Déjà s’envole la fleur maigre
Belgium,
1960, 85 min
Shown in 1996
CREDITS
- dir
-
Paul Meyer
- prod
-
Paul Meyer
- scr
-
Paul Meyer
- cam
-
Freddy Rents
- editor
-
Paul Meyer, Rose Tuytschaver
- cast
-
Domenico Mescolini, Valentino Gentili
- source
-
Les Films de L’Eglantine
- premiere
-
North American Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Paul Meyer was recognized in 1996 as one of The Unvanquished.
OTHER
A great film, unjustly unknown, never before shown in this country and almost forgotten in film history. Paul Meyer (b. 1920) was commissioned by the Belgian government to make a short propaganda film to show off his nation’s enlightened immigration policy and to highlight how well-integrated were the children of foreign workers in the coal-mining region known as the Borinage. After several days work, Meyer realized that the project was based on an entirely false preconceived idea. Instead, using the extremely limited means at his disposal, he set out to more accurately capture reality by making a feature-length fiction film, using nonprofessional actors. The result is a unique work whose strange, haunting poetry recalls the work of Vigo and Buñuel. Its title is drawn from a work by a Nobel Laureate in Poetry, Salvatore Quasimodo. One family arrives in the Borinage from Italy filled with dreams of a better life. On the same day, Domenico, a now-unemployed miner, returns home after 17 years abroad. The film won several festival prizes, but the filmmaker found himself accused of having misused public funds and spent decades paying off his debts. Two years ago, the film was finally “discovered” by European critics, and Paul Meyer is finally at work on a new project.
FACTOID #35
The first film retrospective accompanying a tribute at the Festival was a Tribute to Warner Bros., featuring Jack L. Warner in person, October 26, 1966.
