The Man We Love the Most

director: Victoria Mercanton

original title: L‘homme que nous aimons le mieux

country: France

year: 1949

running time: 22 min.

synopsis

Victoria Mercanton’s unusual French documentary from the early 1950s provides insight into the cult of Stalin worship by members of the French Communist Party. The film evokes different types of Stalin worship, from the individual to the collective one, and depicts a highly heterogeneous set of exhibits at a French exhibition in tribute to Stalin. Banned for commercial and non-commercial distribution in France, the film won the Best Short Film Screenplay award at the 1950 Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

biography

Victoria Mercanton (1911–2006) was a French editor and director with Russian roots. She worked as an editor on a number of documentaries, including films dealing with social issues of French workers, miners’ strikes, etc., but she is better known for her editing work on Barbarella (1968).