He left his mark on the cinema of the 1960s, adored in Hollywood, controversial in France. Serge Bourguignon, 94 years old, now retired in Dordogne, is rehabilitated by the work of Poitevin Valentin Besnier-Giteau. Which delivers not a biography, but an analysis of his work and the disenchantment that the filmmaker…
He left his mark on the cinema of the 1960s, adored in Hollywood, controversial in France. Serge Bourguignon, 94 years old, now retired in Dordogne, is rehabilitated by the work of Poitevin Valentin Besnier-Giteau. Which delivers not a biography, but an analysis of his work and the disenchantment that the filmmaker was able to arouse, associated with an impressive corpus of references.
The Sunday Man
We only remember this “Cybèle or the Sundays of Ville-d’Avray” [ndlr, titre exact rarement utilisé], Oscar for best foreign film, awarded at the Golden Globe, at the Venice Film Festival, at the Victoires du cinéma français, in Japan… All this in the year of Truffaut’s “Jules et Jim”, which “Les Dimanches” eclipsed in the biggest international competitions. Besnier-Giteau, with supporting archive photos, talks about the queues in front of New York cinemas, the multiple offers, the American craze which warms up the reluctance of Parisian cinemas.
Hardy Krüger and Patricia Gozzi in “Les Dimanches de Ville-d’Avray”.
Acacias
Thanks to this film, Serge Bourguignon flew to Hollywood. We asked for it. We loved its very French side, its work with gestures, its way of bringing its characters into the story rather than the opposite and its affirmed conviction that “cinema is a language”. Before devoting himself to feature films, Bourguignon had traveled, particularly in Asia, where he made several documentaries and short films – “Le Sourire” won the Palme d’Or for short film at the Cannes Film Festival in 1960.
Shunned by the New Wave
“A Heart Joy” (1967), a very pretty film shot in Scotland, leaves above all the memory of a passionate Brigitte Bardot in the arms of Laurent Terzieff. But from failures to aborted projects, the one that was shunned by the New Wave stands out from the merchandising of the seventh art and the glitter. Besnier-Giteau deciphers the meaning of the image and the symbol of the man who first turned towards sculpture and let himself be carried away by a Japanese influence in his way of filming.
“Serge Bourguignon, a rebel filmmaker”, by Valentin Besnier-Giteau, ed. Jean-Jacques Wuillaume, €22.
