Down through the years

Life is "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." William Shakespeare, with words written four centuries ago, inspired animator Jacques Giraldeau to dwell on man's passion for life, and his propensity to destroy himself. The result, Opéra zéro, is a technically complex and fascinating animation film using cut-outs, drawings, xerography, prints, photography, etching and engraving techniques, and requiring more than 50 000 different manipulations of the material.

This feature-length documentary presents Montreal (in Canada) in all its forms, in all its folds - Montréal bathed in all its lights, summer and winter, revisited by a filmmaker in love with its streets, its streets, its neighborhoods, its parks, its river, its churches, its buildings - Faces of yesterday and today. A disparate city of glass and concrete, shaped by architects who gave it a body and - a soul.

An animated recreation of Van Gogh's "Les iris" is juxtaposed with audio from the auction of the piece for millions of dollars more than the artist could have ever imagined.