Julien Blaine

Avril 1937. La guerre civile fait rage en Espagne. En Europe, un réseau, animé par des agents soviétiques, se met en place pour fournir des armes au Républicains. A Paris, puis à Marseille, Anton Kovetz est un des responsables du trafic, avec l'aide de sa jeune secrétaire, Anna, une sympathisante communiste. Leur engagement commun les rapproche. Mais bientôt, Anton et son chef direct, Léo, deviennent suspects aux yeux de Moscou où se prépare une vaste opération d'épuration.

The first film made in black-and-white. Made using my own printing technique. Beforehand: This film, which is basically romantic or, even more, a fairy tale film, with carriages, horses, handmade glass lanterns, as solemn as a merry wedding, with an old Rolls Royce standing at a slant completely drunk and whose magnificent big headlights sit crooked on its fenders. An atmosphere of dancing around and returning and light, lamps and life. A film that even takes its audience to Paris, past the Louvre and into the nights of the boulevards; again and again, light, lamps and life. The film is light-hearted: the sonorous tone indicates a change, difficult to under-stand, a threat or do I hear right? Again and again, the streets, the domes of the churches, the palace wings of the Louvre, the National Library and the small opening in the wall at the Palace Mazarin which leads to the small park with its Picasso statue. What happens in Paris?