A DIRTY STORY (UNE SALE HISTOIRE)

50 mins, France, 1977, Digital, Black & White, Subtitled

A fascinating investigation into the relationship between fiction and documentary, verbal and visual storytelling, and personal and universal desires. In the first of the film’s two sections, Michael Lonsdale plays the role of a man explaining to a group his past voyeuristic obsessions, while the second section shows an unscripted recording of Jean-Noël Picq, the man Lonsdale has played, recounting the same real-life tale.

ALIX’S PICTURES (LES PHOTOS D’ALIX)

15 mins, France, 1980, Digital, Black & White, Subtitled

A young woman (Alix Clio-Roubaud) describes to a young man (Boris Eustache, the director’s son) the stories, techniques, and meanings behind her artworks. But her explanations don’t seem to match what we see. Is this because language can never accurately account for the visual? Because the viewer is being invited to look beyond the surface? Because Eustache is perpetrating some sort of absurdist practical joke?

HIERONYMOUS BOSCH’S GARDEN OF DELIGHTS

34 mins, France, 1981, Digital, Black & White, Subtitled

French television series Les Enthousiastes asked art aficionados to offer their thoughts about selected paintings. For Eustache’s episode, Jean-Noël Picq (of Une Sale Histoire) chose Hieronymus Bosch’s apocalyptic The Garden of Earthly Delights. Picq points out several notable qualities, including its near absence of perspective and its objective depiction of sadomasochistic pleasure.