Ici et maintenant 1968
Shot primarily in long takes on the Pointe du Raz in Brittany, "Ici et maintenant", according to fellow filmmaker Patrick Deval, “consists of the dreams of the solitary rambler, post-revolution... The moralist has given up on chaos; he takes his own pulse; he listens to the world, perhaps vibrating with it; he is in sympathetic ecstasy. The filmmaker holds his position, stiff as the statue of the commander, on alert for the phenomena which approach him; he resembles the lighthouse whose rectitude Bard captures magnificently, on an ink-dark night, with its hallucinatory lamp set against a background of winds and tides."

While the film is pretty incoherent and devoid of a decipherable narrative thrust, it oozes style, astonishing with extremely long takes in disorienting semi-darkness, with the howling wind threatening oblivion. It’s more mood than anything else. And it feels slightly unhinged, like the contorted bodies in a Bronzino. Self-conscious artistry in the extreme and a healthy dose of artifizio, "Ici et maintenant" may just be a manifestation of ‘60s Mannerism; at least, it makes a convincing case for “the stylish style.”

Director: Serge Bard
Cast: Serge Bard, Caroline de Bendern, Olivier Mosset
Country: France
Genre: Experimental

DVD9 | PAL 16:9 | 01:11:25 | 7.25 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Francais (very few)
Subtitles: English

Bonus films:
-- "Vite" (1969, 34'), by Daniel Pommereulle
-- "Zanzibar" (2005, 29'), by Jackie Raynal

Download Ici et maintenant / Here and now (1968) DVD9:

Ici.et.maintenant.1968.U.part1.rar
Ici.et.maintenant.1968.U.part2.rar