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A highly inventive and whimsical film inspired by the brilliant camera inventor for the French New Wave, Jean-Pierre Beauviala, and his company Aaton.
Two lady thieves, who speak in voiceover and whose identities are only revealed at the end of the film, plot to steal one of Aaton's cameras - “the Penelope”. As the heist story unfolds, it is continually interrupted by a little (animated) monster who turns the plot, creating chaos for the women and their mission.
Based on a script by French New Wave filmmaker Luc Moullet (Land of Madness, MIFF 10), The Red and The Black is assembled in a kaleidoscopic style, with archival footage from Beauviala's personal collection inserted into the drama along with animated characters and deliberate desynchronisation to create a mystery as to what is real and what is not. At only 28, French filmmaker and artist Isabelle Prim displays a mind as fertile as that of her subject, Beauviala.
D Isabelle Prim P Le Fresnoy S Luc Moullet L French w/English subtitles TD HD Cam/2011