Gustave Courbet defied the conventions of classical French painting to become an innovator of Realism. This documentary by filmmaker Romain Goupil explores Courbet's life and work, revealing the fiery spirit that drove him to lead rather than follow.
When he arrives in Saint Petersburg, at the age of 29, Marius Petipa is just an obscure dancer who fled western Europe to escape his debts. He is far from imagining that his engagement in the troupe of the Russian Imperial Ballet, then rather mediocre, will reveal him, forty years later, as one of the greatest choreographers in the history of dance. It is within the Bolshoi Kamenny theaters, then Mariinsky, in a still provincial capital where three productions a year are enough to satisfy an undemanding audience, that this native of Marseille will invent a new art of ballet, over the course of sixty of creations, between 1862 (La fille du pharaon) and 1895 (Le lac des cygnes).
He was ceaselessly in search of the human truth through the treatment of the light and the space and in the way he roams around things. His work full of boldness marks an essential stage in the history of paint.
Marion is an artist with FSH, an incurable muscular myopathy. She guides us on the path she has taken to no longer identify with her illness.
The two decades following the Russian revolution are marked by a gang of young people who profoundly influenced Russian Cinema. This artistic revolution was led by directors, actors, technicians and poets. They are the characters and voices of our film. The Soviet Actress, Ada Voistik, and its camrades tell us the story of this unique period, through the images of soviet fic-tional works produced between 1917 and 1934. We can thus catch a glimpse of their fight for a new society, where creative freedom was of utmost im-portance. A utopia which will be brought down by an authoritarian power impacting cinema as much as the rest of society.
24 February 2022: Russia invades Ukraine. Romain Goupil leaves for Kyiv in a hurry. It was an imperative decision for him to go and support the Ukrainian resistance by filming to bear witness. He left without knowing if he would find a family ready to welcome him to share with them life day after day under the threat of bombing. Finally, the Kyiv circus welcomed him. Romain spent a month in this closed environment imposed by the war on men and animals.
During the exhibition Splendors of the Oases of Uzbekistan at the Louvre, a journey to the mythical city of Samarkand, a fabulous tapestry of civilizations.
In August 1991, the Soviet empire collapsed. Yet this colossus seemed indestructible: its power had towered over the world for nearly a century. But a collapsed economy, reforms too late to avoid bankruptcy, an abortive coup d'état and the change of power revealed to the world the pre-existing debacle. The Soviet power and state disappeared. From then on, all rules are abolished. What happens when a state disappears and no longer finances or manages the territory under its control?
Art professionals hold on to their sense of artistic merit as billionaires dominate the market.
