An unusual young man finds himself alone in a unique cinematic and social experiment. Russian premiere as part of the retrospective programme of the Festival of Singular Films.
The Slightest Gesture
- Date:
- 21 Sep 2024,
16:00–17:45
- Age restrictions
- 18+
Le moindre geste
1971, Fernand Deligny, Jean-Pierre Daniel, Josée Manenti
France
105 minutes, French with Russian subtitles
Starring: Yves Guignard, Richard Brougère, Anita Durand, Marie-Rose Aubert
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Yves and Richard escape from a psychiatric hospital. Yves is hulking and withdrawn, and his speech is abrupt and incoherent. Richard is more subtle, nimble and playful. He locks Yves in a hut, and when Yves gets out, he bangs furiously on the door as if it were to blame. Soon Richard falls into a deep pit, and Yves tries to help him as he sees fit, through a thought process that remains impenetrable to the viewer.
Shot from The Slightest Gesture, 1971
Deligny’s method of working in film corresponds to his method of writing: weaving a route that encounters wild lines, wild gestures and wild images. A fascinating tracking shot follows Yves, the main character, who in turn tracks lizards, rocks, blades, statues.
— Maria Torkhova, Cineticle
The Slightest Gesture is the only cinematographic work by the outstanding educator Fernand Deligny, one of the most fervent apologists for anti-psychiatry. This movement regarded autism not as a disorder, but as a stigma which excluded people from society if they could not be understood. The therapy developed by Deligny did not involve medicine and isolation, but creative practices, theatre, and games. The Slightest Gesture was one act of this therapy—and an attempt to discover and show the truth of existence as Yves sees it, a real person who had spent almost his entire life in institutions and whom Deligny removed from psychiatric care.
The film was made over two years at moments when Yves was in the mood to be filmed. It was a radical attempt not to understand the protagonist (Deligny does not pretend that this is possible), but to put the viewer on his wavelength. The differences between documentary and fiction, the real and invented are practically erased in the film. Deligny spent his whole life looking for a method of finding new maps of human consciousness. He does the same thing in cinema: he clears the board of all customary methods and sets out a new path.
The screening will begin with a brief speech by the curator in Russian. If you require interpretation into English, please request it at least three days in advance by emailing international@ges-2.org.
The film was featured in the Critics’ Week competition at the Cannes film festival (1971).
