Philippe Garrel - La concentration

Our stand alone DVD release of this rarely seen film from Philipe Garrel

Born of three almost interrupted days of shooting, during which Jean-Pierre Léaud and Zou-zou had to go to the very limit of their strength, this work is first and foremost a clinical document on drugs, no longer euphoric, but perforating, destructive, annihilating, the real exhilaration here being that of existence itself.
-Figaro Littéraire, 1968

A birth at the beginning, a death at the end, between the two a lost child and a broken heart. For the first image, you literally have to cut through the night with a chisel. All sorts of links unite the two characters – umbilical cords mooring “superior puppets” – to the practice that drives them: the sound wire serves to make them see, the film to slit their veins, the dolly rails to crawl on, the dolly to transport corpses. Is real life to be found elsewhere? In those three days of uninterrupted shooting, for example, of which the film would be the record, as of a crime?

-Cahiers du Cinéma, 1968, Jean Narboni

La Concentration, by Garrel, twenty years old, four films: a title like a program. Stark colors, like a statement of fact. The couple, very young, kids of the century. A whole life, from birth to death. A unique set, with a large bed in the center, where one makes a show of oneself; on the left, a cold room, a tap spitting blood; on the right, a furnace. Prisoners until the dawn of time. The end of a game already played before it's even begun. I hate the world I was born into. An epidermal feeling, reinforced by the omnipotence of direct sound.
-Le monde, 1968

1968, 35mm, color, mono, 89 mins, 2024 HD remastering)
written / directed / edited by: Philippe Garrel
with: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Zouzou
cinematography: Michel Fournier
sound: Philippe Bert, Jean-Pierre Ruh