Dedicated to Will and Brad, my partners in crime
For my triumphant return to blogging, I present what I feel to be a particular treasure: the single finest thing I’ve ever helped to make. And that includes every single essay I’ve posted on this blog in the last four years.
Eight years ago, I was one of three precocious film school sophomores (eight years! my God, when did I start to get old?) who decided, against all reason and good counsel, to make our very first narrative project ever an epic parody of and homage to la Nouvelle Vague française. And the Left Bank filmmakers, though none of us were aware of the distinction at the time.
I’m not going to go on any more, but let the film speak for itself, and so I give to you all Vous ne pouvez pas fumer ici. No, it’s not an especially apt title – Défense de fumer would be worlds better – but between us we had my one wobbly year of high school French to go on. Also, between us we’d only ever seen Masculin-féminin, Last Year at Marienbad, La jetée, and the odd clip here and there (we knew nothing about Contempt, believe it or not), but I daresay you could never tell. I’m tremendously proud of this one. Enjoy
Special thanks to Cameron, without whom this video would have been technically unfeasible.
Vous ne pouvez pas fumer ici from Tim Brayton on Vimeo.