From March 15 to 17, 2012, at Villa Arson in Nice: “Is the Iliad compatible with the press?” – asked Marx in a passage dedicated to the art of the Grundrisse. When we talk about cinema, we are tempted to ask in turn: is the production time of a film compatible with that of a tweet? Evidently, yes.
For a long time, cinema lived in fear. It was the era of film reels and analog television. The seventh art seemed to be lagging behind its cousin. The temptation was strong to respond with an identity-based conception of cinema. To make the physical difference, film against magnetic tape, an aesthetic or even moral superiority.
The 2000s, with digital standardization, erased this reactionary debate. From Redacted (De Palma) to Film Socialisme (Godard) via How I Learned to Overcome My Fear and Love Ariel Sharon (Mograbi), “cinema” has shown another face. One that is not concerned with a medium. Nor with a particular mode of recording or projection. It is about a perspective. Nothing characterizes the identity of recent cinema more than its curiosity towards other images. With the enthusiasm that Hitchcock’s photographer showed when observing his neighbors, Brian De Palma scrutinizes new films circulating on the internet. And Pierre Carles demonstrated in his work that cinema offers a refuge from the dominant media’s thought processes and their modes of production. In both cases, cinema starts from scratch. Because what defines it is the absence of an imposed format.
What is In media res cinema if not the one that, at every era, knows how to place itself at the bottom of the media hierarchy, and from there, observe others?
Guests: Gilles Balbastre, Julien Brygo, Serge Halimi, Luc Leclerc du Sablon, Eugenio Renzi
PROGRAM
Thursday, March 15
6:00 PM >> Screening hosted by Eugenio Renzi
Videocracy by Erik Gandini (Sweden, 2009, 1h25)
As a television magnate and later as Chairman of the Council, Silvio Berlusconi created a perfect system for televisual and political entertainment. His channels are known for their overexposure of naked women… 80% of the Italian population considers TV as their primary source of information.
8:00 PM >> Screening followed by a debate with the director
Au prochain printemps by Luc Leclerc du Sablon (France, 2012, 1h38) “exclusive”
From the world as it goes, to the luck we have, from ENA, Weston shoes, Maupassant, the Virgin Mary as the mother of Che, roundabouts, the conscience of people, 1917, energy for the Chinese, bad delinquents and good footballers… 36 weeks in the life of a country about to choose, for five years, a new president. What was the question exactly? Inventory before election.
Friday, March 16 in partnership with the Friends of Le Monde Diplomatique
8:00 PM >> Screening followed by a debate with Serge Halimi, author of the book of the same name, and Gilles Balbastre, film director
Les Nouveaux chiens de garde by Gilles Balbastre and Yannick Kergoat (France, 2012, 1h44) preceded by a talk “On journalism” by Serge Halimi
In 1932, Paul Nizan published Les chiens de garde to denounce philosophers and writers who, under the guise of intellectual neutrality, acted as true guardians of the established order. Today, the watchdogs are journalists, editorialists, media experts. In a sardonic mode, Les Nouveaux chiens de garde denounces the press that pretends to be a democratic counter-power.
Saturday, March 17
8:00 PM: Debate with Julien Brygo, reporter and photographer, co-director of the film DSK, Hollande, etc…
Juppé, forcément… by Pierre Carles (France, 1995, 31 min)
How does democracy function when a sitting minister and secretary general of a major political party runs for mayor of a large provincial city? How do local media handle the illustrious parachutist? Juppé, forcément… dissects an election campaign from the perspective of journalists and shows how politics, like everything else, operates at two speeds, “depending on whether one is powerful or humble…”
DSK, Hollande etc… by Pierre Carles and Julien Brygo (40 min, work print) “exclusive”
How do the major media (all styles combined) pre-select certain candidates for elections? The directors chose two remarkable episodes: Alain Juppé’s 1995 accession to the Mayor of Bordeaux and the pro-DSK then pro-Hollande propaganda for the 2012 presidential election. Can the press influence voters’ choices?
– Guests
Gilles Balbastre was a journalist at France 2, France 3, and M6, allowing him to conduct a “lucid analysis of the socio-economic springs of his profession” (Journaliste au quotidien, Le Mascaret, 1995). His documentaries explain the workings and effects of the economic system on the labor world: Le chômage a une histoire (2001), Moulinex, la mécanique du pire (2003), Fortunes et Infortune (2008)… Additionally, he participated in the media critique collective gathered around the journals PLPL and Le Plan B. He regularly collaborates with Le Monde Diplomatique.
Julien Brygo is a photographer and independent journalist. He has worked on territories “affixed with the prefix post”: post-colonial, post-Soviet, post-industrial…. In 2007, he joined the bi-monthly Le Plan B team, for which he wrote investigations on the link between social issues and media representations. Several of his radio reports have aired on the program Là-bas si j’y suis, on France Inter.
Serge Halimi, a journalist, is the director of Le Monde Diplomatique. His research focuses on the contemporary history of Western countries, mainly the United States and France. He endeavors to decipher the “ideological work” implemented, particularly through major media outlets, to impose the idea that “only one policy is possible”. He published Les nouveaux chiens de garde (Liber-Raisons d’agir, 1997), Quand la gauche essayait (Arléa, 2002), Le grand bond en arrière (Fayard, 2004).
Luc Leclerc du Sablon began his career as an assistant director, stage manager, in film, theater, and television. He notably worked alongside Luc Moullet, Claire Simon, Maurice Pialat. In 1994, he directed Nation étoile, a medium-length film released in cinemas. He then embarked on an acting career with notably Hervé Le Roux, Solveig Anspach, François Dupeyron. In 2000, he directed his first feature, Micheline, in which he also starred, following a man living leaning out the window of a train. Seven years later, he directed Au Prochain Printemps, filmed in 2007, released in 2012.
Eugenio Renzi was born in Rieti (Italy) in 1980. After studying philosophy, he became an editor at Cahiers du cinéma while collaborating with the magazines Vertigo, Les Lettres Françaises, and Ciak. He is the artistic director of the Printemps du cinéma français in Rome. Co-founder with Antoine Thirion of the online magazine www.independencia.fr, he brings together a team sharing the same desire to reconsider the critical profession.
