A Daring Woman
Catherine Breillat

March 15 - 23, 2014

Catherine Breillat (1948, Bressuire, France) is one of the most controversial and extraordinary names, not only among French woman directors but also in contemporary cinema. Pera Film, in collaboration with the 12th International Filmmor Women’s Film Festival on Wheels and Institut français, is presenting six films of the director under the program A Daring Woman: Catherine Breillat.

She started her writing career long before she overthrew the conformist cinema tradition which has spent almost a century with “women’s bodies offered for the voyeuristic pleasure of men”; the first novel Breillat wrote when she was 17, “L’homme facile” (Frivolous Man) was forbidden for under the age of 18, the day it was published. Breillat breaks sexuality and bodies into pieces under the pressure of the desire/pleasure dichotomy. She ends the enviable romantic love, the spectacular aspect of women’s sexuality, she runs over the established moral rules with her close-ups deconstructing real pornographic films and editing, sometimes blurring the vision, at other times turning the stomach. She experiments with the most interesting methods in constructing her cinematic language.

Catherine Breillat, who covers all kinds of “gender trouble”, smashes down taboos and traditions by putting an end to women’s sexuality as a visually pleasing object and her tough, startling cinema language, is admired by some and not appreciated by others. As she pushes the limits of cinema, her art becomes a good example of how daring choices and actions can be articulated into a creative adventure without rules and limits.

Screenings can be seen with a discounted museum ticket (5 TL). No reservations taken. 

Advisory warning: Suitable for adult audiences only. Contains scenes of nudity and violence which some audiences may find disturbing.



In collaboration

March 15

15:30 Sleeping Beauty

17:30 Romance X

March 16

15:30 Blue Beard

March 18

19:30 Anatomy of Hell

March 19

17:30 Sleeping Beauty

19:30 Blue Beard

March 20

19:30 Romance X

March 21

19:30 The Last Mistress

March 22

15:30 Anatomy of Hell

19:30 Abuse of Weakness

March 23

15:30 The Last Mistress

17:30 Abuse of Weakness

Anatomy of Hell

Anatomy of Hell

Blue Beard

Blue Beard

The Last Mistress

The Last Mistress

Romance X

Romance X

Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty

Abuse of Weakness

Abuse of Weakness

Program Trailer

A Daring Woman
Catherine Breillat

Pera Film, in collaboration with the 12th International Filmmor Women’s Film Festival on Wheels and Institut français, is presenting six films of the director under the program A Daring Woman: Catherine Breillat.

Memory of Objects

Memory of Objects

In his book exploring the cultural history of souvenirs, Rolf Potts discusses how such objects assume meaning through personal stories: Objects turn into memories with the stories they hold.

Journey to the East

Journey to the East

Pera Museum presents an exhibition of French artist Félix Ziem, one of the most original landscape painters of the 19th century. This week we are sharing Ziem’s work inspired by Istanbul and “the East”! 

Girl in a Blue Dress

Girl in a Blue Dress

This life-size portrait of a girl is a fine example of the British art of portrait painting in the early 18th century. The child is shown posing on a terrace, which is enclosed at the right foreground by the plinth of a pillar; the background is mainly filled with trees and shrubs.