Le mur des morts

280 Meter lang ist die Mauer des Friedhofs Père Lachaise, die am Boulevard de Ménilmontant an die im Ersten Weltkrieg gefallenen und vermissten Pariser erinnert. Der Student Arnaud ist fasziniert von ihr. In diesem Sommer, in dem er allein in der Stadt blieb, flaniert er täglich dort entlang. Plötzlich erscheint Pierre vor ihm, ein Soldat, dessen Namen er im Vorübergehen las und so ins Leben zurückrief. Er nimmt den Müßiggänger mit in die Vergangenheit und lehrt ihn Verantwortung für das Einst und Jetzt. Eine zauberisch sanfte Wachrufung von Eugène Green, der den Barock liebt und Filme dreht, die streng sind wie ein Gebet von Bresson oder Dreyer. (Gerhard Midding)

Mit 45TH PARALLEL.

“There be three times; a present of things past, a present of things present, and a present of things future.” writes Saint Agustin in his Confessions, a quote that opens Eugène Green’s LE MUR DES MORTS. He gives each time a name: memory, sight and expectation. Arnaud, a young man disconnected from the present (and thus all three of them), wanders around Paris in August. The most lethargic month of the year is detrimental to any troubled soul. He soon finds himself in front of a wall outside the Père Lachaise cemetery where the name of all the Parisian soldiers lost in the Great War can be found. As he reads, another young man materializes, although perhaps only to his eyes. He is dressed in a soldier’s uniform and was born a hundred years before his time. 
A portal between the three times opens up softly, something only films can achieve, as memory becomes an image that can be perceived by sight, with this sight turning darkness into an expectation of things to come. Pierre sends Arnaud to seek for the suffering and the light of those who are long gone. He finds it in serene, beautiful conversations that will slowly bring him and everyone around him to truly experience their times. (Lucía Salas)

With 45TH PARALLEL.

Eugène Green: TOUTES LES NUITS (2001), LE MONDE VIVANT (2003), LE PONT DES ARTS; (2004), LA RELIGIEUSE PORTUGAISE (2009), LA SAPIENZA (2014), FAIRE LA PAROLE (2015), LE FILS DE JOSEPH (2016), EN ATTENDANT LES BARBARES (2017), ATARRABI ET MIKELATS (2020)