La nuit du déluge, a free adaptation of a dance performance by the O Vertigo company after a choreography by Ginette Laurin, is a beautifully designed and visually stunning film in which the worlds of post-modern dance, experimental music and surrealist cinema are linked together. A child remembers his birth in a lost country. His mother is the only survivor of a catastrophic flood. She is helped by silent ghosts who remained after the Deluge washed the population from the earth. The film provides a symbolic picture of the inner journey of a woman, and is told entirely without dialogues; the sparse voice over provides some rudimentary information. The powerful dance sequences are beautifully interwoven with the dreamlike myth. Inspired and unconventional camerawork and plentiful symbolism propel the story line onwards and the cutting follows the rhythm of the dance.La nuit du déluge was shot on location in the Mexican countryside. The story, borrowed from Breton myths and legends, carries us away in a timeless and dreamy world between life and death. Film-maker Bernar Hébert has made a specialisation of dance documentaries. His first feature – he had already made 23 films – was greeted by critical acclaim in his native Canada.
