Talking about a poem in itself, judging a poem in itself has no real, precise sense. The poem is an abstraction, writing that waits, a law that only lives in the mouths of a few people,” wrote Paul Valéry in De la diction des vers.
This cinematic adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist’s play Penthesilea (1807) was intended to be as simple as possible in order to find this law.
Joyfully shot on an island in Brittany, between two sand dunes and some cliffs, in the winter light, the film focuses in particular on that moment of raw speech borne by a face in the hope of allowing the text to breathe again.
Simon Gaillot was born in 1994, in Lorraine, and studied the art history, the film history and philosophy in Paris.
When he was twenty, he decided he would make a film based on a play outdoors every summer. In keeping with the spirit of Jean Cocteau, who saw the art of film-making above all as a craft, he works with a constant concern for economy, establishing a close relationship between text, body and landscape.
This has enabled him to create very free adaptations of the works of Julien Gracq, Robert Walser and Jean Racine.
Production : Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains
