Paria
France,
2000, 126 min
Shown in 2001
CREDITS
- dir
-
Nicolas Klotz
- prod
-
Philippe Missonnier
- scr
-
Elisabeth Perceval
- cam
-
Hélène Louvard
- editor
-
Rose-Marie Lausson
- mus
-
Brad Mehldau
- cast
-
Cyril Troley, Gérald Thomassin, Didier Berestetsky, Morgane Hainaux, Aristide Demonico
- source
-
Celluloid Dreams, 24, rue Lamartine, 75009 Paris, France. WEB www.celluloid-dreams.com
- premiere
-
North American Premiere
OTHER
Practically devoid of color and light, New Year’s Eve in Paris never looked so dark. Pariah explores the nighttime streets and homeless shelters from the knowing perspective of an insider. Empathetic caregivers may provide clean bandages, a shower and a place to bed down, but those who live on the streets are eager to return home for fear that their boots will be stolen from their feet while they sleep. Maximizing digital video’s capacity to record despite extreme restrictions of space and light, Pariah patiently tracks an 18-year-old social outcast struggling to survive. Abandoned at age four by his father, Victor comes of age amidst escalating setbacks. After skipping a couple of months’ rent, he loses a motorbike, his job and his flat almost simultaneously. But abject poverty doesn’t distract Victor from his young love, Anabelle, or from making a new friend in the wily Momo. Compelling performances by a nonprofessional cast add to the sense of vivid realism. In this shadowed world, shards of hope are revealed in glimmers of light and the beginning of a new year.
—Rosemary Pepper
FACTOID #328
Saul Bass, the genius graphic designer behind the introductory sequences to Hitchcock’s Psycho, Vertigo and North by Northwest, designed the posters for the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth installments of the San Francisco International Film Festival.
