UNE VIE RADIEUSE / A RADIANT LIFE
Fiction experimental
France 2013, 17'33
1:66 - Color - NB
FR / ENG SUB
1952, la Cité Radieuse de Marseille reçoit ses premiers occupants, 80 fonctionnaires et des dédommagés de guerre venant des quatre coins de la France. Certains sont portés par l’idéal que promet Le Corbusier. A son arrivée, un couple expérimente les lieux, l’équipement, l’espace qui lui est imparti. L’un comme l’autre réagit à son nouvel habitat, Sa singularité, ses précisions. Le corps interroge l’utopie. nouvel Eden mis au monde en pleine reconstruction, La Cité Radieuse, version courte de la Ville Radieuse, flotte sur l’après-guerre comme si rien ne s’était passé. A son bord, s’installent le froid, la solitude et la stérilité.
1952, The Radiant City of Marseille receives its first occupants, eighty civil servants and compensated from war, coming from the four corners of France. Some are led by the promise of Le Corbusier’s ideals. Upon arrival, a couple experiments the location, facilities, and space allotted to them. They each respond to the new habitat. Its uniqueness, its details. The body questions the utopia. New Eden born under the reconstruction, The radiant city floats on the after-war As nothing happened. On board, settled cold, loneliness and sterility.
1952, la Cité Radieuse de Marseille reçoit ses premiers occupants, 80 fonctionnaires et des dédommagés de guerre venant des quatre coins de la France. Certains sont portés par l’idéal que promet Le Corbusier. A son arrivée, un couple expérimente les lieux, l’équipement, l’espace qui lui est imparti. L’un comme l’autre réagit à son nouvel habitat, Sa singularité, ses précisions. Le corps interroge l’utopie. nouvel Eden mis au monde en pleine reconstruction, La Cité Radieuse, version courte de la Ville Radieuse, flotte sur l’après-guerre comme si rien ne s’était passé. A son bord, s’installent le froid, la solitude et la stérilité.
1952, The Radiant City of Marseille receives its first occupants, eighty civil servants and compensated from war, coming from the four corners of France. Some are led by the promise of Le Corbusier’s ideals. Upon arrival, a couple experiments the location, facilities, and space allotted to them. They each respond to the new habitat. Its uniqueness, its details. The body questions the utopia. New Eden born under the reconstruction, The radiant city floats on the after-war As nothing happened. On board, settled cold, loneliness and sterility.
(c) Meryll Hardt - Le Fresnoy Studio National des arts contemporains
FULL CAST AND CREW
With Meryll Hardt - Patrick Blauwart- Dr. Brabant. The voices of Daniel Dobbels, Jordan Gauthier, Christophe Vanheule, Sofiane Belaibi, Chantal Salmon, Lyne K, Léonore Mercier, Meryll Hardt.
Director of Photography : Delphine Ménoret, Julien Guillery
Camera Assistant : Julien Hogert
Props : Maxime Mercadier
Make up / Hairstylists : Lisa Keuchguerian, Clothilde Legrand, Valérie Bisbrouck.
Costume Design : Sylvie Dermigny
Editing: Meryll Hardt
Compositing / Calibrating : Raphaël Thibault
Audio Ingineer : Jérôme Noirot, Felix Kubin
Audio Assistants : Antoine Sugita, Mathieu Lambin
Audio Editor / Mixer : Remi Mencucci
Original soundtrack : Meryll Hardt, Julie Normal, Accident du travail
Compositing / Calibrating : Raphaël Thibault
Audio Ingineer : Jérôme Noirot, Felix Kubin
Audio Assistants : Antoine Sugita, Mathieu Lambin
Audio Editor / Mixer : Remi Mencucci
Original soundtrack : Meryll Hardt, Julie Normal, Accident du travail
"An unsettling retro science-fiction film, A RADIANT LIFE explores the grim side of Le Corbusier’s utopic visions of the ideal city. In a masterful blend of archive materials, choreography and fiction, MERYLL HARDT examines the alienation raising when the need for geometrical harmony of space overshadows the need for human warmth. The coldness of the concrete sneaks into the character’s lives, while the sterility of the house becomes a sterility of human relationships. The radiant city proves unable to support life. The living space turns from home into a concrete cage.
Centering the story around a 1950s housewife, the film poignantly underlines the sense of constraint and rigidity. Bit by bit, the characters are infected by the environment’s sterility. Individuality is lost, as movements and gestures lose their freedom and expressivity and become a rehearsed choreography. In a geometrical décor, the mise-en-scène fragments the protagonist’s body, revealing the completely alienating and dehumanizing aspects of life in what is more a cage than a home.”
Diana Mereoiu, BIEFF 2013
