Ostende

Two men meet on camera. The older man tells the younger one, the director, about a lost love. To remember this love, the old man has kept his writings, including a piece about Ostende, a place filled with memories. From this real-life encounter with Dino Peraldi, photographer and director Michaël Blin gradually slides towards fiction. He introduces a third man, who in turn puts the story of his lost self into images and recounts his memories of a fantasised face. This man then runs away to a forest where he meets an ageless boy, like a figure from his past. This forest seems to contain “all the days lost in a lifetime”. The filmmaker offers us a profoundly romantic and melancholic film about an inner struggle, where dialogue and a deep connection with the poet enable him to produce images of this imaginary being whom he manages to make shine in a totally dazzling way. This is a cathartic film, perfectly summed up by the song by Cartola featured in the film: “Let me leave / I’m going to look / for a smile so that I don't cry”.

Aurélien Marsais