24th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
The Little Café
director: François Reichenbach
original title: Le Petit Café
country: France
year: 1963
running time: 12 min.
synopsis
Reichenbach was an innovative filmmaker who filmed everything around him using primarily his intuition. Instead of filming portraits of people, he made a portrait of a little café, where people are considered props and a spontaneously filmed telephone conversation between the café owner and a customer becomes the plot.
biography
François Reichenbach (1921-1993) was a filmmaker influenced by his own youth when he travelled around the world. In his work, he addressed topics such as the relationship between France and the USA, or created portraits of famous international artists.
more about film
| director: | François Reichenbach |
| producer: | Pierre Braunberger |
| script: | François Reichenbach |
| photography: | Jean-Marc Ripert, François Reichenbach |
| editing: | Guy Gilles |
other films in the section
The film is made up of the eponymous medium-length film and the short film The Prisoner Party. The director’s goal was for the viewers to better comprehend the everyday life of patients and doctors at the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Alban, where the first experiments with psychotherapy took place. The commentary uses Artaud’s texts on madness.
An Insight into Madness, The Prisoner Party
Mario Ruspoli
France / 1961 / 53 min.
section: Direct Vérité
Czech Premiere
Although the director has created an ode to the national symbol of Canada – hockey –capturing a fascinating ballet creation, he also expresses the sport’s brutality and subjugation to media manipulation. The masterful editing and meaningful transitions between colour and monochrome earned the film an award in Locarno, but the content caused the National Film Office to distance itself from the film.
Such a Simple Game
Gilles Groulx
Canada / 1964 / 30 min.
section: Direct Vérité
European Premiere
This controversial film has provoked a discussion about manipulating the audience's opinion. It pretends to lay out the objective events surrounding a birth of quintuplets, while in reality putting forward a meticulously thought-out piece, prompting the viewer to wake up to the absurdity of the campaign. The film strives for committed objectivity rather than comprehensiveness.
Happy Mother´s Day
Joyce Chopra, Richard Leacock
United States / 1963 / 30 min.
section: Direct Vérité
Czech Premiere
An example of the late decline of direct cinema. What seems to be a record of a traditional Canadian elk hunt is in reality a journey into the Canadian soul. A masterfully filmed portrait of friends is a waiting for Godot as well as a psychoanalytic dive. The mythical creature becomes a catalyst for interpersonal relationships.
The Shimmering Beast
Pierre Perrault
Canada / 1982 / 127 min.
section: Direct Vérité
Czech Premiere
This pillar of direct cinema captures the fame and death of race-car driver Eddie Sachs. It combines original with archival footage, black-and-white with colour film, and among other things makes use of sped-up images in order to achieve the same effect as in Primary. Again, the film tries to find the logic of the depicted events and to offer an objective take on them.
On the Pole
Richard Leacock, Robert Drew
United States / 1960 / 58 min.
section: Direct Vérité
Czech Premiere
A short film from the TV documentary series The Candid Eye, which was quite innovative content-wise and intended to show a new way of filming. The goal in this particular case was to visually and aurally capture the numbing drudgery of seasonal tobacco pickers. Despite this, at some moments the direction took on a certain aesthetic aspect.
CANDID EYE (1958-1960): The Back-breaking Leaf
Terence Macartney-Filgate
Canada / 1959 / 29 min.
section: Direct Vérité
Czech Premiere
A group of French pupils asks their American peers – what is the Far West? The young Americans answer with their teacher’s help. The director transforms the children’s statements into images, and shows how the state instills an official opinion on the Far West. Are we watching a visual rhapsody or is it a politically engaged cinéma direct documentary?
Artifices
François Reichenbach
France / 1963 / 10 min.
section: Direct Vérité
Czech Premiere
This film, by one of the most important and most productive Canadian documentary filmmakers, examines the seasonal work of a diverse group of lumberjacks, among whom are members of Canadian Indian tribes. The style combines direct cinema with a lyrical approach to the landscape, which enthralls everyone.
Manouane River Lumberjacks
Arthur Lamothe
Canada / 1962 / 28 min.
section: Direct Vérité
Czech Premiere
At first glance, the film appears to be a survey about the gifted singer, the idol of a generation. The result is a unique way of observing stars through their own fans. The sound is significant here, achieving an unprecedented sense of reality. The innovative approach complements the film with staged scenes.
Lonely Boy
Roman Kroitor, Wolf Koenig
Canada / 1962 / 27 min.
section: Direct Vérité
Czech Premiere
This sociological survey began in 1960 as a project by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin. The film became a manifesto of cinéma vérité and was the first feature-length film in France shot with synchronous sound. Here, cinéma direct approaches combine with the new view of reality as it became established in France.
Chronicle of a Summer
Edgar Morin, Jean Rouch
France / 1961 / 90 min.
section: Direct Vérité
American filmmakers are the furthest from Vertov’s notion of film-truth. The Maysles directing duo is known for reducing the influence of editing. Salesman is based on the concept of living camera: to be as close as possible to the essence of the events and preserve their ambiguity. The film’s subject are the lives of door-to-door Bible salesmen.
Salesman
Charlotte Zwerin, David Maysles, Albert Maysles
United States / 1968 / 90 min.
section: Direct Vérité
This documentary “anti-Moby Dick” is a cooperative work with Chris Marker - creator of the commentary, editing, and sound. A lively poetic essay on the plight of whales responds to the condemnation of their fishing at a conference in Stockholm. The commentary combines a male voice as the traditional explicative and a female voice, which is intimate and evokes the whales’ thoughts.
Three Cheers for the Whale
Chris Marker, Mario Ruspoli
France / 1972 / 17 min.
section: Direct Vérité
Czech Premiere
