Special screenings: Sport

Pehlivan - Maurice Pialat
1963 - FRANCE - 13' - OV FR

La vie au bout des doigts - Jean-Paul Janssen
1982 - FRANCE - 26' - OV FR

Combat de boxe - Charles Dekeukeleire
1927 - BELGIUM - 8' - NO DIALOG

Die große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner (The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner) - Werner Herzog
1973 - GERMANY - 47' - OV DE

Taris, roi de l'eau - Jean Vigo
1931 - FRANCE - 10' - OV FR

From water (swimming) to earth (wrestling) and from rock walls (climbing) to air (ski jumps), this series of cinematic essays focuses on the body, movement and discipline. From 'À propos de Nice' to 'L'Atalante’, Jean Vigo creates films that are just as much an exploration of expressive cinema techniques (slow motion, low angle shots, depth of field, flashes of montage) such as an choreographed ode to water, as a straightforward portrait of the swimming champion Jean Taris. In the spirit of moving closer, where the ingenious production and games of trompe-l'œil take precedence over a strict compliance with the laws of reality, Charles Dekeukeleire recreates a ''Boxing Match'' with half a dozen extras who create by their movements as much poetry as they do by jabs to the eye. Thirty years later, between 'L'amour existe' and his 'Chroniques de France’, Maurice Pialat, a documentalist at the time, captures close ups of bodies during a tournament of ya?l? güre? or Turkish wrestling (oil wrestling). The film contains an erotic charge?: glistening muscles, the hands of the wrestlers (Pehlivan) digging into the leather trousers of their adversaries – and, finally, a touch of the feminine is shown with the belly dancers performing on the slide lines of the competition. In contrast of the didactic commentary of Pialat, Jean-Paul Janssen prefers, 20 years later, to leave the commentary to his subject Patrick Edlinger, the barehanded climber. With the music of Kraftwerk playing in the background, his "vertical opera" is a film about a man's love for climbing (and for life). In a way, the film is a philosophical lesson that comes from the mouth of an old wise… of 22. Finally, within the portrait of ski jumper Walter Steiner, Werner Herzog reveals an intense fascination for the daily discipline of a champion, a discipline that requires a constant challenge of human limits, taking risks and confronting the phantom of death.

Flagey, Filmer A Tout Prix, Gsara