Renaissance

The daily life of patients and the work of doctors, including Dr. François Tosquelles, at the psychiatric hospital of Saint-Alban in Lozère.

Co-directed by Chris Marker and Mario Ruspoli, Three Cheers for the Whale traces humanity’s complex relationship with whales—from reverence to exploitation—culminating in a stark depiction of industrial whaling. Combining archival imagery, commentary, and documentary footage, the film offers both a historical reflection and a call for ecological awareness.

Les inconnus de la terre starts like a traditional feature film: in the beginning of the film all the leading roles are given a short introduction. This is followed by a number of interviews, in which the makers unashamedly appear themselves. They include an interview with a lonely shepherd and one with three unmarried brothers who try to run the parental farm for better or worse. Notwithstanding the fact that this mode of interviewing has now become classical, les inconnus de la terre works rather refreshingly. The film is more than just an enumeration of problems. In an honest way it shows the ties of those involved to the land and to nature, in addition to being a plea for the modernization of French agriculture.

In a small fishermen's village in the Azores, an enormous whale is being jointed, carved and stocked. Once this task is over, the whalers ready themselves for another hunt, a fascinating but trying and dangerous experience...

A group of "respectable" people are all partly responsible for the suicide of a servant girl. They are pounced upon by a wily blackmailer, who knows that these people will pay dearly rather than inform on themselves or others.

Captive Feast documents the annual village festival that allows inmates at the psychiatric hospital of St. Alban a rare chance to mingle with the rest of the population.

In 1962, in the small town of Marvejols, young technicians from the RTF are trained to what can and should be direct cinema. “Liberate the camera, be able to throw it into the human space, into life.”