Un Roman D

In this whimsical fable, Resnais deftly interweaves three story lines: the creation of an early-20th-century utopia; romantic high jinks at a school conference; and a fantasy sparked by F/X pioneer Georges Méliès.

Life story of a charming scoundrel, with little dialogue other than the star/director's witty narration. As a boy, only he survives a family tragedy when he's deprived of supper (poisonous mushrooms!) for stealing...concluding that dishonesty pays. Through years of dabbling in crime and amusing adventures, two women appear and reappear in his life, a dazzling blonde jewel thief and a stunning brunette gambler. Finally, he meets the mysterious Charbonnier who had saved his life in World War I, leading to the surprising next phase in his career...

Since time immemorial, the simple-minded boisterous people of Malava, a small Polish town near the border of imperial Russia, have lived on horse-stealing, horse-trading and horse-smuggling. Life changes abruptly when a Russian garrison, commanded by Captain Stoloff, occupies the town and, in the name of the Czar, requisitions all the horses for the Russian-Japanese War. With no more horses to steal, Kifke cannot afford to marry Estusha and all the young men in the village are likely to be incorporated into the Russian army. This state of affairs cannot continue and Zavill will take care of things.

In a small police station, Lieutenant Emilie Carange finds herself sexually attracted to Jamil Messaouden, a young rookie officer. When an old Algerian woman reports that she's seen drug dealers operating in the neighborhood, they find themselves in over their heads in an investigation. Night after night, Emilie's desire grows. The drug investigation gets out of hand and so does Emilie...

A moneylender kidnaps the young son of a rich widow as part of a plot to cheat her of her fortune. The boy is sent away on a fishing boat with the intention of drowning him, but a kindly old fisherman intervenes.

"Le roman d'un truqueur" mixes the story of a fictional investigation with the reality of its filming by the author, in a spirit of humor, self-mockery and pastiche. After having unscrupulously infiltrated the action, the producer, confusing fiction and reality, tries to hijack the investigation for his own benefit. Entangled in their investigation, but true to their role, the actors thwart the producer's schemes and then look for a financing solution themselves to bring the film to a successful conclusion.

Maxime de Champcey, a bankrupt marquis, is hired by the wealthy Laroque and falls for his daughter Marguerite. She loves him too but rejects him under the belief he's a fortune hunter.

Constructing freestone buildings on the cheap, Pouillon made a name for himself at the end of the 1940s in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, shaking up his peers who only dreamed of towers and concrete bars. In Algiers, until Independence, he built in record time thousands of homes for the poorest, real urban projects inspired by traditional forms. In the Paris region, to build comfortable buildings quickly and well, nestled in the greenery, he becomes a promoter: this too adventurous bet leads him to prison and retains his reputation. Not very explicit about this complex affair, but seduced by a contemporary architecture that combines technical inventiveness and ancient references, Christian Meunier films by multiplying the angles of view. Today's lively atmospheres are interspersed with archive footage, while Pouillon's writings are read off. Moved, his collaborators evoke a demanding and generous man, with an infectious passion.

The spahi Jean Peyral is very in love with the flirtatious Cora. When he realizes that she betrays him, he tries to kill himself. He is saved by the tenderness of a young native, Fatou.

As the title reveals it, this film belongs to a larger multi media project imagined by the artist filmaker Maurice Lemaître, around the theme of the irreversible. Besides the requirement of shooting at the exhibition site of part two of the same project by Hélène Richol, I was free to respond to the concept as I felt it; and according to my usual way of working, I played with materiality of the original footage, manipulating it to its point of no return. By the same time I was also to turn over the meaning of the word, the irreversible became reversible through the flipping of the emulsion right to left, top to bottom, front to back.

The title is that of a long poem by Jack Spicer, composed of short chapters, almost all of which are rendered here. Florence Pazzottu invites it in to the South Alpine village of La Pomme Chinoise (The Chinese Apple) (FID 2019), scattering it to the wind: written on black cardboard or loose sheets, interrupted by Australian admirer’s rock music, recited in turn by the inhabitants of the village who, in perfect harmony with the Californian’s poetry, add their grain of salt, fine or coarse.