Autour de L'Argent

Autour de L’Argent is the still-fresh ancestor of today’s films about films. Thanks to its creator’s commentary from 1971 (the version available on the bonus disc of L’Argent from Masters of Cinema), this is not only a superbly rhythmised symphony of the production process, reminiscent of Joris Ivens’s early documentaries, but also a very informative resource for students of silent cinema shortly before the advent of talkies. You'll see and hear what lighting equipment was used, how camera operators achieved a regular rhythm when turning the crank, how fade-outs were done and why viewers with lip-reading ability sometimes laughed during serious scenes. However much the then twenty-year-old Dréville mainly wanted to find out everything that could be created with a camera, the film has a head and heel in addition to its poetic and informational value, and it can thus be enjoyed even without knowledge of the work whose creation it depicts. (19/12/2016)