How to Smell a Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock in Normandy

Two giants of American documentary get together for one last friendly tussle in this poignant, charming film. Ricky Leacock started out in the 40’s as an assistant to documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty, and revolutionized the genre in the 60’s as an architect of Direct Cinema, the more free-form and observational mode of filmmaking that gave us the Maysles brothers and D.A. Pennebaker. Blank’s last feature, completed by collaborator Gina Leibrecht, finds him visiting Leacock at his Normandy home, where they chat about his work, generously illustrated with extracts from such films as PRIMARY (about JFK’s 1960 presidential campaign) and LULU IN BERLIN (about aging silent film icon Louise Brooks). The two of them also cook up a roast lamb dinner, and you may want to take notes as Leacock shares his passion for French cooking. Leacock is as like a mind as Blank ever filmed, so it’s fitting that this film shows us more of Blank himself than any previous one. Leacock died in 2011 and Blank in 2013, so this is effectively the final film of both men, whose larger-than-life personalities burn brightly in every scene. (New Zealand Film Festival)

In the prescence of Harrod Blank (Producer).

With HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY