Directed by Jean Eustache • 1980 • France
Starring Alix Clio-Roubaud, Boris Eustache
Winner of the 1982 César Award for Best Short Film, ALIX’S PICTURES is Jean Eustache’s playful meditation on the ambiguity of images and the elusiveness of interpretation. In a room, a young woman (Alix Cléo Roubaud) describes to a young man (Boris Eustache, the director’s son) the stories, techniques, and meanings behind several of her meticulously composed black-and-white photographs. But at some point, her explanations don’t seem to match what we see. Is this because language can never accurately account for the visual? Because the viewer is being asked to perform more than a surface-level comprehension of art? Because Eustache is perpetrating some sort of absurdist practical joke? Or all of the above?
Up Next in Directed by Jean Eustache
-
Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Delights
Directed by Jean Eustache • 1981 • France
The French television series “Les enthousiastes” asked art aficionados to offer their thoughts on, and interpretations of, paintings that they themselves selected. For Jean Eustache’s episode, Jean-Noël Picq (of A DIRTY STORY) chose the third panel of Hi...
-
Employment Offer
Directed by Jean Eustache • 1982 • France
Starring Michel Delahaye, Jean Douchet, Bertrand Van EffenterreJean Eustache’s final film—commissioned for the French television series “Contes modernes” (“Modern Tales”)—is a sharp satire of contemporary man’s dehumanization at the hands of specialized...
