Gérard Courant
Directing
Biography
Gérard Courant is a French filmmaker, writer, actor, poet and independent producer born on December 4, 1951 in Lyon, France. He is the son of the writer and historian René Courant. He is one of the most prolific filmmakers of cinema. He created, directed and produced Cinématon, the longest film in the world (over 200 hours long). In all, he has shot nearly 7,000 filmed portraits and a very large number of other films (more than 1,000) since the mid-1970s. He has also published several books on cinema.
Born: December 4, 1951
Place of Birth: Lyon, France
Known For
Périssable Paradis
15 years through Le Bois de Vincennes - The "before" and "after" 1999 storm destructions.
Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle
Two young girls meet, Reinette from the countryside and Mirabelle from Paris, and decide to take a flat together in Paris where they attend University. Four successive stories about their daily lives illustrate the very different views, characters and relation to the world of these two friends.
Trying to Describe Oneself
Trying to describe oneself is a movie about representation. How it is possible, through film, to describe oneself and describe others. With the camera as mirror and third eye. At first, a collage-like combination of letter-writing, investigation and journey, something between documentary and feature film. Finally, a portrait of Boris Lehman from 1989 to 1995, part II of BABEL.
Un film (autoportrait)
The shooting diary of a film shot in France and in the United States. Using photos of Paris and of New York City, excerpts of his former films, statements by friends of his and shooting sequences of the film itself, tormented filmmaker Marcel Hanoun has made a heterogeneous and unclassifiable film about the difficulty of filming.
Otage
Inspired by the detention of Jean-Paul Kauffmann and Michel Seurat in Lebanon, hostages and improbable currency for terrorists...
Litan
Married couple Jock & Nora are visiting the town of Litan during Litan's Day, with its carnivalesque atmosphere. When Nora wakes that morning from dreaming the bizarre death of her husband, she sets out across town to find him and warn him. But as she does, she encounters stranger and stranger people and events erupting into a frenzy in front of her. Now, she and Jock must elude all of the impediments in their way of reaching safety on the outskirts of town.
The Case of the Morituri Divisions
The story about gladiators against a German background. One of them, Ettore, has become a star of the underworld. He ends up breaking down, caught in a role he can no longer fulfill. His last betrayal is to spill the beans to the press. –São Paulo International Film Festival
Urgent ou à quoi bon exécuter des projets puisque le projet est en lui-même une jouissance suffisante
Gérard Courant applies the Lettrist editing techniques of Isidore Isou to footage of late 70's pop culture. Courant posits that his cinema offers an aggressive détournement to the French mainstream, reifying a Duchampian view of film: "I believe in impossible movies and works without meaning... I believe in the anti-movie. I believe in the non-movie. I believe in Urgent... My first full length movie that is so anti-everything that I sometimes wonder if it really does exist!"
2000 Cinématons
A film about an ongoing cinematic adventure that began in 1978: a vast anthology of personality portraits called Cinématons, dealing with people in the arts. Historical, ethnological, sociological and psychological, this anthology is a living record of the artistic community of the last 20th century which attempts to answer these questions: Why film everyone? Why choose cultural personalities? How do the subjects look at their image? How much exhibitionism and narcissism is involved in being filmed?
Up and Down
A bicycle race is held every year in a pass of the Alps called Parpaillon. With the energy of a skillful cyclist perhaps as a great tribute to François, the mailman played by Tati in The Big Day, Moullet makes a comedy by pedaling at a pace that allows him to reinvent the possibilities of film gags.
Filmography
as L'homme qui parle de Louis Le Prince
as Self
as Self
as Self
as Himself
as Self - Interviewer (voice)
as Himself
as Self
as Himself (voice)
as Himself
as Himself
as Self
as Himself (voice)
as Himself (voice)
as Himself (voice)
as Himself
as Self (archive footage)
as Self
as Himself
as Jonathan (voice)
as Self
as Self
as Self
as Le maso
as L'inspecteur
as Inspecteur
as A Life President of Morlock Academy
as Self
as Extra (uncredited)
as Self
as N°0 / N°1000 / N°1001 / N°2000 / N°3000