Bardot, Picolli , Godard, Capri: sunshine, the incandescent blondness of an icon and the most rebellious of New Wave directors. All the ingredients for a mythical story.
Paparazzi, journalists and photographers deliver their own versions of Le Mépris. Jean-Louis Swiners’ version has remained in the archives for 50 years. Galerie de l’Instant is exhibiting these images for the first time: a new version of a timeless film.
L’histoire d’un méprise, until September 12 at Galerie de l’instant.
An out-of-field photographer
In 1963, Jean-Louis Swiners was sent by his newspaper to Italy to follow Godard on the set of his film. He returned, his arms laden with film that would remain immersed in the night, out of sight.
However, Swiners no longer has to prove himself: winner of the Prix Niépce in 1962, this versatile photographer has made a name for himself as much for scoops as for the aesthetic singularity of his photos. This recognition did not prevent him from continuing his studies with the leading semiologists of the day (Barthes, Greimas).
Superstars, irreducible to a fixed image
Misunderstanding of those photographed? BB’s fame, Godard’s moods: too much attention and rumor, too many expectations. Fifty years on, Brigitte Bardot remains an icon, and Godard is an unavoidable reference at the Cannes Film Festival: something he must despise, moreover, to remain true to his character – a Redoutable character .
This exhibition allows us to take a fresh look at an era. A film that has given rise to many interpretations: Bardot as the embodiment of Anna Karina (Godart’s companion at the time), or Godart’s “most commercial” film. For others, Le Mépris speaks of the opposition between inspired, disinterested cinematic art and “mediocre, lucrative” Hollywood cultural production.
Cultural, political, personal: it doesn’t matter. Above all, this is a film whose blue sea, red or yellow towels covering Bardot, and opening dialogue have traveled end-to-end in our minds. To each his own
“As an emanation of past reality, it is magic, not art”-R. Barthes, about photography. Swiners’ art: he never looked back on what he had driven. Things come up and happen, one day or another. Prints that immerse us in an intimacy between the actors and Godard. Exchanges of glances, laughter… Emotions, beautiful and very present, that make these prints so attractive and fascinating.
“I like fake” -Bardot
Every visible thing can have a hidden double: a story is never fully told.
Bardot: deceptively frivolous, the actress had already met Godart and practiced her game of self-deprecation in the film Masculin-Féminin.
More information on the exhibition:
http://www.lagaleriedelinstant.com/jean-louis-swiners/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnLc9RFmams
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