Virgil Vernier
Virgil Vernier is a French filmmaker whose name has been associated with the revival of French cinema. Although he has mostly directed shorts and medium-length features, with the exception of his first feature Mercuriales (2014), a DVD boxset of his films has already been released. One finds in his films a continuous desire to blur the line between documentary and fiction, using reality as a raw material to create his stories.
Vernier shares with us five films to watch.
01
Notes Towards an African Orestes, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1970
Watch the film
I love the juxtaposition between an ancient story and the political situation of the time. It is even stranger since these are only scoutings for a movie that will never be made.
02
The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Jean Chalopin, Mitsuru Kaneko, Mitsuru Majima, Sôji Yoshikawa, 1982
Watch series
Sacred childhood / Sun King / Magic pendant / Orichalcum Bird / Solaris / Eldorado
03
Fresh Acconci, Paul McCarthy & Mike Kelley, 1995
Fake glamour, grotesquely abstract, a bizarre dark humor.
04
Poltergeist, Tobe Hooper, 1982
Watch the film
My grandfather brought me to see this movie on a Saturday afternoon in a theater in the suburbs of Paris. I was 11 and it was PG-13. I was petrified when the film started, feeling as though I was in a forbidden place. Since the heroin was a little girl my age, I totally identified with her and felt that I was also possessed by the devil.
05
Loft Story (series 1), M6, 2001
Watch the first episode
The kind of experience that rids one of his inhibitions, that makes you want to make movies of your times, and that forces to get away from the néo nouvelle-vague heritage.
01 Notes Towards an African Orestes, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1970
Watch the film
01
I love the juxtaposition between an ancient story and the political situation of the time. It is even stranger since these are only scoutings for a movie that will never be made.
02 The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Jean Chalopin, Mitsuru Kaneko, Mitsuru Majima, Sôji Yoshikawa, 1982
Watch series
02
Sacred childhood / Sun King / Magic pendant / Orichalcum Bird / Solaris / Eldorado
03 Fresh Acconci, Paul McCarthy & Mike Kelley, 1995
03
Fake glamour, grotesquely abstract, a bizarre dark humor.
04 Poltergeist, Tobe Hooper, 1982
Watch the film
04
My grandfather brought me to see this movie on a Saturday afternoon in a theater in the suburbs of Paris. I was 11 and it was PG-13. I was petrified when the film started, feeling as though I was in a forbidden place. Since the heroin was a little girl my age, I totally identified with her and felt that I was also possessed by the devil.
05 Loft Story (series 1), M6, 2001
Watch the first episode
05
The kind of experience that rids one of his inhibitions, that makes you want to make movies of your times, and that forces to get away from the néo nouvelle-vague heritage.