Françoise Romand
Encyclopedia
Françoise Romand, born in Marseilles, is a French moviemaker.
Shot in 1985, Mix-Up ou Méli-Mélo gets success in the USA after its discovery by Vincent Canby
(New York Times). Famous journalist Jonathan Rosenbaum
(Chicago Reader) selects it as the first one among his 10 best films of 1988 and among his 15 best films of the 1980s together with Ridley Scott
, Martin Scorsese
, John Cassavetes
, Chris Marker
, Alain Resnais
, Jean-Luc Godard
… Shot in 1986, Appelez-moi Madame (Call Me Madame) gets a new success. In 2004, Rosenbaum selects Thème Je (The Camera I) as Best Undistributed Film in USA (Village Voice). But Françoise Romand will have to wait until 2008 to begin to be recognized in her own country.
From Mix-up ou Méli-mélo to Thème Je (The Camera I), she invents a new form of documentary mixing it with humor and fiction.
In 2000, after filming characters with peculiar life stories, Françoise Romand turns the camera on herself. Recall the switched babies in Mix-Up, the communist poet becoming a woman with the help of his wife in Call Me Madame, the old twins of The Crumbs of Purgatory still living with their parents, the exchange of lives of the two heroines of Vice Vertu et Vice Versa, the amnesia of Passe-Compose, etc. The Camera I echoes all these stories. Romand dissects family secrets, drags skeletons out of the closet, aims the camera on her lovers who hold mirrors up to her, on flinching humor. She directs herself, mixing as always fiction and documentary. With consummate sincerity, she knows at the same time that the cinema is an art of illusion, that truth is a trap and that people shot on the fly are only fantoms. Digital cinema allows her to shoot here outside of traditional production methods. To self-produce is a luxury! The director has to sell her apartment after her year teaching at Harvard. Exile inspires this creative introspection, ultimately freeing the bonds of imagination.
In 2009, Ciné-Romand is a mise-en-abyme of her previous films. Spectators are invited to discover them at a happening that mixes fiction and reality as domestic theater. Voyeurs are not always who we think they are. Romand takes her inspiration from L’Arroseur Arrosé (The Sprinkler Sprinkled), continuing the role of her great-grandfather from La Ciotat, the playful kid who bent the hose to stop the water. After filming the spectators and tenants of the apartments where documentary scenes were improvised, Françoise Romand integrated them fictionally into excerpts from previous films, reworked in the editing. Guests/spectators, hosts, angels-guides, actors and technicians - all become characters in this fiction-documentary where Alice’s looking glass reflects a mischievous fantasy where the roles reversed and complementing one another.
She loves to work on sound with composers such as Nicolas Frize, Bruno Coulais
, Jean-Jacques Birgé
, as much as on images.
Shot in 1985, Mix-Up ou Méli-Mélo gets success in the USA after its discovery by Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
(New York Times). Famous journalist Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum is an American film critic. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for the Chicago Reader from 1987 until 2008, when he retired at the age of 65...
(Chicago Reader) selects it as the first one among his 10 best films of 1988 and among his 15 best films of the 1980s together with Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
, Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
, John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...
, Chris Marker
Chris Marker
Chris Marker is a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are La jetée , A Grin Without a Cat , Sans Soleil and AK , an essay film on the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa...
, Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais is a French film director whose career has extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included Nuit et Brouillard , an influential documentary about the Nazi concentration camps.He began...
, Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
… Shot in 1986, Appelez-moi Madame (Call Me Madame) gets a new success. In 2004, Rosenbaum selects Thème Je (The Camera I) as Best Undistributed Film in USA (Village Voice). But Françoise Romand will have to wait until 2008 to begin to be recognized in her own country.
Bio
Françoise Romand studied cinema at IDHEC (1974). In 1987, she gets a Villa Médicis Hors Les Murs in USA, and in 1995, a retrospective at the Film Center Art Institute (Museum of Chicago).From Mix-up ou Méli-mélo to Thème Je (The Camera I), she invents a new form of documentary mixing it with humor and fiction.
In 2000, after filming characters with peculiar life stories, Françoise Romand turns the camera on herself. Recall the switched babies in Mix-Up, the communist poet becoming a woman with the help of his wife in Call Me Madame, the old twins of The Crumbs of Purgatory still living with their parents, the exchange of lives of the two heroines of Vice Vertu et Vice Versa, the amnesia of Passe-Compose, etc. The Camera I echoes all these stories. Romand dissects family secrets, drags skeletons out of the closet, aims the camera on her lovers who hold mirrors up to her, on flinching humor. She directs herself, mixing as always fiction and documentary. With consummate sincerity, she knows at the same time that the cinema is an art of illusion, that truth is a trap and that people shot on the fly are only fantoms. Digital cinema allows her to shoot here outside of traditional production methods. To self-produce is a luxury! The director has to sell her apartment after her year teaching at Harvard. Exile inspires this creative introspection, ultimately freeing the bonds of imagination.
In 2009, Ciné-Romand is a mise-en-abyme of her previous films. Spectators are invited to discover them at a happening that mixes fiction and reality as domestic theater. Voyeurs are not always who we think they are. Romand takes her inspiration from L’Arroseur Arrosé (The Sprinkler Sprinkled), continuing the role of her great-grandfather from La Ciotat, the playful kid who bent the hose to stop the water. After filming the spectators and tenants of the apartments where documentary scenes were improvised, Françoise Romand integrated them fictionally into excerpts from previous films, reworked in the editing. Guests/spectators, hosts, angels-guides, actors and technicians - all become characters in this fiction-documentary where Alice’s looking glass reflects a mischievous fantasy where the roles reversed and complementing one another.
She loves to work on sound with composers such as Nicolas Frize, Bruno Coulais
Bruno Coulais
Bruno Coulais is a French composer, most widely known for his music on film soundtracks. He recently composed the score for the animated film, The Secret of Kells, released 12 March 2010.- Life and career :...
, Jean-Jacques Birgé
Jean-Jacques Birgé
Jean-Jacques Birgé is an independent French musician and filmmaker, at once music composer , film director , multimedia author , sound designer Jean-Jacques Birgé is an independent French musician and filmmaker, at once music composer (co-founder of Un Drame Musical Instantané which with he records...
, as much as on images.
Films
- 1977 Rencontres (Intersections), 21'
- 1985 Mix-Up ou Méli-Mélo (dvd Lowave) 63’
- 1986 Appelez-moi Madame (Call Me Madame) (dvd alibi) 52'
- 1992 Les miettes du purgatoire (The Crumbs of Purgatory) 14'
- 1993 Dérapage contrôlé 12'
- 1994 Passé-Composé 95' with Feodor AtkineFéodor AtkineFéodor Atkine is a French actor.Born in Paris of Russian-Polish descent, he has had a career in European cinema and television since the early 1970s, and made occasional appearances in English-language films, notably as the Russian gangster "Mikhi" in Ronin, as Woody Allen's brother in Love and...
, Laurence Masliah - 1996 Vice Vertu et Vice Versa 87' with Florence Thomassin, Anne Jacquemin, Marc LavoineMarc LavoineMarc Lucien Lavoine is a French singer and actor. In 1985, his hit single "Elle a les yeux revolver" allowed him to reach the top of the French chart and marked the beginning of his successful singing career....
- 1997 L'enfant Hors-Taxes 26'
- 1999 Croisière sur le Nil 8 x 26'
- 2000 La règle du Je 15'
- 2000 Agnès Varda's Feet 5' with Agnès VardaAgnès VardaAgnès Varda is a French film director and professor at the European Graduate School. Her movies, photographs, and art installations focus on documentary realism, feminist issues, and social commentary — with a distinct experimental style....
- 2001 ikitcheneye.com (website)
- 2002 La règle du je tu elle il 80'
- 2002 Iconoclash 26'
- 2003 Si toi aussi tu m'abandonnes 52'
- 2005 themeje.org (website)
- 2007-2008 Ciné-Romand (happening)
- 2008 22 ans plus tard... / Onboard 30' with Jean-Jacques BirgéJean-Jacques BirgéJean-Jacques Birgé is an independent French musician and filmmaker, at once music composer , film director , multimedia author , sound designer Jean-Jacques Birgé is an independent French musician and filmmaker, at once music composer (co-founder of Un Drame Musical Instantané which with he records...
- 2009 Ciné-Romand (film, dvd alibi) 86’
- 2010 Sound of Vinyl 23'
- 2011 Gais Gay Games 30'
- 2011 Thème Je (The Camera I) 107'
Other articles
- An Interview with Françoise Romand by Adam Hart (Senses of CinemaSenses of CinemaSenses of Cinema is a quarterly online film magazine founded in 1999 by filmmaker Bill Mousoulis. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Senses of Cinema publishes work by film critics from all over the world, including critical essays, career overviews of the works of key directors, and coverage of many...
, Dec. 2004) Les fiches du cinéma on "Mix-Up" (6/8/2007) Les fiches du cinéma on "Call Me Madame" (12/31/2008) Étage Images by Isadora Dartial (Radio Nova, 11/30//2008) - BFI, Sight and Sound, Lost and Found by Jonathan Rosenbaum on Mix-Up, 2010
- Gay Celluloid by Alan Hall on Gais Gay Games, 2011