On the 50th anniversary of Les Films du Losange, the French indie production company established by the recently deceased — and sorely missed — filmmaker Eric Rohmer and his colleague Barbet Schroeder, LACMA presents two new prints of rare Losange treats. Both are female buddy pictures, and a tribute to New Wave ingenuity.

Le Pont du Nord (1982), a playful mystery/thriller from Jacques Rivette — whose rereleased Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974) enchanted Angelenos earlier this year — was filmed entirely in the streets of Paris. It follows the exploits of an ex-con (Bulle Ogier) and her compulsive bodyguard (Bulle's daughter Pascale), who stumble upon a deadly plot mixing real political scandals with the ancient Game of the Goose. The film's extended camera pans evoke a city spiraling out of control.

Rohmer's 4 Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle (1987) offers four episodes in the friendship of two young women who meet in the countryside and later become Parisian roommates. Rohmer fascinates with typically elegant conversations and Ozu-like splashes of red in his compositions, but the first episode is best: a beautifully rendered quest for the magical “blue hour” minute of silence when evening transitions to dawn and the world seemingly rests in stillness.

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