La Région Centrale by Michael Snow, Canada, 1971, 16mm, 3h
They are mythical works which inhabit the public’s imagination (whether they have seen it or not !) and occupy an absolutely unique place in the history of cinema. They are rare, La Région Centrale is one of them. It is thus a great joy to be able to project this film in echo to the Re-Anima ! exhibit. Starting from a quasi-scientific and objective premise – a camera placed on a structure made of a metal foot and articulated arm able to operate rotary movement in all directions – Michael Snow films a desertic region of the Canadian Taiga.
“The (Central) Region is not only a documentary photographing a particular place at different times of the day, but it is also and above all a source of sensations, a setting in order, a composition of the movements of the eye and the inner ear. The film begins here, respecting the gravity of our situation, but the more it unfolds, the more it sees as a planet sees. The top lowers the top, the bottom raises the bottom, the top raises the top (…). There is no one there but you (the machine ?) and the extraordinary wild place. Alone.” – Michael Snow in Film Culture n° 52, spring 1971, p.61 et 63.