Ontario Cinémathèque (Canada)
November 2007
In « THE ZANZIBAR FILMS AND THE DANDIES OF MAY ‘68 -
FILM SELECTION »
« La Révolution… »
(The Revolution Is Only A Beginning: Let’s Continue)
Recently discovered, the first film by actor-director Pierre Clémenti is a brash and stylized manifesto for a “permanent revolution,” “spontaneous creation,” and “poetry of the streets. ”Its use of filters and superimpositions creates a trippy, psychedelic salvo quite the opposite of Garrel’s form of attenuated hallucinations. Parallels with Warhol’s Factory films can be discerned in LA RÉVOLUTION N’EST QU’UN DÉBUT, in which appear many key Zanzibar figures and their band, Les Fabuleux Loukoms, later known as Les Jeunes Rebelles. It’s both a diary of sorts and an important historical document whose reappearance has been met with much excitement.
BREATHLESS: FRENCH NEW WAVE TURNS 50
Pierre Clémenti is best known for his role as the suave gangster in Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour 1967, but his work as a writer, filmmaker and activist is being re-evaluated today as a crucial creative contribution. Clémenti collaborated with members of the Zanzibar group in the 1960s, and he fully embraced the lifestyle revolution ushered in by the ‘underground’: sexual liberation, anarchist agitation, aesthetic experimentation. An early champion of DIY formats such as Super 8, his ‘diary films’ are illuminating.
It’s Only a Beginning — The Revolution Goes On
(Ce n‘est qu’un début — la Révolution continue) 1968
+ New Old 197
Australian Cinémathèque
