Ménagerie
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This cycle, partly inspired by the books of hours (richly illuminated medieval manuscripts with prayers for the 12 months of the year, illustrations of the seven deadly sins and so forth), presents a series of nine tragicomic visions of the human body. Each of the nine different video scenes is set in a cage, a microcosm inhabited by various human and animal characters, and presents a different aspect of a deranged universe in which the body reigns supreme. Familiar categories are abolished, proportions inverted, the workings of the body go haywire to the point of becoming mere mechanical gesticulations. The cages are thematically arranged, each depicting a physical state or function (immobility, mobility, the different senses etc.) in an ironic, agonizing or oneiric mode. Taken as a whole, the nine scenes form a sort of wacky Noah’s ark, whose aesthetics give it the disturbing and yet familiar strangeness of the uncanny.

Awards and mentions
Prix
Festival Montbéliard
1988
Prix
Festival Saint-Herblain
1988
1988
France
6:15
Original language
No dialogue

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Credits

Direction
Cécile Babiole
Assistant Director
Eurick Allaire
Sound
Gérard Vicourt
Sound Design
NOX
Mixing
Nicolas Joly
Editing
Patrick Tornare
Production
Marie-Hélène Girod

Technical information

Color
Color
Image format
4:3
Shooting format
Betacam
Keywords
Confinement, Body, Performance

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