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BOIS D’ARCY
Bois d’ArcyFrance 2013 24'
2013 Thursday, December 5th, Istituto Francese, 6:30 pm
Directed by: Mehdi Benallal
Bois d’Arcy is a “a small municipality with a small bourgeoisie” a few kilometres away from Paris in which Mehdi Benallal decides to face his past and to retrace the places of his childhood through the memories of those times. The memories of ordinary racism, the insolence of children imitating adults, the suspects towards a non poor immigrant family suffering humiliations as a response for their discretion, fill the apparently calm everyday life of this town in the Parisian banlieu.
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JEUX DES REFLETS ET DE LA VITESSE
Jeux des Reflets et de la VitesseFrance 1926 6'
2013 Wednesday, December 4th, Istituto Francese, 5:30 pm
Directed by: Henri Chomette
Starting with light and geometrical forms plays, we are projected at a high speed through a tunnel leading to the tracks of an underground line which, during the day and travelling at full speed, goes around Paris, its galleries and stations. On the métro and, after a quick change of perspective, on a bateau, the city becomes a dynamic symphony multiplying the effects of reflections, rhythms and, with them, the potential of the human eye. -
LA VIE RÉELLE (SANS DÉFENSE)
La Vie Réelle (sans Défense)France 2013 70'
2013 Friday, December 6th, Istituto Francese, 6:30 pm
Directed by: Arnaud Gerber
In 1934, driven by her urge to get to know the conditions of the working class and inspired by her natural sense of empathy and solidarity towards the most oppressed, the French philosopher Simone Weil decided to dive into the “real life”, the factory life, touching the sense of suffering, humiliation and alienation of the human dignity of a worker with her own hand. In fifteen stations, as in the Way of the Cross, La Vie Réelle tells the experience noted down in the letters and notes by the philosopher, evoking the pain, the oppression and the suffering of the individual in a modern society driven by business and technology. A very good example of that situation is La Défense, the commercial soul of Paris.
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LA ZONE: AU PAYS DES CHIFFONIERS
La Zone: Au Pays des ChiffoniersFrance 1928 35'
2013 Friday, December 6th, Istituto Francese, 5:30 pm
Directed by: Georges Lacombe
A day in the “zone”, the bidonville located between Paris and its banlieue, mostly inhabited by ragmen who try to survive by rummaging through trash cans from the crack of dawn. Between realism and poetry, La Zone is one of the first films focusing on life at the margins of society which opens a bitter window on an unusual and unknown side of Paris, far from the promenades in the grands boulevards and from the bourgeoisie of the capital. -
LE SOMMEIL DE LA FOULE
Le Sommeil de la FouleFrance 2013 73'
2013 Wednesday, December 4th, Istituto Francese, 6:30 pm
Directed by: Cyprien Leduc, Antoine Janot
Le Sommeil de la foule is an urban symphony of our time, a journey through the core of the Parisian underground, through its plays of light and shade and its fading effects, through the flow of bodies which give life to it. The Paris Métro shows itself in its hidden corridors where different spaces, people, lives, lights and sounds come together. It is a dream made of details of bodies, objects, reflections, spaces and colors which mix together in the harmonious rhythm of this artificial labyrinth.
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LES HALLES
Les HallesFrance 1928 22'
2013 Friday, December 6th, Istituto Francese, 5:30 pm
Directed by: Boris Kaufman, André Galitzine
During the Twenties, Les Halles, the central market in the heart of Paris, censure food supplies to the French capital. This document, shot at night and recently found in its original version, gives a precious perspective of the lively activities in a place crowded with men, animals and machines working in what once was the biggest market in Paris that does not exist anymore. -
LES NUITS ÉLECTRIQUES
Les Nuits ÉlectriquesFrance 1930 9'
2013 Thursday, December 5th, Istituto Francese, 5:30 pm
Directed by: Eugène Deslaw
Against a background of night skies, Deslaw films the lights of Paris, Berlin, Prague and London in a symphony made of graphics and lights having a clear futurist spirit. Through plays of light and shade “in negative”, forms, reflections, geometrical lines and double exposures, the night is stripped of any narration and portrayed in the immediate enchantment of the visual effect. The lights sparkle, switch on and off, overlap and dance, celebrating the modernity and dynamism of a rejoicing city. -
OMAGGIO A SAUVAGE - EDOUARD GOERG À CÉLY
Homage to Sauvage - Edouard Goerg à CélyFrance 1928 15'
2013 Wednesday, December 4th, Istituto Francese, 5:30 pm
Directed by: André Sauvage
During a visit of the Sauvage family to the painter and sculptor Edouard Goerg (1893-1969), André Sauvage makes this short fiction film which was never distributed. With sharp irony, the film shows Edouard Goerg in the role of an exuberant misogynist and Sauvage in the role of his cousin.
With Edouard Goerg and André Sauvage -
OMAGGIO A SAUVAGE - ÉTUDES SUR PARIS
Homage to Sauvage - Études sur ParisFrance 1928 80'
2013 Tuesday, December 3rd, Odeon, 9:30 pm
Directed by: André Sauvage
Paris in the Twenties. Accompanying us with his camera, André Sauvage makes us discover the romance of Paris through monuments, signs, advertisements, shop windows, people, details of faces, bodies and emotions. Sauvage is a poet who, through his visionary eye, donates us a portrait of his city and gives us the possibility to feel and imagine the excitement of the crazy years during which its beauty became apparent.
CINÉ CONCERT - A cine-concert by Quatuor Prima Vista of an original music composed by Baudime Jam.
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OMAGGIO A SAUVAGE - LA TRAVERSÉE DU GRÉPON
Homage to Sauvage - La Traversée du GréponFrance 1923 7'
2013 Wednesday, December 4th, Istituto Francese, 5:30 pm
Directed by: André Sauvage
André Sauvage and his companions decide to climb the Grépon, the bestknown of the Aiguilles de Chamonix, in the Alps. With his camera, Sauvage documents the difficult undertaking, showing also his strong passion for the mountains. “The deepest perception of the mountains begins where intelligence stops.” (A. Sauvage) -
OMAGGIO A SAUVAGE - PIVOINE DÉMÉNAGE
Homage to Sauvage - Pivoine DéménageFrance 1929 17'
2013 Wednesday, December 4th, Istituto Francese, 5:30 pm
Directed by: André Sauvage
Pivoine is a 55-year-old clochard who lives on the riverside near Notre-Dame. Macaroni and Georgette are his companions in misfortune. Tired of the insults of passers-by and of the children throwing stones, Pivoine decides to move. Pivoine is played by Michel Simon (in one of his very first roles), Macaroni (the clochard’s young hairdresser) by René Lefebre and Georgette (queen of clochards) by Line Noro.
With Michel Simon, Line Noro and Réné Lefebre -
OMAGGIO A SAUVAGE - TEST SONORI DI ANDRÉ SAUVAGE PER “PIVOINE DÉMÉNAGE”
Homage to Sauvage - André Sauvage’s Sound Tests for “Pivoine Déménage ”France 1928 1'
2013 Wednesday, December 4th, Istituto Francese, 5:30 pm
Directed by: André Sauvage
In front of the camera, thirty centimeters from the microphone, André Sauvage reads a text concerning the new regulations on pedestrian crossing in Paris. -
RIEN QUE LES HEURES
Rien que les HeuresFrance 1926 58'
2013 Thursday, December 5th, Istituto Francese, 6:30 pm
Directed by: Alberto Cavalcanti
Paris in a day: in one of the first examples of “urban symphony”, Cavalcanti explores the city and its various facets, from the working-class neighborhoods to the slums, from dawn and the daily activities to late night, when the new day begins. In a deep relationship between urban space, time and movement of urban life, this avant-gardist work, between reality and fiction, reveals a social consciousness in the contrast between the rich and the poor of Paris in the Twenties. -
SOUVENIRS DE PARIS OU PARIS EXPRESS
Souvenirs de Paris ou Paris ExpressFrance 1928 39'
2013 Thursday, December 5th, Istituto Francese, 5:30 pm
Directed by: Pierre Prévert, Marcel Duhamel
Walking down the streets of Paris, the striking images of the film perfectly capture the spirit of les années folles with the beauty of the Parisian women. On a car or on a coach, walking or riding a taxi, the Parisian women of Prévert brothers and Duhamel are the real soul of the ville lumière.