Country: France
Year: 2004
Duration: 40'
Laurent wants to visit his father, who lives in the forest and has a fixed idea:
to kill his six children in order to spare them the misery of life.
When he arrives at the Caboche farm, Laurent is delighted to find his lively
friend Alfred, who is about to celebrate his 81st birthday. The gods aren't far
away and neither is the joy of living.
"My film is a declaration of the love of life, which is desirable despite every
inconvenience. A hymn to existence, even the most miserable one.
A conscious love. Maybe we, too, will understand why Montaigne, despite his
illness and the horrors of the century he lived in, ended his Essays with this
phrase: 'It all went well. He has done every thing well.' Or why Wittgenstein died saying: 'Tell them my
life was marvelous.' Or how Ajax, when he visited the dead, could say this to
Ulysses: 'Don't embellish death! I would rather serve a poor peasant than reign
over these dead people.' I met this peasant, a concentration of wisdom, in all
his magnificence near Béthune. The gods watch over him and envy him." (J. C.
Fitoussi)
Biography
film director
Jean-Charles Fitoussi
Jean-Charles Fitoussi (Tours, 1970) discovered cinema thanks to his father, who installed a Super 8 production unit in their basement for editing and showing home movies and comedies (Chaplin, Keaton). Fitoussi made his first film when he was 12. While working in cinema in his hometown, he studied philosophy, science, architecture and plastic arts. After a stage at Aaton Caméras he made his first 16 mm movie, the medium-length film Aura été, based on the shadows and light created by clouds as they pass over fields. Fitoussi then worked as an assistant director, after which he decided to make his first full-length film, D'ici là, in Rome. It was presented at the festival in Locarno in 1997. In the meantime, he founded the production company called Aura été. He met Jean-Marie Straub and Daniéle Huillet in Rome and became their assistant in 1996. In 2001, he presented Sicilia! Si gira, a documentary about the film by Jean-Marie Straub and Daniéle Huillet.
FILMOGRAFIA
Aura été (mm, 16mm, 1994), D'ici là (lm, 1997), Sicilia! Si gira (doc, 2001), Les jours où je n'existe pas (version courte) (mm, 2002), Les jours où je n'existe pas (aura été) (2002).