Checking out Le Cinéma au service de l'histoire

Is it worth your time?

If you enjoy spending your Saturday afternoons digging through old reels in a dusty basement, you'll probably dig this. If you need a plot with high stakes or someone running away from a robot like in A.P.E.X., you are going to be bored to tears within five minutes. It is a niche little thing, but for the right person, it’s a total gem.

Germaine Dulac has this way of looking at a frame that makes you wonder what she was thinking right in that exact second. It isn't polished, but it doesn't need to be. There’s this one shot—I think it’s about halfway through—where the light just catches the edge of a prop in a way that feels like a total accident, but it’s the most interesting thing in the room. I rewound it twice just to see if it was a trick of my eyes.

The rhythm of the edit

Sometimes the cuts feel a bit jerky, like the editor was trying to keep up with a thought that was moving faster than their hands. It reminds me a bit of the frantic energy in Mickey's Athletes, though obviously in a completely different genre. You can almost feel the dust on the film strip.

• The pacing is weird.
• It lingers on faces just long enough to make you feel like an intruder.
• There is almost no music to hide behind.

It’s funny how a movie like this can feel more 'real' than a big-budget blockbuster. There’s no CGI to hide the lack of a point. It’s just the camera, the history, and the person holding the lens. It isn’t trying to teach you a lesson or hit some profound peak of human emotion. It just exists.

I found myself thinking about The Pioneers while watching this, mainly because both films feel like they’re trying to grab a piece of time before it slips away. But where that one has its own specific agenda, this feels more like a diary entry. It’s messy. It’s imperfect. 📽️

Maybe it’s not for everyone. Honestly, most people would probably fall asleep. But there’s a charm in that. It doesn’t beg for your attention, which makes you want to give it even more. That’s a rare thing these days.