Lives

Colour, 35mm
France, 2000, 87 min
Section: Documentary Films in Competition

Synopsis

This documentary essay in four chapters confronts the existence of four people (the eye surgeon from L’Hôtel Dieu Yves Pouliquen, sculptor Jean-Louis Faure, butcher Michel Labelle and editor and producer Franćoise Widhoff). The author approaches each of the protagonists in a different way – to suit “his/her” theme. The surgeon is seen during a normal, extremely demanding day at work, treating a series of patients with whom he still finds time for a few words. The butcher Labelle’s work also requires precision to make “incisions” in his meat…The sculptor Faure describes his world in his studio flat, overflowing with books, photographs and paintings in order that he, himself, may create other art objects as a “delivery” of his original existence. The filmmaker Widhoff exists only as a voice, a medium which takes us round a neglected garden in Chartres and the plundered ruins of a house once owned by her erstwhile colleague – Orson Welles. The remnants of the interior and its everyday objects, and fragments of unfinished texts evoke the perpetual existence of this great artist.

About the director

Alain Cavalier (b. 1931, Loir-et-Cher) studied at the Faculté de Lettres and IDHEC in Paris. In 1957 he began as a contemporary of the French New Wave, acting as assistant director for Edouard Molinaro and Louis Malle (Lift for the Scaffold – L’ascenseur pour l´échafaud, The Lovers – Les amants). Filmography (direction): L’Américain (1958), Le Combat dans l´Ele (1961,+ screenplay), L’insoumis (1964, + screenplay), Mise ą sac (1967, + screenplay, director of photography), La Chamade (1968, + screenplay), Le Plein de super (1976, + screenplay), Martin et Léa (1978, + screenplay), Ce répondeur ne prend pas de messages (1979), Un étrange voyage (1980), Thérese (1986, + screenplay), Libera Me (1993, + screenplay), La Rencontre (1996, + screenplay, director of photography, editor), Vies (2000, + director of photography, sound editor). He also wrote the screenplay for the film by Jean-Paul Rappeneau Life at the Castle (La Vie de chateau, 1967).