UNDERGROUND

by Emmanuel LEFRANT

2001 / 16 mm / coul / son / 8' 00

Watch the online video
This film has been digitized with the support of the Ministry of Culture, during the 2007 digitization plan. The total length of the film is available online. The full movie is viewable in our documentation center.

Roland Barthes used to say « Aptly named, film (pellicula) is but skin without a gape, without an opening, without a wound». With direct cinema, this formula, which became axiomatic because of the flawless imagery found in traditional cinema, no longer verifies. The 'smooth' film of the image is metamorphosed into fragile skin. Contrary to scientific cinematography from the beginning of the century, the micro-organisms are not re-created (by being filmed) but rather reproduced directly on the film (frozen on the film strip, but made to move on screen by the driving mechanism of the projector). The point is, paradoxically, to reach the extreme of realistic representation by way of an abstract image, by actually showing the micro-organisms, with no other mediator than the lens of the projector. Every single curve, every single asperity that leaves a mark on the film is the movement of time itself, a trace of its passage. The 'secret forms' of emulsion are unveiled, and emphasize the materiality of celluloid, and the processes that reveal the image.

Proposing further evidence that film material is not inert, this film was made by literally burying pieces of black film during different periods of time and in different kinds of grounds (soil, snow, mud, etc.).

1 PRINT IN DISTRIBUTION

distribution format	16 mm 1 reel (88 meters)
original format	Super 8mm
speed	24 ips
screen	1,37 - standard
sound	opt Mono
rental fee	25,00 €