15° FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE CINEMA GIOVANI
Tribute To Robert Kramer

UN GRAN JOUR (EN FRANCE) / NAISSANCE

A GREAT DAY (IN FRANCE) / BIRTH

Country: France
Year: 1981
Duration: 42'


Commissioned by iNA for French television, the film follows the days that go before and after a womans maternity her admittance to a hospital, the birth, the return home with the newborn, the reception by the father and the two little sisters, and the daily life in the family. The great day May 11, 1981 is also the day that the left la gauche won the presidential elections.

"This Great Day is very complex. The newborn? We don't know very well what's moving in him. He is an organism programmed to survive. Noëllie will do everything to live. He's a 'message of the future.' He will live in a future that we don't know. He is a ring in the chain" (Robert Kramer).

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 He has written two unpublished novels, numerous poems, plays and short stories.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.

Cast

& Credits

Director and screenplay:Robert Kramer.
Director of photography: Richard Copans.
Editor: Francine Sandberg, Véronique Parnet.
Operatori: Michel Lecocq, Alain Salomon.
Music: Barre Phillips, interpretata da Gérard Marais, Barre Phillips, Patricia Villaroel, Manuel Villaroel.
Sound: Jean Minordo.
Cast: Valérie Coquerel Jeanneau (la madre), Yves Jeanneau (il padre), Catherine Meynard (l'amica), Eva, Natacha, Muriel, Noéllie, Birman (le figlie).
Production company: Institut National de l'Audiovisuel.
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