Movies by Jean-Louis Comolli

Facing the Phantoms
French film and WWII historian Sylvie Lindeperg analyzes Alain Resnais's seminal 1956 film, "Night and Fog", and attempts to place it in the context of the historical treatment of WWII, and specifically of the Holocaust, in the decade following those harrowing events. Oddly, she argues that the images of Resnais's famous film are "powerless", in her words.
Naissance d'un hôpital

Le Concerto de Mozart
Based on an idea by the writer Francis Marmande, Michel Portal, jazz clarinetist, leads young virtuoso musicians for this concerto.
Nos deux Marseillaises
Two daughters of North African immigrants, born in Marseilles, who are barely over thirty years old, take part in the political battles and local elections: Nadia Brya in the cantonal elections, and Samia Ghali in the municipal ones.
Un Américain en Normandie
Filmmaker Samuel Fuller tells the story of Corporal Samuel Fuller's landing on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, and his subsequent campaign in Normandy (the "hedge war").

Buenaventura Durruti, anarquista
Filmed between February and March 1999 in La Cupula (Girona), the rehearsal place of the Spanish independent theater company Els Joglars, this documentary reveals the creative process of this company in its project to represent the life of the mythical anarchist leader Buenaventura Durruti, as well as the circumstances of his death.

Rêves de France à Marseille
In June 1999, Jean-Claude Gaudin organized a great popular festival, "La Massalia", to celebrate all the communities that make up Marseilles and to show the desire of thousands of people from elsewhere to be Marseillais. A radiant rainbow. Less than a year later, in March 2000, the municipal campaign began: what about this new state of mind that seemed to be blowing over Marseilles' political life? Does it find a translation in the political sphere? How many children of recent immigration would be in an eligible position and would eventually...

Cinéma documentaire, Fragments d'une histoire
Resorting to the images that make up three quarters of the last century, Jean-Louis Comolli chose films that crossed his path fifty years ago, discovering his own history of cinema, and particularly the documentary cinema. Visual score orchestrated by a voice off (his) which lists topics that are important to him - the place of the viewer, the fiction in the documentary, the impact of technical progress on the artistic field ... -, the film weaves unpredictable wires between the excerpts .
Marseille de père en fils - Ombres sur la ville