Reminiscence

film

Based on the musical composition by Rick Cormier (John B. & Me, 1975) and on a quote from St. Augustine's (Confessions, X, 8), the film Reminiscence is the meeting of two women through a fortuitous chain of events, which awakens in them a sensory memory, which exists outside of time. The two women embody an intrinsic vital moment made of emotion, suffering and research. The two girls in white represent their ideas, projections, desires, the purity of disembodied souls. Spaces are empty of people, to underline the suspension of time, but also to contextualize the historic moment of summer 2020 in the center of the city of Paris - with Émilie Léveillé.

I enter the fields and spacious palaces of memory, where all the countless images that have been brought here by the senses are stored, like treasure. When I am in this palace, I call upon those memories to present all that I want. Some appear immediately, but others require deeper searching; dragged out, seemingly, from some hidden corner. Yet others rush forth en masse, uncalled for, in place of the requested, leaping into view as if to say, «Might it be us?»

July 2-9, 2022: Tranås Festival (Sweden).

Credits

Starring: Élise Pautard, Mathilde Allemand, Naomi Charlot and Camille Chevalier

Voice over: Élise Pautard

Inspired and based on the original music piece  "Reminiscence"  by Rick Cormier (John B. & Me, 1975)

Concept and choreographic direction: Margherita Bergamo Meneghini

Film direction and editing: Émilie Léveillé

Cinematographer: Julien Mazoyer

Produced by Compagnie Voix, Paris MMXXI