Behind the curtain

DERRIERE LE RIDEAU is a chronicle of day to day life in Russia. The originality of this report springs form the mere banality of the scenes and conversations recorded. The director Antoine Fournier who is also his own cameraman and editor having been struck by the fact that, in the past, all reports about life in Russia came only from official or dissident sources, or from resident foreign journalists (like Hedric SMITH, and his book: The Russians) made a point of filming ordinary soviet citizens: Octobrina, Olga, Olag and others ( a house decorator, a housewife, a salesman, etc…). He did it outside the presence of the official representative who acts as guide to foreign crews working in the U.R.S.S. Without authorisations, with many setbacks but with the help of many private contacts, Antoine Fournier made 14 trips to Russia over a period of 18 months to complete his film. He worked either with a 16 mm camera or a super 8 or in video according to the circumstances. His film is the result of patience, cunning and love for the Russian people. In order to comply with the wishes of several of the people interviewed, their faces have been blacked out. What is the significance of the program for input? This “Candid Camera” account is the work of a one and lonely man who in order to reach his goal has had to by-pass all the officialdom channels. It raises several questions. How to make a film in a country where the sheer appearance of a film camera is resented? How to be fair in such circumstances? How far can you endanger the lives of the people who agree to talk? Etc. After transmission, this film was highly criticised by the Russian press and by the Tass Agency. Antoine Fournier is now editing a new film for T.F. 1 on the saga of an ordinary Russian Jewish family (father, mother and son) emigrating to the U.S.A. This report was shot in Moscow, Vienna, Rome and Los Angeles.