In the spring of 1958, the french film critic André Bazin made two trips in Saintonge to prepare for a film about the roman churches of this area. On November 11 1958, at forty years old, André Bazin died from leukemia before he couls make the film. With the use of Bazin’s notes and photographs, and of his screenplay of which large extracts are read by Michael Lonsdale, this film is about a film that could never be done. Pursuing the line of thought of the Places and Monuents series, it draws attention to the passage of time, the act of remembering and forgetting, the process of becoming a ruin and the pulsions of restauration. It put in correlation contemporary live action shooting, archive photographs, drawings and animation inserts, between past and present, it proposes a multiform portrayal of the small roman churches of the Saintonge countryside.
Available in V.O.D. on Vimeo.
Screenings and festivals : world premiere at the Montreal International Festival of Films about Art, March 2017; from May 5 to May 11 in the «art et essaie» program of Cinémathéque québécoise, in Montréal; two screenings, l3 and 6 July, at Festival international du film de La Rochelle; 11 july. special screening at cinéma Galia, in Saintes, France; Festival Doc Lisboa, 19-29 October 2017; 16 December 2017, Panorama du cinéma d’animation, Forum des Images, Paris; Rotterdam Internationa Film Festival, January 30 and 31, February 2; Shanghai International Film Festival, June 16-25 2018; University Beijing Film Academy, 5e National Forum of young Scholars in Film Studies, November 8 2018; Festival Film Dokumenter, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, December 1 to 7 2019.
A DVD version of the film was included, for the subscribers, in number 200 of the film magazine «24 images».
General nformations about the Places and Monuments Series
production, direction, shooting, drawings, animation, eand editing : Pierre Hébert
texts and research : Marianne Dautrey and Hervé Joubert-Laurencin
reading of extracts of André Bazin’s screenplay : Michael Lonsdale
reading of the other texts, particularly those of Hervé Joubert-Laurencin : Sharif Andoura
music : Robert Marcel Lepage
piano : Jennifer Bourdages
cello : Sheila Hannigan
violin : François Pilon
recording and mix of the music : Robert Langlois (Studio 270, Montreal)
recording of the voices : Jules Lasko (Studio Belleville, Paris)
final mix of the soundtrack : Luc Boudrias (Studio Mel’s, Montreal)
extra shooting : Luc Lavacherie
animation assistant : Clémence Renaud-Allaire
the film was supported by : le conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, la Faculté des études cinématographiques de l’université Paris Lumières/(HAR-Cinéma Paris Nanterre), lthe artist residence l’Abbaye royale de Saint-Jean-d’Angély, Programme Odyssée-ACCR, with the support of the Ministère de la culture et des communications
Distribution : Vidéographe
see a vidéo of an extract.
Pierre Hébert, le révélateur (sur les traces de Bazin) text by André Habib (in French only) published in the film magazine 24 Images, no 183, August/September 2017.
Interview with Pierre Hébert by Vidéographe about the film.
Interview with Pierre Hébert by Yaoting of the Shanghai International Film Festival.
stills from the film.
Poster:
