AN OLD MAN DREAMS OF PLAYING
Nov 13th, 2007 by Conor McCabe
Lumière and Company (1995, original title “Lumière et Cie”) was a collaboration between 41 international film directors in which each made a short film using the original Cinématographe camera invented by the Lumière brothers.
Shorts were edited in-camera and abided by three rules:A short may be no longer than 52 seconds;No synchronized sound;No more than three takes.
The following clip is taken from that movie, and is of the former French president, François Mitterrand, talking about a childhood memory, months before he died of cancer at the age of 79.
Lovely sequence. Nice post.
The first time I saw this clip was when I went to see “Lumiere and company” in the old Lighthouse cinema on Abbey Street in December 1996. It was the only time I saw it but it stuck with me all these years. I came across it last night on youtube, and watched it again, 11 years later, and it’s still beautiful. It’s a pity the clip doesn’t have subtitles ‘cos what he’s talking about in French - as far as I remember myself it’s a childhood memory he’s describing (my French is still shit) - just makes the clip all that more beautiful. i mean, he was dying of cancer at the time and he just has that look about him that says, well, that’s it. I did my bit. Over to youse now.
simply marvelous.