Le Bourgeois gentilhomme

The quest of the bourgeois Jourdain for the nobility status in the France of king Louis XIV

During the 1930s, photography took over magazines. The modern press was invested. It needed to attract and inform and an image speaks louder than words. Under these influences, fashion photography, advertising and photojournalism were really born. Roger Schall was part of this new generation of photographers, which moved from a fashion photo to a major feature with their eyes wide open. His career in the 1930 perfectly illustrates this movement. How did Roger Schall see this optimistic world as it became more humane and then soon had its dreams shattered? His pictures can tell us a lot, not only about the period and its contradictions, but also of course about how photography was practiced at that time…

“Everyone steals according to one’s position in society.” A social critique, a credo to live by, and a recipe for the hilarious satire of Jacques Offenbach’s Les Brigands! The Opéra Comique’s rollicking 2011 production took full advantage of the talents of stage directors Macha Makeïeff and Jérôme Deschamps (members of the wildly successful French comedy troupe Les Deschiens) and the accomplished music director François-Xavier Roth.

From Jean Monnet's idea of a transnational European army to the abolition of customs borders, seven years behind the scenes towards the Treaty of Rome. A docu-fiction "embedded" in the great and small histories of Europe.