georges franju maider gomez intxauspe
“It’s all documentary cinema”
Georges Franju (Fougères, 1912 - Paris, 1987)
As with all parts of life, with cinema too we have to take measurements and classify things. In cinema, as in music, creativity is subject to formats and to exact durations. And creativity obtaining acceptance and prestige also depends on those formats and durations. Georges Franju made a few long films, probably his best known ones, but it is in his short films that his limitless talent can be seen at its free, evocative best.
Short films flourished in the 50’s. This was mainly thanks to Nouvelle Vague’s influence on young directors. Franju’s first works were short documentary films. Although he filmed Le Metro along with Henri Langlois in 1935, his best work is the three films he made after the Second World War. They were government commissions about how France was being rebuilt after the war. In Le sang des bêtes (1949), he filmed daily life in a Paris abattoir. In the second, En Passant par la Lorraine (1950), he showed the modernising of French industry. The third, Hôtel des Invalides (1951), was filmed in a war veterans’ hospital. As they had been government commissions, Franju ironically called them “my propaganda films”. What the films show, however, is obscenity, exploitation as a result of industrialisation, aesthetic and ecological disaster and, rather than a glorification of war, an anti-militarist stance.
Franju’s documentaries have no connection with Flaherty and Grierson’s traditional documentaries. The Breton director included his opinions, reflections, poetry and social comments in his work. Neutrality was not an option for him. His short works are essays in cinematography.
As well as the mentioned films, he also shot journalistic pieces such as Navigation marchande (1954) and Le Théâtre National Populaire (1956) and biographical documentaries: Le Grand Méliès (1952), Monsieur et Madame Curie (1956). Franju’s best known work is probably Les Yeux sans visage (1959), a horror film whose title has become mythical. Franju was no revolutionary. He did not want to turn everything in cinema upside down. Fiction and documentary elements are combined in most cases, and that can be seen again and again in his films, both reflections and icons. Franju set a lot down to not being skilful with words and his narratives are based on pictures. His work as a young man decorating theatre stages can be seen in his work. More than anybody else, George Franju, with his documentary film-maker’s soul, combined surrealism, expressionism and genre films. This year’s Donostia Zinemaldia has a special section about the Breton film director.
Georges Franju (Fougères, 1912 - Paris, 1987)
As with all parts of life, with cinema too we have to take measurements and classify things. In cinema, as in music, creativity is subject to formats and to exact durations. And creativity obtaining acceptance and prestige also depends on those formats and durations. Georges Franju made a few long films, probably his best known ones, but it is in his short films that his limitless talent can be seen at its free, evocative best.
Short films flourished in the 50’s. This was mainly thanks to Nouvelle Vague’s influence on young directors. Franju’s first works were short documentary films. Although he filmed Le Metro along with Henri Langlois in 1935, his best work is the three films he made after the Second World War. They were government commissions about how France was being rebuilt after the war. In Le sang des bêtes (1949), he filmed daily life in a Paris abattoir. In the second, En Passant par la Lorraine (1950), he showed the modernising of French industry. The third, Hôtel des Invalides (1951), was filmed in a war veterans’ hospital. As they had been government commissions, Franju ironically called them “my propaganda films”. What the films show, however, is obscenity, exploitation as a result of industrialisation, aesthetic and ecological disaster and, rather than a glorification of war, an anti-militarist stance.
Franju’s documentaries have no connection with Flaherty and Grierson’s traditional documentaries. The Breton director included his opinions, reflections, poetry and social comments in his work. Neutrality was not an option for him. His short works are essays in cinematography.
As well as the mentioned films, he also shot journalistic pieces such as Navigation marchande (1954) and Le Théâtre National Populaire (1956) and biographical documentaries: Le Grand Méliès (1952), Monsieur et Madame Curie (1956). Franju’s best known work is probably Les Yeux sans visage (1959), a horror film whose title has become mythical. Franju was no revolutionary. He did not want to turn everything in cinema upside down. Fiction and documentary elements are combined in most cases, and that can be seen again and again in his films, both reflections and icons. Franju set a lot down to not being skilful with words and his narratives are based on pictures. His work as a young man decorating theatre stages can be seen in his work. More than anybody else, George Franju, with his documentary film-maker’s soul, combined surrealism, expressionism and genre films. This year’s Donostia Zinemaldia has a special section about the Breton film director.
