Country: France
Year: 1982
Duration: 61'
At the end of the huge La Défense shopping mall, there’s a skating rink. That building made of chromium and glass, of neon and music, is “The Palace”.
On the rink, young roller skaters go around, restless, to the rhythm of the latest hits.
Nellie and Serge look just like all the others, but they have a great project. They train nonstop to go to America and become “Roller-Derby” champions. But what about the money for their dream?
One day they meet Félix, a reporter who goes around “The Palace” searching for the information he needs for his great reportage on young people. His newspaper could pay for the trip to Chicago.
It could be their chance of a lifetime. Serge is ready to go, but Nellie is suspicious.
What does Félix really want from them?
Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala - English translation Francesca Sala
Biography
film director
Robert Kramer
Robert Kramer was born in New York in 1940. He studied philosophy and Western European History at Swarthmore College and Stanford University. He has written two unpublished novels, numerous poems, plays and short stories. In 1965 he organized the Newark Community Project (N-CUP) in an African-American community. He worked as a reporter in Latin America for various American publications. He worked with Peter Gessner on a film on the guerrilla movement in Venezuela. In 1966 he created Alpha 60 with Norman Fruchter, Robert Machover, Peter Gessner, and Mike Robinson. It was a sort of free cooperative of director-producers who later were channelled into the Newsreel movement, which Kramer helped found and organize. Kramer's Newsreel experience lasted from 1967 to 1971, during which about sixty short- and middle-length films were produced - documentaries, films of struggle, and agitation films. In the early 1980's he moved to Europe, and he currently is living and working in Paris.
FILMOGRAFIA
Regista/Director: Faln [Faln, 1965, In the Country [In campagna, 1966], The Edge [Il margine, 1967], Ice (id., 1969), People's War [La guerra del popolo, 19691, Milestones [Pietre miliari, 1975], Scenes from the Class Struggle in Portugal (Scene di lotta di classe dal Portogallo, 1979), Guns (Fucili, 1980), Un grand jour (en France) - Naissance [A Great Day (in France) - Birth / Un gran giorno (in Francia) - Nascita, 1981], A toute allure [As fast as you can / A tutta velocità, 1982], La peur [The fear / La paura, 1983], Sarkis al Woodrow Wilson - Musée d'Art Moderne [Sarkis at Woodrow Wilson - Museum of Modern Art / Sarkis at Woodrow Wilson - Museo d'Arte Moderna, 1984], Notre nazi / Unser Nazi [Our Nazi / Il nostro nazista, 1984], Diesel [Diesel, 1985], Un plan d'enfer [A Plan of Hell / Un piano infernale, 1986], X-Country [X-Country, 1987, inedito], Doc's Kingdom [Il regno di Doc, 1987], Route One / USA [Route One / USA, 1989], Dear Doc [Caro Doc, 1989, inedito], Maquette (brouillon de film) [Scale model (Draft of a Film) / Modello (Abbozzo di film) , 1990, inedito, incompiuto], Berlin 10/90 [Berlin 10/90, 1990-91], Sous le vent [Leeward / Sottovento, 1991], Series of Videoletters: Steve Dwoskin / Robert Kramer [Serie di videolettere: Steve Dwoskin / Robert Kramer, 1991, inedito], Ecrire contre l'oubli: pour Fidel Intrusca Fernández, Pérou [Writing against forgetting: for Fidel Intrusca Fernández, Peru / Scrivere contro l'oblio: per Fidel Intrusca Fernández, Perù, 1991], Point de départ / Starting Place (Starting Place / t.l. Punto di partenza, 1993), La Roue: Greg Lemond - Andrew Hampsten [The Wheel: Greg Lemond - Andrew Hampsten / La ruota: Greg Lemond - Andrew Hampsten, 1993], Walk the Walk [Walk the Walk, 1996], Le Manteau / Der Mantel [The Mantle / Il manto, 1996], Ghosts of Electricity [Fantasmi dell'elettricità, 1997].
Attore, sceneggiatore / Actor, screenwriter: Gestos e fragmentos (Gestures and Fragments / Gesti e frammenti, 1980-82) di Alberto Seixas Santos, Der Stand der Dinge (The State of Things, Lo stato delle cose, 1981) di Wim Wenders.
Declaration
film director
A toute allure is a movie on “Roller Skating”, on the power of money, on what it can or can’t buy, a movie on the thirst for life and the desire not to die too early, a film for the 80s.
It’s been produced by INA, among the series “TV en chambre”.
There are a few sinister aspects hiding behind the debate “cinema movies – TV movies”. That’s because, we have to say it, nowadays people would rather watch movies on TV! I sometimes prefer doing that, without paying! But that’s not the same listening, the same vision: the viewer is still in his daily environment, which keeps tickling him. So, there is the need for a different kind of writing: of course it has to avoid long shots, which are really weak on the small screen, but also opt for a more rapid and packed rhythm. In this case, it is necessary. After all, I wonder if it always is! One can often get bored, at the cinema. I realized that I used to look at my watch just after one hour… And that brings us to the second problem, which seem to worry everyone, according to this film. A toute allure follows the rules of INA for “TV in the bedroom”: unity of place and one hour of length. I’m really more and more attracted by this format. I started with an hour-and-a-half-long movie, then up to the three and a half hours of Milestones and now I tend to keep shortening. I wonder if all of those short movies for the cinema, which are sometimes connected with one another, may be a solution for the future…
The idea of the skating rink goes back to last year, when I was fallowing a ballet performing at the Avignon Festival, and I used to pass by that rink every single day… I was bewitched, not only by the skating rink itself, but by the position right at the heart of a mall which seems to be the biggest one in Europe, apparently copied by a similar one in Huston.
The skating rink was treated like a set. We sent people away, “imported” a few skaters (not all of the locals were good enough) and rallied the biggest lighting troupe INA had ever seen to change the lighting of the room, which normally is very flat and doesn’t suggest anything of what is shown in the film.
In contrast to what they want people to believe, shooting a movie for TV is not a downward job. In the defined setting of INA, I made exactly the sort of film I wanted to make.
Robert Kramer
Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala - English translation Francesca Sala
Cast
& Credits
Director and screenplay: Robert Kramer.
Director of photography: Richard Copans (35 mm, colore).
Consigliere musicale: Barre Philips.
Editor: Dominique Forgue.
Sound: Andre Siekierski.
Cast and characters: Laure Duthilleul (Nellie), William Cherino (Serge), Bernard Ballet (Fdlix), Manuelle Lidsky (Manu), Pierre Hurel (Carlo), Natacha Jeanneau (Natacha), Tai e Siow (i cantanti), Valdrie Jeanneau (la madre), Yves Jeanneau (il padre), Dominique Campana (la serva), Didier Langlois (Famico), Claire Squires (la commessa), Marleen Vanthuyne (la ragazza).
Production company: Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, Parigi.
Director of photography: Richard Copans (35 mm, colore).
Consigliere musicale: Barre Philips.
Editor: Dominique Forgue.
Sound: Andre Siekierski.
Cast and characters: Laure Duthilleul (Nellie), William Cherino (Serge), Bernard Ballet (Fdlix), Manuelle Lidsky (Manu), Pierre Hurel (Carlo), Natacha Jeanneau (Natacha), Tai e Siow (i cantanti), Valdrie Jeanneau (la madre), Yves Jeanneau (il padre), Dominique Campana (la serva), Didier Langlois (Famico), Claire Squires (la commessa), Marleen Vanthuyne (la ragazza).
Production company: Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, Parigi.
