Director David Boaretto will present on Thursday January 9 and Friday January 10, in preview, his film “April en France”, during two screenings in Saint-Sever and Aire-sur-l'Adour, in which he will participate.
April is the name of an English girl, aged 5 at the time of filming, who came to France between March and August 2020. She first discovered Paris during confinement before settling into the house. family, in Labastide-d'Armagnac, where she will gradually discover the city, but also old friends of her family, whose great-grandfather is buried in the Labastide cemetery.
She will gradually discover the occupants of the arcades of the bastide, the cats, the chickens then, pushing a little further, the nature and taste of wild strawberries, Carrèrots, children, music, local culture, notably the existence musketeers, who hold a special place in the British imagination.
Relationship between generations
She made all these discoveries with Alain, a friend of her late great-grandfather, a photographer from the black and white era who passed on to her a little of his art and a lot of his tender kindness. Everything is filmed from a child's height, the settings are natural and even the chiaroscuro of the Gascon houses is reassuring.
If she makes a few escapes to Condom, the Landes beaches or the Pyrenees, it is a very interesting point of view on Gascony that director David Boaretto offers. Taking advantage of the reactions recorded during presentations around the world (China, Estonia, United States, Ecuador, Greece, Ireland, Armenia, Morocco), it highlights what strikes people: “The character of Alain, the photographer , remaining in the countryside, makes the Chinese widen their eyes: their countryside has been authoritarianly emptied to provide labor to the cities and any transmission is impossible. Foreigners immediately detect what they are missing… This relationship between generations is a reality in Gascony: we talk together and the doors are open. »
Relationship with Paul Éluard
When April begins to meet people, she radiates happiness, even preparing a joint meal for them at the end of the summer. A childish gesture, but a beautiful symbol, which makes us think about our values to preserve.
“To be happy, we need others,” assured Paul Éluard. It is precisely a question of filiation: Paul Éluard and Gala had an only daughter Cécile. She first married Luc Decaunes and then Gérard Vulliamy, a surrealist painter buried in Labastide, currently exhibited in Beaubourg. April, the daughter of David Boaretto, is the great-granddaughter of Gérard Vulliamy.
The film will be screened at the Média 7 cinema in Saint-Sever (January 9 at 8 p.m.) and at the Galaxie cinema in Aire-sur-l'Adour (January 10 at 7 p.m.). Note that a screening in Barbotan-les-Thermes attracted 600 people, but only 400 were able to see the film.
