémathèque française and Latvian Association of Architects.

Until the full festival line-up announcement in September, RIGA IFF will continue to reveal other significant and highly artistic works of this year’s programme and announce their ticket sales. Films awarded at Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes, Venice, and other film festivals, as well as bold hidden gems of contemporary cinema will unite both local audiences and international guests over 11 days in October at the festival’s main venue, cinema Splendid Palace, as well as Forum Cinemas, cinema K.Suns, and the National Library of Latvia. Festival updates are published on rigaiff.lv and RIGA IFF social media accounts.

RIGA IFF is made possible with the support of the State Culture Capital Foundation, the EU programme “Creative Europe – MEDIA”, Riga City Council, the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, the National Film Centre of Latvia and the Investment and Tourism Agency of Riga.