Black Moon (1975)

Director:

Louis Malle

Writers:

Louis Malle (written by)
Joyce Buñuel (collaboration: dialogue) ...
(more)

Release Date:

24 September 1975 (France)

Genre:

Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

An apocalyptic Alice in Wonderland!

Plot:

There is a war in the world between the men and the women. A young girl tries to escape this reality...

Plot Keywords:

Old Woman | Bed | Children | Girl | Unicorn

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Cathryn Harrison	...	Lily
Therese Giehse	...	Old Lady (as Thérèse Giehse)
Alexandra Stewart	...	Sister Lily
Joe Dallesandro	...	Brother Lily

Directed by
Louis Malle

Writing credits
Louis Malle		(written by)
Joyce Buñuel		(collaboration: dialogue) (as Joyce Bunuel)
Ghislain Uhry		collaboration

Produced by
Claude Nejar	....	producer

Cinematography by
Sven Nykvist		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Suzanne Baron

Production Design by
Ghislain Uhry

Production Management
Paul Maigret	....	production manager
Roland Thénot	....	assistant production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Fernand Moszkowicz	....	assistant director

Art Department
René Ferracci	....	poster design (uncredited)

Sound Department
Michèle Collison	....	post-synchronisation assistant
Nara Kollery	....	sound recordist (as Nora Kolery)
Jacques Lévy	....	post synchronization
Jacques Maumont	....	sound mixer
Luc Perini	....	sound designer: dream sequence

Special Effects by
Pierre Roudeix	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
François Catonné	....	assistant camera
Bruno de Keyzer	....	assistant camera

Editorial Department
Joëlle Barjolin	....	assistant editor (as Joelle Barjolin)

Music Department
Les Enfants de la Maîtrise de Radio-France	....	music collaborator
Sylvia Lindenstrand	....	music collaborator
Diego Masson	....	musical director
Anthony Roden	....	music collaborator

Other crew
François Nadal	....	consultant: Conseillers Animaliers
Robert Verbecke	....	consultant: Conseillers Animaliers

Thanks
Therese Giehse	....	in memory of (as Thérèse Giehse)

Production Companies

• Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF) (co-production) (as NEF - Paris)
• Bioskop Film (co-production)

Distributors

• Cinema International Corporation (CIC) (1975) (France) (theatrical)
• Filmverlag der Autoren (1976) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (1976) (USA) (theatrical)
• Nightmare Video (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• Video Film Express (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD) (Louis Malle Collection Vol. 2)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2011) (USA) (DVD)
• Cinema de Bizarre (????) (USA) (DVD) (widescreen)
• Criterion Collection, The (????) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-Ray)
• Vision (????) (Germany) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Eastmancolor  filmed in
• Lax  titles
• Panavision France  camera and lenses (as Panavision)
• Paris Studios Cinéma  auditorium

Also Known As:

Runtime:

France:100 min | France:95 min

Country:

France | West Germany

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16 (bw) | Brazil:16 | UK:12 | Australia:M

Company:

Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF)

Quotes:

Lily:I see. Your name's Lily too. Funny, you spell it differently.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Waking Life (2001)

Soundtrack:

Tristan und Isolde

Interesting surreal flick

I watched this film on French TV when I was in Saudi Arabia in winter of 1998 on the front porch of a GP tent out in the middle of a cold desert on one of my nights off and found this a fascinating film. It's very hard to describe. A young English woman is driving down the French countryside and some sort of apocalypse takes place and she pulls over to an old country cottage and starts having hallucinations of a unicorn living nearby, a crippled old woman, several other weird things. It is totally European in every respect and only die-hard art house fans would enjoy this. Apparently, it has never been released in America. I know Louis Malle is an acclaimed director, but I really don't know much about his work and haven't seen any of his films, except Atlantic City, which was much different from this.