During a trip to China with Vincent to meet people in art schools and universities, I discovered the work of Deng Guo Yan, the director of the Tianjin school of contemporary art. A painting style that seemed to me to be a mix of traditional Chinese painting, Claude Monet and Cy Twombly, and which I...
“It was on Foula, the furthest island from the main island [Shetland Isles], that we ran into Jovan. Or rather he ran into us, coming off the ferry late in the day. The mist was thick and we looked worn-out. He took us under his wing and offered to show us around the island the following day....
A walker who crosses three regions: Vattetot-sur-mer in the Pays-de-Caux region, Saint-Firmin-des-Bois in the Gâtinais region, and Carrouge in Switzerland, drawing an imaginary geographical thread between the places where we live and the place where Gustave Roud spent time on his family farm in...
I met Pierre twenty-five years ago, when I set up my market stand next to his: he was selling poultry and eggs, me, flowers and honey. I asked his son, Arnaud, if I could follow them and film the flax harvesting.
Simon, At the Crack of Dawn is the fifth film that Pierre Creton and Vincent Barré have made together. As the film is the quintessence of poetic cinema, it is impossible to lock any subject into the confines of a form, which is nonetheless as round as a cob loaf. What we can try to write about is...
“I talked to Françoise Lebrun about the nightingales’ song at Vincent’s place in the Loiret. She then introduced me to Colette’s Les Vrilles de la vigne [The Tendrils of the Vine], a text that she had read at a friend’s funeral. The idea for this very simple film came to me with...
“Sophie was doing a series of portraits of friends reading. I suggested to her, along with our common friend Sophie Marie Le Pallec, that we make an adaptation of Mercier and Camier set in the coach on the Fécamp/Le Havre line that passed in front of the houses where we lived.”
“The title came to me from Samuel Beckett’s book on Proust, in which he recalls that a new form of advertising appeared post-war, one that not only imposes a product, but also the time of day it has to be consumed: “Midday, seven o’clock: time for a Berger.” I knew this advert but it was...
Papa, maman, Perret et moi. Un appartement pour témoin
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“This was, a priori, a more familiar commission, as I had lived in Le Havre – it’s actually the only town I know a little. And I’ve always liked the architecture of Auguste Perret…Annette Haudiquet, a curator at the Malraux museum, asked me to come to Le Havre. She had planned visits to...
Le paysage pour témoin. Rencontre avec Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt
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“When FACIM (Foundation for international cultural activities in mountain regions) called me to propose making a film about Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt, I didn’t know him as a writer, only a little as a translator. So I immediately read his books, Le Recours and Le Poing dans la bouche,...
“At the same time as I was helping my new friends Yves Edouard and Patrick Hébert with the harvest of 1997, there appeared in Le Monde Diplomatique: “The Fourth World War Has Begun”, a geostrategic analysis by Sub-Commander Marcos. On reading this manifesto, the idea of the film came to...
Pierre Creton placed his camera opposite the small black table that had always stood in the middle of the lawn facing the front of the house. He filmed himself gardening – potting plants, preparing cuttings. Cat, dog, donkey, hens are moving about, playing, resting around the table, the goat is...
“Yves Edouard is someone I hear a lot about. He’s a farmer and cereal grower, an endive producer…. He’s clearly a character out of a novel. One morning, I went to his farm and he hired me, as he needed someone to weed his endive fields….When I went to see him, I imagined constructing...
Spring equinox 2024: 20 March at three hours, six minutes, twenty-one seconds (GMT). Vattetot-sur-mer, in the Pays-de-Caux region of Normandy, Gaza is being bombed.
Sir/Madam The reconstruction works on the new site of Maniquerville’s Yvon Lamour Gerontology Centre are now completed. The residents will be moving to the new premises over two days: Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 October 2010. This is the note displayed at reception, and which I did not wish to...
“I met Jean Lambert one year after my arrival in Bénouville, in 1992...Before we met, I used to see his house, his farm, and wondered who could be living in such a mess, amidst such neglect. I had prowled around a lot before approaching him, for months. The day I decided to go and see him on the...
A institutional documentary short made for the Committee for Studies and Care of People with Multiple Disabilities [CESAP] by Pierre Creton following disabled children during one summer.
