The Right of the Maddest

An intimate cinéma vérité style documentary following french mega star Johnny Hallyday's summer tour.

Seeing an opportunity to make a financial recovery for the family, a nobleman attempts to wed his son to his wealthy friend's daughter. His plan is to send the boy for a cruise on the SS France with the prospective female. Upon arriving to meet the lovely girl, the young man switches places with his valet. Unbeknownst to him, however, is the fact that the girl has pulled a similar deception. Though Jean-Marc Ripert is responsible for much of the cinematography in this New Wave comedy, it is Francois Reichenbach who handled the camera for many of the ocean-liner scenes.

And the image created the myth... Bardot as a brunette, blonde or redhead. Bardot in thigh-high boots, mini-dress or swimsuit, Bardot in London, at La Madrague or on a Harley... In all her states, BB sings with Gainsbourg and Sacha Distel: "Bonnie and Clyde", "Comic strip", "Mister Sun"... Reichenbach's camera sublimates the icon.

"Mexico begins where the roads end ”. Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes tells us about the history of Mexico: its invasions, its revolutions, its sacred lands, its forgotten legends, its religious rituals and this frightening misery. François Reichenbach and his camera sink into the dust, on this sacred land, where "the land never ends."

A report on this extraordinary boom town that owes its fortune to oil.

The rock-wild youth of the 1960s during the apparitions of their idols.

Documentary about a small village near Le Mans, commented by the village school-teacher.

Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works of art by painters like Picasso and Matisse. Irving was infamous for writing a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles moves between documentary and fiction as he examines the fundamental elements of fraud and the people who commit fraud at the expense of others.

Documentary of a 154-person bus and truck tour that set out to spread the gospel of flower power to the hinterlands of the U.S.

Carrying his son on his back, a man travels from place to place looking for a doctor to treat the sick boy. As they journey, the indio father tells the boy stories to keep him distracted. These stories reveal the life of native peoples in Mexico, both in the countryside and in cities, and they shed light on characteristic beliefs and rituals.

This spectacular opera film was taped in 1967 and is based on the 1966 Salzburg Festival production directed by Herbert von Karajan himself, who also conducts the fabulous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The production features the three greatest exponents of their respective roles at the time: Grace Bumbry’s magnificently seductive-toned Carmen, Mirella Freni’s ineffably lovely, touching Micaëla and Jon Vickers’s thrillingly manic-depressive Don José. On its release the film was hailed by Die Presse, (Vienna) as a “unique artistic event”, while Le Monde felt that Karajan’s production brought “a whole new dimension” to the opera, “combined with a magisterial interpretation”. A classical and utterly dramatic approach to probably the world's most beloved opera – Karajan’s Carmen is as much a delicacy for opera fans as it is a perfect starter for newcomers.

A day in a little café of Paris.

Excerpts and fragments from different interviews with Orson Welles making a statement to journalists in fluent French about his career and his conception of life.

At the end of the 1950s, French documentarian François Reichenbach spent eighteen months traveling the United States, documenting its diverse regions, their inhabitants, and their pastimes. The result is a journey through a multitude of different Americas, filtered through a French sensibility.

Documentary about Polish-American pianist, Arthur Rubinstein.

Chris Marker and François Reichenbach document the massive anti–Vietnam War protest held in Washington, D.C., on October 21, 1967, where more than 100,000 demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln Memorial before marching on the Pentagon. Filmed amid the crowd, the short captures the tension, idealism, and growing radicalism of the American peace movement.