The third volume of the HORS PISTES DVD presents three films selected during the 2008 festival: 'The Music of Regret' (Laurie Simmons), 'Les hommes sans gravité' (Eléonore Weber) and 'In the Wake of a Deadad' (Andrew Kötti... more »ng). Each of these films deliberately challenges our perceptions beyond that of the usual director and spectator roles. The shifting of form and subject makes HORS PISTES unique. Imagined and directed by the Pompidou Centre, with help from the French short film agency (Agence du court métrage), HORS PISTES is a cry for original creativity! THE MUSIC OF REGRET is a musical in three parts that appropriates the genre and reaffirms its happy, fanciful aspects. The film is peopled with familiar characters from Laurie Simmons' world: ventriloquist dummies, anthropomorphic puppets and oversized everyday objects. Inspired by the work of artist Ardis Vinklers, Laurie Simmons' first film builds on her photographic work expanded into performance. She invited musicians, professional puppeteers, dancers from Alvin Ailey dance company, filmmaker Ed Lachman and the actress Meryl Street to join her for the occasion. LES HOMMES SANS GRAVITE: Within the crumbling walls of a house in ruins two young men - a lord and a gypsy - get to know each other. Bodies and decor are filmed as echoes of one another, gracefully and languidly, as they continually threaten to to disappear into a narrative abyss, only to be saved in extremis by a volley of dialogues which are themselves nourished by the characters' own faint yet sustained curiosity for each other. Through a mise en scene between frailty and persistence, Eleanore Weber's film follows desire in motion. IN THE WAKE OF A DEADAD: Following the death of his father, Andrew Kottling made a giant blow-up doll bearing his father's traits and filmed himself deploying it in places where the deceased could no longer set foot. Alone or with family or friends, the English filmmaker creates a frame, both literally and figuratively, and thus allows his deceased father to be reborn. More than simply the sum of its various installations, the film, set between documentary, happening and intimate short story, is an extremely moving and poetic reflection on the role and meaning of images in filiation and the greaving process. Languages: English and French Subtitled in English and French Bonus Features: Trailer« less
