Nico's powder

My friend Olivier Pierre invited me to the launch of Philippe Garrel's retrospective, Cinematheque Palais de Chaillot. A few weeks after Jean Rouch's hommage. Jean Rouch / Garrel, both in search of the primitive, inside / outside, the danger, taboo, dance, transe. Philippe Garrel was there, with his incredible chevelure grise. I didn't see his son Louis, but his father Maurice was there too.

I also saw Leos Carax and spoke briefly with him about our common friend Shazna. Carax is a very petit homme. It's hard to believe that he built a Pont Neuf in the south of France. I also saw F.J. Ossang, who directed a movie with Joe Strummer, "Mister Chance" (he's also writing for Minimum Rock'n'roll magazine). Actors Christine Boisson and Emmanuelle Riva were there for the first movie of the retrospective, "Liberte, la nuit" (1983).

Being not distracted by "the really good story", Garrel's filming has always been a painting, capturing the beauty of the presence, the very essence of being, with a mystical unawareness of the impossible, the lack, the failure, the abysses of the inside, la pente, l'absence, le creux, le vide. The script is a pretext for filming the unfilmable, the silent beauty of the self, valeur quasi-ontologique.

http://www.cinemathequefrancaise.com/