TRIBUTES AND RETROSPECTIVES

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La Tête contre les murs

Georges Franju
1959 - France - 1h35

Screenings : saturday 27 - 2:15 pm - Centre de congrès - Amphi Jardin

Fed up with the antics of his son François, Maître Gérane has him committed to a mental hospital. Two doctors at the hospital, Dr Varmont and Dr Emery, have differing opinions on the treatment he should receive. François frequents the other patients, some of whom are dangerous, becomes friendly with a young epileptic called Heurtevent, and receives occasional visits from a young woman he met the night before he was committed.

“This is the first fiction directed by Georges Franju. Until then he had only made “political” documentaries: Le Sang des bêtes (The Blood of the Beasts) is a violent charge against abattoirs, Hôtel des Invalides subtly mocks antimilitarism, etc. La Tête contre les murs (The Keepers) was originally meant to be directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky, who wrote the adaptation of Hervé Bazin's novel and played the lead role. But the financiers didn't believe in Mocky as a director, and asked him to find a more experienced filmmaker. Mocky chose Franju. His past as a documentary maker served him as he used similar techniques in exploring the oppressive and disquieting atmosphere of a psychiatric hospital where two opposing concepts of medicine exist, one authoritarian, the other very liberal, which was a very hot topic at the time, in 1958. But he takes this denouncement of repressive psychiatry towards the unique poetry that would become his trademark. A motorcyclist drives headlong towards a ravine, a girl in a bathing costume climbs up the ladder of a suburban swimming pool at night, the white, chiselled face of Anouk Aimée embodies hope in the dark night, big white pigeons make the epileptic Charles Aznavour dream… Franju brings together some of the elements in this film which would make his following film, Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes Without a Face), his masterpiece: Eugen Shuftan's light which gives the night its marvellous fantasy, the almost baroque music of Maurice Jarre, the arbitrarily massive body of Pierre Brasseur, the gothic fragility of Edith Scob. A fighting film, La Tête contre les murs is also, and above all, a wonderful lesson in directing, both rigourous and dreamlike.” (Olivier Nicklaus, Les Inrockuptibles)

4K restoration supervised by Mocky Delicious Products and carried out by the Éclair Classics laboratory, with the support of the CNC - Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée

CAST AND CREW

Cast : Pierre Brasseur, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Mocky, Anouk Aimée, Jean Galland, Edith Scob, Charles Aznavour
Screenplay : Jean-Pierre Mocky, Jean-Charles Pichon
Cinematography : Eugen Schüfftan
Sound : René Sarazin
Editing : Suzanne Sandberg
Music : Maurice Jarre

Production : ATICA, Elpenor, La Société des Films Sirius

French distributor : Les Acacias