A Story of Water
Synopsis
Floods have cut off the roads in the outer Paris conurbation. A young female student trying to get back to the Sorbonne hitches a lift with a smooth-talking young man who sets out to seduce her. Jean-Luc Godard edited picture and sound from footage shots by François Truffaut. A film highly characteristic of the French New Wave.
Credits
Actors (2)
Production and distribution (2)
- Executive Producer : Les Films de la Pléiade
- Film exports/foreign sales : Les Films du Jeudi, L'Agence du court métrage
Full credits (7)
- Executive Producer : Pierre Braunberger
- Screenwriters : Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut
- Director of Photography : Michel Latouche
- Editor : Jean-Luc Godard
- Sound Recordist : Jacques Maumont
- Production Manager : Roger Fleytoux
- Narrator : Jean-Luc Godard
Media Gallery
Technical details
- Type : Short film
- Genres : Fiction
- Sub-genre : Romance
- Production language : French
- Production country : France
- Original French-language productions : Unspecified
- Nationality : 100% French (France)
- Production year : 1958
- Runtime : 12 min
- Visa number : 21.696
- Visa issue date : 31/12/1958
- Production formats : 35mm
- Color type : Black & White
- Aspect ratio : 1.37
- Audio format : Mono
- Rating restrictions : None
Box-office & releases
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Selections (2)
About
Truffaut/Godard Together
With the wham, pop, bam of a smoking hot Jazz soundtrack echoing through the French countryside (one of many odd contradictory elements), Godard himself narrates the loosely constructed story of a young woman attempting to make her way from her home in the country to Paris, amid a massive flood.
The Girl (Caroline Dim) hops, skips, jumps myriad obstacles to reach her destination; along the way pointing out notable personal landmarks, like the swimming pool where she learned the backstroke, and the homes of relatives and friends; all the while digressing into rhapsodic monologues about life, love, and art.
Once on stable ground, by way of a makeshift bridge, a bicycle and a leaky boat, The Girl hitches a ride with The Young Man (Jean-Claude Brialy). The Young Man predictably begins to flirt with his new passenger, while she carries on with her musings about art, literature, and philosophy; self-consciously referencing the Italian poet Petrarch, master in the Art of Digression.
After driving around in search of a way out of the village, The Young Man's car stalls in a muddy hole in the road; providing for a brief romantic interlude. The young couple find a dry patch of land to lay together and talk, and romance, to little avail; they digress. And before you know it, wham, pop, pow, back on the road; arriving in Paris just in time to see the water rising up to the base of the Eiffel Tower; embracing The Young Man, The Girl says, "This is happiness".
Source : suite101.com
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