Sylvia Kristel – Paris

When does a recording become a portrait? When we find something unique in it? Or when we recognise it somehow? Ten years ago, Manon de Boer started to make radically sober recordings of reading faces. Since then she had continued to explore the impact of a face, registered by a camera. Or she has created a portrait by explicitly leaving the face out of the picture, by describing a person with text. In her latest film she combines both approaches. Sylvia Kristel – Paris is a portrait of the Dutch actress who appeared in the erotic 1970s film series Emmanuelle. After a couple of minutes of blank film, the actress appears on screen, smoking. As soon as she starts reminiscing about the early days of her career in Paris, recent 8mm film images of this city slide past. The images contrast sharply with her personal report. At the end we see the actress again, smoking another cigarette, after which she gives the previous account all over again, again with images of contemporary Paris. By juxtaposing two interviews, actually recorded with an interval of several months, Manon de Boer visualises the relationship between the individual recollections of a time period (the 1970s) and a location (Paris). At the request of Manon de Boer, this screening will be complemented with some documentary fragments about the film maker Barbara Loden and her only film Wanda (1970).